Tag Archives: santa claus

Christian worldview

Now there are two great St. Nicholas stories!

4 Comments

Via Slappy holiday, it turns out that in addition to being an extremely generous person St. Nicholas (the real one) had sound doctrine regarding the deity of Jesus — and he didn’t take kindly to church leaders who disagreed.

First, the part that some people are already aware of:

Santa Claus had his origins in St. Nicholas, the fourth-century bishop of Myra in present-day Turkey. Known for his generosity and his love of children, Nicholas is said to have saved a poor family’s daughters from slavery by tossing into their window enough gold for a rich dowry, a present that landed in some shoes or, in some accounts, stockings that were hung up to dry. Thus arose the custom of hanging up stockings for St. Nicholas to fill. And somehow he transmogrified into Santa Claus, who has become for many people the secular Christmas alternative to Jesus Christ.

I avoid being a total buzzkill about it, but let’s just say I’m not a Santa fan.  I am mystified that many churches perpetuate the myths by bringing “Santa” inside the building to interact with kids — as if the distractions from Jesus that are outside the church weren’t enough.  So I’m glad when people at least refer back to the actions of the real St. Nicholas.

But on to the good news:

But there is more to the story of Nicholas of Myra. He was also a delegate to the Council of Nicea in a.d. 325, which battled the heretics who denied the deity of Christ. He was thus one of the authors of the Nicene Creed, which affirms that Jesus Christ is both true God and true man. And unlike his later manifestation, Nicholas was particularly zealous in standing up for Christ.

During the Council of Nicea, jolly old St. Nicholas got so fed up with Arius, who taught that Jesus was just a man, that he walked up and slapped him! . . . The point is, the original Santa Claus was someone who flew off the handle when he heard someone minimizing Christ.

Read it all, if nothing else but for the “naughty and Nicean” line.

We don’t need to slap laity and leaders who deny the divinity of Jesus, but kicking them out of the church would be a great start and would make the real St. Nicholas happy.

Hat tip: Slap an Arian Day, or the Feast of St. Nicholas of Myra

(Photo Credit: Drew Collins)

(Photo Credit: Drew Collins)

Christian worldview

Atheist group tips hands with another self-refuting billboard

15 Comments

In what has become an annual self-parody for atheist groups, they throw tantrums via billboards to spread their beliefs.  In the past they claimed that “you can be good without God,” which of course ignores that they have no grounding for the word “good” if there is no God.

Here’s the 2011 version:

Via Atheist Group to Sponsor Anti-Christmas Billboards Featuring Jesus, Santa & Satan:

“American Atheists announced Monday on their “No God Blog” a new billboard campaign in their continued effort in “laboring for the civil liberties of atheists,” but in reality just upsetting those who disagree with their theological stance. A press release for the American Atheists’ new holiday season billboard campaign reads:

“American Atheists announced today that their new billboard is going up in several locations nationwide, including the New Jersey side of the Lincoln Tunnel: the same location as last year’s famous ‘You KNOW it’s a MYTH’ billboard. The new billboard will also be going up in Ohio and Florida.

This year’s holiday season billboard features pictures of Neptune, Jesus, Santa Claus, and the Devil and says, ‘37 Million Americans know MYTHS when they see them. What do you see?’”

Anticipating the inevitability that their billboard will offend others, Dave Silverman, the president of American Atheists, said, “When you question someone’s long-held beliefs and doctrine they are going to be immediately offended and be on the defensive: it’s a known psychological phenomenon.”

Yes, it is a known psychological phenomenon that atheists go nuts when they see a manger scene or a cross, so they have the ACLU sue on their behalf to make them go away.

But here’s the amusing part: Even secular historians are wildly in agreement that Jesus really lived and then died on a Roman cross.  They may not believe that He was divine and rose from the dead, but they believe He really lived.  The atheists are as bad at history as they are at science (where they tend to be pro-abortion and pro-Darwinian evolution) if they believe otherwise.  

Speaking of history, if the atheists are so brave in countering myths why don’t they publicly mock Mohammad’s alleged revelations in a cave, 500+ years after Jesus died on the cross, claiming that it wasn’t Jesus at all? (Koran, Sura 4:157-158)  That might get them the attention that they crave, and would at least put them on the side of accurate history.

Or how about if they did billboards highlighting the myth that gays are “born that way,”  or that they are 10% of the population, etc.?

It is easy to spot a bully: They pick on those they know won’t hurt them back.

My advice to Christians is to treat the billboards the way we treated our daughters when they threw tantrums as very small children: Don’t give them the attention that they crave.  It worked really well for us.  Just narrate to others what the atheists are doing and how illogical their statements are.  After all, if Darwinian evolution was true it would be 100.00% responsible for my faith in the evidence for the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.  So why would they want to criticize their pet theory?

Christian living

Do you really want an old-fashioned Christmas?

2 Comments

You might, but only if you go back decades and not centuries. I urge you to read Before you wish for an Old-Fashioned Christmas… for a fascinating overview of how Christmas was celebrated throughout the centuries and how it evolved to what we have today.  You might be surprised at the few things that radically changed it, and the surprisingly positive impact that the Santa phenomenon had.  Don’t get me wrong — I’m not a Santa fan and find him to be a distraction, but the historical impact is significant and not all bad.

However bad you think the commercialization of Christmas is — and I agree that it is bad — the current day celebrations are much more civil than they used to be.  There is no need to be shocked at how easy it is to miss the point of the amazing incarnation, because it has been going on for 2,000 years.

It seems that the most awesome event in human history, the coming of God to earth as a babe in a manger, has been forever obscured by Santa, shopping, and merrymaking… [But before] we brood and protest too much over what we think Christmas must have been like in generations long past, we might actually feel encouraged about the season we celebrate today when we consider what Christmas was really like in the days of old.

Only in relatively recent times, the past two hundred years, has Christmas even been celebrated by most Christians. Up until the 1800’s the day recognized as Christ’s birthday was largely a pagan celebration. Those who bemoan the lack of religious zeal in modern Christmases would have been appalled at the way people in early America celebrated the day. For a majority of people who embraced Christmas throughout history, Christ wasn’t a part of the day at all. In most of the world, especially in England and America, Christmas was not a time of worship, prayer, and reflection; rather, it was a day set aside to sing bawdy songs, drink rum, and riot in the streets.

For centuries, Christmas was anything but a holy day. It was most often a sinful parade of excess, a day set aside for ignoring laws and even terrorizing citizens… Those who attended church did so in wild costumes, the messages of many priests were anything but scriptural, and gambling was common during the services.

. . .

Collins then goes on to explain about the period in the 1600’s where the Puritans in the British Empire, led by Oliver Cromwell, rose up to overthrow King Charles I, and set about banning Christmas festivities and all the debauchery that went with it. He believed that Christmas should be a sober day of reflection where people go about their business just as they would on any other day of the week, and then go home to quietly consider what Christ meant in their lives. So both the sociable and the unsociable extremes of the holiday celebration were outlawed. No gifts given, no toasts made, no carols sung. Likewise, no day set aside to drink rum, riot in the streets and sing bawdy songs, or invade the palatial homes of royalty and the upper-class.

. . .

The drunken parties and gang riots grew so bad that in 1828 the New York City Council met in special session to discuss the issue, and a special police force was formed just to deal with the unlawful conduct of citizens on Christmas Day.

Three primary things changed all that:

  1. Queen Victoria married her cousin, Germany’s Prince Albert, in 1840, which helped import Germany’s more solemn recognition of Christ’s birth.
  2. The poem, “The Night Before Christmas.” (Originally “A Visit From St. Nicholas”)
  3. Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” caused people to re-evaluate the season and how they lived

Perhaps ironically, with the introduction of Santa and Scrooge, and with the commercialization of Christmas, those living in America and England finally got a chance to experience the real meaning of Christmas. Santa put an end to the drunken riots and brought peace to the season, and this allowed millions to reflect on the peace offered by the babe’s birth in a manger. … Though many today may grow tired of the commercialization of Christmas, in reality it has opened the door for Christ to once again become the focal point of the season, and for family, especially children, to be at the heart of the celebration.

I am not a fan of Santa, but I must give credit to how the Santa-thing helped impact the positive ways we celebrate Christmas.

It is indeed also an irony that the big man in the red suit who now usurps the interest of many at Christmas, especially children, should be partly responsible for the freedom we now have to focus on the one who deserves pride of place as the inspiration for the holiday in the first place.

Because you see, Christmas is not about giving, it’s about a gift. May the gift of forgiveness through Jesus, our Lord, fill your heart this year.

Merry Christmas.

Christmas is an amazing holiday.  Easter is the most important event in Christianity, of course, but it had to start with the incarnation.  As radical as the resurrection was, I find the concept that God came into his creation as a human being even more astounding.  And I believe it with every fiber of my body.

Merry Christmas and blessings to all of you!

Roundup

Roundup

9 Comments

Dhimmitude Attitude: Minnesota Head Start Caves to Santa Hating Muslim Somalis – I’m not a Santa fan, but this is ridiculous.  Anyone entering this country – or currently living here, for that matter – needs to be told that there is no Constitutional right to never be offended.

—

If things go wrong in a relationship, who is to blame? – You!  Just kidding . . . maybe.  Go read this provocative piece by the Wintery Knight.

My basic contention is that whenever something goes wrong in a relationship, then the person whose expectations are dashed is to blame.

The reason why I think this is because you have to take people as you find them and then vet them as if they were job applicants applying for the job of marriage. The job of marriage has very specific requirements, and these requirements are objective. Someone is going to have to raise the kids, someone is going to have to cook the meals, someone is going to have to earn the bulk of the money, someone is going to have to deal with the beasties that invade the home. The goal of the relationship is not to test the person to see if they are “fun” or whether your friends are envious. The goal of the relationship is to test the person for the role they will play in the marriage.

. . .

In short, the problem is this: women go to the pet store, pass by all the dogs and cats and bird, and bring home a trendy and attractive alligator, who then promptly bites each of their limbs off. And then the women complain that the alligator is very unfair and immoral. Who is really to blame here? The alligator, who is just doing what comes naturally for alligators, or the woman who passed the good pets by and brought home a monster?

—

Eighteen peer-reviewed scientific publications that support intelligent design – that must be a typo, because everyone knows that those documents can’t exist.

—

UAW’s Announces 2011 Goals: Target Foreign-Owned Auto Plants – their agenda worked so well for the domestic auto makers and their union members.  What could possibly go wrong?

—

NLRB Plans to Promote Union Organizing Among Private Employers – great, as if they hadn’t caused enough destruction already.  The ills of unions are beginning to manifest themselves and it will be very, very painful.

—

Party of Sodomy and Abortion Suffers Demographic Decline — Unexpectedly!

—

The Ladies of the View Owe Bill O’Reilly an Apology – 40% want Sharia law and . . .

Around a third of young British Muslims favour killing in the name of Islam, according to a survey revealed by the WikiLeaks’ publication of U.S. diplomatic cables.

A survey of 600 Muslim students at 30 universities throughout Britain found that 32 per cent of Muslim respondents believed killing in the name of religion is justified.

Religion of peace?  Uh, sure.  An equally valid path to God?  Nope.

Also see Why do feminists ignore the plight of women under Islam?

—

From RedState – even if the Left wants to blame Bush (ignoring, of course, the 2007-2008 Democrat controlled Congress and Frank & Co.’s financial ineptitude), then you’d think that after spending over a trillion dollars that things might have improved a bit more.

—

You can really feel the love from these pro-gay groups.  How quaint that they scripted the little kids to swear and hate as well.

—

Perfect 14 second slam on the pro-abort / anti-meat / anti-Palin Left.   Hat tip: Hillbuzz

 

Roundup

Roundup

Leave a comment

Great commentary on Santa Claus theology — i.e., Liberal theology

But on the basis of Santa Claus theology, sins create no problem, and atonement becomes needless; God’s active favor extends no less to those who disregard his commands than to those who keep them.  The idea that God’s attitude to me is affected by whether or not do what He says has no place in the thought of the man on the street, and any attempt to show the need for fear in God’s presence, for trembling at His word, gets written off as impossibly old-fashioned–’Victorian,’ ‘Puritan,’ and ’sub-Christian.’

Yet the Santa Claus theology carries within itself the seeds of its own collapse, for it cannot cope with the fact of evil.

—

Obama to Iran: Stop laughing, we’re serious! — This is what happens when you elect people like Obama.

As another deadline approaches for Iran to demonstrate its willingness to abandon the nuclear weapons it so clearly desires, both sides have reacted in a predictable manner.  The US reminded Iran that this time we are really, really, really super-serious about it, while Iran scoffs at the threat.  In fact, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says Iran has grown “10 times stronger” on Barack Obama’s watch.

—

Ben Nelson, the Senator who was bribed into voting for taxpayer-funded abortions, displays more of that integrity when switching his vote on that type of bribe once he realized the Democrats had enough votes to win without him.  Classy.

—

I think that James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles should be the People of the Year winners for outing ACORN.  The mainstream media did their best to ignore it and missed countless opportunities to do some real journalism and investigate ACORN themselves. 

—

‘Nonmonogamy’ Advocate Dan Savage Uses Adopted Child to Promote Homosexual ‘Marriage’ — that is, when he isn’t busy with a three-way S&M-fest

—

White House Says “Have A Wonderful Socialist Transvestite Christmas” — I am not making this up: The White House “Christmas” tree had ornaments with a drag queen, Chairman Mao and Obama on Mt. Rushmore.  I’d like to think that those who voted for Obama would deeply regret it, but I’ve found that they tend to be as uninformed about what he has done since the election as they were about what he did before the election.