For example, let's take this very popular Christmas Carol:
Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
Oh! 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!
He sees you when you're sleeping,
He knows when you're awake.
He knows when you've been bad or good,
So be good for goodness sake!
So...You better watch out,
You better not cry
You better not pout,
I'm telling you why.
Santa Claus is coming to town.
The popular perception of Santa Claus in our day is that he is:
- an old man with a gray beard
- A man who is happy all the time
- He is omnipotent because he can see everyone when they are sleeping and when they are awake
- He is omnipresent because he can get all the toys to everyone all over the world in one night.
- He is omniscience because he knows if you have been bad or good and he records all of these things in his book.
- A man who comes to hand out justice by giving good kids good things and bad kids bad things.
- Even though he is a man of justice, he is merciful in that he always seems to give the bad kids good things as well.
Do we have a belief that God is an old man with a gray beard who gives empty threats? Just like Santa promises to give lumps of coal to the bad boys and girls, but always seems to change his mind and give them good gifts; do we believe that God, while promising judgment for sin, will ultimately change His mind and let us all into heaven?
Take a look at what the Bible says about God and you tell me if this resembles Santa Claus in anyway:
Job 40:6-14
6 Then the LORD spoke to Job out of the storm:
7 "Brace yourself like a man;
I will question you,
and you shall answer me.
8 "Would you discredit my justice?
Would you condemn me to justify yourself?
9 Do you have an arm like God's,
and can your voice thunder like his?
10 Then adorn yourself with glory and splendor,
and clothe yourself in honor and majesty.
11 Unleash the fury of your wrath,
look at every proud man and bring him low,
12 look at every proud man and humble him,
crush the wicked where they stand.
13 Bury them all in the dust together;
shroud their faces in the grave.
14 Then I myself will admit to you
that your own right hand can save you.
Job 41:11 Who has a claim against me that I must pay?
Everything under heaven belongs to me.
As Ray Comfort always says, if you are counting on the 'goodness' of God to cause him to overlook your sins, you are right about one thing. God is good, but it is because He is good judge that He must see to it that justice is carried out. No one would call a judge 'good' (except maybe the criminal) who lets a professed murderer go free without punishment.
So you might be asking yourself, "Jeremy, it is a silly Christmas song, why do you have to ruin it?" Simply because my fear of God prompts me to remind myself and others that we must think and believe correctly about God. 2 Corinthians 5:11 says, "Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others." That word FEAR is not used to remind us to respect God, we should respect Him, but that word FEAR denotes fear, dread, and terror because of what the preceding verse (2 Corinthians 5:10) says, "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil." For those whose life proves that they believe Jesus is the Lord, this judgment will be good. For those whose life proves that they do not believe Jesus is the Lord, this judgment will be bad. For example, Hebrews 10:31 says, "It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." Brothers and Sisters, these are no empty threats. I implore you through the Spirit of Christ to seek forgiveness of sins now!
As C.S. Lewis says concerning Aslan the lion (allegory of Christ) in the Chronicles of Narnia, "He is no tame lion." Well I say to you that he is no Santa Claus.
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