"Santa Claus is Coming to Town" is, in my opinion, the worst Christmas Carol ever written.
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
He’s
checking it twice
He’s
gonna find out
Who’s
naughty or nice
Santa
Claus is coming to town
I
am not having a go at parents who tell their kids about Santa for their own
reasons. My parents told me about Santa and Saint Nicholas – the fairy tales
and the true story. My issue is with likening Santa to God.
Let’s
take a closer look at the words of the above Christmas carol:
“You
better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout …”
These
words imply: Santa is watching your behaviour and he has expectations. It also
implies trouble if you fail his expectations. Sounds a lot like the ten
commandments right? “Thou shalt not … or else …”
“He’s
making a list, he’s checking it twice, he’s gonna find out who’s naughty or
nice …”
This
drills the point home. Santa’s got a list of good and bad children. The list
gets checked, because there is a limited amount of time to change your
behaviour, because by Christmas Eve, there are no more second, (third, fourth
etc.) chances.
Some
might relate this to God by referring to judgement day and the “Book of life.”
If your name is not in the book of life by the end of your life, it will be too
late on judgement day – right?
Santa
sounds just like God doesn’t he? Watching over our behaviour with expectations
and a limited time to repent…
But
that’s not the God I know at all. The God I know, revealed in Jesus Christ,
died to “take away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). Every person on the
planet is forgiven of all past, present and future sin. There is no checking a
list of our sins to find out who is good and who is bad – this is a sickening
misconception!
People
will quote verses about judgement day and how God will “judge our works.”
Indeed he shall. He will judge the one singular work of putting your faith in
Jesus Christ. That is all. Nothing else can come under judgement because all
has been forgiven. How do we know this? John, who wrote the book of Revelation
where there is the most talk about our works being judged, also wrote the book
of John which spells out the definition of “work” in John 6:29 The work of God is this: to believe in the
one he has sent. But then, you ask: why use the plural “works” rather than
“work.” The answer is simple. There are multiple people therefore there are
multiple works. If the sentence were about one person it would say that I am
judged by my work [singular] because there is only one “work.”
We
are saved by grace through faith, Ephesians 2:6-8. Think about this for a
minute. There is nothing that I can do – absolutely nothing at all that can
save me except Jesus Christ himself. He is grace. He is saviour. He is love. He
is pure. I can’t save me, only Jesus can save me. If God were to judge me based
on my good or bad deeds I would only ever come up as having failed to redeem
myself, to be pure and blameless. I need Jesus to save me as only he can. Yet
if I refuse to believe in his capacity to save me and I try to save myself,
then I am relying on good deeds or works and not relying on grace: I am without
true faith. My faith needs to be utterly in the fact that God is powerful
enough in and of himself to save me and that nothing I do or don’t do can
change that. This is my only work: to believe.
So
why then did God give the law? Romans 5:20 The
law was added so that the trespass might increase but where sin increased, grace increased all the more. Sin
brings its own punishment. We punish ourselves. We punish each other. God was
never about punishment though. He is all about forgiveness, mercy and grace. The
law frustrates us into realising we need a saviour. While it is a great moral
code to attempt to live by, we are fooling ourselves if we think we will ever fulfil
the law in this lifetime on earth.
Despite
how the Old Testament is written as though God punishes people, we have to
remember that the Israelites had no concept of Satan and his demons until the
late Old Testament, so not everything that is attributed to God came from God
(see Job chapter 1 where Satan clearly does the things that were blamed on God)
in the early OT writings.
Finally,
this idea that there is a limited amount of time to come to faith in Jesus,
just as Santa has to know who’s naughty and nice before Christmas Eve, is a
Catholic belief that came into existence 500 years or more after Christ’s death
and filtered down into most Western churches. I do not hold to this belief. If
you would like to know why and what I believe about how far removed Jesus is
from Santa; ask and I will share.
In
my opinion the legalism of Santa is more akin to the legalism of Satan. I have
done some research into Satanism for my Covenant-999 series of three novels
(www.covenant-999.com). My understanding now, is that Satan has tricked a lot
of people into thinking that God is a legalistic, judgemental, perfectionistic,
controlling personality, when in fact, this is who Satan is. He wants obedient followers and he is called the "accuser of the brethren" because he is the one who judges our works! He is very good
at pulling the wool over people’s eyes, including mine. I daresay that Satan
loves whispering to people at Christmas time that Santa is a picture of who God
is.
So
try to avoid projecting Santa onto God this Christmas. If you’ve ever seen the
movie “Fred Claus” the moral of the story is that Santa should love all
children equally. Remember, this Christmas, that God, who is far greater than
Santa, actually does love everyone equally!
You
better watch out
You
better not cry
You
better not pout
I’m
telling you why
Satan Claws
is coming to town
He’s
making a list
He’s
checking it twice
He’s
gonna find out
Who’s
naughty or nice
Satan Claws
is coming to town
