Re: [TruthTalk] leading people to Christ

[Marlin Halverson]

 "Christmas, a festival of peace and reconciliation, has helped European cultures to preserve many of their ancient beliefs and practices. ‘Father Winter’, for example, has survived as ‘Santa Claus’, while evergreen tree worship survives in the adoration of the Christmas Tree. Such Christmas-time customs present patterns that non-Christians also may recognize....." "Subsequently, the distinguished art historian Ananda Coomaraswamy in his study of the ancient yaksa cult has fairly conclusively established that the term yaksa (Sin. yaka), which in modern usage has come to mean ‘demon’, originally meant any kind of spirit and, in particular, tree-spirits. By a similar process, the ancient Greek word daimon, which originally meant any supernatural being or indwelling spirit, comes down to us as the English word ‘demon’. Both instances suggest a gradual inversion of meaning over the course of time as popular familiarity with the supernatural or spiritual gives way to unfamiliarity and fear of the unknown........" "Likewise, the ever-green Christmas Tree also, in its own wise, already represented the ‘World Tree’ or ‘World Axis’. The ‘Star of Guidance’ that crowns the Christmas Tree is also related to the North or Pole Star that is always directly overhead at the North Pole. This natural compatibility of Christmas celebration with late December and beliefs about the evergreen tree, the North Pole, and the spirit called Father Winter still survives in Christian guise......" http://livingheritage.org/pole-spirits.htm