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. 

Elf on the Shelf and the naughty list

“Traditions are there for a reason: to provide us with guilt when we don’t do them correctly.”  Kelly Wickham

  Since my children are all adults, there are “new” traditions with Christmas with which I’m completely unfamiliar. One that sprang up in recent years is the Elf on the Shelf. It developed from the 2005 children's picture book by Carol Aebersold and her daughter Chanda Bell. The book tells a Christmas-themed story, written in rhyme, that explains how Santa Claus knows who’s naughty and who’s nice. It describes elves visiting children between Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve, after which they return to the North Pole until the next holiday season. The Elf on the Shelf comes in a keepsake box with a picture book and a small soft toy elf.

  The elf shows up at your house and keeps an eye on your children to ensure that they’re “good.” He reports back to Santa every night then comes back to your house and hides somewhere new where he can watch the kids. Children are taught that Santa is watching them through his minions so that they will behave. Parents randomly hide the elf in different places, to keep the kids on their toes. It’s a fun challenge to find the elf and when they spy the elf, it reminds them that they’re always being watched and had better be good…or it’s lumps of coal for Christmas.

  One Canadian mother thinks that this is a horrible idea, and probably akin to child abuse. Suzanne Beaumont is on a one woman crusade, encouraging parents to ditch this holiday tradition in favor of something with a more positive message. She believes that Elf on the Shelf sends a message to kids that they’re under constant surveillance by Santa and his pointy-eared minions. After reading the book, she felt “really disturbed” and felt something must be done to counter the tradition, so she came up with a new, more positive twist: What if the elf actually taught them something? What if his role was to be the example and give them an opportunity to practice kindness, compassion and gratitude? So she brought the elf home and gave him a new moniker, “Kindness the Elf” and explained to her daughter that the elf’s purpose was to bring kindness to them during the holidays and to encourage her to be good for goodness’ sake, not out of fear of punishment. Her daughter wakes up every morning and heads straight for the mailbox. That's where she finds instructions from Kindness the Elf telling her what positive things she should do that day.

  Now before you decide that I’m the Grinch, there’s nothing wrong with a little make-believe and fantasy. Christmas should be fun, particularly for children. Personally, I think folk like Ms. Beaumont have probably had a bit too much egg nog. And while we chose to not teach our children about Santa Claus, we were committed to making Christmas a lot of fun for our threesome. So if you want to teach your children that there’s a Santa, or Elf on the Shelf, or the Tooth Fairy, that’s a parental choice.

  Elf on the Shelf opens the window for a vital biblical truth. While most adults are far too “sophisticated” to believe someone is always watching, He is. His name is God. It’s what theologians call “omniscience.” That simply means that God is all-knowing; that He encompasses all knowledge of the universe past, present, and future. In the beginning, God created the world and everything in it, including knowledge. In other words – God knows everything. Not only does He know everything, Proverbs 15:3 says that God sees everything. “The eyes of the LORD are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good.”

  And that’s my big problem. Since God knows everything, there really is a “naughty list,” and my name is on it (probably at the top) and so is yours. And what’s worse, I can’t ever be good enough to get my name off the list. As Romans 3:10 says, “None is righteous, no not one.”

  Santa, Elf on the Shelf, the Austrian Krampus, the Dutch Zwarte Piet (Black Peter) the German Knecht Ruprecht, to name a few…all have one thing in common – the Law. But Jesus came to bring us the Gospel (Good News). The most important truth that you need to know and teach your children and grandchildren is the distinction between and the Law and the Gospel. God is not another Santa Claus. 

  While we’re absolutely incapable of ever being good enough to receive anything but coal in our stockings, the only hope for goodness is only found in the only One capable of absolute perfection. His name is Jesus.

  Most of the world believes in some sort of Santa Claus and it’s not just at Christmas. It’s 24/7, 365 days a year. It’s the lie of “do good and you’ll be accepted by God and will receive good things. Do bad and you’ll be punished.” It’s the Law, it’s Karma…it’s even typical parenting. But the true message of Christmas is about the Gospel! Thank God for the Gospel! Thank God for the incarnation of His Son who came to earth to save us from this filthy mess into which we’ve gotten ourselves! As the angel said to Joseph, “you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). And later as the angel announced to the  shepherds, “Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11).

  We can be free! We no longer live have to live under this burden of guilt and sin, but now can live in the freedom of Christ. That’s what Christmas is really about. We no longer have to live within the confines of the Law. The Holy Spirit was not left to look over our shoulder to make sure that we’re being good enough for God. Jesus didn’t come for those who were good enough and He certainly didn’t come to rat us out. The Son Of God humbled Himself in His incarnation into the restricted form of a human body, lived a sinless life, and then willingly hung on a tree to die for those who deserved not only coal but much worse. He did this all knowing that you and I could never be good enough to appease the Father. We could never earn a righteousness of our own so God’s gift to us was the righteousness of His Son wrapped up in a blood-stained, tragic death, which culminated in a cry of “It is finished.” That cry, “It is finished” declared once for all Jesus’ annihilation of the naughty and nice list. With that cry that He stuffed Santa down the chimney and shoved that Elf off the shelf so that we could be free…free for all eternity.

  Mercy means withholding judgment and punishment that we fully deserve. After mercy, grace is giving us blessing, goodness and Heaven too…none of which we deserve. It’s all a free gift, God’s Christmas gift to us. Have you accepted God’s gift for forgiveness and salvation? 

  This Christmas rest in Him, rest in His goodness and not your own. And please, give your children the greatest gift they’ll ever receive – the grace that tells them that they have a Savior who loves them and has come to rescue them from the crushing news that they will never be good enough. 

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