EXTRA, EXTRA, EXTRA!!! READ ALL ABOUT IT!
SANTA CLAUS ON PERMANENT VACATION!
“Attention one and all! New startling revelation! Santa Claus is not real, therefore, this year there will not be a Santa! That’s right folks, you read right. Santa Claus does not exist; he’s a myth, a deception, in other words, ‘It’s all been a LIE!’”
From birth to somewhere between the ages of 10 – 13, millions of people have fed the age-old lie to their children about Santa Claus, coming down the chimney on Christmas Eve to deliver toys to good little children. It does not matter that little Annie was “bad” all year round. On Christmas morning, she will awake to find at least four of the six things on her Christmas list, waiting for her under her big, lighted Christmas tree. It all seems so innocent on the surface. As little Annie grows up she learns that there never really was a Santa Claus, only mommy and daddy running frantic from toy store to toy store trying to find exactly what she asked Santa for. Imagine the disappointment, after being fed the lines that Santa brings toys to boys and girls all over the world on Christmas Eve, and not just any toys, but the very toys all those boys and girls have asked for, to find on Christmas day a Pac Man, when you asked for a Super Mario Virtual Reality Home Entertainment Center. How do you explain that to a seven year old who has told every man with a white beard, in a red suit with black boots precisely what he wanted “Santa” to bring him for Christmas, because he’s been a very, very good boy this year.
No matter how you slice or dice it, it comes out the same; the Santa Claus scheme is a hoax. There are no reindeer that fly around carrying a fat man in a sleigh with tons of toys, who lands on rooftops, flops his big self down a narrow chimney (and some houses do not even have fireplaces), deposits toys under a Christmas tree, in a pitch dark room, in a house he has never seen or been in before in his life, and then with a wink of his nose, he zips back up the chimney and rides off in his sleigh being led by the chief reindeer with a red glowing nose. Nevertheless, this is not a harmful lie; it is just innocent fun for the kids.
NEWS FLASH! Any lie is harmful. Why? Because the Bible says in Exodus 10: 16, “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.” In other words, don’t tell lies. The reason for this can be found in Rev. 21:8, “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”
What is a liar? A liar is any person who does not tell the truth. Is there such a thing as a good or bad lie? Will telling a “white lie” also condemn one to the second death? The Bible does not make any distinction between a good, bad, or otherwise lie; it is not the lie that will condemn a person but the actual telling of the lie.
Meanwhile, back to little Annie. She is now grown and has a family of her own; and what does Annie do around Christmas time? She tells her children of the real meaning behind the Christmas season; that Jesus Christ was born Savior of the world; then she takes her kids to the mall to have their picture taken with, not the three wise men, not the babe lying in the manger, but Santa Claus. Why do we go through all that trouble? Why can’t we just take our children to the toy store and let them pick out the toys they want for themselves? Where did all of this hush, hush, secretive Santa stuff come from anyway?
Well, though we have customized Christmas to fit our American standards, many elements of the season are recognized as being taken from many other places. “Our Christmas Eve is English and our Christmas morning looks very German. The carols sung in our churches and streets come from all over Europe but are French to a functional anthropologist, and medieval French at that. A good many of the conventional symbols are Asiatic, and the firecrackers which children set off in San Francisco and New Orleans exorcise demons and propitiate gods that are clearly Chinese. The mistletoe is Norse, and a vigilant suspicion, observing the holly and the eggnog, can detect compulsions bubbling in the blood of pagans far older than the rise of that star in the East which they are used to commemorate.”1 I guarantee the average person did not know that our Christmas celebration is actually made up of bits and pieces of other cultures, and I guess the average person does not really care. However, there is more to it than meets the eye. Let’s first examine the origins of Santa Clause.
For example, Santa Claus supposedly comes from the legendary St. Nicholas, who replaced or incorporated various pagan gift-giving figures such as the Roman Befana and the Germanic Berchta and Knecht Ruprecht. Although of doubtful authenticity, the legend of St. Nicholas spread throughout Europe, emphasizing his role as a traditional bringer of gifts. He was called Sankt Nikolaus in Germany and Sanct Herr Nicholaas or Sinter Klaas in Holland.
St. Nicholas was a man who was born around A.D. 270 in a country called Lycia, which is today a small part of Turkey. On the western edge of the town of Patara, a devout couple whose names were Epyhanus and his wife, Johane lived, comfortable in worldly goods but childless. They had been married for thirty years and their prayer was to have a child. When a boy was borne to them, the event was widely hailed as a miracle. They named the baby Nicholas, meaning “victorious.” When Nicholas was nine, both his parents died during a plague that swept through the land. Early accounts tell how he transferred his love for his parents to the poor and needy of his little town. He is recorded as having helped many people with good deeds such as giving away food, clothing, and money, but this was always done in secret and usually at night.
As Nicholas grew older, his guardians arranged for him to visit the Holy Land to further his religious training. He was intrigued by and marveled at the sights and sounds that he found there but Nicholas felt called to return to his own homeland. This return voyage changed the course of his life that would follow. Before reaching land, they encountered a great storm. The sailors turned to Nicholas for reassurance and he prayed for two days and two nights for their safety. On the third day they landed on the harbor of Myra, a city not far distant from his birthplace. Nicholas’ first thought was to find a quiet church to thank God for their deliverance.
The bishop of the district had recently died and the high-ranking clergy were holding conferences to determine his successor. “At the close of the previous day, one candidate had seemed to stand out as the logical choice, but it had been agreed that the decision would be held over until the next morning. Then, as told in the medieval manuscript, THE GOLDEN LEGEND:
‘….this bishop heard that night a voice which said to him that, at the hour of matins… him that should first come to the church and have the name Nicholas they should declare him bishop. And he spoke this to the other bishops and admonished them to be all in prayers. And he kept the doors. And this was a marvelous thing, for at the hour of matins, like as if he had been sent from God, Nicholas rose before all others…and the bishop told him of what was coming…and how be it that he refused it strongly, yet they set him in the chair.’
Other accounts say he then attended the monastery in a nearby town, completing his training before becoming the abbot of the order and then bishop of the district.”2
As time went on, legends of the good bishop’s deeds on land and sea became abundant. Many astonishing feats and miracles are attributed to him. His travels were extensive and his fame overwhelming. “The feast day of Nicholas, when presents were received, was traditionally observed on December 6. After the Reformation, German Protestants encouraged veneration of the Christkindl (Christ Child) as a gift giver on his own feast day, December 25. When the Nicholas tradition prevailed, it became attached to Christmas itself. Because the saint’s life is so unreliably documented, Pope Paul VI ordered the feast of Saint Nicholas dropped from the official Roman Catholic calendar in 1969. The term Christkindl evolved to Kriss Kringle, another nickname for Santa Claus.”3
At the beginning of the twelfth century, in France, in the name of St. Nicholas, nuns of the convents in the central provinces began the practice of leaving gifts secretly at the houses of poor families with small children on St. Nicholas Eve, the fifth of December. The custom spread rapidly into other parts of Europe and was soon being observed by rich and poor alike. On that same night, in many communities, they would celebrate with a parade which was led by a man representing St. Nicholas, mounted on a white horse, dressed in a red bishop’s robe and traditional mitred hat.
In some countries, Nicholas was said to ride through the sky on a horse, accompanied by Black Peter, an elf whose job was to whip the naughty children. It was not until around 1300 when more and more of the Saint’s admirers began to see him as a version of Odin, or Waton, the powerful pagan god of northern Europe. It was believed that at the time of the Winter Solstice, December 21, Odin could be seen riding through the night skies on a white horse, his long white beard blowing wildly in the wind as he led away the souls that had died that year. As Christianity spread throughout the region, people thought of those souls as the angels of children looking down on their young friends.
Notice the symbolism pointed out here. Who else is described as coming, riding upon a white horse? Check for yourselves, Rev. 19:11 – 16.
Now, let us consider the part Odin plays in all this. In the religious system of Iceland and throughout Scandinavia, Odin was known as the father of Balder. It is written of Balder that the empire of heaven depended on his life. Odin was considered to be the great Scandinavian war god. The names of his sons indicates the meaning of his own name. It seems evident that the name Balder is the Chaldee form of Baal-zer, “The seed of Baal;” for the Hebrew z, frequently, in the later Chaldee, becomes d. Baal and Adon alike signify “lord”; therefore, if Balder be admitted to be the seed or son of Baal, then we can conclude that he is the son of Adon; and consequently Adon and Odin must be the same.
The other son of Odin was named Thor. The Assyrian Adon had a son called Thouros. The name Thouros seems to be another form of Zoro, or Doro, “the seed.” Among the Greeks, Thoros signified “Seed.” The D is often pronounced as Th,-Adon, in the pointed Hebrew, being pronounced Athon.
Conclusion. If the names of the children of Odin signify they are the seed of Adon, and Adon means Lord, then Odin is considered Lord. A Lord who is believed to be seen riding through the skies on a white horse. So if Odin is Lord, and St. Nicholas is portrayed as Odin, what are we really saying about St. Nicholas? You draw the final conclusion.
Now, on another note. If we say Christmas is about the birth of Jesus, the Bible nowhere gives a precise date of when Jesus was born. So was it by pure accident that December 25 happen to be chosen for this momentous occasion? Absolutely not!
What is recorded in the scriptures, implies that at what time soever Christ was born, it could not have been on December 25th. Recount the birth of Christ as recorded in the gospels. It is said that an angel appeared to the shepherds of Bethlehem while they were out feeding their flocks by night in the open fields. Now granted the climate of Palestine is not so severe as the climate of our country; but even there, though the heat of the day is considerable, the cold of the night, from December to February, is very piercing, and it was not the custom for the shepherds of Judea to watch their flocks in the open fields later than about the end of October.
It is recorded in the Jewish Antiquities of Joseph Mede, “At the birth of Christ every woman and child was to go to be taxed at the city whereto they belonged, whither some had long journeys; but the middle of winter was not fitting for such a business, especially for women with child, and children to travel in. Therefore, Christ could not be born in the depth of the winter. …And if any shall think the winter wind was not so extreme in these parts, let him remember the words of Christ in the gospel, ‘Pray that your flight be not in the winter.’ If the winter was so bad a time to flee in, it seems no fit time for shepherds to lie in the fields in, and women and children to travel in.”4
Within the Christian Church, Christmas was not heard of until the third century, and it was not until the fourth century when it gained much observance. How then did the Roman Church fix on December 25th as Christmas day?
Long before the Christian era, a festival was celebrated at this precise time of year in honor of the birth of the son of the Babylonian queen of heaven. When the same festival was adopted by the Roman Church, to appease the adherents of Christianity, they gave it only the name of Christ. Thus the tendency of the Christians to meet Paganism half-way was very early developed.
That Christmas was originally a pagan festival is beyond questioning. The time of the year and the ceremonies with which it is still celebrated, prove its origin. In Egypt, the son of Isis, the Egyptian title for the queen of heaven, was born at this very time, “about the time of the winter solstice.” The very name by which Christmas is popularly known -Yule-day- proves its pagan and Babylonian origin. Yule is the Chaldee name for infant or little child. December 25th was called by our Pagan Anglo-Saxon ancestors, “Yule-day” or “the Child’s day.”
As for some of the customs associated with Christmas, we have already told you that many are from other cultures. The Christmas tree for example was common in Pagan Rome and Pagan Egypt. In Egypt, the tree was the palm tree; in Rome it was the fir. The palm tree denoted the Pagan Messiah as Baal-Tamar, the fir tree referred to him as Baal-Berith. The mother of Adonis was mystically said to have been to have been changed into a tree, and while in that state she brought forth her divine son. Since the mother was a tree, the son must have been recognized as the “Man the branch.” This accounts for putting the yule log into the fire on Christmas eve, and the appearance of the Christmas tree the next morning.
The evergreen Christmas tree, trimmed with lights and other decorations, is derived from the so-called paradise tree, symbolizing Eden, of German mystery plays. The use of a Christmas tree began early in the 17th century, in Strasbourg, France, spreading from there through Germany and then into northern Europe. But we have been warned long before the 17th century about picking up the customs of other peoples. The prophet Jeremiah speaks,
“Thus saith the LORD, ‘Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them. For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not. They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good’ Jer. 10:2 – 5.”
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas
Note that the LORD says “…be not dismayed at the signs of heaven”; the pre-Christian Germanic and Celtic peoples celebrated the winter solstice. This festival has been commonly believed to have had only an astronomical character, referring simply to the completion of the sun’s yearly course, and the commencement of a new cycle. But the festival had an underlying much higher reference than this; for it was considered the birth day of the grand Deliverer, who among the Sabeans of Arabia, was the object of worship as the Lord Moon.
Notice the pattern here. All of the things discussed so far, seems to always lead us back to the winter solstice, where a festival was held for a Pagan god. With all this undercover mess it is no wonder God said, “I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies,” Amos 5:21. Nowhere, however, has there been any mention of the birth of the Savior. So why is it that we celebrate His birth on the 25th of December after the customs of a Pagan god? Why can’t Christians take a stand and liberate the birth of Jesus Christ from this festival day, and celebrate His birth on, say the 25th of June? This date would be more likely to support the Bible account of the shepherds in the field and the travel back to Bethlehem for taxation. I am not suggesting that we should abandon Christmas, but I am saying we need to take a closer look at the customs we celebrate just because we have attached them to Christianity.
As for the rest of the customs associated with Christmas, such as the yule log, holly, mistletoe, and eggnog, they will not be discussed this issue.
For a final note I will briefly discuss the American version of Santa Claus. This figure received its name and inspiration from the Dutch legend of Sinter Klaas, which was brought by settlers to New Yor in the 17th century. As early as 1773 the name appeared in the American press as “St. A Claus.” Popular author Washington Irving gave Americans their first detailed information about the Dutch version of Saint Nicholas. Irving described the arrival of the saint on horseback (unaccompanied by Black Peter) each Eve of Saint Nicholas. This Dutch-American Saint Nick achieved his fully Americanized form in 1823 in the poem commonly known as The Night Before Christmas by writer Clement Clarke Moore. To reconcile the legend of Santa Claus with the religious significance of Christmas, some Christians emphasize that the modern figure is derived from legends about a saint who symbolized love, caring, and generosity. Other Christians simply dismiss the legends altogether and say they recognize and remember the real reason for the season, which is Jesus having wrapped Himself up in flesh and coming down through forty-two generations, to save an adulterous people such as us.
God desires for His people to be educated about the traditions and customs we hold fast to in the name of Christianity. The enemy is so subtle and deceiving. He wants people to perish in ignorance but God does not want us to perish for the lack of knowledge. This is knowledge God will freely give to each of us. We have this thing all wrong. The reason for this season is not the birth of a Pagan god but the real reason for this season is Jesus Christ being born the Savior of the world. Can you better understand now, why some people around this time of year are sooo depressed, while others are sooo joyous and happy? We hear talk about the Christmas spirit. Yes, it is a definite spirit and it is not the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit does not lift up some and depress others; He just does not operate like that. Therefore let us remember Santa Claus will not be coming back to town because his gig is up; he has been exposed! Let us stop the lying to our children and instead, let us share the glorious story of the birth of Christ.
