Neither do I. I don't think that "pagan" and "satanic" are synonymous. I think that paganism is more animistic while satanism focuses more on the worship of a malevolent entity. On an entirely different topic, I remember when you first joined this forum and noticed that you have started several interesting threads. I am glad you appear to be enjoying it here.
I don't think I care if the inventor of it bathed in blood and decorated theirs with entrails. I just like Christmas trees, and christmas lights. The rest of the holiday I could do without such as buying gifts that people don't need and receiving gifts I don't want or need, and that whole not-actually-Jesus's birthday thing.
What did Jeremiah say? Jeremiah 10:1-5 (ESV) = 10 Hear the word that the Lord speaks to you, O house of Israel. 2 Thus says the Lord: “Learn not the way of the nations, nor be dismayed at the signs of the heavens because the nations are dismayed at them, 3 for the customs of the peoples are vanity.[a] A tree from the forest is cut down and worked with an axe by the hands of a craftsman. 4 They decorate it with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails so that it cannot move. 5 Their idols are like scarecrows in a cucumber field, and they cannot speak; they have to be carried, for they cannot walk. Do not be afraid of them, for they cannot do evil, neither is it in them to do good.” Paul, the founder of Christianity, said to do whatever you want to do and to tell critics to shove it = Colossians 2:16-17 (ESV) = ”16 Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath.17 These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.”
I like Lorraine better than Alsace. I have to preach Sunday, the Christmas Tree sermon. I may have to run for my life.
All fundamentalism is spiritual immaturity. They can't seem to step outside of themselves and will only accept that which is within their own upbringing, tradition and experiences. Yet God never intended for everyone to be the same, otherwise, there wouldn't have been the Tower of Babel. As for the Christmas tree, I read once that there was a custom of decorating small outside trees in the Byzantine Empire. If so, then it would go back to the Roman Empire and could have been brought into Germany by the Crusaders. So to say then that it was pagan would be a fallacy. Regardless, it's a lovely tradition and without our traditions and heritage what a miserable world this would be.
Johovah's Witness from what I know is a Judaic rather than a Christian faith, albeit with a belief in Jesus.
Jehovah’s Witnesses are Christian but think of Christ as the son of god, not as a part of a co-equal trinity.
I'm not real up on their beliefs. I had a supervisor who was JW and during the Christmas season she would leave "Thank you for your hard work" gifts instead of Christmas gifts. Her values were seemingly in line with mine.
Long live our cultural heritage! Long live our traditions! Long live all the forest trees! And long live the CHRISTMAS TREE! May there never come a time without Christmas trees! And now in German: Es lebe der Weihnachtsbaum! Er lebe hoch! Er lebe dreimal hoch!
https://www.amazon.com/War-Christma...efix=the+war+on+christma,stripbooks,61&sr=1-1 https://www.amazon.com/Saving-Chris...58540&sprefix=saving+christmas+,aps,64&sr=8-2
I preached about the evils of Christmas trees and they didn't kill me. However the minister and his wife both got covid after not taking down the Christmas tree.
The gentiles were almost all pagans before they were converted to Christianity, so it shouldn’t be surprising that some of the pagan traditions survived.