In this teaching, we take an academic and theological examination of dendrolatry—the worship of trees, the veneration of trees, or the treatment of trees as sacred—and its place within the broader context of Scripture and history. This presentation will explore how ancient cultures practiced dendrolatry, how the prophets spoke against it, and how remnants of these practices can still be observed in modern traditions.

This video delves into the historical and cultural veneration of trees, tracing its roots from ancient pagan practices to its manifestations in various spiritual traditions. This teaching invites viewers to consider the spiritual consequences of syncretism and to pursue a deeper understanding of purity in worship according to the Word.

So join us as we consider the biblical response to dendrolatry and reaffirm the call to pure devotion to Yahweh alone. Come along with us, and learn the God Honest Truth about dendrolatry.

Additional Information

Christmas – Master Notes – from God Honest Truth

A.I. Research Papers :

Dendrolatry In The Ancient Middle East Up To 1 CE:

Dendrolatry In Ancient Roman Paganism (1 CE – 400 CE):

Dendrolatry In European Paganism (30 CE – 1900 CE):

Dendrolatry Quotes (Up to 1 CE):

Dendrolatry Quotes: 6000 BCE to 1 CE – Google Gemini – 20250812

Dendrolatry Quotes (1 CE to 2025 CE):

Dendrolatry Quotes: 1CE to 2025CE – Google Gemini – 20250812

#Dendrolatry #Asherim #TreeWorship #Christmas #Christmas2025 #Idolatry #Messianic #ChristianTeaching #Yahweh #Yeshua #Theology #GodHonestTruth #ScriptureStudy #ChristianApologetics #TorahStudy

Transcript

The prophets thundered against it. But were they successful in getting rid of it? Surely mankind has outgrown and done away with the asherupoles that are mentioned in scripture, right? But regrettably, no. The veneration of trees is still an ongoing issue. In this teaching, we’re going to take a look at something you may have not considered before, and that is the subject of veneration of trees. While it might seem like an ancient practice, it might surprise you to know that dendrolatry is still going on and practiced today. All throughout history, nations have lifted up trees as sacred and used them as objects of worship in their pagan rituals. In this teaching, we’ll examine dendrolatry, uncover what the Bible has to say about it, how the prophets warned against it, and why that still matters today. So, get ready to learn the God-honest truth about Christmas and dendrolatry coming up next.

Teaching Trailmap

Oh, Christmas tree and dendrolatry. That is the subject of tonight or this teaching and we’re going to be getting all into it. Getting into some history, definitely some nerdy word stuff. So, have your notes ready. And if you would like even more notes than what we’ve got here for you in this teaching, and trust me, there is a whole bunch more this time than what we were able to include in this teaching. It’s already going to be long enough. It would have been even longer if we’d included the rest of it. But all those notes are available for you on our website at godhonestruth.com. Click on the post for this particular episode. You’ll be taken to the article post where you’ll be able to see the on demand video. You’ll be able to see the draw slides that come up on the video and you’ll be able to go through those draw slides at your own pace. You’ll also be able to find the notes that we took for this episode as well as our master notes that we’ve got for Christmas in general and 13 new files that we’ve also I guess you could say created but we used AI to do in-depth academic research papers on the subject of dendrology in three different time periods from before 1 CE and then from 1 CE to about 400 CE just during the Roman period and then from uh 400 CE up until present day especially within European cultures and all that is also coming from three different AIs Google Gemini chat GPT and Microsoft Copilot. So go check those out today. You’ve got our episodes for this draw. You’ve got our master notes for the Christmas in general. And you’ve got 13 other files with dozens of pages in each of those and tons of notes and information. So, if you want more information and you’re a true student of education, this is definitely for you. Go check it out on our website at godhonesttruth.com or go down below and click on the convenient link that we’ve placed for you down there, which will take you directly to that page. And that link should be down there in the description whether you’re watching on a video platform or listening to us on an audio podcasting platform.

Teaching Start

Now, let’s get into this teaching. Like I said, it’s going to be all about dendrolatry. And here is our objectives in our trail map for what we’re going to go through during the course of this teaching. We’re going to start out by defining dendrolatry because that is an uncommon word that’s hardly if ever used. In fact, I didn’t really know this word until just, you know, two maybe three years ago at the most. So, it’s rare that it’s used, but you’ll learn all about it, what it is, and then you’ll become familiar with how it is associated or not associated with Christmas. We’re going to examine dendrolatry. And it’s going to be very, very brief because there’s a whole bunch of information, historical information on dendrolatry. And this is stuff that you are not taught in school and it’s definitely stuff you are not taught in church. There’s going to be a whole bunch of information for you and there’s a whole bunch more that we’re not able to include here but is in our notes.

So definitely after you watch this teaching, go check out the notes for more information about dendrolatry and various cultures and throughout history. After that, we’re going to be looking at what the scriptures have to say about dendrolatry because scriptures actually have a lot to say about this particular concept. Then we’re going to look at some possible push backs from well, I guess from just about anybody who celebrates the mainstream version of Christmas. We’ll be going through the various scriptures they might be able or might bring up to push back against this whole teaching. So definitely stay tuned for that. And then we’re going to get into some practical applications and brainstorming about dendrology and the Christmas trees itself. So you definitely want to have your thinking caps on for that last segment. And finally, like always, we’ll be wrapping up with a summary of what we have learned during this particular episode just so you can have a refresher to leave off with. But like I said, we always do that anyway. So, you’re probably used to that already. Let’s go ahead and dive right into this.

Dendrolatry Defined

Let’s go ahead and define what is dendrology. This word that’s new and sometimes maybe scary because I don’t know it’s new and it sounds fancy and academic and this really not. It’s fairly simple. Dendrology is defined according to Collins dictionary wictionary.com marrywebster freeictionary.com etc etc. dendrolatry is defined as the worship or veneration of trees andor other greenery such as shrubs. Now this doesn’t always mean the same thing. Sometimes dendrolatry can mean the physical worshiping of a tree as a god. It can all but more commonly it means the use of trees or shrubs in the worship of a pagan god and usually most of the time this includes the belief that a particular god reside his their presence resides in that particular tree or bush. But doesn’t always have to mean the worship of that particular tree. It could be used in the worship of a pagan god as well.

dendrolatry comes from two different Greek words. It comes from the Greek word dendron meaning tree and latrea meaning worship. Both both of these words are used in the Bible in the scriptures. And they’re used just like we defined here as both tree and worship. Now, one important note to make here too about this latraa. You may have heard something similar to this back in our Godhead series when we went over the concept of worship. Now, divine worship that is only given to God, is only supposed to be given to God and no one else is the word lato. Now, this word here that we’re looking at, this word here that we’re looking at, Latraea, comes from that word lato, Latrau. And latrau is only ever used of Yahweh in scripture. It’s never used of anyone else. There are other words like procaneo and shaha in Hebrew. And these are unfortunately a lot of times translated into English as worship. So it makes it confusing and makes people misunderstand what it actually means. But proco and sha actually just means bowing down or how should I say going prostrate on the ground as an act of respect towards someone who is your superior a higher class who is higher rank things like that but latreo and by extension latrea means divine godlike worship that’s only ever given to the true god Yahweh. Okay, hope that makes sense. This is where the two words that dendrolatry comes from. Dendron and Latraea, meaning divine worship. The kind of worship that we think of nowadays when we think of the word worship. So that’s dendrolatry defined.

Dendrolatry Down the Decades

Let’s go ahead and look at a brief history of dendrolatry and down through history. We’re going to start out way way back when, way back in the ancient civilization of Mesopotamia, Babylon, Assyria, um, Acadia, things like that. But this comes from Janet Roberts and her work trees as tribute in the ancient near east. Quote, “It would seem natural to a civilization which worships the cosmological sacred tree that such a reverence for the tree developed out of ritualized worship of votive trees. The moon tree, the sap of which was regarded as an elixir, rested on a mountain associated with the god Ashure and with the concept of kingship, the moon god was considered the highest god in ancient Mesopotamia. Representation of a tree with sacred or astral meanings begins in the fourth millennium in ancient Mesopotamia. Rosette trees were associated with Inana and grainstalks with her bridegroom Damuzzi and the annual sacred marriage ensuring the fertility of the land. End quote. So way back when this is a practice this whole dendrology thing this whole worship of trees is goes way back in history almost to the very beginning of creation all the way back to Mesopotamia and Acadia and Syria things like that so it’s very very old practice and it’s something that is you find within just about all well most if not all the pagan or non true religions and it’s not just one particular tree and you’ll see that as we go through some of this history here in Mesopotamia. It talks about the moon tree and also the rosette tree but there’s other trees as well as we’ll get into. There’s the fur, there is the laurel, the oak, the pine, the cedar, etc., etc. All different kinds of trees. It all depends on which culture you’re talking about and which particular god that particular culture is worshiping as to which trees they hold sacred. And they could have several different sacred trees that they use in their worship even within the same culture because they have multiple gods.

But leaving Mesopotamia and going on now to Egypt. And here we’ve got the goddesses of the Egyptian tree cult by Marie Louise Bull. And it says, quote, “Trees along the desert edge naturally took a prominent part in the tree cult, and the sycamore was one of the most important of all. It is not surprising that the Egyptians should have believed that a spirit or goddess lived in a leafy tree with a well of water at its foot, and the sycamore assumed a primary position in Egyptian mythology and esquetology.” End quote. This is from again the goddesses of the Egyptian tree cult by Mary Louise Bull. Quote, Hatheror was identified with the tree goddess. She was called the mistress of the southern sycamore. The acacia is described as the tree sacred to Horus in pyramid text etc etc. Is Horus who comes forth from the ancient acacia to whom it is commanded beware of the lion. End quote. And finally, our last quote for Egypt and once again from the goddesses of the Egyptian tree called by Mary Louise Bull. Quote, “Among the Egyptian ideas of the hereafter was that of a sycamore located in the eastern horizon and the branches of which different deities were believed to dwell. It is associated in the mist with the sun god.” End quote. So, it didn’t die out with Mesopotamia and Babylon. It went on and continued with the Egyptian culture. And here you can see there are various trees and various gods that are associated with various trees. You got the sycamore with who was it? Hatheror. You’ve got the acacia which was identified with Horus. You’ve got others as well that we didn’t include here. Go check it out in the notes if you like some more information.

But yeah, this dendrology or the use of trees in pagan worship was prevalent in more than just one culture and it was wid spread across the world and across history. Moving on now to Greece because they’re no different in this respect. This comes from the sacred tree and ancient Greek religion by Carolyn Smarts. And this is actually a thesis paper for her master’s thesis. And she says, quote, “In later Greek mythology, in later Greek mythology are to be found such stories as that of the metaphor metamorphosis of Daphne into the laurel as a defense against the amorous advances of the god Apollo.” A similar story, this time about Pitis, accounts for the connection of Pan with the pine tree. The myth of Saparia Saparisus explains the association between Apollo and the cypress tree. For the boy Saperus was transformed by the god into that tree so that he might eternally mourn his unwitting murder of his friend the stag of Cartha. End quote. So once again we’ve got dendrolatry but with Greece. And here you’ve got various different gods and various different trees. And for this teaching this is the first introduction of laurels. But a laurel tree was also considered to be sacred amongst the Greeks and also the Romans. But here also in the first time mentioned during this teaching is the concept of the sacred pine tree associated with the god Pan. Now keep that in mind because it’s associated like the rest of the trees with different gods in different cultures at different times. So just keep that in mind and try not to mix them up if you can. It gets confusing sometimes.

Moving on to Rome and this comes from Sylvanas from the helenicfaith.com. Quote, I’m sorry. Quote, things commonly attributed to Sylvanas are the fals, which is a kind of sickle, the tree branch, a dog, and sometimes fruits. All symbols of rustic homely well-being. His tree is either the pine or the cypress. In one myth, Sylvanas fell in love with a young man named Saparasus who had a beautiful dough as a beloved pet. One day, Sylvanas accidentally killed his pet and Saparasis overcome with grief, transformed into a cyprress tree. Like with the Greeks associating Pan with the pine tree, now we’ve got the Romans associating Sylvanus with the pine tree and a homosexual god associated with pine tree at that too. Here we’ve got both cypress and pine. Cypress is very similar to a pine if you don’t know. But yeah, it’s uh getting very very interesting. Moving on now into Europe and moving on little bit past the Roman times, but not much. And here we’ve got from the Celtic sacred trees from Wikipedia.org. Quote, “The palm fruit and tree of the apple is celebrated in numerous functions in Celtic mythology, legend, and folklore. It is an emblem of fruitlessness, fruitfulness, and sometimes a means to immortality. Wands of druids were made from wood, either of the U or of the apple.” End quote. This is from the sacred groves of the Balts by Vikantas Vaticus. Quote, “Separate trees like oaks, limes, furs, and especially pines are regarded as sacred, too. Sometimes the sacredness of a tree clearly depends on its location, as demonstrated by examples of trees growing near churches or on the territory of rural cemeteries.” End quote. And then from 25 sacred trees in pagan and north mythology by Willow Thorne. Quote, “In north in Norse mythology, pine trees were associated with immortality and longevity. The Kelts regarded pine as a symbol of fertility and were used in fire rituals to purify and renew.” End quote.

So, here we’ve got all sorts of different trees. And that one quote right there you saw was referencing groves or a group of trees. And this is something I found out in the research as well. Before they had like temples and tabernacles and stuff like that, these pagans would go to these groves, these stands of trees, and that’s where they would have their worship and their religious rituals at within these groves of trees or even at one particular tree that they held sacred. Now eventually these groves that they worshiped in, they eventually built temples there to worship their pagan gods. But they would be within these groves. Other times they would have temples and they would plant groves intentionally around the temples. Even though there were no trees there before, they would intentionally put the trees there to grow up around these pagan temples. So within paganism, trees were very very prominent. And once again, this is not something you learn in school and it’s not something you learn in church, but I think it is very important to our understanding of the Christmas holiday. So hopefully all this is coming as beneficial to you and if not, let us know. If there’s something else we can do, let us know as well. But like I said, there’s a ton more notes. Just go check it out on our website.

And once again, some more information from the Europe or European region. And this comes from sacred trees and groves in Germanic paganism and mythology from wikipedia.org. Quote, scholars consider that reverence for and rights performed at individual trees are derived from the mythological role of the world treedrasil. onomastic and some historical evidence also connects individual deities to both groves and individual trees. Reverence for individual trees among the Germanic peoples is a common theme in medieval Christian denunciations of backsliding into paganism. In some cases, such as donor’s oak, these were associated with particular gods and the association of individual trees with saints can be seen as a continuation of the tradition into modern times. Scholars have proposed that publicly revered trees such as that at the temple in Upsala were regarded as counterparts to the mythic mythic world tree Idrasil. End quote. Now, this is something that’s very, very interesting because so far we’ve gotten the information and the evidence that we’ve seen for ourselves that all these pagan cultures and stuff throughout history have engaged in dendrolatry, the worship of trees or the use of trees and bushes in the worship of pagan gods.

So, we’ve seen them use it, but now we’re also seeing some of the Christianity come into it. And here the Christian priests and I don’t know apologist or apostles that were going out into Europe and the Middle East and various things. They were denouncing the use of trees. They were denouncing dendrology as a backslide into paganism as it says here in this quote which is very very interesting that they would denounce the use of trees or denounce the use of dendrolatry worship practices that was back then as far as Christmas trees go that didn’t really become accepted until 1500 something like that so in the grand scheme of things actually still very recent. Yeah, there was a time and I’ve even run across evidence and I didn’t have time to track it down, but I’ve come across some assertions that back in the very first centuries before 300 AD, before the 4th century, that some of the early church writers, the quote unquote church fathers, wrote against the use of trees as well. But I’m going have to track that down. So, don’t quote me yet. If you find it, hey, send it to us. let us know so we can add it to our notes. But yeah, there was a time when Christianity denounced the use of trees, denounced dendrolatry and but as you know somewhere somewhere along the line that things changed and we have things as they are nowadays.

Scripture Regarding Dendrolatry

But moving on, let’s look at the basis for what should be our foundation for our beliefs and our doctrines and what we believe and everything like that. And that is scripture itself. So what does scripture have to say about dendrolatry? So far we’ve saw that the pagans, the nations, those who were outside of Yahweh’s covenant used dendrolatry. They used trees and their worship of their pagan gods and they even worship trees at times even though that particular aspect was very rare. Usually it was just the use of trees in pagan worship. You can probably already guess what scripture has to say about dendrology. But let’s look and see for ourselves. Exodus 20 3-6. You might remember this from our ten commandments series. But 3-6 quote. You have no other mighty ones against my face. You do not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of that which is in the heavens above or which is in the earth beneath or which is in the waters under the earth. You do not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, Yahweh your Elohim, am a jealous el visiting the crookedness of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me. but showing loving commitment to thousands to those who love me and guard my commands.” End quote.

Now, two things I want to bring up real quick. Number one, remember right there where it says, “You do not bow down to them.” Remember that whole thing about bowing down because we’ll get to that in just a moment. The second thing it also says to not serve them in Greek, this is where you use something like latraa or latreu. meaning divine worship or divine service that you would only give to Yahweh himself. So here in this commandment is part of one of the ten commandments. Remember it’s telling you do not make for yourself a carved image. Do not make for yourself an image that which resembles that which is in the earth beneath which is here with us. Think that might include trees. And then it also says do not bow down to them nor serve them. went on Deuteronomy 12:es 2-3 completely destroy all the high places where the nations which you are dispossessing serve their mighty ones on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree and you shall break down their solder places and smash their pillars and burn their ashim with fire and you shall cut down the carved images of their mighty ones and shall destroy their name out of that place.

What have we got here? We got here the mention of green trees because we’ve already saw from secular sources that trees were a prominent thing that pagans used in their worship of their pagan gods. And here scripture is telling us to destroy all that everything under every green tree. Do not do the dendrolatry that the pagans do. Even do away with the green trees. It’s talking about do away with the asharim as well. What are the asharam? the sharing poles. What is that? Well, it could be one of two different things. Number one, it could be a carved pole that is set upright almost like a um what do you call obelisk sometimes as well. It could mean that that’s something that is worked, it is crafted, it is carved, it is there’s careful attention paid to it, stuff like that because they revered this asherupole, this asharium Another way that a sharium is used is also in the sense of a tree. And we can prove this by I didn’t put this in here and I should have there is a verse in scripture. Oh my gosh, it’s so embarrassing. Now there’s a verse in scripture where it talks about planting. You shall not plant an asher near the temple or near the tabernacle. And it’s talking about planting an ashera. So, ashera or asherim can mean either a pole that’s been crafted for use in pagan worship or it could be a tree that’s used in pagan worship as well. Either one of those. But scripture tells us do not do that. In fact, do away with them. Cut them down. Burn them up. All that kind of stuff.

Went on to Deuteronomy 12:4. Do not worship the Lord your God in the way those nations worship their gods. Once again, Yahweh is telling us, do not worship him in the way that the pagans worship their gods. It’s extremely disrespectful to Yahweh to bring in pagan practices in the worship of Yahweh. Deuteronomy 12:29-30. When Yahweh your Elohim does cut off from before you the nations which you go to dispossess and you dispossess them and dwell in their land, guard yourself that you are not ins snared to follow them after they are destroyed from before you and that you do not inquire about their mighty ones or gods, saying, “How did these nations serve their mighty ones and let me do so too?” Once again, do not do as the pagans do. Do not follow their practices. Don’t do it. Just eliminate them and let them be forgotten. 2 Kings 17:6-17. The children of Israel had sinned against Yahweh their Elohim, who had brought them up out of the land of Mitsraim, from under the hand of Pharaoh, sovereign of Mitzim, and feared other mighty ones, and walked in the laws of the nations, or pagans or heathen or Gentiles. They built for themselves high places in all their cities, and set up for themselves pillars and a sharim on every high hill, and under every green tree, and burned incense there on all the high places like the nations. They left all the commands of Yahweh their Elohim, and made for themselves a molded image, two calves, and made an Asher, and bowed themselves to all the host of the heavens.

This is part of the whole yo-yo cycle of Israel and the Hebrews back then. They do good for a while, then they would do very very bad for a while and slip into idolatry. And here is another instance of where they had slipped into idolatry yet again by making a sharim. these idols, these im images including like I said could be either poles or trees and also they put these high places and their sacred places under green trees. They were doing like the pagans. They were respecting and revering and holding sacred these groves and these trees just like the pagans did. But never does scripture ever prescribe the use of trees in any sort of feast day or moadeem or any sort of ritual. Some of you may be thinking of well maybe how about this we do that in just a minute but look at this right now. Do not use trees. Do not partake in dendrolatry and that is per scripture. went on to Jeremiah chapter 2:es 19-20. Your own evil instructs you and your backslidings reprove you. Know therefore and see that it is evil and bitter that you have forsaken Yahweh your Elohim and that my fear is not in you, declares the master Yahweh of Host. For of old I have broken your yoke and torn off your chastisements. And you said, I am not serving you. when on every high hill and under every green tree you lay down a So once again, it’s talking about the people sliding into idolatry, sliding into paganism. And one of the ways they’re doing that, especially here, is by the use of trees in their religious worship. And you know, in one sense, at least it wasn’t using the use of trees and assign it to the worship of Yahweh. So, at least there’s that, but it’s still bad. It’s still going after other gods. It’s still using pagan practices like trees in the worship of these pagan gods. Yeah, it’s the end of the day, it’s still bad and sinful and don’t do it.

Then, moving on to Jeremiah 10:es 2-4. This is one of the most famous passages when it comes to Christmas that you’ll ever see in all of scripture. But here it is. Jeremiah 10:2-4. Thus said Yahweh, “Do not learn the way of the nations, and do not be awed by the signs of the heavens. For the nations are awed by them, for the laws of these peoples are worthless. For one cuts a tree from the forest, work for the hands of a craftsman with a cutting tool. They beautify it with silver and gold. They strengthen it with nails and hammers so that it does not topple.” Okay, hopefully this particular passage from the word of God is obvious to you just from the reading of it. But in case it’s not, let’s walk through it real quick here. It says or Yahweh himself says, “Do not learn the way of the nations. Do not learn the way of the heathens. Do not learn the way of the pagans. Do not learn the way of the Gentiles. Do not learn their ways. And do not be awed by the signs of the heavens, for the nations are awed by them. The laws of these peoples are worthless. For one cuts a tree from the forest. Now, why in the world would they go out and cut a tree from the forest? Well, number one, talk about this real quick. Back during the pagan use of dendrology and stuff like that, most of the time when they held something as a sacred tree, especially if it was like an individual tree, they would protect it from any kind of damage, even the cutting of limbs and stuff like that, but not always. Sometimes they would take these trees, they would cut them out and bring them home to a personal home shrine to whatever particular god they were worshiping. and would be through the use of these trees in their home, personal home shrine, they would put these trees up in order to build that particular shrine or altar. So, I believe this is what it’s actually talking about here. It’s talking about the cutting the tree and then bringing it back with them.

Now, a lot of people would actually say that this is not actually referring to something similar to a Christmas tree, but it’s actually referring to a carved idol. Okay, maybe, but probably not because it doesn’t say anything about carving it or whatnot. And it says they cut it from the forest and that’s it besides the decoration. And it goes on to say they beautify it with silver and gold. They decorate it. They highly revere this tree. They dress it up. They take put a lot of time and effort and energy into making this particular tree that they cut and brought back. They put a lot of time and energy into making it look good and look beautiful. And once it Well, we’ll get into that in just a minute. And then they says they strengthen it with nails and hammers so it does not topple. They want to cut it from the forest, bring it back to their home with them, and then secure it upright so it doesn’t fall over so it still looks like it’s upright and still growing and decorated and all this other stuff. I mean, seriously, what in the world does that remind you of? And the scripture right here talking specifically about it. And like I said, some people will push back and say, “This is not referring to Christmas trees.” Okay. Well, I think it is, but let’s for the sake of conversation, let’s grant that to you for just a moment and think about that. It’s still talking about cutting a tree, whether you carve it out or don’t carve it out, and then bringing it back, beautifying it, and hammering it down so it does not move. So, it’s still upright like it was in back in the forest, is still the use of a tree within your religious worship. And it’s still something that Yahweh condemns.

So either way, you can call it a Christmas tree or if you want to somehow call it an idol, a carved idol, that’s fine. is still prohibited. It’s still the use of a tree in religious worship and that is dendrolatry and that is prohibited whichever way you go with it. Which would be kind of interesting to see for all of you watching the video right now. You can go on to YouTube or Bitshoot or Rumble or wherever we host our videos at and go down below and let us know your opinion on this particular passage in the comments. Do you think this is referring to Christmas trees as we think of them nowadays? Or do you think this is referring to a carved idol that they might set up like a totem pole or something? Let us know down in the comments. And if you have any reasoning go with your decision or your assertion, include that as well so that we can all examine it and think about how you’re thinking of this. Be interesting to see what the audience thinks about this particular passage. But that’s not all the push, sorry, not all the prohibitions against dendrolatry in scripture. This is just a few examples. Go check out the notes for even more and you go do your own research and you’ll find probably even more than that. I’m not going to claim to have an exhaustive list, but there’s a lot more than what we’ve just presented here so far.

Possible Push-Backs

So, some possible possible push backs that people may come up with, and this is examples from scripture itself. So, let’s look at that real quick. Let’s look at the example of creation, we should say. Here we’ve got Genesis 2:9. And out of the ground Yahweh Elohim made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food with a tree of life in the midst of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Everyone knows this story. There was two tree or two particular trees that pointed out in the creation story and that’s the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Isn’t this a use of dendrolatry? No, not at all. This, and keep this in mind as we go through the rest of these passages, but this is a good example of scripture just referencing something and then that’s it. No more about the tree of knowledge of good and evil because it’s done and over with after the they kicked out of creation or kicked out of the garden. And it’s not ever used again in any kind of remembrance or any kind of holiday, any kind of moadeem or anything like that. It’s just not used. It’s not even spoken of again.

The tree of life is again referenced in Revelation about the end times. But that itself is just mentioned and it’s never celebrated. It’s never recreated in any kind of holiday or madim or ritual or anything like that. Once again, this is just scripture mentioning a tree. No reverence or sacredness or continuation of the remembrance whatsoever in all of scripture. Moving on to some examples from the life of Abraham. Genesis 13 18. So Abraham moved his tent and went and dwelt by the terabenth trees of memory which are in Hebron and built a slaughter place there to Yahweh. Once again it just mentions where Abraham went or Abram at this point where Abram went and what he did but nothing further than that about the particular tree. It was just that’s where he was there just the mention of the trees. Genesis 18 verse 1. And Yahweh appeared to him by the terbinth trees of Mamry, same location, while he was sitting in the tent door in the heat of the day. So once again, it’s a mention of trees. There’s nothing special about it. It just happened to be that’s where Abram was and that’s where Yahweh appeared to him. It could have been on a mountaintop. There’s nothing special about the trees. This just happened to be where he was. And once again, these trees are never mentioned again and never celebrated or remembered or anything like that in any ritual in any worship service in any moadeem or holiday or anything like that.

And then go on to Genesis 21:33 speaking of Abram or Abraham. And he planted a tamaris tree in Beerseba and there called on the name of Yahweh the everlasting L. Once again, you’ve probably catching on to the theme here. It just tells what Abraham did and after that no more mention of the tree. This is like you know so and so walked across or went to a particular place. It’s not that particular ground is therefore and forever sacred and holy and we should use it in our worship services. No, it’s just a mention of something. And here they’re just simply mentioning that Abraham planted a tree. That’s it. Done. Some other possible push backs. Let’s look at Joshua. Joshua 24:26. Then Yahosua wrote these words in the book of the Torah of Elohim. And he took a large stone and set it up there under the oak that was by the set aart place of Yahweh. Once again, it’s a different tree. So it’s not the same tree, not a tamaris tree or whatever had been mentioned before in any of the books of the Bible. This is a uh go back oak tree. Yeah, in this particular translation anyways, it’s just a mention. It says Joshua or Joshua set up an altar there. I’m sorry. He put up a stone there. Let me get this correct. He put up a stone there at that tree and that’s the last mention of it. There’s no celebration of the tree. There’s no remembrance of the tree. There’s no recreation of the tree in future celebrations. Nothing like that. Let’s go on and look at Judges 6 11. And the messenger of Yahweh came and sat under the teraben tree which was in Ofra which belonged to Yash the Abber E aberite while his son Gdon threshed wheat in the wine press to hide it from the eyes of the Midianites. So here once again it’s just talking about the messenger of Yahweh or the angel of Yahweh who came and sat under a tree probably just cooling himself from the heat of the day. But once again there’s nothing special about the tree. It’s just mentioned in the particular story in the particular passage. It’s not celebrated again and again. It’s not recreated or decorated or anything like that. It’s just mentioned done and that’s it.

And finally, let’s look at one more uh example of maybe a push back. And this is something that’s probably got the most weight as far as a push back goes, but when you really get into it, it’s not really a push back. Let’s look at that in Sukot. For those of you who don’t know, we’ll be getting into this in our Sukkot teaching here in a couple weeks, but spoiler alert, for those of you who don’t know, Sukkot the take the what they call the four species, and we’ll get to it in just a moment, but pay particular uh attention to how these are described and how they are used and what is to be used. Keep that in mind. This comes from Leviticus 23:es 39-41. And on the 15th day of the seventh new moon, when you gather in the fruit of the land, celebrate the festival of Yahweh for seven days. On the first day is a rest, and on the eighth day is a rest. And you shall take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of good trees, branches of palm trees, twigs of leafy trees, and willows of the stream, and shall rejoice before Yahweh your Elohim for seven days. And you shall celebrate it as a festival to Yahweh for seven days in the year, a law forever in your generations. Celebrate it in the seventh new moon. Did you pay attention there when we read through that? Let’s read over that particular section where it’s talking about what to use real quick. says here, “Take for yourselves on the first day the fruit of good trees, branches of palm trees, twigs of leafy trees, and willows of the stream.” Those are the four different species that they refer to. How is this a push back or how is it not really a push back at all?

Well, number one, the branches of Sukkot that are prescribed that you just see here, they’re actually commanded and prescribed by Yahweh. They’re not made up by some pagan priest just going along and, you know, pulling it out of his rear end as they go through the day. These are actually prescribed by the one true God, the only God that’s ever existed. They are prescribed by Yahweh, and they do not come from pagan sources. So, that’s an important first thing to point out. Number two, the whole tree is not used. Only the branches are used or the twigs are used, but not the whole tree. And this is stands in stark contradiction to the way that the pagans used trees in the worship of their false gods. Number three, the branches that are used are not decorated. If you’ve ever been to a Sukkot celebration, you’ll see the four species. You’ll have the three different branches in usually in one bundle. Most of the time I’ve seen that way. And then the edge or the fruit separate from that. But these branches that are used, yeah, they may be bundled up together, but they’re not decorated. They don’t have silver and gold around them. They don’t have little decorations hanging from them. They’re not dressed up. They’re not adorned like some idol. No, they are just there and that’s it.

And that’s what scripture tells you to do is to take these particular and we’ll go over it again. These particular branches of palm trees, twigs, leafy trees, and willows of the stream. Just take them and that’s it. No dressing up, no adornment, nothing like that. Number four, another reason why this is not a valid push back is that the branches used, they do not have any praise songs sung to them. Now, I did not in my research come up with any songs that were sung by the pagans to their particular trees, but you can kind of understand that they probably would have. And nowadays, a particular tree has a song sung to it at the end of every year, and we’ll go over that in just a minute. But these four species within Sukkot, they do not have any praise songs sung to them. Number five, the branches used are not placed in a prominent doineering location. It’s not like you got your house and then these four species just take up the entire view of a living room window. They do not take up an entire living room. They do not, you know, they’re not in a prominent doineering location like some other examples that we could give that you probably already thinking about right now. No, these four species, if you ever seen Alulav, they are just used, they’re waved, and then they’re put down, put away. That’s it. After, you know, the whole ceremony gets done.

People might come up and look at them and stuff like that. But they’re not they don’t stand out and grab your attention when you just turn around. Nothing like that. They’re just there. Sometimes you have to specifically look for them to even find them. They’re not in a prominent or doineering location. and they do not immediately take up your visual space when you’re walking into a room. No one bows down to these branches. And you may say, “Well, I don’t bow down to this and that.” But we’ll show you in just a minute how you Yeah, they actually do bow down to particular things. And finally, the branches are not used, respected, or sought after outside of believers and Jews. And what I mean by that is that with Christmas trees and whole Christmas celebration that is something that is accepted and practiced by secular society by Wiccans and pagans even by those outside of churchianity and outside of Christianity stuff like that. So it’s widely accepted and this whole Christmas tree and Christmas thing is a wide road not a narrow road. the branches for Sukkot and Sukkot itself is a narrow road. Get the reference. So that’s something else to point out as well as to why these this uh push back of the Sukkot for species is not a valid push back.

Christmas Trees: Thought Experiment

So now let’s get into a visual thought experiment, a practical thought experiment regarding Christmas trees. Now, stay with me through this because I put a decent amount of time into this whole presentation sections coming up. Think with me through this and if something’s off or if I got something out of place or wrong, then by all means, let us know down in the comments which particular point that’s wrong and why it’s wrong, and we’ll examine that. I’d love to have a conversation with you about it. But let’s go through this. This is a practical thought experiment about Christmas trees. Number one, the Christmas tree becomes a focal point of the holiday celebration. You’ve got your normal everyday living room, your house, and stuff like that. And then it comes around to that time of year, and the Christmas tree takes up a prominent focal point within your home. both with in your own personal view space and usually in a window so that everybody outside can be automatically drawn to that Christmas tree every year after it takes up a prominent doineering focal point within your home. You then or most people who celebrate this then adorn it with lights and ornaments, usually a star and they transform it into a revered object. You’ll see some some other examples here from other parts of the world too, but we’ll get into that in just a moment. So, after they get a prominent place in the home and where everybody can see it and they’re automatically drawn to it, they adorn it and they revere it and they make it extremely special with all these decorations. After that is this tree after it’s been beautified is presented with gifts. Gifts and offerings are placed underneath it. And this is something so far that is reminiscent of other cultures around the world as well.

Here is a picture of an altar, a loss muertos altar. It’s a like a day of the dead kind of thing. These al altars are built and they’re decorated. They’re adorned. They’re they’ve got flowers and all kinds of colors and things like that. They’re presented with gifts of various statues and toys and pictures. There’s food that’s presented to them and all this other stuff. And this is a pagan celebration here. This los muertos celebration. And this is what a pagan altar looks like nowadays. This still goes on in various parts of the world. Here’s another Los Muertos altar. Again, you can see how decorated and revered it is and all the gifts that has been presented to it. The fruits and the pictures and the statues and various symbolic things presented to this particular altar. And it’s not just the Los Muerto Los Muertos celebration. It’s also other things around the world too like the Hindu elephant shrine. This is a some sort of Hindu god. I don’t really care because they don’t actually exist, but it’s a elephant god in the Hindu religion. And this is a shrine for this Hindu elephant god. And here, I don’t know if you can see it very well or not, but up on that shrine, there are offerings and decorations and that’s presented with food a lot of times. And oh my gosh, and various gifts. And these are I mean the Hindu is paganism. Let’s just be real about it. This pagan shrine to this Hindu elephant god is decorated. It’s adorned. It’s dressed up. It’s presented with gifts and food and all kinds of stuff. Yeah. It know a lot of my friends and family out there. It’s going to be hurtful for a lot of them to make this connection. And as much as I don’t want them to hurt, this is the truth of the matter.

This is what’s going on with dendrolatry in modern times, even with church, church Christian churchianity and the way mainstream Christians do things sometimes. And getting back to our subject, let’s get back on track here. And just to recap, the Christmas tree takes a prominent doineering place within the home. It’s adorned. It’s dressed up. It’s beautified so that it’s revered as a special sacred object, special sacred tree. Gifts are placed and offered to it. And then people, families gather around it. It’s a central point for people gather around most time at the end of the year. There are songs sung to it. The praises of this particular tree are sung just about every single year. And for those of you who haven’t looked up the words to the song Oh Christmas Tree, I looked it up and here are some of the more h disturbing parts of that particular song. And here it is, just the disturbing parts. says, “Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree, how lovely are your branches of all the trees most lovely. Each year you bring to us delight. We learn from all your beauty. Your bright green leaves with festive cheer give hope and strength throughout the year.” How does that strike you? Does that strike you as, “Oh, that’s great. That’s, you know, Jesus oriented.” Or does that strike you as some sort of dendrolatry worship and praise of a tree?

No, that is plain and simple the worship and praise of a tree. Talking about how beautiful and lovely this particular tree is. It talks about how this tree brings them delight and happiness. It talks about how this tree teaches them things through its beauty. And it talks about how this tree gives the particular person singing it, how this tree gives them hope and strength all year long. How is that not praise of a tree? That is praise of a tree. And I would highly invite you to go look up the lyrics for this particular song, O Christmas Tree, because in these lyrics, there’s not one single reference to the nativity. Now, Christmas time is supposed to be all about the birth of Jesus, right? That’s what we’re told. That’s how it’s sold to us. We’re told that the Christmas tree is just a part of the decorations of Christmas that the triangular shape supposed to represent the trinity, the ornaments, etc., etc. But yet there’s nothing positive in scripture about the use of trees in religious worship or religious ceremonies. And in the praise song that we’ve got presented here, Oh Christmas tree, that praise song has nothing in it about the nativity or Jesus or anything like that. In fact, this song I looked up a little bit of the history on the song and the song on Christmas Tree the originally it was written uh by a guy who was making reference metaphorically speaking to a faithless lover. And he was talking about how the Christmas tree was more faithful than his faithless lover because the Christmas the the tree this pine tree stayed green all year long. meaning, you know, he was making reference to how the cris the tree would be faithful all the time just as it stayed green all the time. But then it got changed and their lyrics were adapted. But still, there’s nothing in the lyrics nowadays about Jesus or nativity or Christmas or anything like that. It’s just about the praises of a tree. This hearkens back to the dendrolatrous practices of the pagans who revered and worshiped sacred trees.

Nowhere in scripture do you find anything like this allowed. It’s all prohibited by scripture. But remember earlier how we were talking about the commandment that we read said you do not bow down to them and how some people would say well we don’t bow down to it we don’t worship it things like that okay people do bow down to the Christmas tree and it’s usually not all the time but usually children who do so they kneel down bow down to the tree. Now, granted, they’re probably going after their presence, but they’re still bowing in front of this tree. I know you’ve probably seen it before. It’s a bow. And like I said before, the most of the words translated in scripture as the English word worship mean either bow down or show respect. So in that sense, it really is the worship of the tree because you’re bowing down to it. You’re kneeling down to it. In scripture speak, you’re showing reverence and respect to this tree. And in that regard, you are holding it sacred. You are engaging in dendrolatry. Once again, if any of these steps I just went through this past section, if any of those are wrong or if you happen to disagree with them or have a different viewpoint, let us know down in the comments. We’d love to have a conversation about this and like I said, try to get into specifics about what you mean and how you’re reasoning and things like that. But we’d love to hear your opinion and like I said, we’d love to have a conversation with you about it.

And another thing to point out, every year, whether you engage in Christmas or you know people who do or you just go out in public, there’s Christmas trees everywhere. But when you see a Christmas tree, the average person doesn’t automatically think of Jesus. They don’t automatically think of Yeshua or Yahweh or anything like that. They just see a tree decorated up and they usually think about how much time was put into decorating it or how tall it is or how short it is or how many presents are underneath it. It doesn’t automatically make the mind think of Jesus because there’s nothing there that links back to our Messiah. There’s nothing there that connects to it. People try to make it fit, but it doesn’t because there’s nothing there in scripture about it. There’s nothing there symbolic of it of Jesus. So there’s the Christmas tree does not remind anyone of the nativity. Now that you know about dendrology and some of the history, now you know what actually connects to and it’s not the nativity. In fact, a lot of times every single year, people put in more time going to get the tree and bring it back, hauling it, carrying it, decorating it, setting it up, protecting it, cleaning up after it. They spend all this time during usually the month of December. They spend more time doing this stuff for a tree than they do in reading their Bible throughout the year. And that’s just the God honest truth. I mean, think about it. How many people you know celebrate Christmas, spend more time with fussing with their tree, their Christmas tree, than they do actually reading the Bible.

Some examples from my life. I, of course, I’m of the messianic mindset. So, I eat kosher, right? I eat the way that Yahweh told us to eat or at least the best of my abilities, right? I’m still learning like everyone else, but I know not to eat pork and shellfish and bear and squirrel and critter and stuff like that, right? But I’ll tell people, you know, only eat kosher. And these are people who claim to be Bible believing, Bible reading, churchgoing Christians, right? I’ll tell them I eat kosher. And they’re like, well, what does that mean? What can you eat? What can you not eat? And it’s all I can do to not be sarcastic and not be a smart. But I just want to ask them like, “Oh, don’t you read your Bible? Don’t you know what it says not to eat?” And that’s what I’m the point I’m getting to that more people spend more time busting with their Christmas tree in one month than they do in reading their entire Bible all year. And that’s just sad. You can see how these particular practices have come in. They have replaced the rules and the precepts and the commands of Yahweh just like Yeshua told the Pharisees.

Summary

Okay, let’s get off the soap box and let’s wrap this up real quick because I pretty much think you’ve gotten the gist of it and you’ve uh understood where we’re going with this and the evidence where it’s leading. But in summary, just go over what we’ve learned during this teaching. Dendrology is defined as the worship or the veneration of trees, holding trees sacred, and either worshiping the trees directly as a god or using trees in the worship of a pagan god. dendrolatry comes from the Greek words dendron meaning tree and latrea meaning worship. Scripture time and time again condemns the use of trees in religious worship. In addition to every other form of pagan practice, nowhere in scripture are trees or bushes ever used as part of worship. Most, if not all, faiths outside of the true faith practiced dendrology in some form at some point in history, even in today’s day and age. And finally, Christmas trees are not scriptural, but instead are a continuation of pagan dandritary practices. And that’s just the God honest truth.

So, thank you for joining us for this particular teaching on dendrolatry. We really do hope that you got something out of it. And we know this can be upsetting and disturbing for those of you who are hearing it for the first time. We uh we want you to go forth from here and do your own study and look into the information and the evidence for yourself. Once again, we like we said at the beginning of this teaching. We have the notes page that you can go and watch the on demand video. You can see the draw slide that you saw here on your screen. You can see the notes that we took for this particular episode and about 13 or 14 other notes files that can aid you in your study of this particular subject. So go check that out on our website at godhonestruuth.com or click on the link down below and please go further in your research. Pray and ask Yahweh to guide you on this particular subject to give you peace about whatever decision that you come to because there’s when you’re shifting your paradigm that you’ve always adhered to, it’s difficult. We we’ve all been through that, especially those of us in the Messianic kind of way of thinking. So, we’ve been there, too. We know how hard it is. And uh yeah, we we pray for you and we hope that you come to peace about it.

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