First there are those who accept Santa into their homes believing that it's no big deal to celebrate their Saviour's birth and have jolly ole Saint Nick at the same table, even though he goes by the name of Santa Claus.

Second are believers who go hard the other way by totally abstaining from the celebration because they feel there's a risk of eternal damnation by participating in anything with a definitive pagan origin.

Faith and Fire Fellowship has received e-mail from both in response to, "The Reason For The Season". It seems that we are, though a rarity, in the middle.

~ Addressing Abstinence ~

Almost every celebration on earth in every culture and in Christiandom has a pagan connection. Even God incorporated the blood covenant from a pagan ritual of covenant to seal His covenant with Abraham. If you are a believer, than you are Abraham's seed and participate in the covenant promises which God sealed with Abraham using a pagan ritual! "And if you are Christ's then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." (Galatians 3:29)

The vast majority of organized Christian religions worship the Lord on the day of the Sun, originally instituted by Constantine in honor of the pagan sun god. When Constantine made himself head of the church, he demanded that all Christian worship be done on Sun-day.

Pagans have always used paganisms to cause strife among Christians. So if you choose not to celebrate Christmas because of it's pagan origins but worship the Lord on Sunday's, you are imposing a double standard upon yourself.

Unfortunately, there are also those in the body of Christ who seem to want to snatch away the JOY of others because they themselves have no part in Christmas celebrations. Though abstaining from celebrations is fine, attempting to bring condemnation upon others who elect of a pure heart to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ only causes strife which is in violation of the Word of God.

Don't let anyone take away your JOY for not participating, and don't try to take anyone's genuine JOY away because they do.

An attitude which says 'everybody does it' and therefore it's OK for us, contradicts clear Scriptural guidelines for Christian living. "Enter in at the straight gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leads to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:" (Matthew 7:13)

However, "Because straight is the gate and narrow is the way, which leads to life, and few there be that find it." (Matthew 7:14) doesn't mean that Christians aren't supposed to have any fun. It's HOW you celebrate anything, be it Christmas, Birthdays, Weddings, New Years, etc., that can be a trap.

~ Addressing Santa Claus ~

The trap comes by embracing works of the flesh, even temporarily.

The other Christmas trap is the fruit that Santa Claus bears: the fruit of lies, greed, lust, strife, etc. Participating in these fruitless deeds leads to tolerance of the works of the flesh, which often causes a testing of the limits of right and wrong. In these struggles the Lord is often pushed aside in our lives in favor of sin.

There's no use in denying these facts that the so-called Holidays with Santa as the focus, even if the Lord is given His worship hour, is an act in violation of Scripture. "You cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: you cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of devils." (1 Corinthians 10:20)

If in your life, in your home, or even in your website you have areas devoted to the Lord Jesus Christ, and then have areas devoted to Santa Claus which you have defined as Saint Nicholas or even the 'Christmas Spirit' then you are operating a double standard which the Word of God tells us is unacceptable.

The Word of God teaches us truth and truth teaches us how to spot a lie. The truth is that Santa Claus is a lie. He doesn't exist. He is not real and never was real. He is a twisted depiction of a genuine and generous man named Nicholas who loved the Lord, who lived long ago but is now dead.

Santa is a lie! Jesus himself said that satan, "Is a liar, and the father of it." (John 8:44) He is the father of lies and the father of liars and whoever participates in immortalizing a lie is the child of the liar. It's that simple, your JOY is misidentified and misdirected.

~ Addressing JOY ~

A believer who puts up a tree in his living room, puts lights on his house, goes to church on Sunday, exchanges gifts, participates in carrolling (all of which have pagan origins) yet has focused Christmas as a celebration of the birth of the Saviour Jesus Christ, and is not participating in the commercialism and lies of the secular 'holiday season' should not be denied his JOY.

Each of us is responsible for our own salvation. It all comes down to the prayer you once spoke, "That if you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved." (Romans 10:9) The criteria is confessing Jesus as Lord first, and then as your Saviour.

Many believers want Jesus as their Saviour, but not as their Lord. What does this mean?

To have Jesus as your Lord means that He comes first in your life and does not share the platform with anyone or anything else - especially not Santa Claus! (or the Easter Bunny for that matter!!!)

Throughout Genesis 1, God is called God, the all powerful Creator. In Genesis 2, God begins to make provision for man and He's called Lord God. By adding Lord to His name, God added the meaning of, 'the self-existent One Who reveals Himself'.

God truly doesn't mean much to anyone if they don't have revelation knowledge of Him. Without Lord, God is God: to most, a three letter word or an expletive. By being both God and Lord, God becomes the all-powerful Creator Who reveals Himself to us.

In Genesis 3:1, Satan said to Eve, "Yea, hath God said...?" From the start, satan has been trying to suppress 'Lord, the Revealer' and he's still doing it today. Satan has worked hard to hide the fact that God reveals Himself to His children; even carrying out his agenda in Christian Sunday Schools. We have taught our children about God the Creator and Jesus the Saviour, but we've left out what it means to them, omitting to teach that,

'you can go to God, that you can have His power operating in your life,

that He will reveal Himself to you and,

you will begin the progressive road of understanding all things of God and man.'

We must each ask ourselves this question in everything we do, not just Christmas. Am I a liar, or a truth teller? Am I still in bondage, or have I sprung the trap? Is Jesus my Lord?

What do you think it means when Jesus said, "Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord... in Your name have I not done many wonderful works? And there will I (Jesus) profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, you that work iniquity." (Matthew 7:22-23) Does Jesus know you? Is Jesus your Lord? Do you work iniquity (sin)?

When we begin relationships, we begin by revealing certain aspects of ourselves to each other. The relationship grows in strength by the things that a revealed. Relationships breakup with a phrase similar to this, "I never knew this about him/her."

Having a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus means that you not only reveal yourself to Him but He also reveals Himself to you. You grow your relationship and faith in the knowledge of what you know about Him and that's all found in the Word of God.

Jesus is your Lord if you abide by His teaching, with a pure and untained heart, "If you continue in My Word, then you are my disciples indeed; and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." (John 8:31)

The answer is Truth above lies. Let us teach our children to be free and live in Truth. God the Revealer, Lord, is for all the world, including children. Train faith in your children, not fantasy. Children who discover God's supernatural power today won't be looking for something unnatural as young adults. They will already have everything they need, everything that it took you nearly a lifetime to find. They will have true JOY!

~ Addressing Saint Nicholas ~

Now if you truly believe that Santa Claus is Saint Nicholas in disguise, let's look at the evolution of the elf-man in the red suit.

(1) ..... Santa Claus is believed to be another name for St. Nicholas, who was born 1,655 years ago, who was a staunch defender of the faith. As a bishop Nicholas earned worldwide reputation as a righter of wrongs and protector of the innocent. People spoke of his late-night anonymous gift giving to the poor and of his granting of secret wishes. ~ Just what the later Santa Claus would do. Nicholas died on December 6, 343 AD.

(2) ..... In 1082, during the crusades, St. Nicholas' body was taken to Bari, Italy by a band of sailors who adopted him as their patron saint, and laid him in a cathedral. Each year the residents of Bari re-stage the arrival of their most famous resident with a parade ~ Just what the later Santa Claus does as he enters the season at Thanksgiving.

(3) ..... The vast public appeal of the stories of St. Nicholas was mixed in with the features of pagan dieties. The important of these pagan gods was the German god Vodan, who incidentally is muscular and has a long white beard and hair, strikingly similar to Santa. Vodan would pass judgment on a village by flying overhead to see if the villagers were taking care of their family, farms, animals, etc. So the beginning of some Santa elements emerge.

Firstly, the mystical rider who comes through the sky and visits every home in the community, and second, we have the judge who looks at your record for the whole year and decides if you've been bad or good.

By combining the power of ancient gods like Vodan with Christian miracles, St. Nicholas became very popular. By the middle ages there were more churches named St. Nicholas than after all of the Apostles put together. St. Nicholas in popularity was 3rd behind Jesus, and Mary. And named as another conduit to heaven. A BIG WOPPER which interferes with the true road to salvation. "Jesus says, I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes unto the Father but by Me." (John 4:6) not Mary and certainly not St. Nicholas.

(4) ..... In the 12th century, a group of French nuns began distributing candy to children in honor of St. Nicholas day, December 6th. Eventually, the gullible populace believed that St. Nicholas himself was the deliverer of the candy, leaving them in the shoes of good children, while leaving switches to intimidate the bad ones. Gullibility is timeless ~ we teach this as truth.

(5) ..... All this adoration appalled the German reformer, Martin Luther, who felt that attention like this should be reserved for the Son of God alone. Yeah, Martin Luther! St. Nicholas was banned, but some elements remained in order to wean new Protestant children off of St. Nicholas. One element kept was the Krist Kinder, in translation, the Christ Child, depicting the baby Jesus as a winged Cherub flying around giving gifts, coming on His own birthday though. In America, the Krist Kinder would become Kris Kringle ~ Santa's real name? Now that's blasphemy!

(6) ..... Around the world, various cultures adopted some sort of character who delivered gifts to children on Christmas. In England it's Father Christmas, in France it's Perre Noelle. In Italy, an old hag named Befana searches from house to house looking for the Christ Child leaving gifts for good children in her wake. In Sweden, gifts were handed out by the gnome, Yotomkin. In Holland it was St. Nicholas himself who gave out the gifts and when Dutch explorers sailed to the New World, Sinter Klaus came to America.

(7) ..... After the Revolutionary War, anything that wasn't distinctly British was proudly touted as American. In the New York City Dutch heritage, Sinter Klaus emerged. Though largely a religious figure at first, it took a poem written in 1823 by Clement C. Moore, a professor of classics at Columbia University to change this forever. "A Visit from St. Nicholas" now retitled, "T'was The Night Before Christmas" has intentionally removed any religious connection.  

This poem is the most successful Christmas poem of all time, breaching many cultures in it's translations. In one inking of the quill the austere Saint and Bishop was gone, replaced by jolly St. Nick. It was the sound of horses drawing a sleigh that inspired him. It was the bridge between the old and the modern, lifting many details directly out of Dutch folklore, as well as establishing the reindeer, the sleigh, the chimney arrival, and the magic.

It makes no difference that this prose was originally authored by a Christian minister who wrote it as a silly story just to read to his daughter. When it was published in a newspaper, the world grabbed it and the process of creating truth out of fiction.

(8) ..... The success of the poem touched off an explosion of Santa literature that further established the lie. Mrs. Claus was invented by Kathryn Lee Bates who wrote the words to America the Beautiful. Everybody who was anybody who needed money took a crack at writing about Santa Claus. Sound familiar? Let's get on the band wagon, the coat tails, let's ride it 'til the horse dies! Well that horse is still alive and the almighty pursuit of the dollar no matter what the cost, still rules.

(9) ..... Thomas Nast, a cartoonist, through many drawings and an evolution of artifacts established what Santa Claus really looked like. He placed Santa at the North Pole and added the telescope, firmed the big book of the good and bad children list.

(10) ..... In 1890 the first Santa impersonator was created to bring business into a Brockton Massachusetts store. This evolution is today's Department Store and Mall Santa.

(11) ..... Little Virginia O'Hanlon wrote a letter to the Sun newspaper in 1897 stating.

"Dear Editor. I am 8 Years Old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, 'If you see it in the Sun it's so'. Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?"

The Sun printed a response, the best defense Santa has ever had, QUOTE,

"Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exists. Alas how dreadful the world would be if there were no Santa Claus. It would be like there were no Virginia's. A thousand years from now he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood."

By casting him as the embodiment of love and goodness the Sun gave us the perfect argument for believing in Santa Claus. How sad that Virginia's Father didn't have the guts to tell her the truth. God is the embodiment of love, "God IS love." (1 John 8:8)

(12) ..... In 1930 an illustrator for Coca Cola changed the former small gnome-like Santa into who we see today, the large and rotund, the jolly and the rosy. That's 58 years ago, long enough that a majority of grandparents and parents forget and begin to believe that this Santa has been part of world culture for hundreds of years, and today teach their children the same lie.

(13) ..... In the 20th century, that's the 1900's, this century, Santa is revered not only for his generosity but for his salesmanship as well. 1939, a copy writer at the Montgomery Ward department store was searching for a way to lure Christmas Shoppers into the store. He came up with a children's book giveaway, "Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer", entered into our lives and became established as another truth in the Santa lie.

(14) ..... Santa Claus is the chief man in charge of worldwide marketing, telling people that buying, not the giving of gifts, but buying equals love. It has degenerated from giving selflessly having nothing to do with need, having nothing to do with holiness and has very little to do with giving to people who don't have.

Some say Christmas is the biggest misery and distress of the year and don't look forward to it at all. Every year it seems that the competition gets worse. Stores compete for your money, wives compete with husbands for the most thoughtful gift, children compete with their friends as to who got the most. Then there's the required gift for the teacher, your boss, your co-worker, your parents, the in-laws, the nephews, the nieces, the grandchildren, the dog. etc. Get the picture?

(15) ..... Santa Claus is the epitome of the best commercial gimmick ever concocted by satan. Although Santa made his Hollywood debut in 1903 in a rare silent picture, red suit, reindeer, the toy factory, the telescope, and all, what has best placed Santa into the hearts of both children and adults, and created the image firmly implanted in the brain today is the 1947 movie, "The Miracle of 34th Street".Where the final result is that a man named Kris Kringle is declared the real Santa by the United States Government, a court decision. Would you believe that there are people who actually believe that this movie was based on a true story?

(16) ..... In the 1994 remake of the "Miracle on 34th Street", the young child star, Mara Wilson said that quote, "Santa Claus makes faith, just like faith in your mom, the tooth fairy, or God." My friend, Romans 10:17 says that, "Faith comes by hearing; and hearing by the Word of God." not Santa Claus.

~ So here it is ~

What has all this got to do with celebrating the birth of YOUR SAVIOUR, the Lord Jesus Christ who came to this world because of the love of the Father God?

What right does Santa have to hold the name, Kris Kringle (Christ Child)?

What right does Santa have to share the billing with Christ in Christmas?

NO RIGHT WHATSOEVER!! My friend. Santa Claus is a tangled web of lies which people old and young alive believe has always been so. It is traditions like these that evolve into consciousness as truth, but this fictitious truth is still a LIE, everyone knows it!

Parents have been suckered by the father of lies into believing that this lie is a part of what makes childhood special. You tell it to your children as Gospel truth, giving Santa greater power over Jesus Christ in your lives. Let's face the lie, you teach Jesus saves, but Santa gives.

The first lie of Santa Claus is that this lie which everyone over the age of 9 knows is a lie IS TREATED AS TRUTH to the most innocent whom God undeniably protects. (Mark 10:13-16)

The second lie of Santa Claus is that he IS Saint Nicholas.

Today's innocent children believe these SANTA lie. WHY? It's deplorable that many Christians think that children can't handle Jesus. It's amazing that even the children of many truly born-again believers don't know the story of the Birth of Jesus or the reason behind it. What's so difficult about telling children that God loves them so much that He sent His only Son Jesus into the world to teach the Word of God and to show the world the way to everlasting life.

Why do some Christians believe that children can't handle the truth and they have to sugar coat the hard truth with a fictional SANTA CLAUS and department store love?

Yes, of course! Children can't handle the truth, they're too young for Jesus, but the blood, gore, horror and violence of Halloween is OK! Can you see the satans 'garden of eden' deception at work here?

A young child, keeps his keen eye on his parents. He emulates, copies and learns to be who he is, from who his parents are. If you want him to have good character and integrity, that is what you must have. That is the role of a parent given by God. Therefore, how can you, "Train up your child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it." (Proverbs 22:6) if you lie to him about what would be the biggest disappointment in his childhood.

How do you expect for your child to trust you completely ever again, especially if you focus on truth telling as a virtue?

How can you expect him to believe you about the Word of God if you create reality out of the SANTA CLAUS fantasy?

Yes, children EVENTUALLY learn to play the GAME, but to their innocent minds, it doesn't begin as a game, but it becomes shattered truth. It's an immediate crushing blow that can take years of Christmasses to get over.

How did you feel when you found out? Betrayed most likely. Now be honest. Betrayed by the two people every child should count on most. Betrayed perhaps by older siblings, by grandparents, aunts and uncles. Ridiculed by older peers for still being a baby and believing in that fantasy kid-stuff junk.

After painstakingly taking years to build a relationship on trust with your child, how long will it take for you to rebuild it after telling one little whopper of a lie. Can you ever rebuild it completely?

God has ordained that the parents of the child are to be the two best role models, who should believe with their whole heart the truth of God's Word, and living in a manner which is pleasing to God, they pass it on to their children.

Somewhere along the way, the parents give-up their authority and give it to the world. Who is the prince of this world anyway my friend? satan, in case you've forgotten. Jesus Christ died to give the authority of this world to His church, and now we give that same authority back to satan: one Santa lie at a time.

Even the secular world understands the importance of role models, that parents must be good role models and listeners. But when those role models swallow satan's lie and pass it on, and on, and on, and they themselves become liars to their children, that not only teaches children that it's OK to lie, BUT, it destroys the trust, the credibility, the faith that the child has in those role models.

HEY, you lied to me for all of these years and now you want me to trust YOU again?

Now I am supposed to believe what you're telling me about alcohol, sex, and drugs?

You admit to me that you used to do it, but I'm supposed to trust you now, after you've proven how well you can deceive me?

RIGHT! GET REAL! And then the parents shake their heads and wonder where they went wrong, so that their children don't listen to them.

There are only two worlds, God's and satans. "No man can serve two masters... You cannot serve God and mammon." (Matthew 6:24) You can argue and disagree all you want, but this is what the Word of God says, sometimes in black and white, and sometimes in red and white. If you profess to be Christian and if you have a problem in this discussed area, you need to take a second look. Take your arguments to the Lord who wrote the Book.

~ Thank You ~

Thank you to all whom have shared their thoughts on this subject in response to The Reason For the Season. . The majority respondents agreed with the message, have disliked what Christmas has become and have elected to make an effort to change their Christmas focus by giving the Lord more than His day and do away with Santa Claus. Only a handful countered with cynicism and disdain.

The Spirit of Christmas is the Holy Spirit. Grace and peace be multiplied unto you in the knowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Holy Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ who is Lord.