Who is Saint Nick

The Santa Conspiracy

The deification of a flawed god.

Rom. 12:10 “Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another;”

I. Creation by Faith vs. Salvation by Grace Exo. 20:1 “And God spake all these words, saying, 2 I [am] the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me. 4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness [of any thing] that [is] in heaven above, or that [is] in the earth beneath, or that [is] in the water under the earth: 5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God [am] a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth [generation] of them that hate me; 6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.”

Too many people have forgotten who good old Saint Nick was. Now, as I am not a Roman Catholic, I hesitate to call Nick “Saint.” We do not usually call people “Saint” because we believe that all that have been washed by the blood of the precious Lamb of God are saints. But I call him Saint Nick so that you will know to whom I refer and because we will assume that he did trust Christ for his salvation. Nick did some wonderful, charitable works of giving. That was commendable. But who today really even knows the story?

The St. Nick that we celebrate today in America is so removed from historical truth that I doubt that Nicholas would recognize himself from the caricature. The Santa today is more like Satan than Nicholas. That does sound extreme, but the Santa today is a god with a false doctrine which demands worship.

Today’s Santa is a god. He sees you when you're sleeping. He knows when you're awake. He knows if you've been bad or good. So be good for goodness sake! These are attributes of a deity. You will say, “This is ridiculous! It’s just fun. It’s just a game.” No it is not. The reason it is not is because you demand your children to believe it.

I grew up in a home where my parents told me the truth. “There was a historic Nicholas. This is what he did, and this is why he is remembered.” I grew up knowing the truth. Then when Christmas came around, it was just fun for us. We knew it was just a game. It did not take anything away from us. My wife grew up in a family with an opposite philosophy. She did believe the stories and thought that her parents were telling her the truth. When she found out, it crushed her.

Children have a natural naivete, gullibility? Right? No it is a child like faith. We should protect that faith instead of abusing it. When our kids find out that they have been lied to for how many years, it shakes their faith in their parents. I preached this sermon at my church on a Sunday Night. There happened to be a young man, about 12 years old at the time. He became angry that I said that Santa was not real. He would not believe that his father and mother had lied to him. So, I (the preacher) must have been lying to him. I was shocked that at his age, he did not know. This was a young man that was smart and intelligent. He was not developmentally challenged in any way. He just really believed that his parents told him the truth. They should have.

Our society makes Santa a god by giving him supernatural powers. They establish the terms of worship of this false god. Kids can write him letters with their Christmas wish list, Santa’s form of prayer requests. Kids must do good, or Santa will punish them with lumps of coal.

There is another false doctrine of this false god. Society poisons the Spiritual principle of a gift. We teach kids that if they want to get their presents, they have to do good. I have heard countless parents threaten their kids with a bad Christmas if they will not be good. This is a big problem. A gift cannot be paid for or earned. This is a false doctrine. If you can be good enough to earn a Christmas present, then maybe you can be good enough to get other gifts. That just happens to be the same damnable doctrine that says that if you are good enough you can get to Heaven. Quick question, if you could be good enough to get to Heaven, why would Jesus need to die?

If you could be good enough to get a gift, it is not really a gift. God’s salvation is a gift. You cannot earn it or pay for it. Christmas gifts that you give your kids should be gifts. They are not earned, if they are earned (by being good) then they are not really gifts at all. They are wages. If you teach your child that they get Christmas presents by being good, they will naturally think that if you want to get the gift of salvation, you have to be good too.

We tell our kids that they will not get presents if they are not good. Is it any wonder that they then grow up to think that they have to earn our love. No, parents. Love your Children freely like God loves you freely. Make them know they do not earn your love, nor Gods. Both are free gifts.

There is more false doctrine associated with Santa Clause. That is the magical doctrine that if you just believe something hard enough, you can make it real. This false doctrine is one that many Christians get confused about. Luke 17:6 “And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.” But this does not mean that your faith is just some kind of magical power that you can apply to whatever task you want and make it do things.

This idea that if you just believe something hard enough that you can make it happen is not Biblical. Real faith is faith in the promise of God. It is not faith in faith itself. I venture to suggest that Jesus statements in Luke 17:6 & Mat. 17:20 are actually prophecies. These are consistent with the prophecies that say that the valleys will be filled and the mountains will be brought low. The sea will be diminished. Biblical faith is walking and relying on the promises of God.

We do not make God real by believing in Him. He is real whether we believe in Him or not. We do not make the sky orange if we believe it enough. Nor do we make Santa Clause real by believing in him. But that is exactly what almost every story about Santa tells our kids. Then we chant the mantra in their ears over and over. Then we tell them that they can do anything that they want to do if they only believe they can. Well, that is not true and it is not the way that we should be training our children. I have taught my children that they can do more than they think they can. They can do anything that God wants them to do. But I will never tell my kids that they can do anything that they want to if they only believe it enough. If God does not want them to do it, they will not be able to do it. If they believe it hard enough, can they make God not exist. No. Our faith is not a magical power that can make anything happen. Thinking that you can do what ever you want if you only believe it hard enough is really the kind of thing that mentally unstable people practice.

Mat. 18:3 “And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. 4 Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5 And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me. 6 But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and [that] he were drowned in the depth of the sea.” (Mk. 9:42; Mk. 10:14- 16; Lk. 17:2)

Every child has a child-like faith until we make him jaded by repetitious lying. Every kid when they are young just believes their parents. This is a precious trust of parenthood given to parents by God. We abuse that trust when we use that trust to lie to our kids.

When parents say, “You better be good or Santa won’t bring you any presents.” This parent is lying to his kids. And why? Because that parent wants his kids to obey him. Well, go ahead and lie to them about Santa and presents. Ten years from now, I will explain to you why your kids do not believe you about God. Just try and tell them the truth that God will chastise them if they do not obey Him. Why should they believe you when you say God will chastise them, when you lied to them on the subject with Santa.

II Peter 2:1 “But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. 2 And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. 3 And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.”

Our society is lying to children. “You better be good or no presents.” Why do parents do it? We already covered that. But why is it such a societal imperative? Why do we have to lie to our children? Our society pushes the idea because we push materialism. If Johnny is good, then he will get his presents. Well, parents, your kids have been good. . . You better get out there an buy them every imaginable present that we have pushed through your T.V. for the last year. If you do not meet their every whimsical Christmas fantasy, well, now what kind of parent are you? That push is all about greed and God condemns it.

I Cor. 10:19 “What say I then? that the idol is any thing, or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is any thing? 20 But I [say], that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils.”

You say, but it is all just fun. But it isn’t. If it was about fun, then tell them the truth. Let them know it is made up. But the moment you tell them to believe in this demigod Santa who has magical powers and that to make him real, they just have to believe.

Now, you have set up an idol in your home. It is no longer God in Heaven that the kids should obey, it is Santa in the North Pole. It is not Church that the kids should be visiting, it is the winter wonderland displays of department store Santas that our children should be attending. There are no gifts to the house of God, because all your money is blown at the mall. In fact you have gone into debt to the false god. So, God will not be honored with our check book for at least a couple months. We are singing less and less songs about Jesus and more and more songs about Santa. Your kids are not praying to God for their concerns, they are making wish-lists to santa. There is not a word spoken about believing that God is caring for you. We preach relentlessly the sermon, “You just have to believe. You just have to believe that Santa is going to give you what you asked for. ”

This is what I believe. We need to stop giving a made-up person the attributes and adoration of the true God. He is the one that truly loves us and provides for us.

We need to follow the examples of the saints that have gone before us.

A. Sinners’ exercise

1. I Tim. 4:7 “But refuse profane and old wives' fables, and exercise thyself [rather] unto godliness.”

2. II Tim. 4:4 “And they shall turn away [their] ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.”

3. II Pet. 1:16 “For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.”

Paul says we need to refuse the fables. This is not just fun. Our society goes too far. My kids know about the Santa conspiracy. Parents tell their kids that he is real, but he is not. They see the stories and enjoy them. But they know it is just made up stories. But we go too far and lie to our kids. We need to refuse this wickedness. Tell your kids the truth and go watch Miracle on 34th Street, if they can understand it truthfully. Stop lying to your kids please. There is no room in the Christian home for these fables. These cause parents to lie to their kids and kids to believe in a false god.

Heb. 12:1 “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset [us], and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, 2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of [our] faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Tell the truth about Nicholas. If he really was a saint of God, he would rebuke us for misusing his story to take away glory from the true God.

I Cor. 11:1 “Be ye followers of me, even as I also [am] of Christ.”

We need to follow Christ in how we deal with our children. We want them to follow in our footsteps, just like Paul wanted his followers to do. But if our kids are to follow us, we need to make sure we are on the right road. Christ would not lie to kids about a make believe god with magical powers who only gives “gifts” if you earn them by being good. No, my friend.

You say that this was what your parents did with you. It is a family tradition. Well, there are all kinds of family traditions that should be broken. We could talk about all kinds of barbaric things that uncivilized societies do because it is tradition. So, should they keep mutilating people and damaging their children just for tradition. We need to stop damaging the faith of our children with false stories of flawed gods.

By Andrew Grosjean

 Pray:

Dear Heavenly Father,

I know that I am a sinner and have disobeyed your laws. But I know that you love me and that Jesus died for me. Now, I ask you to come into my life and save me. Please, forgive me of all my sin. Please be the Lord of my life. In Jesus name, Amen.