The Dangers of Santa Clause

Well we’re in that time of year again when pretty well everyone’s attention, at least here in North America, is directed to things of Christmas. Of course the problem is, from a Christian perspective, that the biggest majority of those about to enter into this joyous time of year have very little idea of what it is that they are really celebrating. For most of the population it is simply a holiday in which people spend a great deal of money for any one of a variety of purposes such as decorations, food, alcoholic beverages and of course gifts. There may be sundry other reasons for the expenditure of hard earned money, but these are those that most think of. And if you were to ask the average “shopper” a great many would say, that it’s just a time for children though of course adults enter into the festivities every bit as much as the little ones. Then too thinking of the little ones who are supposed to be the key subjects of the fun, we see countless parents not only buying a myriad of gifts intended for their children, they have also included what we might refer to as a “go-between” that has been classically referred to as, in the vernacular, “Old St. Nick” or “Father Christmas” or the ever popular “Santa Clause” which is the common appellation in our culture.

As I was thinking about all of this the other day I was rambling through all of the material that I glean from the net from time to time, and right in the middle of it I came across not so much an article on Christmas as a rather key point in a sermon delivered by John MacArthur back in 1990. The article of course is on the net, but I was so taken with the points that he was making, I decided that it would make a very good reminder to all of the Christian brethren out there, many of whom have all gotten caught up not so much in what Christmas is, but what it has become here in North America in the past two hundred or so years. For in subscribing to the dear old fat man known as “Santa” the attributes that are so often ascribed to him we are in fact making him a very real anti-Christ. I am sure some will read this with much skepticism, but I feel confident as well that despite the “bubble” that it may burst for some little ones, some parents will accept this and perhaps even decide to turn aside from the raw commercialism that has made the wondrous event of Christ’s birth a mere time of personal wants. Please, read it carefully and consider what it says:

“What a false, fake substitute the world puts forth at this time [Christmas 1990] for that true message. Do you remember these words?

‘You better watch out. You better not cry. You better not pout. I'm telling you why; Santa Claus is coming to town. He's making a list and he's checking it twice; gonna find out whose naughty and nice. Santa Claus is coming to town. He sees you when you're sleeping; he knows when you're awake. He knows if you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness sakes. You better watch out. You better not cry. You better not pout. I'm telling you why; Santa Claus is coming to town.’

“Now does that threaten you? That is a very threatening poem. That is intended to scare children. Now listen, if you look at the letters of Santa, you will see that Satan is hidden in Santa. When we teach a child to sing this song, we are teaching him a false theology. We are teaching him a false set of doctrine. Let me see if I can explain it to you.

“First, that song teaches that Santa is a transcendent being. He lives on a higher plane. He lives on another level. He transcends time and space. He has powers equal to whom? God! Not only that, he knows everything. He's omniscient. ‘He knows when you're sleeping. He knows when you're awake. He knows when you're naughty. He knows when you're nice.’ He knows everything.

“Not only that, he's everywhere. ‘He sees you when you're sleeping.’ He's not only omniscient, he's omnipresent. And he is watching to see whether you have been good or bad. And not only that, but he bestows favors. Now on what basis does Santa give his favors? What must I do to receive good things from this transcendent being, called Santa. Well it is very simple, I have to be what? Good. I can ‘earn’ Santa's favor. If I am good, Santa will give me gifts. After all, he's making a list and he is checking it twice to make sure that we've been either naughty of nice. And on the basis on how we've been, he'll deal with us.

“And if I'm not nice and good, I won't get any gifts. So I better be good for goodness sake, not to mention for my own sake or anybody else's sake. But do you want to know something about Santa? He may be transcendent, and he may be omniscient, and he may be omnipotent, and he may be omnipresent. He may be dispensing all of the good things, but you know what? You can't trust him. You can't trust him. You say, ‘What do you mean by that?’

“It says, ‘He's checking to see if you are naughty or nice.’ And you better be good for goodness sake, because if you aren't good, you won't what? You won't get anything. You want to know something? That's not true. Plenty of times I haven't been good and I get something anyway. Every year I get something. And you want to know the truth of it? There are a lot of naughty people that get a lot and there are a lot of nice people that don't get anything.

“Do you know what about Santa Claus? You can't trust him. He doesn't even stay true to his own word. He's blustering around and warning everybody to mind your manners and be good all the time; be nice and not naughty and good and not bad. And then you know what? When Christmas comes he caves in, and even when we have been naughty he gives us all that stuff. And sometimes he overlooks people that are nice. He really can't be trusted. His threats are meaningless and so are his promises. But that's good because it takes the sting out of him.

“And there is another good thing about Santa; you only have to worry about him once a year. He only shows up once and you know when it is; it's always on Dec 25th, so you can get your act together just a few days before. You say, ‘Well where is he the rest of the time?’ Oh, he's in the North Pole. Could that be heaven in Satan's little scheme? ‘What's he doing?’ Oh, he has all these elfs around him. ‘What are they doing?’ Whatever he tells them. Mostly, meaningless things like make toys. He is sort of inane isn't he? He threatens but never fulfills his threats. He promises but doesn't always fulfill his promises.

“Is it any wonder that if I believe all that as a child, when I come to be an adult, I might have a hard time believing in a Transcendent God who does know everything, who is everywhere, who does have all power, who does keep his promises and his threats, and who does not save me and give me good gifts on the basis of my works but on the basis of His grace. If Santa has been my understanding of God, then I am in trouble. That's why I say, hidden in the letters of Santa is Satan.

“I am glad for a God who is absolutely dependable. I can trust His promises. I can trust His threats. He is everywhere at all times and He doesn't just show up once a year. He is here all of the time. And He gives His great gift, not on the basis of our works but on the basis of His grace through faith.”

Neither John MacArthur or I enjoy tearing down the so-called “dreams” of small children just so that we can make sure everyone’s theology is just right. But then neither do we take any joy in building into little ones the falseness of humanism that has been so thoroughly ensconced into our cultural mindset that often small children have difficulty distinguishing truth from error in everyday life. The Lord Jesus once spoke to His disciples as He was ministering with children in the crowds, and He stated this very poignant truth, and all we as parents and grandparents who know and love the Savior who came at Christmas need to heed this very well –

“whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea”

Surely the greatest gift that we can give to our precious little ones is the gift of His love through the Truth of His Word. Have a very joyous Christmas!!!

Beware of Sheep Imitations!

In our present day when, ostensibly, it is quite a simple matter to become in the vernacular of the evangelical church, “saved” as simply as “A,B,C”, i.e. “Accept”, “Believe”, and “Confess”, I have become very concerned about such formulaic presentations especially in light of our Lord’s words to His contemporaries when He stated quite emphatically,

“"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.'”

There are a lot of wonderful passages in Scripture that many pastors will never touch on, and this is surely one of the more prominent ones of this group. There are undoubtedly many reasons for this, but in a time in which the “seeker sensitive” movement has taken over in many quarters there is little point in hearing from the pulpit, if there is actually one in place, that all those wonderfully converted saints may really not be saints after all. Of course that’s not really their fault because they did follow through with the “raised hand, walked aisle, and sinner’s prayer” formula, and shortly thereafter were welcomed into the family of God as if “what they did .. did it!!” The fact of the matter is, however, that from the Scriptural point of view, absolutely nothing of what they or we do in terms of salvation has anything whatever to do with our salvation. That’s why we read that salvation is “…by grace alone”. Most churches that I have looked into do in fact affirm this very essential truth, yet so many of them go on speaking about the new birth as if men were and are very much a part of it coming to pass. Often the wording of church statements of faith include such affirmations, to wit, “…when the unregenerate receives Christ for salvation, then they are born again.” they are In other words, men who are spiritually dead do nonetheless have the capacity to “make a decision” that results in their own regeneration. This would be interesting and downright miraculous if it were true, but it is not. Yet this is precisely the evangelistic message that is proclaimed far and wide every day. Every time a church holds evangelistic services; every time a major crusade is conducted men are told that in the doing of such and such, they will be saved. And what happens usually follows a scenario similar to this – a gospel message is proclaimed; people are invited to come forward to “receive Christ as personal Savior” – nowhere is this to be found in Scripture; the choir sings [often] “Just as I am”; counselors gather and hand out literature and pray with those who’ve walked the aisle. And when all is concluded, the “new convert” is welcomed into the family of God and given further instructions. Are any saved? Yes, I believe that God in His Sovereign mercy does save some. What of the others? That’s hard to say, but once the emotion of the moment has worn off, so does the sense of being saved or of having had some wonderful new experience.

Recently I re-read a tremendous little book that has been in my library for over twenty years. The book is entitled, “Today’s Gospel: Authentic or Synthetic” by pastor Walter Chantry. It’s less than one hundred pages in length. In it he tackles the whole matter of preaching the gospel and uses as his base text the account in Mark 10 of the rich young ruler coming to Jesus for the express purpose of “inheriting eternal life”. It’s a classic account of what the church today would look upon as being a “seeker” coming to Christ. Beyond that however, it would appear that the Son of God in His meeting with this “ripe candidate” for salvation, actually blows the whole encounter. From the standpoint of “Salvation 101”, Jesus does everything wrong. Right from the getgo when the man comes to the Master and pays Him a great compliment, Jesus shoots him down. And then instead of getting on with the four spiritual laws, He starts quizzing the man on whether or not he had been successful in keeping the commandments. For the average student of evangelism the whole account must seem like a real exercise in futility. Every modern day rule of evangelism is seriously maligned so that in the final scene in this little drama, the man goes away in great sorrow not saved after all.

For most evangelicals the reason for his not being saved is simple – he didn’t “do” what he was told to do, and hence Jesus couldn’t save him. But is that really the crux of the matter? Was Jesus rendered helpless in light of the man’s will, or lack thereof, in complying with Jesus’ instructions? It does seem that way as we consider all that transpired but surely we must ask and seek an answer to the man’s supposed inability to reach the goal for which he had made this overture in the first place. The Scriptural fact of the matter is – no man, woman, child, young or old person of any tribe or people can be saved unless something rather miraculous takes place within and that is the work alone of God through His Holy Spirit. Unless and until man turns completely from his sin and bows to Jesus Christ alone for his salvation he cannot have eternal life. Jesus here put His finger on one all important fact of this man’s life, the man’s sin. He was still married to his god, his gold. He wouldn’t give it up. Dare we say that though this fellow had stated emphatically that the commandments that Jesus had named and that needed his obedience, there were in fact others there that had received little if any obedience at all? The gold had become for him an idol; to get and keep so much of life’s riches he was ever in a state of covetousness. This was his heart attitude and Jesus knew it. And He called on the man to give it up; to turn completely about face from it. But his heart, his nature would not allow it. With respect to those commandments that he had given lip service to for his whole life, he felt fine. But with his heart attitude toward his real ‘god’ there was no change. He loved it still. He could not give it up – even for eternal life. Unless God by way of His Holy Spirit wrought a new life within the man, there was no way that he could change.

And that is not the “evangelism” of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Do you see what Jesus did here? The Master defined sin and in doing so made it abundantly clear to this young man that in and of himself there was nothing he could do to rid himself of it. To gain eternal life we must obey; our whole lives must be lives of obedience. Our evangelism today is very simple: “Accept God’s free gift; Believe that Jesus is the Son of God who died for sinners; Confess your sinfulness”. This is how we end up with sheep imitations. The truth is not in them, because they haven’t had the truth delivered to them. To become a follower of Jesus Christ one must make a complete, total and unequivocal turn from the life that he or she has lived and so dearly loved. From that point on they must walk in a new life of obedience and that will not, though it is frequently claimed otherwise, be easy. That’s why Jesus spoke so strongly of the cost of being His disciple. This life could and frequently does, cost everything. It is not simply a matter of being added to a long roster of “new converts”. It’s a matter of having now, residing within, the life of Jesus Christ and living that life before a watching world that hates Christ. Yes, that’s a cost. This is not simply an outward “confession”, it is an inner reality that God must originate in the hearts of men who hate Him and until that happens all the confessions and tears and prayers of contrition will not amount to the proverbial hill of beans.

Until men come to the realization that they must come to the cross having offended a thrice Holy God and there in total repentance of the lives that they’ve lived, beg for mercy, they will not be saved. Yet countless thousands make the empty profession every year without an inkling of the sin that is theirs, and one day will stand before God proclaiming all their “good” in vain only to hear those words, “…depart from me, I never knew you”. The number of sheep imitations on that day will be staggering. And so many of them will have come from having made their earthly “professions” in situations such as the illustration below. Watch it carefully and learn from it.

At the risk of sounding a mite harsh I will say only this – this is an heretical and soul destroying practice that comes out of a system that in reality thinks very little of God. It is a system that does not preach the law, so men don’t know how or why they have offended God. This is a practice that does not call for repentance. This is a system that waters down the gospel to the mere offering of Christ and salvation “as a gift” and never mentions that we must bow to Christ’s rule and bear a cross. Men might be deeply affected by truth and never be converted. They end up in quite illustrious company for even the devils believe, and they tremble.

A Special Gift from God

As one not ordinarily given to tears I was deeply moved by this video which I found on a friend's blog, and was constrained to add it here. As others have said, there's not much that can be added. Suffice it to say that the young couple that had this wonderful little boy know well the Sovereign workings of our Heavenly Father.

The Love of God

There are times in all of our lives, especially those of us who are children of God, when we need some uplifting whether through some good thing a friend or relative does for us; through the preaching of the Word of God in solid expositional style; and yes, sometimes through the music that we hear which brings naught but praise to our Heavenly Father and His Son the Lord Jesus. There is not a great deal of this kind of music available in the church of our day. Recently we were greatly blessed through the music of a Welsh singer that we came by quite by accident [are there ever accidents ?] on the net. The man’s name is quite unusual, and his music is quite extraordinary. We have made this available to many of our friends, especially to those of Welsh background. But your background is unimportant in the consideration of the words of this beautiful hymn, “Here is Love Vast as the Ocean”. I know all who hear it will be as warmly blessed as we have been.

First Church of Warm Felicitations a.k.a. The Cathedral of Man

For some time now, as perhaps evidenced by my previous posting, I have been extremely concerned by the very inept approach that the professing evangelical church of our present day is making in going about in their words, “doing church”. Today’s ecclesiology has been more accurately described as a palace of entertainment designed to cause adherents to be comfortable and satisfied. Its erstwhile priorities of edifying the saints so that they might be more able to present Christ before a watching and a dying world has somehow lost the impact that was once thought to be so vital. When I came across the video in the last post of a man dying of cancer, yet seeking to know how he might know the forgiveness of God for his life he received only the pitiful words of a bedside counselor, “...well it’s up to each one of us to determine what God desires of us” or words to that effect. Wisely the man in the hospital bed shot back that no it was not; he was not seeking postmodern nonsense with respect to an airy-fairy religion that presented more new age idiocy than straightforward truth. He was desperately seeking an answer based on authority. And it was not there for him so he screamed at his inadequate counselor, “Get out”!

Surely one has to wonder why this is happening. Why is it that men are not able to present answers to the dying. Why is it that when situations like this arise the response from those who are supposed have the best interests of others at heart amount to nothing ... absolutely nothing that holds any comfort whatsoever?

The church as it is rather lightly referred to is not sure today in an age that has virtually every answer at its finger tips through more media than our fathers and grandfathers ever thought possible, what it should be proclaiming. I have personally been in touch with literally thousands of Christian churches world wide over the past few years and a very large percentage of them are seeking leaders that will in their words “take them to the next level”; or provide them with the necessary direction to reach their communities for Christ. And they almost all without hesitation describe such leadership in terms of good and solid and faithful expositors of the Word. Yet deep down that is not really what they are seeking at all. What they really want are men who will enable them to fill the churches ostensibly of the unsaved and then, bottom line, entertain them. Perhaps, just perhaps, the Bible will be alluded to, but as long as their clothing is casual enough, and the praise band is loud enough and the lights are attractive enough to “set the stage”, well, that’s really all that’s important.

Now, are we intimating that the message is not important? Of course not. Just don’t let it be too serious, or overwhelming with respect to doctrinal truth. And whatever else happens, make sure – if sin is mentioned at all – that the gravity of it is lessened so men don’t get too discouraged with life. Most of all, make sure that men are told that God wants them to be victorious; and that God wants them to have all the best things in life; and that God does not want them sick or without all the good things that He has and is making available for them.

Now, am I kidding about all of this? Not at all. And one of the most “successful” churches in North America provides ample evidence that this is very much the case. If, and I say IF with as much impact as I can muster, the gauge for success in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ is numbers, and peppy personnel, and bigness by the shovelful, then this church in Texas is without doubt the most successful on the face of the earth. But, if the sound preaching of the Truth holds absolute priority seeing men saved and changed by the power of the Holy Spirit into the likeness of the Lord Jesus, then ... well, perhaps you should decide. Here’s a brief video of this church and its youthful pastor. Listen carefully to what he says and then ask – is this what the Word of God really says?

What do you say?

I recently found this brief clip from a well known TV series on a friends blog. It's very poignant as it asks the ultimate question, "How can I know forgiveness?" In a situation like this, Christians must have an answer. The postmodern church, right now, is not even trying to meet men at the point of their most fundamental need, a right relationship with their Creator through the person and work of Jesus Christ. So, when men ask this question of us, how shall we answer?

Revival Hymn

Dear Brethren in Christ: A great many in the body of Christ today are coming, albeit slowly, to the realization that there is something wrong amongst those of us who have been for many decades called "evangelicals". The problem is - the clear preaching of the Word is lacking in churches quite literally around the globe. What we need has been well stated in its own way in this video: