Why do people who wish the tree to be a pagan symbol only go back to that paticular time and place ? I like to go back to the third day, Genesis 1:11-13 here is where God created the trees.After that Pagans took as they usually do and tried to make somrthing bad of it.Christians today have taken and made something good out of it.These be my thoughts ,tell me yours.
2006-12-20 02:24:02 · 29 answers · asked by don_steele54 6 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
God created the tree so it can't be pagan symbol.
2006-12-20 02:31:42 · update #1
Is antone reading the question.I know that pagans worshiped trees and decorated them so to worship them,but that was wrong.What Christians do isn't wrong,because their NOT WORSHIPING THE TREE.
2006-12-20 04:43:53 · update #2
Is anyone reading the question.I know that pagans worshiped trees and decorated them so to worship them,but that was wrong.What Christians do isn't wrong,because their NOT WORSHIPING THE TREE.
2006-12-20 04:44:28 · update #3
The Christmas Tree was originally a pagan symbol. They used it to try and destroy Christmas by making the holiday no more religious, but God had other plans. The trees top points to heaven and the color is green which is the color that symbolizes God. The star which goes on top is like the star above Jesus when the wise men came to see him, and the branches cover the gifts like God covers us. It keeps them safe. All of the ornaments show the diversity of God's people and how they all come together for this one thing. That is what I learned.
2006-12-20 02:28:02 · answer #1 · answered by matrix man 2 · 1⤊ 7⤋
That's not a Christmas tree that's even talking about. "A craftsman shapes it with his chisel" is talking about turning a tree into an idol.... Asherah worship.... Asherah being, before Jeremiah's time and even after.... Yahweh's consort. She is the "Queen of Heaven" Adorning it with silver and gold was about making it appear human. That verse has absolutely nothing to do with a Christmas Tree. The Christmas tree comes from Germany for the most part... as far as decorating and the idea of leaving gifts. Those trees were NOT cut down and brought into houses though. That didn't happen till much later. Everyone loves to use those 2 verses from Jeremiah... but they always leave out verse 5 which is: 5They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good. This is plainly talking about idols. NOT a tree someone uses for decoration during a holiday.
2016-05-22 23:56:45 · answer #2 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
We according to your point of view then God made EVERYTHING so EVERYTHING can be used as a Christian symbol?
First off, the Tree is a Pagan symbol. The tree if I recall correctly represents the great tree from Norse Mythology. They decorated and celebrated a holiday around the same time as what is now Christmas. Since they did do it first, Christians stole the idea. Actually the Christmas tree wasn't popularized until the 19th century.
But the truth behind all of this is, everything "Christian" was stolen from Pagans. There are plenty of books out there that point out these connections but judging from you're question seem to be very close minded and probably wouldn't bother looking them up.
Here's a few that I can recall quickly
1. Resurrection, Osiris came back from the dead, and so did Dionysus each of them son/or in the case of Osiris god.
2. Angels, these winged creatures are exactly like the Roman God of Victory, Nike
3. Son of god part....Zeus had plenty of children..
2006-12-20 02:40:08 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
God created the tree if you believe in God, yes.
Pagans believe God created the tree. Christians believe God created the tree. Therefore of course the tree can still be a Pagan symbol even if God made it, as Pagans usually believe in God, or gods.
Pagans do not take something to try to make something bad out of it. Paganism existed long before Christianity, it was the people's religion. They found a tree holy, good, magical.
I think you need to research other religions. Paganism isn't a group of people who do things solely out of spite towards Christians and despite there being some Pagan fortune-tellers, I'm sure they weren't so good as to say 'let's use the tree as a symbol to annoy Christians' a good few hundred or thousand years before Christians existed.
2006-12-20 02:45:08 · answer #4 · answered by Nog 3 · 3⤊ 1⤋
Why does it have to be bad because it's a Pagan symbol? Also, Pagan is an all inclusive term that is used for many different religious beliefs. Only the misguided teachings of some Christian deniminations equate Pagan religions as BAD. What ever happened to the doctrine of religious tolerance? I don't care what peoples religious beliefs are as long as they have no detrimental effect on me or my life. Live & let live!
The use of evergreens during the celebration of the Winter Solstice has been around for many thousands of years and used by many different religious beliefs.
Reply to your later comments - They didn't worship the tree itself you twit! It was symbolic of their beliefs just as the cross is symbolic of Christian beliefs. How can you be so closed minded to say that it was wrong to use evergreen trees as a symbol of their religion but now it's OK because the Christians have co-opted the winter celebrations to fit their upstart religion?
Ok. Here's one for you. Why is the Resurrection so close to the Spring Equinox? A celebration of fertility and rebirth? It's because the Christian church needed to let the people keep some sembalance of their old holidays so they would be less reluctant to convert to Christianity. Why else would they have made All Saints or All Souls Day right next to Halloween / Beltane! What a moron! Go pull your head out of the sand and see the ways of the world as they truely are and not some made up drivel spouted by a bunch of fundamentalist preachers that are only in it for your money!
Oh... By the way... I believe in God but I don't believe everything in the Bible as the gospel truth.
2006-12-20 02:44:29 · answer #5 · answered by smilindave1 4 · 2⤊ 1⤋
If you read the book "The Golden Bough" you will discover that thousands of years ago it was believed that the gods lived in the pine/evergreen trees because it was the only thing in nature that stayed green ("alive") during the winter. The columns on ancient temples were originally on the INSIDE of the temples because they represented the evergreen trees - the reside of the gods. The Christmas tree is based on a pagan symbol, but it has come to mean something entirely different. Thus, the origins of the Christmas tree ARE Pagan, but it now means something else. Christians "borrowed" a lot from other religions - its one of the reasons that the Christian religion became so successful.
BTW: if you believe that God created all things, then God created Pagans, and Pagans pre-date the onset of Christianity by THOUSANDS of years.
2006-12-20 02:31:53 · answer #6 · answered by Paul H 6 · 5⤊ 1⤋
Among the earliest Germanic tribes the Yule tradition was celebrated by sacrificing male animals and slaves by suspending them on the branches of trees.
According to Adam of Bremen, in Scandinavia the pagan kings sacrificed nine males of each species at the sacred groves every ninth year. According to one legend, Saint Boniface attempted to introduce the idea of trinity to the pagan tribes using the cone-shaped evergreen trees because of their triangular appearance.
Dionysus in his Triumphant Return; behind the god, Victoria holds an evergreen.The Christmas tree is often explained as a Christianization of the ancient pagan idea that the evergreen tree represents a celebration of the renewal of life.
"Christmas is a well-laid trap. In celebrating it, the people of the land honor, worship, and glorify god, but not the God of the Bible. It is appealing and attractive with all the ornamentation and catchy music. There is also an appealing baby, born to be
the King of kings, and his lovely mother radiant in her motherhood. In addition, what could be better than giving gifts? Certainly giving is Christian. And what about decorating evergreen trees, hanging mistletoe and holly boughs, caroling, stuffing stockings, and burning Yule logs? Everything just seems to go so well together. Nevertheless, it is a trap because it is not true."
2006-12-20 02:43:10 · answer #7 · answered by Micah 6 · 0⤊ 2⤋
I don't understand your thoughts. First, you have to assume that Genesis, which is supposed to have been written hudreds of thousand, maybe millions of years after this event happened, is true. Pagans don't, so please don't use the bible to justify the bible's truthfulness.
Second, how did christians make anything better? Pagans were already exchanging gift and celebrating the birth of a sun god. So that stayed the same. After christians took over as the official roman religion they burned all the books for being blasphomous, plummeting civilization into the dark ages and then killed everyone who wouldn't covert for close to or maybe a century. When they ran out of pagans, they started killing their own, the Knight Templar. This "God is Love" concept is a relativly new concept. So explain to me how the world is a better place because of christian?
2006-12-20 02:36:56 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋
The pagans did not take the tree and "make something bad out of it." It was a holy symbol.
There's no shame in recognizing that the Christmas tree came to be a part of the modern holiday because Christmas is an amalgamation of many different cultural and religious traditions. I think it makes the holiday more fascinating. The only shame is in denying the truth.
2006-12-20 02:29:24 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 5⤊ 1⤋
There is nothing wrong with Pagans you twit...they celebrate life and the mother earth...the symbol of a tree (evergreen), which, by the way, people put up in their house like an alter, is a symbol for eternal life.
Get over it and quit trying to use the bible to justify everything...as soon as people started using the bible for both sides of abortion, drug use, gay relations and genocide...I figured out you have to have some sense or someone is going to take you to the cleaners...
And, you sap (get it? sap...tree...hehe...we are all friends here), it is wise for you to read some history...faith is great, and I'm a very Christian man, there is more too it than what other people (the business we know as The Church --not to be confused with Church were people go to be in the community of Christ)
Propaganda is dangerous...look to it friend
2006-12-20 02:31:48 · answer #10 · answered by silverback487 4 · 5⤊ 1⤋
When the Christians were trying to convert the Pagans to christianity they took a lot of Pagan symbols and changed them to Christian symbols to lets say 'help the Pagans feel more at home' while changing religions. I can understand why true Pagans can find that kind of annoying.
2006-12-20 02:28:51 · answer #11 · answered by Gypsy-Jen 2 · 5⤊ 1⤋