Ep 1277 ｜ Why We Don’t Do Santa & Why Jesus Wasn't a Refugee
Episode Stats
Length
1 hour and 1 minute
Words per Minute
169.93246
Summary
Here s why we don t do Santa Claus in our home. Also, Jesus was not a refugee. We re getting into all of this on today s theology episode of Relatable. It s brought to you by GoodRanchers.
Transcript
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Here's why we don't do Santa Claus in our home.
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We are getting into all of this on today's Theology episode of Relatable.
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It's brought to you by our friends at Good Ranchers.
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Hope everyone is having a wonderful week so far.
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One of you messaged me or you commented somewhere and you said,
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I think that I would have forgotten if someone had not brought it up.
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I wish that I had remembered earlier because I like to max out the Christmas tree behind me as much as possible.
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And it makes me think I need to paint these walls.
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Because ever since I got my colors done and I realized that black actually washes me out because I'm in autumn,
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I've realized my set is all the wrong color scheme.
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So one day, maybe next year, you'll show up here and you'll see that we have painted these walls relatable green.
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And I know that I'm going to get comments about the reindeer.
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There's going to be a random troll out there that says,
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I got a comment just the other day from someone saying,
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Stop with this new y'all thing that you're saying.
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And I was aghast because I am a born and raised Texas.
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I don't even know how to say anything besides y'all.
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So I know that I'm going to get some comment on the reindeer.
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Let's get into this Christmas-themed episode today.
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I get asked every year without fail from a new follower, listener, viewer,
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And I first want to say before I give my explanation that this is a Christian liberty issue.
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So we have freedom as Christians to disagree on this.
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So you can, of course, post your commentary, post your opinion about this,
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and you can disagree with me, and that's completely fine.
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We both love God's Word, and we're trying to do the very best we can to disciple our children.
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I don't have any condemnation for you if you are pro-Santa family.
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And I hope that you will be respectful in your comments to me if you differ from my perspective
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And I imagine that many of you will, because I grew up as a pro-Santa person.
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I was raised believing in Santa, believing in the Easter bunny, believing in the tooth fairy.
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I don't think my parents pushed these things very hard, but it is fun to imagine.
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And I do believe that imagination is a really important part of childhood.
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That's why I think reading fiction to your children, like the Chronicles of Narnia,
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even though those things aren't real, stretching your imagination as a child is really important.
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And I've always loved having an imagination and loved being creative in that way.
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So I don't think it took very much for me to believe in Santa Claus.
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But I was the youngest, and my brothers are 10 and 7 1⁄2 years older than me.
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And so when you have older siblings, who obviously realize that Santa Claus is not real long before
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I did as the youngest child, you kind of grow up more quickly.
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And I remember I was 6 years old, and I had just lost a tooth.
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And I looked out the window, and I said something to my 16-year-old brother about the tooth fairy
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coming, and he kind of made a noise or rolled his eyes or something like that.
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And I noticed that reaction, and I was like, wait a second.
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And I don't remember if I asked him if tooth fairies aren't real.
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I don't remember exactly what he said, but his reaction really made me start thinking.
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Why did he act like it was silly for me to believe that the tooth fairy is going to come
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tonight and take my tooth and give me money in exchange?
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Then, of course, I started thinking about everything else, like the Easter bunny and Santa Claus.
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And I decided, this was in the summer, I decided the next day I was going to confront my mom
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And I still remember we were in the backyard, and I asked her if the tooth fairy is real.
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And she just paused, and she told me, no, it's not.
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And then, shock of all shocks, my deductive reasoning really was kicking in.
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And this was devastating to me when I asked her, hang on, does that mean that Santa Claus
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And she told me the truth, that Santa Claus is not real.
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I don't think this is the experience of all kids, and I'm not saying it's going to be.
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I'm not saying you're irreparably traumatizing your child by telling them that Santa is real.
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And I think also the fact that I was so young and my belief that I really wanted to hold
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on to was like disrupted while I was still in kindergarten was a little bit jarring for
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But I remember declaring from a young age that I was not going to tell my children that
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And again, this is not me trying to make the point that you are going to make your child
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I have a wonderful relationship with my parents.
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I never had a hard time believing and knowing that Jesus is real, even though they told me
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I didn't have all of that stuff that some people warn may happen to your kids if you lied
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I just felt hurt in the moment and I just knew that I didn't want to tell my kids that
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And so that really leads me to my first reason of why we personally do not do Santa Claus because
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It is a form of deceit, I believe, and it can cause confusion in kids.
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We want them to believe what we have to say, especially about important spiritual and mysterious
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And it can cause this kind of dissonance or confusion in a child when we tell them that
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someone is real, is giving them gifts, is watching them when they're sleeping or when
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they're awake, is taking a tally of the good deeds they do, the bad deeds they do, putting
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it on a list and then allocating gifts in accordance to their behavior.
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And then to tell them one day that that system of morality around Christmastime doesn't exist,
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I do believe that that causes, even if just for a moment, mistrust between the parent and
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child and, again, maybe temporarily, confusion about what is actually true that our parents
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teach us, but what is actually true about the mysterious and supernatural realm.
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Who does know when we're awake and when we're lying down?
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And of course, we as Christians know the answer to that.
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So we'll get into the theological side of this in just a second.
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Okay, so let me give you some perspective from some professionals on this.
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And again, you can take it with a grain of salt.
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You can agree with some of it, disagree with other parts of it.
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But I do want to bring us to a place of theological thoughtfulness in all of the things that we
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Not just about Santa Claus, but the media we allow them to watch, the books that we allow
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them to read the messages that we convey to them, especially in these formative and extremely
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There's a psychologist by the name of Kathy McKay, and she is a co-author of a 2016 study
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The Santa myth is such an involved lie, such a long-lasting one between parents and children,
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that if a relationship is vulnerable, this may be the final straw.
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If parents can lie so convincingly and over such a long time, what else can they lie about?
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So I just want to highlight the caveat there that if a relationship is already vulnerable,
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so this might not describe most of the relationships out there that you have with your children.
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But if this is already home that is fraught with chaos and fraught with different kinds
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of distrust and seasons of betrayal, whatever it is, a divorced family, an unstable family,
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in some way, the realization of this lie can add insult to injury.
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So it has the potential impact of causing mistrust through deceit.
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But even more than that, I believe that it causes theological confusion.
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When you think about Santa Claus, as I've already described, he sees you when you're sleeping.
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And if you're not good, if you don't do the things that you're supposed to do,
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then he will not give you as many gifts or your gifts won't be as nice.
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If you're not as deserving as he deems you to be,
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then maybe you're not going to have as fun of a Christmas as you could have if you follow his list of rules.
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And the reason why I think this causes confusion is because that is a legalistic form of Christ, of God.
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God is the one who really sees us when we're sleeping,
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He is the one who not only sees all of our deeds, but hears all of our words and knows all of our thoughts
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But the incredible thing about Jesus is that he is not allocating gifts based on some tally
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of whether we've done more good deeds or whether we've done more bad deeds,
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So there is a real omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient gift giver that I think can be eclipsed by the confusion
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that a counterfeit form of God in Santa Claus can possibly cultivate.
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and I've just articulated the take I gave to you many times over the years.
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But this is Ligonier, theologian Sinclair Ferguson points out that many people's view of Christ
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actually looks more like Santa than the God of the Bible.
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So this is the other side of the confusion, whereas my argument is that people can make
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Santa Claus look too much like Christ, but adding legalism in,
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he is arguing that some people can make their Christ look too much like Santa Claus.
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So he argues that many people imagine a Santa Christ who is basically a Pelagian Jesus.
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He assumes everyone is naturally good and simply checks if we've been good enough to earn a happy
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life with Jesus as the cherry on top, rather than the savior of helpless sinners.
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Others picture a semi-Pelagian Santa Christ who, like Santa rewarding the nice list,
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gives grace in heaven only to those who have already done their very best on their own,
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turning salvation into a bonus for self-helpers.
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A third common version is a mystical Santa Christ whose value lies in the warm feelings
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and personal spirit of Christmas that he inspires.
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So it doesn't matter if the biblical story is historically true,
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In all of these versions, he says, Jesus functions like Santa Claus,
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a cheerful gift giver who makes good people happier,
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instead of the holy God who invades a fallen world to rescue the spiritually bankrupt.
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The scriptures systematically strip away the veneer that covers the real truth of the Christmas story.
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He did not come to help those who were already helping themselves,
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or to fill life with more pleasant experiences.
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To save sinners and to do so, he had to destroy the works of the devil.
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So what he is arguing, what we're kind of both arguing together, two sides of the same coin,
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is that Jesus and Santa Claus can get confused if we are presenting two entities that look very
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similar or both in a different realm, can both defy the laws of physics, both in some way live out of
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time and have very similar characteristics, but Santa Claus is the one who will give you all of your
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immediate desires and will fulfill all of the temporary pleasure that you long for because he is
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giving you something in the form of a tangible gift right in front of you.
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Like, it's no wonder that we as people, but especially children, have such a hard time
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actually focusing on Christ, the real gift giver, who doesn't give you everything that you want on
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your list, who isn't fulfilling all of your desires one morning, but is giving you a gift that is far
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So I actually think that the whole Santa Claus narrative and the focus on that has the possibility
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of eclipsing the gospel message that is central to Christmas.
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So first reason is that the deceit causes confusion and possible mistrust, and that's not good.
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They should be able to trust us, especially with important things like what exists on the other side.
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And then number two, the big reason is that I believe it distracts us and especially children
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and families and society from Christmas's true meaning.
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And I see people say, well, it's just, you know, there's a mystery to it that makes Christmas really
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magical when you imagine that there's someone at the North Pole who sees you, who has elves,
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And while I do think imagination is really fun, we can imagine things while still telling our
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And the reality is, is that there is already a beautiful mystery of Christmas that no one
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truly understands because we are natural people who were intersected by the supernatural when
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John 1 is the mystery of Christmas, that in the beginning was the Word and the Word was
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God and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us and was light in the darkness and light among
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There really is this incredible place that we read about, but we can only imagine called heaven.
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There really is a good and a bad, and there really is a good gift giver who is responsible for giving
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all of the gifts that we have, both tangible and spiritual.
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And so like, why would we create a counter narrative to that?
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A cheapened narrative, a legalistic narrative that gives all of the wrong lessons about morality
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and about what saves you and about what satisfies you and about what fulfills you.
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I don't think that it is wrong to have Santa Claus be some kind of side character of Christmas
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as long as we are telling our kids, sure, like it's fiction, it's fun.
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We can tell them about St. Nicholas and who Nicholas really was and some of the stories
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surrounding him, that's something that we've done in our home.
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We don't forbid all pictures of Santa or all movies that have Santa or Rudolph the Red-Nosed
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I think that we are hardwired as image bearers of God to love a story.
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And so I think all stories can be reflections of the greater story.
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So as long as all of the characters and all of the parts of Christmas, whether it's the
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Christmas tree or Christmas carols or hot chocolate or the gifts that you give or Santa Claus or
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Rudolph are all reflections of the greater story, God's eternal plan of redemption and the
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gospel message that we see at Christmas, I think that's fine.
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But when Elf in a Shelf, on a Shelf, whatever it's called, we've never done that before.
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When that starts to be the taker of our joy or like the source of our stress and our energy
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and not discipling our kids and telling them what the advent, the coming of the Lord actually
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means in their lives, well, then we have veered into idolatry.
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Then things don't become so much, they're not as much a Christian liberty issue as an
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I'm not saying that everyone who does Elf on a Shelf or everyone who does Santa Claus and
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tells their kids Santa Claus is real is committing idolatry.
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But I do think that wherever we are directing our heart and our energy at any time of year,
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And I think that we have to do our best to protect our kids from that.
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Here's some differences that are written out by Desiring God.
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Santa's gifts are earthly material and temporary.
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Jesus offers eternal joy, salvation, and the fruit of the Spirit.
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Santa's gifts are offered on the basis of good works.
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Jesus offers his free gift by grace through faith.
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Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life.
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He's not a character, but the true and living God.
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Santa Claus only comes once a year, but Christ says he is always with us.
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After Easter, Christmas should be the happiest day of the year in Christian worship.
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The reason I say after Easter is that Good Friday and Easter is the goal of Christmas,
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the death and resurrection, the salvation of sinners through the death and resurrection of
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The salvation of sinners on Good Friday and Easter is the goal.
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And these are some great passages about what Christmas actually means.
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For the Son of Man, that's Jesus, came to seek and to save the lost.
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The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into
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the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.
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Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from
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The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.
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So the birth of the Son of God, the very God, very man, is simply stunning and glorious
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And the angel said to them, Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will
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For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
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That is the good news of Christmas and of the Advent that we are celebrating right now.
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There are some ways to specifically incorporate Santa into Christmas.
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Maybe you're listening to this and you realized, okay, I can put more effort into ensuring that
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this is the central focus of this holiday season.
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And I love that, or at least this bag of meat did, but I made it ground beef, turned it into
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My husband will tell you, I have like some kind of obsession with Tex-Mex.
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I can't even think about dinner outside of the context of Tex-Mex.
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month would be an amazing gift for someone in your life.
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And if you live with that someone in your life, you also get to benefit from that gift.
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My mom did such a great job, even though I did believe in Santa Claus for a little bit there.
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My mom did such a great job, though, at pointing to Jesus.
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Every year, she would host a birthday party for Jesus, and she would invite all of the
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kids in our church and in our neighborhood, and we would have a birthday cake that she
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would make, and we would blow out the candles for Jesus.
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Again, not banning Christmas trees and Christmas decor and reindeer and Santa Claus and all of
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that, but all of that was meant to point to the celebration of Jesus.
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Now, you might say, well, Jesus wasn't really born on December 25th.
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It doesn't really matter if Jesus was born in September.
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It doesn't matter, because this is the time that we celebrate his advent, whether it is
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coming to the earth, whether it happened in September, whether it happened in December.
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It is okay that we celebrate his birthday on a different day of the year in the Christian
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You can host a birthday party for Jesus, whether that's just with your immediate family or whether
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Reading the Christmas story at the beginning of Luke or the other Gospels and trying to understand
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this mystery of Christmas and God becoming flesh and what that actually accomplished.
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We have all kinds of, like, nativity scene toys that my kids play with, and we talk through
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There are all kinds of Advent devotionals, and even if you didn't start on December 1st,
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I think it's just 25 Days of Christmas, like some Advent family devotional that we have.
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And even if you don't feel like an equipped theologian, even if you don't feel like you
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know everything about the Gospel or about Scripture or about Jesus, that's okay.
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And you don't have to be a well-versed theologian to disciple your kids.
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Be discipled by people who are further along in their faith than you.
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Yes, growing in knowledge and wisdom and our understanding of God is so important.
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But don't let that stop you from teaching your kids what is biblically good, right, and
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If we wait until all of the circumstances are ideal, or we think we have the proper amount
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of expertise to contribute to something, we may never dive in to the thing that God is
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And so God's grace and His wisdom will meet you where you are.
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If you don't have an ESV study Bible, get you an ESV study Bible.
00:26:47.460
By the grace of God, we've worked with various ministries this year, and we have given away
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And I can't, you know, pat myself on the back at all for that.
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It's the ministries who are extremely generous.
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All I have to do is post the link, and I am so happy to be able to engage with my audience
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And I'm so thrilled that whenever we post those links of the Bibles being free and being donated
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to you, that they are all flying off the shelves in a matter of like 30 minutes.
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I mean, we sell out, for lack of a better term, of those books so quickly, of those Bibles
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And so I'm so thankful that there are so many of you who are reading the Bible for the first
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And if you don't have an ESV study Bible, that's what I use.
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I started reading that when I was a sophomore in college, and it really deepened my understanding.
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And maybe before the end of the year, we'll have another giveaway where we'll give away
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We could talk about the origins of Santa Claus.
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He was a real fourth century bishop who lived in Myra on the southern coast of what is now
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He was born into a wealthy family, but he devoted his life to serving Christ.
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He would travel Europe and give gifts to children on December 6th in his name.
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People started doing that in remembrance of him.
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It was specifically on December 6th that in the name of St. Nicholas, people would give
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gifts to children because he was a giver of gifts to children.
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And then from there, the myth of Santa Claus kind of evolved.
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Christmas hymns are a beautiful way to meditate on the truth of Christmas and on the truth
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of what God did for us, why it is so amazing that the Messiah came, that the King came as
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an embryo and then a newborn baby in very humble means and not as a warrior as so many were
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expecting and not as adult royalty, but he symbolizes exactly what God always does, is that he defies the
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He doesn't define wisdom and success and power the same way that we do.
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He is so much more than just a symbol of what God does, but it is so like God to seemingly
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stack the odds against himself and then to take down all of the powers that be.
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And that's, of course, what Jesus did, not only in the earthly sense, but also in the heavenly
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I just want to leave you with a couple passages that really encourage me, that I love how they
00:30:03.080
Colossians 1, 15 through 18, he, Jesus, is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn
00:30:10.180
For by him, all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether
00:30:14.620
thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for
00:30:19.660
And he is before all things and in him, all things hold together.
00:30:25.520
He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.
00:30:34.540
And also just not the image of this wimpy Jesus who just exists to cheerlead you on your
00:30:47.680
Last passage in this segment, Hebrews 1, 1 through 3.
00:30:51.940
Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets.
00:30:56.080
But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed the heir of
00:31:00.720
all things, through whom he also created the world.
00:31:03.980
He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature.
00:31:08.340
And he upholds the universe by the word of his power.
00:31:11.720
After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high.
00:31:22.300
And it's not just missed among those who call themselves progressive Christians.
00:31:28.200
But gosh, it's missed by prosperity gospel preachers and adherents, those who believe that
00:31:33.560
Jesus really is just like Santa Claus, that he's here to give us what we want, and that
00:31:38.280
a sign of his favor and his love for us is by our material blessings.
00:31:45.060
Jesus says, blessed are the meek, blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are the downtrodden
00:31:55.720
That's not to say that we have to be materially impoverished, but people who really see Jesus
00:32:02.200
as one who gives fame and success and material and earthly glory, they see him wrong.
00:32:08.240
But on the other side of that, I argue in my first book, You're Not Enough, that the prosperity
00:32:14.780
gospel professing Christians and that the progressive gospel professing Christians, they both believe
00:32:26.140
The left might see him as a political activist that is here to help them meet their political
00:32:34.240
ends, the prosperity gospel adherents, see him just as a source of their own personal fulfillment
00:32:42.120
But neither of those sides really see Jesus for who he is as king, who came to defeat the
00:32:49.560
works of the devil, who came to kill our old self and to kill our sin and to mortify our
00:32:57.800
flesh so that we could take up our cross and follow him, be reconciled to God and live with
00:33:06.000
But I've got some stories specifically on what's going on in progressive churches and
00:33:11.820
how they pervert and manipulate Christmas as they pervert and manipulate all things to
00:33:19.620
And in so doing, they completely missed the gospel, which is the saddest part of that.
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There's this church in Evanston, Illinois, and I believe that it's called Lake Church.
00:35:37.520
And he has, I guess, ordered the setup of this nativity scene in front of their church.
00:35:48.660
You can tell that this is such a beautiful church.
00:35:53.240
And these beautiful churches, which are like mainline Protestant churches, almost all become
00:36:00.300
It is time for us to retake the beautiful buildings and mainstream, mainline Protestantism and to
00:36:16.420
So you see this nativity scene and you have baby Jesus wrapped in, I guess it's supposed
00:36:23.100
to be like one of those heated blankets and you see his wrists and zip ties.
00:36:28.520
And then you can go back to full screen 16 and then you see Mary and Joseph in gas masks.
00:36:35.700
And there should be, we might not have it, we'll find it.
00:36:38.740
But another picture of the up close of the Roman soldiers behind them who have, apparently
00:36:50.500
Um, here's the explanation that this reverend gave of their very disturbing nativity scene.
00:36:58.400
Jesus was born into a context since the Roman empire, right?
00:37:01.400
I mean, uh, people under subjugation and he immediately has to go into exile and flee
00:37:08.460
The display puts Mary and Jesus in modern times with the Christ child wearing zip ties on its
00:37:15.160
Our baby Jesus has zip ties on his hands because that's an actual incident that happened in our
00:37:20.840
Uh, these are real world things that are happening and we're trying to depict them and bring the
00:37:29.620
Well, first I just want to fact check something because I've seen a story going around and
00:37:33.940
this may or may not be the story that he's referring to, but I've seen this story of zip
00:37:37.880
ties of like kids are in zip ties and there was this, um, picture of this precious child
00:37:43.200
that went viral with his hands behind his back, apparently being, um, it looks like he's being
00:37:48.960
arrested and people are saying this is ice arresting toddlers.
00:37:52.240
But Bill Malusian, who is a reporter for Fox news, who worked on the border for years and
00:37:57.780
years, this really an expert on all of this stuff.
00:38:00.260
He said this posted allegation are fake and false.
00:38:03.120
That's not even an ice agent or any kind of federal agent.
00:38:06.000
It's a screenshot from a Tik TOK video in July and a July compilation on juvenile crime.
00:38:11.140
The child in cuffs was a parody, um, but David J beer, I guess he's a journalist couldn't
00:38:19.960
It was apparently too tantalizing of an opportunity to demonize ice when tensions are at an all
00:38:25.780
Democrats have brought David in to testify on Capitol Hill multiple times regarding immigration
00:38:32.360
That's of course, because Democrats, I don't believe have any moral limits whatsoever, as
00:38:36.940
long as they can accomplish what their goal is.
00:38:40.220
And one of their goals is completely open borders.
00:38:53.100
That might not be every single one of their position, but that is by and large the current
00:38:58.820
And so if they can accomplish that end by lying or hoisting up someone who is lying, taking a
00:39:05.000
TikTok video and making it seem like immigration authorities who are already being targeted by
00:39:10.340
progressive lunatics who are trying to kill them, then they will do that.
00:39:15.340
But of course, as Bill Maluchin said, you can see for yourself on TikTok that that was a parody
00:39:23.200
So this entire idea of this nativity of Jesus reflecting a real life scenario that is happening
00:39:30.140
in the United States, that's not even proven true.
00:39:33.520
But you might say, okay, but the principle itself is true, right?
00:39:38.280
Like the principle itself is true that Jesus was born a refugee and that if he were born today,
00:39:44.700
Republicans wouldn't want anything to do with him.
00:39:49.420
Conservative evangelicals would have arrested Mary and Joseph.
00:39:57.900
We've got Jesus, who I guess is depicted as some kind of immigrant.
00:40:07.480
Not only do you have Mary and Joseph and Jesus in a cage, which by the way, those cages that
00:40:13.720
liberals talk about all the time, who were they constructed by?
00:40:17.140
They were constructed by the Obama administration who deported more illegal immigrants than anyone
00:40:24.360
And did you see these kinds of displays when he was president?
00:40:27.400
Did you see all of this outrage when he was president?
00:40:29.700
No, Biden also deported over a million illegal immigrants.
00:40:35.380
And again, did you see this kind of thing when he was president?
00:40:40.700
If it were about these individuals, then you would have seen nonstop, unconditional outcry
00:40:48.760
ICE was also functioning when Obama was president, when Biden was president.
00:40:53.000
Okay, but you didn't see these kind of protests then because it's not about the children.
00:41:07.200
Okay, Oakland's lesbian senior pastor, Reverend Rachel Griffin Allison, said the Holy Family
00:41:13.700
In Dallas, many families faced the same uncertainty, she said.
00:41:18.720
We even have editor-in-chief of Christianity Today, Russell Moore.
00:41:26.880
the matter right now is not just the global backlash against refugees, but the glee with
00:41:31.640
which some anti-refugee figures celebrate their rejection and revile those who would remind
00:41:36.400
them that Jesus of Nazareth was, in fact, a refugee.
00:41:43.980
In fact, the He Gets Us campaign, a multi-million dollar ad campaign that apparently is trying
00:41:48.840
to shift perceptions of Christ and Christianity, they made the same argument in their commercial
00:42:00.440
They lived in a small village and didn't have much money, but they were happy.
00:42:07.400
One day, they heard the head of their country was sending soldiers to their town because he
00:42:18.680
They grabbed only what they could carry and ran.
00:42:23.740
They hiked for days, wondering if soldiers might still be following them.
00:42:35.540
But they were far away from the atrocities taking place in Bethlehem.
00:42:52.780
So I could go on a whole rant about He Gets Us.
00:42:56.200
That's something Charlie Kirk and I did a lot that we both just like loathe these ads.
00:43:02.020
I want anyone to come to Christ by whatever means possible.
00:43:05.900
And so if that accomplished someone hearing the gospel, I'm very thankful for that.
00:43:10.760
But that is despite the bad messaging of He Gets Us, not because of the bad messaging.
00:43:19.120
It's not seeing ourselves in his story through some political narrative.
00:43:27.160
It's not true that Jesus was a refugee by the definition that we have refugees today.
00:43:33.480
We can make a separate argument for compassion for refugees.
00:43:37.020
And that does exist in asylum seekers and all of that.
00:43:40.160
We can have a separate biblical defense of defending refugees and how many refugees we should
00:43:47.080
accept and which refugees we should accept from what countries.
00:43:51.040
But the argument should not be based in the idea that Jesus himself was a refugee.
00:43:55.840
He was not a refugee in the same sense that we are defining refugees today.
00:44:00.500
So according to UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, the 1951 Refugee Convention defines a refugee
00:44:07.800
as a person who, owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion,
00:44:11.940
nationalities, blah, blah, blah, is unable or owing to such fear as unwilling to avail
00:44:22.120
So that means that a refugee is someone who is leaving one country and going to another
00:44:33.020
Jesus's family traveled from one part of the Roman Empire to another.
00:44:37.560
They didn't cross illegally into another country and were able to go back after Herod died,
00:44:43.120
which refugees by definition are unable or unwilling to do.
00:44:48.480
So them fleeing to Egypt was an explicit divine command.
00:44:55.540
And in fact, they wanted to do everything that they could to follow the law and God's
00:45:03.240
Now, when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and
00:45:06.820
said, Rise, take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt and remain there until I tell
00:45:11.060
you, for Herod is about to search for the child and destroy him.
00:45:13.860
And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt and remained
00:45:20.560
This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet.
00:45:30.260
This is to obey the command of the Lord via an angel.
00:45:33.840
This is to save Jesus's life for the time being.
00:45:40.540
OK, this has nothing to do with them breaking the law, which you'll see something that the
00:45:46.160
left often does is it's such a bait and switch and it's such an effective manipulation
00:45:51.760
tactic is that they will use the word refugee to describe all illegal aliens.
00:45:58.800
Everyone who wants to come here from a poorer country than the United States, which is every
00:46:02.960
country, by the way, is described as a refugee.
00:46:05.780
And that is such an effective form of toxic empathy, because if you are on the side against
00:46:13.580
refugees, then you are on the side against Christians and you are on the side against
00:46:20.480
And so there you in your mind, you might feel like you have lost all moral credibility to
00:46:25.800
be for the enforcement of sovereignty and borders.
00:46:29.620
I guess the Christian answer is really just to open up the borders and let anyone in who
00:46:33.680
wants to come in because America is a safer and richer place than other places.
00:46:38.620
But that, of course, is stupid when you take it to its logical conclusion.
00:46:42.180
That would mean there are no just limitations on immigration.
00:46:45.780
Like there should be no vetting process whatsoever.
00:46:48.820
Anyone who says that they want to come here because the country that they left from is slightly
00:46:52.460
dangerous or economically disadvantaged, they have a right to come here.
00:46:57.240
Well, then, of course, we're not a country because we essentially don't have borders.
00:47:00.900
And if we're not a country who doesn't have borders, then we're not a sovereign country.
00:47:07.160
That means we don't really have rights and protections that are afforded to citizens only.
00:47:11.160
That means that we don't really have a government who can guarantee those rights and protections.
00:47:17.360
Citizenship and borders and sovereignty and laws that are exclusive to and for the protection
00:47:23.920
of, rather, citizens is protection for the most vulnerable citizens in the country.
00:47:29.220
You understand that, that God created laws and governments and borders and sovereignty for
00:47:37.980
It's not our government's responsibility to take charge of the well-being of every single
00:47:42.900
person from every single country on earth just because they want to come here.
00:47:46.820
And that certainly is not what we are learning from the Christmas story.
00:47:51.600
So back to Jesus, the prophecy that his fleeing to Egypt fulfills is from Hosea 11.1.
00:48:02.700
And then he was commanded by God, their family was commanded by God to go back home, Matthew
00:48:09.640
But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt,
00:48:13.200
saying, Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel.
00:48:15.840
For those who sought the child's life are dead.
00:48:17.940
And he rose and took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel.
00:48:22.360
But when he heard that Archelius was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he
00:48:29.440
And being warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee.
00:48:32.640
And he went and lived in a city called Nazareth, so that what was spoken by the prophets might
00:48:37.240
be fulfilled, that he would be called a Nazarene.
00:48:42.080
Melissa Doherty, for Cross-Examined, says it like this.
00:48:45.280
As a child, scripture records him and his family, Jesus and his family, fleeing from
00:48:52.460
Refugees find refuge in another country because they can't or don't return home.
00:48:56.920
People conflate this story in Jesus' childhood with our understanding of refugees today.
00:49:01.560
It's like nobody seeks to understand, really, Jesus' story.
00:49:05.500
They exaggerate this to make him culturally relevant today.
00:49:11.320
That is my big problem with the He Gets Us campaign.
00:49:13.580
In an article for Stand to Reason, it does not make historical sense to take a modern
00:49:18.640
definition, apply it to a situation within antiquity using a modern lens of both situation
00:49:23.540
and geographical borders, of both situation and geographical borders, and then try to apply
00:49:33.680
The political situation in question is a pressing and serious issue.
00:49:37.880
I think people on both sides of the partisan divide can agree on that, but this type of
00:49:42.960
argumentation that is based on misunderstanding and ignorance at best and misrepresentation
00:49:50.380
It is far too full of holes and far too susceptible to critique simply because it is anachronistic
00:49:59.080
So that is a very eloquent way of saying this is historically inaccurate and also just not
00:50:08.540
We're not getting more into the heart of Jesus was and more into the reason for Christmas.
00:50:12.940
We are instead trying to extract meaning out of the Christmas story in order to accomplish
00:50:21.460
And in so doing, are very distracted from what it really means.
00:50:26.420
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What I also find funny is that the people who say this, who stretch the definition of refugee
00:51:41.880
to say that Jesus was a refugee so that what will open all of our borders, they do not see
00:51:50.360
the sacredness or the importance of Jesus actually coming to the earth as an unborn child.
00:51:56.520
Like that really happened, that we don't have to stretch the definition of what human is
00:52:00.520
or stretch the definition of what embryo is or stretch the definition of the biblical text.
00:52:07.940
He was even heralded by the cakes of an unborn child, John the Baptist.
00:52:11.780
And so I'm not saying that we should look for like an anti-abortion story in the Christmas
00:52:21.080
I'm not saying that that's the point of Christmas.
00:52:23.540
I just find it ironic that if you're looking for politics in the nativity scene, then you
00:52:29.480
certainly would see an anti-abortion position there.
00:52:35.020
But the very people who are trying so hard to manipulate this story for their political
00:52:45.120
And really every bit of moral credibility that the left has is completely destroyed by
00:52:51.480
the fact that they believe it's okay to poison and dismember babies inside the womb.
00:52:59.120
Let's start there with the morality conversation.
00:53:02.180
Then we can talk about everything else because that's black and white.
00:53:08.880
There's no nuance for the Christian when it comes to abortion.
00:53:11.920
Is it okay to purposely kill an innocent person?
00:53:21.440
Should it be illegal to kill an innocent person?
00:53:24.540
Most progressives would say, well, yeah, murder should be illegal.
00:53:29.600
Just because that person is in a different location or has a different age or a different
00:53:33.460
size doesn't mean that they shouldn't have the right not to be murdered just like any
00:53:38.540
In fact, they're the most voiceless and the most defenseless.
00:53:42.180
Of course, Christians are called to care for them.
00:53:44.340
But every other category of vulnerability the left claims to care about except for the most
00:53:49.700
And so if you can't even start there, like if you can't even say with your chest that life
00:53:54.880
inside the womb should not be snuffed out and that murder of babies is wrong or murder
00:54:00.980
of babies should be illegal, I'm not really interested in your moral preening about borders
00:54:08.460
And if you only have the gumption to say something when Trump is president but didn't care at all
00:54:14.760
about this when Biden or Obama is president, I'm just not really interested.
00:54:19.580
And if the point of Christmas to you is about immigration and not the gospel, I'm just not
00:54:32.040
And by the way, like all of the compassion for the left, I find manifests itself in outsourcing
00:54:40.340
And I've seen actually this pastor, reverend of this Lake Street Church, I've seen this
00:54:47.460
clip going around of him saying, you know, Republicans or evangelical Christians, whatever,
00:54:54.700
they don't want the government to intervene when it comes to feeding the poor or protecting
00:55:00.540
refugees, but they do want the government to intervene when it comes to transgenderism and
00:55:08.800
Well, yeah, yeah, like I do believe in the legitimate existence of a government, like
00:55:19.540
And the God-given responsibility of the government, as we read in Romans 13, is to punish the wrongdoer
00:55:25.800
and to reward those who do good, to restrain evil.
00:55:29.540
And we do believe that bare minimum, the right of the government is to protect the rights of
00:55:34.980
its people and to protect its people from very real harm.
00:55:39.860
Now, we have to define harm, but I think murder, we could all say is harm.
00:55:45.680
Being dismembered and poisoned as an innocent person, like that's harm.
00:55:51.320
I would say your body being butchered by cross-sex hormones or puberty blockers or surgery, especially
00:56:01.640
And so, yeah, I do believe it's the responsibility of the government to affirm reality and to uphold
00:56:10.020
And sure, we can debate on what falls in line there, but I don't think it's very debatable
00:56:15.380
that a government has the responsibility to protect its people from murder by punishing
00:56:25.100
So, yeah, of course, I don't believe that the government should be a nanny state.
00:56:28.760
And I do believe it's the responsibility of the church and of the individual, as we read
00:56:33.820
throughout scripture, especially in the book of Acts, to give voluntarily and as empowered
00:56:41.540
Now, I'm not against all government help, but I am against the decentivizing of work by
00:56:50.040
giving people unlimited and basically unconditional welfare.
00:56:57.480
Someone who believes that we should reduce welfare and make sure that there's no corruption
00:57:04.340
In fact, they are being good stewards of not only their own resources, but the resources of
00:57:09.080
all taxpayers who work very hard for the money that we are giving these programs.
00:57:14.780
Doge, it was a righteous process and a righteous pursuit.
00:57:21.440
Outsourcing your compassion and your generosity to the government is not compassionate or generous.
00:57:29.740
You giving of your own volition is what you are called to.
00:57:34.560
You giving your money to the government at gunpoint, which is what taxes are, or by threat of
00:57:45.840
So you're not going to manipulate me with that.
00:57:49.460
Every policy prescription that is put forth by progressives sounds like it has good intentions,
00:57:56.600
And I actually care about how people are affected, not just about feeling good about myself because
00:58:04.020
And if you want to take down of all of this from a logical, factual, historical, scientific,
00:58:09.860
and most importantly, biblical perspective, I really do encourage you to get Toxic Empathy.
00:58:15.800
The number one question I get is, what do I say when?
00:58:22.840
What do I say to this argument about gender or the definition of marriage?
00:58:34.800
Toxic Empathy, How Progressives Exploit Christian Compassion.
00:58:38.280
And if you read any chapter, like I really encourage you to read the immigration one.
00:58:43.140
It was the one that was most daunting to me before I wrote it, but as I wrote it, the one
00:58:48.540
that I felt most passionate about because it is such an obvious and clear issue that I think
00:58:53.840
too many Christians make very muddy and very confusing for no good reason.
00:58:58.440
So I really encourage you to read Toxic Empathy and learn how the truth and love approach to
00:59:05.180
these issues, cultural, political, moral issues, is so much better and actually much more caring
00:59:11.160
than the Toxic Empathy approach that these progressive churches try to hoist upon well-intentioned
00:59:18.500
The gift of Christmas is Jesus Christ, the word that became flesh and dwelt among us,
00:59:22.860
who lived a sinless life, and who died on the cross in our place.
00:59:28.180
He was the ultimate sacrifice for our sins because our sins demand the shedding of blood.
00:59:33.800
So he shed his blood on the cross as the only satisfactory sacrifice to a holy God that wanted
00:59:42.480
And by his grace, through our faith in that sacrifice, we can be reconciled to God.
00:59:50.780
We can be made friends with God and we can spend eternity with God forever and ever.
00:59:55.680
And the reason we have that hope is because Jesus didn't just die as a sacrifice for our sins,
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And one day he's coming back and he will rule in perfect peace forever and ever.
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And we will no longer have any sin or sadness or brokenness or deception, but he will rule
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So if you want hope, if you want a real gift, if you want real excitement and anticipation
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this Christmas, you don't have to look in the political realm and you don't have to look
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You can look to Jesus Christ, the real gift giver, the real gift himself.