In the first part of this series of Overcoming the spirit of christmas with the Spirit of Christ, we took a look at whether or not God is concerned about the roots of the things we do. For example, is it OK to have a Buddha statue in your house or do yoga. In part two we took a look at the christmas tree and I made the bold and very crap-storm-causing comment where I compared the ‘sacred’ christmas tree to a satanic pentagram. It is here where I apparently really ruffled some feathers and made some people start to question whether or not I serve the God of the Bible. Needless to say, I find this all theologically stimulating. I find it most interesting how those who are coming down hardest on me for ‘not being Christian’ are those who have not attended a church in recent history nor were they even aware of Jeremiah 10. It’s ok. I’ve been a believer for nearly 20 years and I had no clue until about 2012. And then it jumped out at me. And the main issue here is this: once something is presented to you and your conscience has to make a decision, it is at that point where you are also accountable. To support this point, the other night I drove into a drinking and driving road block. I went in boldly and when the police officer asked me if I had consumed any alcohol *today*, I was troubled. I answered ‘no’ but after I left I was convicted that I had lied. Because I *did* consume half of one beer about 2 hours before. The very question from the police officer brought the issue to the forefront of my conscience and I chose to violate it for the sake of convenience. I believe today I failed that test and should have owned up to the half a beer. I bet he still would have let me go through. And so whether or not you *did* know about this christmas tree stuff no longer matters. You know now and you have to do your own due diligence and live with your conscience. Same goes with knowledge of Jesus. I have told you personally and in my blogs that Jesus is the only way to heaven. You can choose to deny that or not, but now you cannot stand before God telling Him that you didn’t know. Your conscience is now at work and you should listen.
And that was just my preamble to this part! I’ll try to keep the rest more concise.
Today I’m going to shoot another ‘sacred cow’. Feel free to stop reading. If you thought my post about the christmas tree ruffled your feathers, this one will make you want to draw blood. You will either love me for pointing this out, or you will want to see me beaten like a mule for ‘ruining your christmas’. Either or, I’m only here for a few more years so I’ve just got to be me.
First, let’s find the similarities between God the Father (God of the Bible) and santa claus:
- both pronounce judgement on evil
- both reward good behaviour
- both have supernatural power
- both have a form of omnipresence (they know what you’ve done)
- Both have songs sung in their praise or adoration
- Both require sacrifices (cookies and blood of animals)
- Both teach obedience to parents
- Both have servants or helpers
- Both require faith and faith alone to believe in your heart
Now let’s contrast them:
- Santa has no mercy. You will pay for your evil.
- Santa forces his way into your house. God requires an invitation.
- Santa taught to children by society where God is taught by parents (if taught at all)
- One is the truth. The other is a lie (you can’t call it a ‘fairy tale’ because you tell kids that it’s real with a straight face)
And I’m sure there are many other great items you could add to this list. As always, I welcome your help developing this article over the years.
Here are some of the reasons why people (even well meaning believers) continue the santa claus story:
- It’s just for fun. You will ruin kids’ fun
- They will feel alone and different in school
- you will take away their magic
- they may rebel against you and go even more full-bore towards these things later
- and please add more if you have heard them
I couldn’t help but think of a scripture as I was writing that list above. Jesus said something very clearly
I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. (John 17:14)
Nowhere in the Bible does Jesus even imply that we are supposed to fit into this world. As you can see from just this one scripture above (and there are many, many more) He went further to prepare us for the fact that we are *not going to fit in*. By letting our children go full bore into a lie or pagan stuff, just so they can fit in with the people that hate God is not a very wise choice. By following the scriptures from an early age, they will be much better prepared to deal with the imminent experience of feeling alone in their quest for righteousness in a wicked world.
There is a second problem, though. If you let them follow the worlds system (santa and such) when they finally do ‘graduate’ and figure out that dad ate the cookies and and the gifts also came from their parents, well, what does that do to your credibility as parents? I suppose you could say that it helped them quickly realize that even family members will be the cause of large disappointments, and just hope that the disappointments stop at this one…
Yet there is a third problem. What does this do to the children’s view of God and the world around them? Hmm. It turns out santa won’t punish me for wrongdoing. And santa is also not the root of rewards for doing good. Hmm. This story sounds a lot like that Bible story I heard when I was a kid. Maybe… maybe this God they tell me about is just another story they told me. Maybe it too will one day go ‘poof’ in my face. I don’t want to be the last kid in class believing in santa claus so maybe I better sack this ‘God stuff’ early because after all, only uneducated fools like those kids who believe in santa would believe in a God you can’t see and who rewards us in the afterlife. Walking on water? That sounds about as far fetched as a fat man coming through a chimney!
You see, this is not about santa.
This is not about a tree.
It’s about faith and where we put it and how we convey it.
It’s about the very core of our integrity and the legacy we are leaving our children.
Yet, I conclude this part by re-iterating this: I’m not writing all this to ‘kill christmas’. I’m writing this because I care about Truth and the name of my God more than anything else in the world. I care more about how boldly I can walk into the throneroom of God at the end of this life, more than I do about what you think about me and my position. This series is about establishing my position as a servant and child of God and standing for truth.