Dale Partridge - Real Christianity #123： Should Christian Families Include Santa Clause？

00:00:00.000 Welcome to this episode of Real Christianity, my name is Dale Partridge, where each week

00:00:13.080 I offer 15-20 minute answers to tough theological and pastoral questions.

00:00:18.760 This is a 100% listener-supported audio ministry of relearn.org, and for those who don't know,

00:00:25.960 Our mission at relearn.org is to educate and equip ordinary Christians

00:00:30.080 to plant biblical, confessional, and missional house churches.

00:00:34.460 For more information, just visit relearn.org forward slash house.

00:00:41.160 Okay, as we enter the Advent season and celebrate the birth of Christ,

00:00:46.840 every year we are asked by Christian families

00:00:50.180 if they should include Santa Claus in their Christmas season. 0.97

00:00:55.420 In other words, is there anything inherently sinful, or at least spiritually risky, by involving Santa Claus in your celebration?

00:01:04.840 Guys, we have a powerful show today, so stay tuned for this.

00:01:10.300 But before we begin, I just have to make one announcement, and you guys know what it is.

00:01:14.680 It's that time of year. Since 2017, guys, our ministry has been sustained by your generous donations.

00:01:22.700 and we are coming to the close of 2020 really quick here.

00:01:27.040 And we've met every financial need we've had this year,

00:01:30.560 but we're still falling short

00:01:32.620 for our immediate needs in 2021.

00:01:36.320 And our goal is to raise,

00:01:37.860 as you guys heard probably last week,

00:01:39.980 $20,000 in the month of December.

00:01:43.080 It's now December 9th when you're listening to this.

00:01:45.940 And I'm recording this the day before

00:01:48.480 and we've raised $8,200.

00:01:50.240 dollars. And so we're still in need of $11,800 by the end of the year. And essentially what I'm

00:01:58.340 saying is that we need your support. So if you're a regular listener to this show, would you just

00:02:03.840 prayerfully consider making either a one-time donation or a monthly donation to our ministry?

00:02:10.320 And you can do that at relearn.org forward slash donate. Again, these are tax-deductible donations.

00:02:17.460 We promise to be wise stewards of your gifts as we serve the church.

00:02:20.920 Again, you can make that donation at relearn.org forward slash donate.

00:02:25.860 Okay, question comes in from Julianne from Jackson, Tennessee, and she asks,

00:02:31.240 Pastor Dale, I was raised in a Christian home, and we did Santa Claus every Christmas.

00:02:37.280 I now have three little children, six and under, and my husband and I have a check in our spirit

00:02:44.340 about including Santa Claus and reindeer and elves in our Christmas season.

00:02:49.920 Are we overthinking this, or is this a conviction that we can back up with Scripture?

00:02:56.320 Okay, thanks, Julianne.

00:02:57.740 This is a really great question, and I believe it will help not just you,

00:03:03.700 but probably thousands of other Christian families having similar convictions.

00:03:09.020 And I think that you've realized an important truth.

00:03:13.000 Tradition is a teacher, and repetition helps with reminding.

00:03:17.840 In other words, what we do repeatedly as a family will ingrain something into our children.

00:03:23.400 And the question that we need to ask ourselves is,

00:03:25.960 do our family traditions complement or compete with God's truth?

00:03:31.500 Now, more specifically, do your Christmas traditions complement or compete with God's truth?

00:03:39.280 You guys know that this is a season, it's a wonderful opportunity to teach your children about the gospel.

00:03:45.620 That's the best part about the Advent season.

00:03:48.000 And it's a time to explain to all people why we needed Jesus to come,

00:03:54.400 why he actually came, and what his life, death, and resurrection means for those who believe.

00:04:00.300 We have an opportunity to explain to people, including our children,

00:04:03.800 why we sing songs like Joy to the World, or O Come, O Come, Emmanuel, or Go Tell It on the Mountain.

00:04:09.880 I love that song.

00:04:11.680 And so before we begin, I just want to preface with that.

00:04:15.880 But let's briefly talk about the difference between Christmas and Advent first,

00:04:21.120 and then we'll discuss the Santa Claus issue.

00:04:23.980 So just giving you some background information.

00:04:25.760 So how do we get Christmas?

00:04:27.540 In the year 2021, Julius Africanus identified December 25th as the birth of Jesus.

00:04:35.300 And within a century or two, it was, you know, widely accepted by the church.

00:04:40.100 And as many of you know, winter solstice, which is December 21st for us, it's the darkest

00:04:46.720 day of the year.

00:04:47.960 And, you know, it's within a few days of Christmas.

00:04:51.360 And it's thought that Christmas may have been placed at this date to highlight Jesus as the light of the world entering into the darkest time of the year, right?

00:05:01.900 So that's kind of, again, we don't know for sure, but that's the thought.

00:05:06.560 Now, is it really the date of Jesus' birth? Is December 25th really the date of Jesus' birth?

00:05:12.000 Most modern scholars don't think so, but that's not the point.

00:05:16.180 The point of Christmas was memorialization.

00:05:20.320 For example, my wife and I were married on February 14th.

00:05:24.920 That's Valentine's Day.

00:05:26.260 We never celebrate our anniversary on Valentine's Day.

00:05:30.120 But when we do celebrate, we don't care what day it is.

00:05:33.300 We care about memorializing our marriage.

00:05:36.260 In other words, we don't celebrate the when.

00:05:38.820 We celebrate the what and the why.

00:05:42.300 So it's not necessarily about the date, in my opinion.

00:05:45.080 It's about the memorialization of what happened.

00:05:47.900 Now, the way that the church has celebrated Christmas historically is not how we celebrate Christmas in our modern Western culture.

00:05:59.780 Historically, Christians participated in what's called Advent, and the Latin word Adventus was the translation of the Greek word parousia.

00:06:09.920 And that word was, I should say, that's the word that we use in Scripture to explain the coming of Christ as a baby and the coming of Christ as a reigning king in his second return.

00:06:24.800 So this is important because historically, Advent is not just about the baby in the manger.

00:06:30.680 It's also about the final return and reign of Christ over his kingdom.

00:06:36.420 So meaning that, you know, when we participate in Advent, we shouldn't simply act as people

00:06:42.480 who look back to the first coming, but also as people who look forward to the second coming.

00:06:49.040 Now, there are lots of Advent books that you can get that go, some of them go 25 days,

00:06:55.200 some of them go 30 days over the Advent season for the birth of Christ.

00:07:00.400 And you read a certain, you know, passage or a certain, you know, devotional for the

00:07:04.780 day and talk about it with your kids. So there's lots of things there you guys can do. We shared

00:07:08.880 about it on our Instagram account, a whole list of really great Advent devotionals that you can

00:07:14.280 do during this time of year, some by John Piper, there's one by Paul Tripp, and a handful of others.

00:07:20.600 Now, is celebrating Jesus's birth or the Advent a biblical thing? No, meaning that it's not in

00:07:30.180 the Bible. But is it an extra biblical thing? Yes. But so is, you know, Resurrection Sunday or Easter

00:07:38.460 and Good Friday and Reformation Day, right? Is celebrating these days sinful? No. If your 0.60

00:07:45.940 celebration, you know, is genuine memorialization and not idolatry, then these holidays could be

00:07:53.720 great compliments to your annual family traditions. And they can teach your family and they have

00:07:59.860 great opportunity for tradition and repetitiveness in your home to teach your children about core

00:08:05.540 truths of the Christian faith. So they're very helpful if they're done right. They can be very

00:08:09.780 hurtful if they're done wrong. So that's my preface into the Santa Claus conversation.

00:08:16.460 Hopefully that was helpful. But now let's hit the Santa Claus issue because this is the root

00:08:21.180 of your question. Okay, so should Christian families include Santa Claus in their Christmas

00:08:27.400 or Advent celebration? Well, I don't think so, and here's why. God commands his people 1.00

00:08:36.820 not to lie, specifically to not bear false witness. That's the eighth commandment.

00:08:42.940 Ephesians 4.25 also says, therefore, laying aside falsehood, speak truth, each one of you

00:08:50.260 with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. So at a very base level, I believe

00:08:56.720 teaching your children that Santa Claus is a real person who brings gifts to your home

00:09:02.720 at night, you know, buy a sleigh and a reindeer, all that stuff. I believe that is the very

00:09:10.040 definition of lying to your children. On top of that, Santa Claus becomes a major distraction

00:09:18.420 from the true reason for Christmas. In fact, I believe Santa is the culture's replacement figure

00:09:25.220 or counterfeit for Christ during this season.

00:09:29.620 Secular culture has, I would say, even decorated Santa with Christ-like characteristics. 0.71

00:09:36.140 Think of the song, he sees you when you're sleeping, he knows when you're awake,

00:09:39.860 he knows if you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake, right?

00:09:43.180 In other words, it's implying that he's omniscient and that he's the judge of morality.

00:09:49.000 Santa is told that he's all over the world and in 24 hours, you know, he can be these places,

00:09:54.400 is implying that he's, again, somehow omnipresent.

00:09:57.860 Santa is implied that he's ageless in some capacity.

00:10:02.000 He's been around for generations,

00:10:03.420 implying some sort of eternality, right?

00:10:06.840 Santa is implied to live in the hearts of children

00:10:10.840 and that his realness depends on their faith in him.

00:10:17.360 In fact, I actually looked up a quote from Tim Allen

00:10:19.380 in the movie Santa Claus.

00:10:20.620 He tells children in the movie,

00:10:22.780 Seeing isn't believing.

00:10:24.460 Believing is seeing, right?

00:10:26.320 So there's absolutely a connection with having faith in or believe in.

00:10:30.900 The definition of Kris Kringle, which is actually the word,

00:10:34.980 these two words that we get from the German word, Kris Kindle,

00:10:37.880 which implies Christkind.

00:10:41.960 That's what it means, Christkind.

00:10:43.020 In other words, Kris Kringle is a Christ-like being.

00:10:46.300 There's an actual connection that you could Google that.

00:10:49.420 I found that information on Wikipedia.

00:10:51.100 I mean, it's like right there on several different articles.

00:10:53.840 So there absolutely is some sort of connection here.

00:10:57.900 This actually goes a bit further as well.

00:11:01.100 Now, I'm not one to look too deep beyond what's evidently clear,

00:11:05.860 but I'm also not too naive to believe that Satan isn't involved in the perversion of the memorialization of Christ's birth.

00:11:13.480 And I say that because there are some other interesting parallels between Santa and Christ.

00:11:18.500 Now again, these might be spiritually intentional, or they may be just overanalyzed. We're not going

00:11:24.640 to ever know, but they're interesting to say the least. But there are several songs that point

00:11:30.980 to Santa's head and hair being white as snow. In Revelation 1.14, it describes Jesus saying,

00:11:39.180 his head and his hair were white like wool, like snow, and his eyes were like a flame of fire.

00:11:45.780 We know that Santa's clothes are red, right?

00:11:49.440 For some reason, they're red.

00:11:51.120 In Revelation 19.13, it tells us that Jesus' clothes are,

00:11:54.980 he's clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God, right?

00:12:01.840 Santa is stationed in the North Pole, right?

00:12:07.080 Again, this kind of creates this heavenly kind of realm up top on the earth feel.

00:12:12.680 Psalm 48, 2 even says, beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion in the far north, the city of the great king.

00:12:23.300 So again, there's something interesting there.

00:12:25.320 There's actually a handful more of these kind of weird, paralytic realities between Christ and Santa.

00:12:34.300 And so, in many ways, Santa replaces the divine focus or the divine character of Advent with a secular counterfeit.

00:12:46.480 The gift of salvation is replaced with the entitlement of materialism.

00:12:50.720 The belief in Christ is replaced in belief in Santa Claus.

00:12:54.160 Our call to personal holiness as a response to God's saving work in our life is replaced with behavior modification to earn the favor of some gift-giving demigod.

00:13:05.760 Okay, ultimately, what this comes down to, parents that are listening here, we need to be very careful not to allow our children's eyes to be diverted from Christ towards something that's less significant, which is Santa Claus.

00:13:22.760 Okay, that's just, we have to be careful here.

00:13:25.740 We have to realize that these things make a major difference in the development of our children's thinking, trust, spirituality.

00:13:34.280 But most importantly, I want to ask you a question.

00:13:37.220 Actually, I should say I want you to ask yourself this question.

00:13:40.820 If I spend 10 years telling my children that Santa, this man that you can't see, who you must believe in and must behave for, is a real person, and then as they get older, they find out that you were deceiving them,

00:14:00.100 Do you expect them to not apply that experience of false witness with your claims that you've made about Jesus, the other man they can't see, who they must believe in, and who they must behave for?

00:14:15.260 Okay, John MacArthur actually once said in a sermon delivered in 1990 on this idea of Santa Claus as a counterfeit, it's called the Christmas Intruder, he said,

00:14:28.640 is it any wonder that if I believe all that, meaning he believes all that he was talking about

00:14:36.540 Santa Claus, the identification and the story of Santa Claus, is it any wonder that if I believe

00:14:42.740 all that as a child, when I come to being an adult, I might have a hard time believing in

00:14:48.480 the transcendent God who does know everything, who is everywhere, who does have all power,

00:14:53.700 who does keep his promises and his threats and who does not save me and give me good gifts on

00:14:59.920 the basis of my works, but on the basis of his grace. If Santa has been my understanding of a

00:15:06.140 spiritual God, then I'm in trouble. That's why I say hidden in the letters of Santa is Satan.

00:15:12.700 So that's a quote from John MacArthur. So he shares obviously the same very skeptical and

00:15:18.600 cautious spirit around the idea of Santa Claus. There is a clear counterfeit alternative that the

00:15:26.380 culture has created that is spiritually involved in terms of the portrayal of another deity

00:15:33.780 that we call children to believe in. So my answer to this question, Julianne, is don't be fooled.

00:15:40.900 And I think your conviction is absolutely right.

00:15:44.800 Santa Claus, while it may seem fun and harmless, I believe is actually quite dangerous.

00:15:53.020 It requires you first to lie and to break down the trust between you and your children.

00:15:59.840 Secondly, it causes your child to place sacred belief and faith and trust into a false godlike character.

00:16:11.840 And then third, it really distracts our children from the true reason for the season, which is Christ.

00:16:19.300 So, you know, yes, I understand the sentimental side, but I don't care how sentimental Santa Claus is for you.

00:16:26.520 I really believe he has nothing to do with the coming, the first coming and the second coming of Christ. 1.00

00:16:34.060 And he should be removed from Christian families in their, I should say, Christian family traditions. 1.00

00:16:40.980 So hopefully that was a helpful answer for you, Julianne. 0.93

00:16:45.140 And as always, I'm going to leave you guys with two resources that'll help you further understanding, further your understanding on this topic.

00:16:54.840 And you can find them on the post page of this episode at relearn.org.

00:17:00.660 And this episode is titled, Should Christian Families Do Santa Claus?

00:17:06.260 And there are two articles, and they're actually both by John MacArthur, and it's pretty fascinating.

00:17:11.040 He did a sermon early in 1990 about Santa Claus,

00:17:17.300 and then he did another one that he's titled, which is kind of similar, called The Christmas Intruder.

00:17:22.580 but you can read the transcripts of these

00:17:24.800 and I have them linked on the post page

00:17:28.180 and hopefully that'll be helpful

00:17:29.240 just to have another perspective.

00:17:30.980 He goes into a much deeper discussion about this

00:17:34.060 and also a different side of the Sandalclaw's discussion.

00:17:38.800 So as for you who are a regular listener to the show,

00:17:42.780 thank you.

00:17:43.920 Your reviews have been incredibly encouraging.

00:17:46.720 If you have not left a review

00:17:48.160 but you've listened to several of these episodes,

00:17:49.980 would you just go to the podcast app

00:17:52.160 and just tap the stars.

00:17:53.740 You don't even need to write anything.

00:17:54.920 But if you do write something,

00:17:56.060 I will absolutely read it.

00:17:58.440 And I've been encouraged by so many of you

00:18:00.920 leaving these reviews.

00:18:01.840 But these reviews,

00:18:02.500 they really do help the exposure of the show.

00:18:05.020 And many people find this podcast

00:18:07.320 because it has so many reviews.

00:18:11.180 So thank you for doing that.

00:18:12.820 Also, if you guys don't already,

00:18:14.000 consider following relearn.org on Instagram.

00:18:18.060 We're posting there on a regular basis.

00:18:20.600 Lots of different resources.

00:18:22.160 lots of different Instagram stories, links to different tools and things that can help you

00:18:26.940 study scripture. And you can also follow me on Twitter at Dale Partridge. I'm trying to put out

00:18:33.020 content on a regular basis there as well. All right, hopefully this episode was helpful and

00:18:38.440 edifying for your walk with the Lord. My name is Dale Partridge, and I will see you next week.

00:18:45.920 Thank you for listening to this episode of Real Christianity. If you're a regular listener to

00:18:50.660 this show, would you prayerfully consider making a donation to support our ministry efforts?

00:18:55.000 Simply visit relearn.org forward slash donate. Again, that's relearn.org forward slash donate.

00:19:01.920 And for those looking to explore the idea of joining or planting a church in your home,

00:19:05.540 you can download our free PDF ebook titled The Basics of Biblical House Church by visiting

00:19:10.680 relearn.org forward slash house. Lastly, do you have a theological question you would like

00:19:15.900 answered on the show, submit your question at relearn.org forward slash question. Thanks for

00:19:21.440 joining us on this episode of Real Christianity. We will see you next Wednesday.

Dale Partridge - December 09, 2020

Real Christianity #123： Should Christian Families Include Santa Clause？

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript