Modern 'Santa Claus' Attacks Christ of Christmas; Attacks God's Plan for Children!

Am I really the only person troubled by what Christmas has become, in practice, for what seems to be most people in our commercialized, industrialized culture, in the USA. Through all the advertising, secular displays, "I want" conversations, children with hyper-sensitive expectations of 'santa claus', and all the fantasy list making, I hear relatively few souls publicly or privately practicing or exercising biblical reasoning for this celebration. In practice, our culture seems to think that Jesus Christ is just another name tacked onto a religious holiday. Do people really think that they have the ability to assign the fantasy 'santa claus' many of the powers of God and Jesus Christ, teach their children all that, and somehow it will be OK with God to elevate 'santa claus' ideas and excitement over the importance of Christ? Over the last 30 years, I've seen that tendency and attitude even among some self-proclaimed Bible-believing churches and their members, when they divide their Christmas loyalties between Christ and "santa claus", paying lip service to Jesus at church while doing a full-blown 'santa' & reindeer decoration and deception, as some attempt to fool their children into thinking that some god-like mystical being is secretly looking and listening to the child's every move and wish, or because they are afraid of social ostracism if they reject the 'santa claus' myth to stand wholly in support of Jesus Christ.

Eons ago, there was a godly man named Nickolas, whom the Bible says was the first bishop (pastor) at the first Christian church in Antioch. There is even historical mention of great generosity by him, or by another man with the same name. But, is that any reason to steer children into the predominantly 'santa claus' honoring fantasy world that Christmas has become in these last few hundred years? I am not saying these things to be a humbug, but, in the name of Jesus Christ, to declare and expose blasphemy and idolatry. God has never encouraged nor approved duality of worship. The practice of writing fantasy letters to 'santa claus', and waiting on 'santa claus' to answer those letters or give gifts, is the spiritual equivalent of prayer to God in Christ, and in this practice, far too many souls have thrown off God and His Son, in favor of the god of this world, having embraced Satan's clever seductive 'santa claus' antics, which include removing the Christian message from public, yet displaying all sorts of 'santa claus' stuff. Subscribing to modernistic 'santa claus' lore is in direct opposition to the meaning of santa/saint/holy. Saint/santa/holy all mean to be set apart from sin for service unto the Living God of Creation. Christmas (the birth of Jesus, the Christ of God) is NOT about 'getting' or self, but rather about a part of God giving up eternally vast status and power in order to take on the human body as His own dwelling, and then growing up among us, in the end to suffer for our sins, die, and resurrect Himself for our propitiation and justification. And as God has done, there is no greater sacrifice that one can make than on behalf of helping those who cannot ever repay the gift. To favor 'santa claus' and fantasy over the Person and Work of Jesus Christ is to despise Jesus, God's Gift to us.

God, THE Greatest Being, the Eternal One, the Self-existent One, gave Himself as Jesus Christ (Emmanuel), as the Greatest Gift to humanity, that we might be eternally redeemed, …IF we will simply decide to accept God’s Gift by faith. By HIS action of self-sacrificing love, God, in Christ alone, has shown us how to plan ahead and lay down our lives for one another, and to give good gifts that do not inflame nor fulfill one-another’s human passions, sins, or lusts. All too often people act as if Christmas is about money, buying, selling, and ‘getting things’, when the ONLY thing that we must ‘get’, that will count for all eternity, is to receive the gift of salvation that God offers us in Jesus Christ. THIS is the reality that God wants us to face, accept, and to receive, not the stuff that the world offers.

So, God has offered you and me an eternal Gift, in Christ Jesus. What greater gift could you or I give to God than to accept the Gift that He has already offered to us since before we were born? You and I did NOT earn it. You and I cannot buy it. You and I do NOT deserve it. But, God still offers it to us. If you haven't already done so, why not repent of your sin, accept God's Gift, and invite His Christ, Jesus, into your life as your Savior, today? Salvation depends on your attitude, and mine, whether we are willing to humbly admit to God that we cannot save ourselves. As Scripture says, we can only be saved from our sin by exercising “repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ”, but once secured (it must be completed in this life) God assures us that no one can take us out of His hands or out of Jesus’ hands. THAT is eternal security!! Bless God!!!!!!!

Be assured, God has NO pleasure in false gods, such as the ‘santa claus’ with which many generations of children have been indoctrinated, and by which their precious and simple youthful faith in God is stolen away from them, often poisoning them to the salvation that Christ Jesus offers. By the lie of the mystical, magical ‘santa claus’, whisking around the globe with flying reindeer, fantastically delivering presents to children everywhere in one night, the false god, the ‘santa claus’ lie, deceives children and points them to believe in worldly, lustful ‘getting’, acquisitive living, rather than believing in Jesus, godly prayer, trusting and waiting on God, or a life of self-sacrifice to benefit their fellow citizens. No, this doesn't mean that everyone falls prey to the 'samta claus' lies, for there are some children who rise above that and learn to embrace the risen Christ of the Bible. I thank God for those humble ones who put aside the worldly deceptions and eventually believe on and accept Christ as their only hope of eternal salvation.

Any soul who claims to know, or to want to know, God, must, by God’s definition and law, accept and receive the only salvation that God offers to humanity, which is solely through Jesus Christ (as God in the flesh). The eternal Gift of Jesus Christ is not only God’s greatest Gift, but He is the ONLY reason for Christmas. We all would do well to accept God’s Gift, to ask for & receive by faith His Salvation while it is still today.

Once in Christ by faith, then we would also do well to lay down our lives for one another, even as Jesus has done to save our souls. Our faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the Cross, when sealed by His Spirit, unto God’s redemption, are the only things that can evoke the fulfillment of God’s promises to us and guarantee our entrance into eternal life in Christ (to which God calls all human beings). 

It is up to us whether we will choose to receive His free Gift on His terms; whether we will try to make religious excuses or claim religious self-justification; whether we try to avoid repentance so that we can continue playing with worldly things or living in sin. However, IF you know, biblically, that you are now in Christ, then let Him live through you, and live as He says, in service to God, in Christ, and to each of our brethren who are also in Christ Jesus, “the Author and Finisher of our faith.”

Romans 15:1-14:

“We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.
²   Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification.
³  For even Christ pleased not himself; but, as it is written, The reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me.
⁴  For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.    
⁵  Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus:
⁶  That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
⁷  Wherefore receive ye one another, as Christ also received us to the glory of God.
⁸  Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers:
⁹  And that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy; as it is written, For this cause I will confess to thee among the Gentiles, and sing unto thy name.
¹⁰  And again he saith, Rejoice, ye Gentiles, with his people.
¹¹  And again, Praise the Lord, all ye Gentiles; and laud him, all ye people.
¹²  And again, Esaias saith, There shall be a root of Jesse, and he that shall rise to reign over the Gentiles; in him shall the Gentiles trust.    
¹³  Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.    
¹⁴  And I myself also am persuaded of you, my brethren, that ye also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another.