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Christmas in July? Yes, that's the topic of today's Q &A as we'll be taking a question from a listener about Santa Claus and learning about how through Jesus Christ, God has given us every good thing that we need for life when we understand the text.
Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text is an online ministry committed to teaching sound doctrine and exposing the faulty. Visit our website at www .utt .com.
Now here's our host, Pastor Gabe Hughes.
Thank you, Becky. There's now more than one way that you can get to our website. Apart from www .utt .com, you can also type in understand .video into your address bar and that will get you to our website as well.
And probably a little easier to explain to somebody else when you're telling them about what videos, but you have to say that what is actually spelled www .utt .com and you have to expect them to remember that.
Well, it's easier to remember understand .video. So just tell a person that to find our full list of videos, 90 second videos addressing over a hundred different Bible topics, just type in understand .video.
I've got another what video that I'll be finishing later on today on the name Jehovah. So look for that one either on the website. It'll also be posted to Twitter and our Facebook page. It's Friday and we take questions from listeners to this program, viewers of what videos.
And today I've just got one question I'm going to be taking pertaining to Christmas. This comes from Anonymous on Twitter and he says, dear Pastor Gabe, greetings to you, brother. I hope you're doing well.
Thank you and Becky again for all you do to provide sound biblical teaching for millions around the world. I think that's overshooting things a little bit. We get about four to 500 listeners of the podcast every day and 2000 viewers of what videos every day.
So not quite millions around the world, but thank you. I was hoping you could take a few moments on a podcast and expound a little regarding your stance on Santa Claus. I know you've mentioned before that you are against raising a child to believe that Santa is a real current living person who magically flies around every house on Christmas Eve.
And I'm sure I wholeheartedly agree with you, even if just for the fact that it falls under the umbrella of lying and bearing false witness as innocent as it may seem. Could you discuss this one on Friday?
Thanks a bunch. Grace and peace to you, sir. Anonymous. Now I had some other questions that I was going to address, but I liked the whole idea of doing a Christmas in July and this is the last Friday in July.
So today's the day I decided to address that question. But before we get to the reasons why this is not okay to tell your kids that Santa Claus is real, here's the what video that we did about that. Before jolly old Saint Nick became the myth known as Santa Claus, he was Nicholas of Myra, a pastor in modern day Turkey.
Nicholas was born into a wealthy family and gave his wealth away. In one occasion, he paid the dowries of three sisters by dropping gold coins in their window. He had a reputation for giving gifts in secret, putting coins in the shoes of those who left them outside their door.
When Diocletian became emperor of Rome, he persecuted Christians severely, one of whom was Nicholas. In 313, when the persecution ended, Nicholas was released from prison, covered in his own blood, and the people called him Nicholas the Confessor.
There's a story of Nick attending the Council of Nicaea in 325. When Arius sang his blasphemous hymn about Jesus being created by God, Nicholas slapped him. And that was the real Nicholas. Over time, legend turned to myth and Saint Nicholas became Santa Claus.
Now surely you've heard it suggested that if you teach your kids that Santa is real, you're lying to your children. But the Santa myth is also bearing false witness about a real person, a brother with whom we share our inheritance in Christ.
Nicholas gave what he had to help others. He confessed Christ and was beaten for it. He was zealous for sound doctrine. Telling kids he's a magic man, watching their behavior from the North Pole with elves and eight flying reindeer distributing presents on Christmas Eve and eating their cookies is not a better story.
Don't take Christ out of the life of a man who was all about Christ. First Timothy 4 .7 says have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. And folks, Santa Claus is an irreverent, silly myth when we understand the text.
So here's the two biggest problems with convincing your kids that Santa Claus is real, that he's flying around the world on Christmas Eve, distributing presents and the whole bit, making a list, checking it twice, going to find out who's naughty or nice.
Okay. All of the mythos surrounding Santa Claus. Why is it wrong to convince your kids that that's real? Because number one, it's a lie. And number two, it's bearing false witness about a real person.
Now I have a third point I want to add to the end, which I couldn't fit into the 92nd video. But first of all, let's go back to point number one. I'm going to throw in three sub points. So number one, you're lying to your kids.
Sub point number one, mom and dad, this is a bigger deal than you think it is. I can't even tell you the number of parents who have said to me, you know, this is not that big a deal. I, you know, it's just this fun little game that we play with our kids every Christmas and whatever.
It's just this innocent little thing. But whenever I'm talking to a person who has a testimony about how their mom and dad told them that Santa Claus was real. And then a day came when they found out that he wasn't real.
They don't ever say that. But then I found out it was this funny little game that my mom and dad play. Usually they have like a horror story about when they found out Santa Claus wasn't real. But at the very least, what they say is my mom and dad lied to me.
And that's the way they recall the event. They don't say that it was this fun little game. They say my mom and dad lied to me. Mom and dad, you just don't understand how your kids are receiving this. You think it's innocent and fun.
They're making it a life truth. And I have actually heard testimonies from people who have also said that because their mom and dad told them that Santa Claus wasn't real or they found out from someone else that he wasn't real.
They also doubted whether or not God was real. Is Jesus this powerful man performing these great miracles who also knows if I've been naughty or nice? Is he a myth that my parents have been telling me is a real person, but maybe they've been perpetuating a lie about Jesus that also isn't true.
Do you really want to put your kids in that position questioning something as essential as the reality of God just because just for the sake of playing this fun little Santa Claus game every single Christmas?
It's a bigger deal, mom and dad than you think it is. OK, sub point number two, you are setting your children up for future failure. I have observed with my own eyes and ears, and you probably have, too, a child who has been told that Santa Claus isn't real and their heart breaks and they burst into tears or they lash out in anger.
I've seen both reactions from kids who have heard from an adult or another child that Santa Claus isn't real. They respond with sadness or with anger. And you're setting your children up for future failure for heartbreak over something that is a silly myth.
Is it really worth breaking your child's heart for you to play some silly little mythical game every single Christmas? It's placing an unnecessary burden in the heart of your children, in the heart of your child.
And number three, my sub point number three goes along with that. You are also placing an unnecessary burden on other parents and their kids to participate in your lie. It is not everybody else's responsibility to further this myth about Santa Claus for your sake and for your kids sake.
In fact, I've got a story from my grandmother about this. My Mimi, who was a wonderful, godly woman, passed away three years ago. One of the godliest persons that I've ever known in my entire life. As long as I knew her, she she woke up every morning to read her King James Bible.
She knew it frontwards and backwards. I know that she is home with her Lord and Savior in heaven now. But she told this story to me once about how when she was a little girl, she was an ardent believer in Santa Claus.
Her parents told her Santa Claus was real. And boy, she was a defender of Santa Claus. One of the neighborhood kids told her that he wasn't real. And so here's how my grandmother responded. She went back to her parents house, grabbed her dad's shotgun, went to that neighborhood child, pointed the gun in her face and said, you take that back.
Now, fortunately, the story has a happy ending. She did not blow that child's head off and she would repent of her sins and come to know Christ and become the godliest woman I've perhaps ever known. But but anyway, I mean, you can see the seriousness of how kids will take this this myth that you present to them as truth.
It's a bigger deal than you think it is. You're setting your children up for future failure and you're also placing an unnecessary burden on other parents and their kids to participate in this lie. So point number one, it's lying to your kids.
Point number two, it's bearing false witness about a real person. Now, this is something that we don't often think about as Christians when it comes to obeying the command to not bear false witness against a neighbor.
We often think about this only pertaining to people who are alive. But you got to understand that bearing false witness about a person who is dead is no more innocent than bearing false witness about a person who is alive.
Is it OK for a pastor to stand up at a funeral and say false things about the deceased and start spreading lies about them just because they're dead? Of course not. That's not OK. And so we should not speak of the dead in such ways.
Hebrews chapter 11 is where we read about the heroes of the faith. It starts with Abel and talks about Enoch and Noah and Abraham and Moses. We even mentioned some of the judges in there like Gideon, Samson and Jephthah and also David the king and Samuel and the other prophets.
And in the last two verses there in Hebrews chapter 11, I want to read these to you. Hebrews 11, 39 and 40 say this. And all these, all these saints who had gone before, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised since God had provided something better for us that apart from us, they should not be made perfect.
Apart from us, those saints who have gone before us should not be made perfect. Think about this. As the body of Christ is being added to, as more people are hearing the gospel and coming to the faith, the bride of Christ is being perfected for that day when we will be united with the bridegroom Jesus Christ in glory.
And so our sanctification now is also the sanctification of the saints that have gone before us and the sanctification of the saints who have yet to come. And so this is the entire bride of Christ stretching over millennia that is being prepared for glory.
And so we should not be bearing false witness even about those saints who have gone before us. Rather, we should speak heroically of them because they are being perfected as we are in this growth in holiness, being prepared as the bride of Christ for that day of glory.
And Nicholas is a fellow saint, not just because he's called Saint Nicholas, but because he was a believer in Christ, a defender of the faith. He was persecuted for his faith and he is with the Lord in glory as we will be when we die and are looking forward to that day when all of the saints together will be celebrating and rejoicing with God in all eternity for the salvation that has been given to us in Christ Jesus.
Nicholas was a sinner who was saved by grace through faith, just as you have been. And so speak of him in a way that is uplifting to the body of Christ, not turning a real man who defended the faith into some sort of mythological character.
All right. So, number one, teaching your kids that Santa Claus is real is lying to your kids. Number two, it's bearing false witness about a real person. And I said I was going to add a third point here.
Number three, it's a false gospel telling your kids he's making a list, checking it twice, going to find out who's naughty or nice. All that thing surrounding Santa Claus is a false gospel. It's a works based gospel.
You're teaching your kids that if they're good, they get good things. But if they're bad, they get coal. And that's not the gospel. See, the gospel speaks into the reality that what we deserve is coal.
Worse, what we deserve is death and hell eternally separated from God because of our rebellion against God, because of our sin. But God, who is rich in love and mercy, didn't leave us dead in that state.
The gospel is that he sent his son Jesus to die on the cross for our sins. And then he didn't stay buried in a tomb, but showed he had the power over death itself by coming back to life so that all who are in Christ Jesus receive his righteousness and also his eternal life.
We don't deserve it. We can do nothing to earn it. And God gives it to us anyway. And that's good news. That's why it's called the gospel. Roman 623, the wages of sin is death. But the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
We do nothing to deserve it. Even on our best behavior, we can't earn it. The blessing of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord, is a free gift of grace. You can then teach your kids that the good things we do show that we believe this truth about God.
We love others because God loved us. We show grace to others because God showed grace to us. On and on it goes. We don't earn anything by our good works. We affirm our beliefs by our good works. The gospel of Jesus Christ that God became flesh and dwelt among us is a much better, happier story than the horror story of creepy Santa Claus, a works based gospel that no one can live up to.
It's not a fun, innocent little game. It's a lie. So parents, stop telling your kids that Santa Claus is real. I mean, what a what a wonderful, beautiful story that we have at every single Christmas we can be sharing with our kids.
And instead, we want to talk about a fat, jolly guy in a red suit flying around with eight reindeer with elves at a workshop building toys, which is stupid. Pardon me, but it's dumb. The wonderful story that we have to share is this story of Christ, of God who left his throne in heaven, who came down to earth in a manger in Bethlehem.
And he grew up as a man, grew in stature, as it talks about in Luke chapter two. He was tempted by the things that we are tempted with. Yet he was perfect and didn't give into those temptations. He fulfilled all the things that we could not do.
He lived the perfect life that we couldn't live. He died the death that we were supposed to die. The wrath of God that we deserved was poured out on him instead. And because of that death on the cross, we can have right standing with God, peace with God, eternal life with God through this wonderful gift of grace given in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Why would we not want to talk about that story at Christmastime? Why wouldn't instead would we delve into these silly, stupid myths like Santa Claus or get to Easter time and start talking about the Easter bunny?
Okay, stay away from that stuff. We've got a wonderful story in Christ. So let's share that story instead. Fill your kids up with those good things and you will not set them up for future failure. You will not place an unnecessary burden on other parents and their kids to participate.
And mom and dad, I'll tell you this also, the gospel is a bigger deal than you think it is. I'm only beginning to understand the gospel of Jesus Christ and the more I learn about his word, the bigger and better it gets all the time.
So let us be devoted to these things and fill ourselves and our children up with all good things in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen. We read in 2 Peter chapter 1 that God's divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.
We need nothing else but Christ. God has given us all good things that we need in Christ Jesus. You don't need myths like Santa Claus or Elf on the Shelf. By the way, that applies to this as well. Don't stay away from that one too.
Elf on the Shelf. Don't play that one with your kids either. Let's focus on Christ through whom we have been granted very great and precious promises. Our great God, we thank you so much for exploring issues like these that bring us even deeper into the gospel and the reality of Jesus Christ and what he did for us.
Do we celebrate this enough? Do we really hold in such high regard this sacrifice on the cross, the most important event in human history that saved mankind from the death that we deserve because of our sin so that all who believe in Christ Jesus might be saved.
Lord, we pray that we would as we explore this truth all the more, we just exalt you more and more. We realize how far short of the glory of God we really have fallen and how great a sacrifice it was for Christ to die for our sins so that we would have right standing with God, eternal life with you.
We are able to pray to you right now because we have a mediator in Christ Jesus who is at the right hand of God interceding for us, for the saints. And so Lord, I pray that you hear our prayer, that you continue to grow us in holiness.
We thank you for the patience that you have shown with, you've shown to us in the past and you continue to show us every day as we grow in this process of sanctification. Teach us more about you that we may worship you all the more.
In the name of Jesus we pray, amen.
Gabriel Hughes is the pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas. Find out more online at www .utt .com.