God is not Santa

 

You better watch out
You better not cry
Better not pout

I'm telling you why

Santa Claus is coming to town
Gonna find out who's naughty and nice
Santa Claus is coming to town
And checking it twice;

He’s making a list.

Sometimes, particularly antitheists, will make a comparison between God and Santa. They’ll suggest, that after all, you can’t see either of them. Then, some believe in Santa but most don’t. Both see all – weighing up your good and bad deeds – and reward you based on how good you’ve been. The clincher is that both are essentially myths that bring people a bit of comfort and joy with not much behind them in the way of evidence. But the parallels are really only there for those who wish to force them.

  Drawing a link between God and Santa Claus because you can’t see them is weak. There are lots of things that we can’t see that exist, nonetheless.  For example, consider time, emotions and history. All things we can’t see but all things that every sane person accepts exist. Not being able to see something does not mean it doesn’t exist.

  Nor is existence determined by the number of people that believe. As it happens, if it were determined by the numbers, theism wins. There are more theists in the world than atheists and agnostics combined. The validity of God’s existence isn’t determined by popularity. Even if we insist that “experts” get to decide, truth isn’t determined by some sort of popularity contest. For a long time, the overwhelming majority of people believed stomach ulcers were caused by stress or a terrible lifestyle. Dr. Barry Marshall won a Nobel prize proving that view wrong, insisting that he was repeatedly told – and held by the majority – to be entirely wrong. That is until he infected himself with bacteria causing him to get a stomach ulcer and then curing himself. Truth is not determined by majority rule.

  God is not like Santa Claus. For one, few adults come to believe in Santa. While it’s common for children to believe the Santa myth and then, as they grow older and examine the evidence, it becomes clear Santa is only a fairy tale. Compare this to the multitude of people who grow up to examine the evidence, having never believed in God before, who come to believe in Him as an adult. On top of that, there are the people who are taught about God as children who never shake their belief in Him. You’ll have a tough time finding anyone who holds to the Santa myth later on in life.

 Add to that, we need to compare the behavior of God and Santa Claus. Santa is a distant figure who watches the world and rewards people based on their deeds once-per-year. But the God of the Bible is the One who cares about this world so much that He sent His only Son to enter it. God is not a moralist who rewards you based on how “good” you are. Instead, God is a gracious father who gives us the very opposite of what we deserve. He doesn’t hold out rewards based on whether we please Him with our behavior, He gives us good gifts out of grace because He loves us.

  Most people grow up to stop believing in Santa not out of a lack of evidence for his existence but because of the positive evidence against his existence. Most stop believing in Santa that moment they catch their Mom or Dad laying out all their gifts on Christmas Eve. Even if that clarifying moment never comes, most begin asking questions that defy logic. How can Santa fly around the world in one night and deliver all of his gifts? How does he get down chimneys when he’s so fat? Why has nobody ever seen a flying reindeer? Why are parents okay with a stranger wandering their house at night at Christmas but no other time of year?

  There are good reasons to actively disbelieve the Santa Claus myth. People don’t reject it because of the lack of evidence. They reject it as a result of the overwhelming evidence that he doesn’t exist. Yet, contrast that with those who come to believe in God, particularly God as revealed in His Word and in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. They believe because the evidence is so overwhelming. It’s not evidence that’s simply poured into them as children which they never managed to dismiss. Many come to faith entirely apart from being taught it as children.

  Add to that, there are unanswered questions. Where do morals come from? Is it more likely that the universe has always existed or that it has a cause? Is the fine tuning of the universe better explained by necessity, chance or design? What explanation best accounts for the Jesus’ empty tomb, the postmortem appearances and the birth of Christianity? Many conclude that the evidence points in the direction of the existence of a real God. They conclude that it’s the answer that has the widest explanatory power for all these questions, the least ad hoc of all available explanations.

  Maybe you think that God is a myth and Christianity is a big fairy tale. But are you sure? Aren’t there other “beliefs” that you were very sure of at one time?

  Can I challenge you to give yourself a gift this Christmas? Examine the evidence for yourself. Don’t just believe what you’ve been taught or what others have told you. Check it out for yourself. Read Jesus’ biography for yourself. It’s the original Fab Four – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. And maybe pray this simple prayer: God, if You’re real then reveal Yourself to me. Christianity isn’t a blind leap of faith. Countless skeptics, when they were honest and examined the evidence, found themselves overwhelmed by the truth of a loving God who gave His Son as that first Christmas gift for them. I know that’s true because I was one of them.

Can we help you spiritually? Can we help you know Jesus better? Please check out more resources on our church's web page, Gracechurchwi.org. Or, call us at 262.763.3021. If you'd like to know more about how Jesus can change your life, I'd love to mail you a copy of how Jesus changed my life in "My Story." E-mail me at Carson@gracechurchwi.org to request a free copy. Please include your mailing address.