I believe in Christian Liberty. I think that believers have amazing lattitude in determining how they interact with the world. And yet, with that freedom comes deep responsibility.
When my first child was born, I was a young Christian. I was very immature in my faith and held to a largely fundamentalist view of social interaction. I understood my faith through things like making sure that there were rules to ban the external actions perceived to be sin. I thought things like...Christians shouldn't drink or smoke or dance.
As my second child was born, I found myself thinking more about Santa Claus, deepening my understanding of Christian liberty, and reassessing my views on the jolly 'ol elf.
Unfortunately, in either corner of those Christian spheres, there is often little real thought given to the whole Santa Claus situation.
I know that most people, most believers in America, see nothing wrong with Santa. I have come to disagree. Its complicated though. I don't mean to say that one must share my views to be an orthodox Christian. This is a matter of liberty since there is no verse in Scripture that says "Thou shalt not play along with the Santa routine."
(I just heard someone say that it may violate the 9th Commandmant. Powerful thought.)
Its also complicated because I let my oldest believe in Santa and that morphed into my other kids doing the same. I know that sounds hypocritical, but its just the strange circumstance I find myself in. I am the minority viewpoint in my family and its not a battle worth fighting to the death over.
I do think that a child can believe in Santa and still grow up to be a believer. The Holy Spirit (by definition), work miracles and saves people from all sorts of sin and falsehood.
Nevertheless, here is why I think we should stay away from Santa given the choice...
1) He sets kids up for the destruction of faith.
Kids trust us. We tell them about Santa as if he is a real magical being. We create elaborate stories about his origins, his life, his deeds, and how he personally knows them. He sees them when their sleeping, he knows when they are awake...
Then, once they get old enough to start thinking rationally and questioning the numerous Santas at every mall and department store around, we tell them it was all a big fib. Of course, we try and paint it as a white lie that we told to benefit them. We explain that we wanted them to feel wonder during the holiday season.
Their faith in Santa is crushed. How can we think that they will have an easy time holding on to faith in Christ?
2) He teaches moralism.
Santa doesn't teach grace. he teaches kids that goodness is rewarded and bad works are punished.
That's the exact opposite of our great Gospel and only reinforces the teaching of this world and all other religions...moralism.
3) He detracts from the Incarnation.
Time spent obsessing over Santa is time lost celebrating the wonder of God made man. That's super simple.
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As a parting thought, check out this excerpt from John MacArthur:
Now, listen, if you look at the letters of Santa, you'll see that Satan is hidden in Santa. When we teach a child to sing "Santa Claus is Coming to Town", we're teaching him a false theology. We're 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 is 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's watching to see whether you've been good or bad.
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's very simple. I have to be what?
Good.
I can earn Santa's favor. If I'm good, Santa will give me gifts. After all, he's making a list. And he's checking it twice to make sure that we've been either naughty or nice and on the basis of 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 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 the good things, but you know what?
You can't trust him.
You can't trust him. So what do you mean by that? It says he's checking to see if you're naughty or nice and you better be good for goodness sake because if you're not 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 get a lot and there are a lot of nice people don't get anything. 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've 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 them. And there's 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 December 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. What's he doing? Oh, he has all these elves around him. What are they doing? Whatever he tells them, mostly meaningless things like make toys. He's 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, I'm in trouble. That's why I say hidden in the letters of Santa is Satan.
Good food for thought even if you disagree.
