very year as the world honors the holidays (holy days), Christians continue to follow the ancient Babylonian ritual of placing an evergreen tree in their home and decorating it. Clearly, many believers are aware the Christmas tree is associated with Pagan religious idolatry, but they continue to rationalize their involvement because they claim that God has now "sanctified" the holiday and somehow redeemed it. This is, of course, apostasy of the worst kind for the practice of convincing oneself of the acceptability of anything they desire to do when the Bible clearly instructs them not to places them in deadly spiritual peril.

    The Lord says "my spirit will not always strive with a man," so we should be earnest in our efforts to submit everything to God lest we eventually cross some undesirable spiritual threshold. The Old Testament book of Jeremiah explicitly tells us "Learn not the wav of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them. For the customs of the people are vain; for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the ax; They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not." (Jeremiah 10:2-4)

    In ancient Babylon, the goddess figure Semiramus was the mother of the Sumerian deity Tammuz. Other surrounding cultures have differing names for Tammuz. He is Attis to the Phoenicians, and Adonis to the Greeks, etc. In each legend, he dies young and his birth and death are honored on his birthday which coincided with the Winter Solstice. This was celebrated on December 25th. Part of the religious ritual involved cutting down a young green evergreen tree (which kills the tree) as a way of commemorating the premature death of Tammuz.

This tree is then decorated in the fashion Jeremiah described. A corollary to the Tammuz tree was the rite in which the women cried for the dead god. Shortly after Jeremiah's time, we find the idolatry has penetrated the Jewish temple where we see Sun worship and "women weeping for Tammuz." (Ezekiel 16:14) The sun worship is closely related to the end of the Winter Solstice when the sun begins to stay in the sky longer.

    The boughs of holly and related accouterments are descended from Celtic and Druidic rituals associated with the Wiccans in short, witchcraft. Even the Yule log that's placed on the fire is a Babylonian word. Obviously, the concept of a jolly immortal fellow dressed in red leaving gifts under the tree has a serious occultic flavor, but naming him a saint seems to make him acceptable with worldly

    By the way, Christmas is but one of the pagan holy days that have infiltrated the Christian calendar and replaced the holy days that God ordained. Easter, which is derived from the name Ishtar, is actually closely related to the Tammuz tree. Indeed, the common Christian practice of a sunrise service originates with an early morning worship service in which the penitents face East at the dawn - precisely what was seen during Ezekiel's time when the women wept for Ishtar's son Tammuz.

   "Christians" routinely defend the sunrise Easter service as honoring the discovery of the resurrection of JESUS that occurred 3 days after Passover with many of them not realizing they are honoring the ancient pagan holy day of Easter that predated Christianity by many centuries. In fact, the New Testament clearly shows the Apostles honored Passover while the evil king Herod honored the Easter celebration. (Acts 12:2)

    State churches and World Christians refuse to repent of this pagan practice even as they assign the label of cultist to the various groups that seek to tell them the truth. Satan Claus continues to cast his spell as churches across the country produce pageants & programs like The Singing Christmas Tree. These extravaganzas are commercially marketed through seemingly respectable Christian organizations. Some churches, such as the Wesleyan Church, produce a variation. In San Diego, the Skyline Wesleyan has a pageant called The Living Christmas Tree. Tickets are available by calling 619/462/TREE.

   Even without a formal choir program, literally thousands of Christian churches actually place Christmas trees right in their sanctuary every year. In our area, we have the Festival of Trees wherein every charitable group in the county gets involved as a community effort. At the Festival of Trees, they follow the druidic ceremonies and even name each tree.

    Christmas Trees reign in so-called American "Christian" culture. Sacramentalist & scriptural renegade Chuck Colson's Prison Fellowship sponsors the Angel Tree program. Top Christian musician & Prison Fellowship spokesman Steven Curtis Chapman represents the practice to Christian youth through his music. Even the Salvation Army has an Angel Tree program. Indeed, virtually every form of Christian media seems to get immersed in the Tammuz tree every year.

    I have examples of Christian T-Shirts, greeting cards, and even sheet music of Gospel songs incorporating the evergreen paganism. I have examples of Christian musician's newsletters decorated with boughs of holly. I've collected expensive print ads running in national Christian magazines that feature Christmas trees behind the printed pitch. I have seasonal catalogs from Christian book publishers with holiday titles that show manger like scenes in groves of Christmas trees.

    In a Christmas drama catalog put out by Lillenas (the Nazarene church media arm), 3 of the 5 book covers shown features Christmas trees. Sandi Patty's Word book (released by Thomas Nelson, the largest Christian publisher) Merry Christmas With Love features a boy dragging a tree into his house on the cover. Let's Keep Christmas published by NavPress & written by revered pastor Peter Marshall has the whole family dragging the abomination to their house.

   Children's ministry figure Rob Evans has a Christmas tree on the cover of his video from Integrity Press. Praise Banners has a 40" banner of a Christmas Tree that is marketed specifically to churches. Top Christian music artist Brian Duncan is pictured in front of his tree on his new Christmas CD. Even the print ads for the farewell version of the Young Messiah tour featured the evergreen motif in the form of boughs of holly while a drama produced by the Lamb's Players has the same Babylonian artifacts. There are literally hundreds of other examples but the question du jour is, What's Wrong With This Picture?

    The refusal of Christians to recognize the importance of relinquishing such demonic associations is a powerful indicator the church has gone astray. Following a pagan practice is sin, but the more dangerous sin is the steadfast refusal to recognize the Bible tells us to present our bodies as "a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is (our) reasonable service" (Romans 12:1). This conflict illustrates the very real problem of how we interpret works versus grace.

    Most "Christians" continue to buy the lie they can routinely choose their own path & the Lord will honor these ungodly choices under grace. These have been mesmerized into believing that if they even try to keep any day holy they are somehow being legalistic. They continue to reject the leading of the Holy Spirit & accordingly they have quietly become "the children of disobedience" (Colossians 3:6). The Bible tells us for this cause God will send them a strong delusion because they love not the truth. That delusion has now inundated the "church" with the mystery of iniquity.

    But the Word of God is pure and always true. God is not mocked, thus we would do well do take to heart the already cited passage concerning the Tammuz Tree and what will happen to those that refuse to hear His warning: "Learn not the way of the heathen...in the time of their visitation they shall perish." (Jeremiah 10:2, 15)

James Lloyd

Copyright © 2002 Christian Media Network

See Also

Saturn: The Shield Of Solomon

Saturn And The Star Seed Conspiracy