Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!uwvax!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: bnr-fos!bmers58!davem@watmath.waterloo.edu (Dave Mielke) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Taking God Seriously Message-ID: Date: 30 Oct 89 03:51:02 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Bell-Northern Research, Ottawa, Canada Lines: 72 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article wgm@mbunix.mitre.org (Gregory M. Woodhouse) writes: >... There is nothing >inherently wrong with the characters of Santa Claus or the Easter Rabbit, but >Satan is a master at using the good things of the world to keep us from >enjoying the BEST things. While I entirely agree with most of what you said, and applaud you for it, I must take exception with the two points which you have made in this one sentence. First, it is impossible for some good thing from the world's perspective to be of any real value at all. 1 John 2:15-16 says "Love not the world, neither the things {that are} in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that {is} in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.". Matthew 6:24 says "No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.". Second, there is something very wrong with both Santa Claus and the Easter bunny. They are not real. God has commanded us not to lie. Exodus 20:16 says "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.". Putting it a different way, He has also commanded us to always speak the truth. Ephesians 4:25 says "Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.". Any of us who even have the slightest desire to have our children believe in Santa Claus, the Easter bunny, or any other ficticious character for that matter, is engaging in serious sin by lying to the very people whom we ought to love the most. Proverbs 6:19 tells us that "a false witness that speaketh lies" is an abomination to the Lord. At an earthly and more tangible level, how dare we expect our children to take us seriously ever again when we so willfully mislead them in the very area of their source of fulfillment for their lives. We ought to be spending all that wasted time and effort teaching them about God, His tremendously selfless sacrifice, His unimaginably wonderful promises, and their urgent and unavoidable need of all of these. Perish the thought that we really don't quite trust God and actually believe that there is something that our children would be missing if they didn't have the hope of receiving a gift of little, if not no, real value from Santa Claus? May it never be! May it also never be that we would deceive ourselves with the lie that such lies couldn't possibly actually do any real harm! Any time we expend that is not directed at leading them toward Christ and the salvation He offers is wasted and potentially inflicting infinite damage. Fortunately, God can make up for our inadequacies as parents. This is no excuse, however, for us to take the job He has given us any less seriously. We must raise each and every child which He has blessed us with as though he were a potential member of the KIngdom of God by doing our utmost to train him in the way he must go in order to be fully qualified for that honour! Each of these ficticious beings, i.e. Santa Claus, the Easter bunny, and the like, is ascribed the characteristic of being the one who is the bringer of all good and perfect gifts. Santa Claus, in particular, is ascribed the characteristic of being the one who is the judge of our behaviour. These are characteristics that we ought dare only ascribe to none other than God Himself, yet even many of those who profusely proffess Christianity do otherwise. Let us not forget God's own claims that He is the sole possesser of these characteristics. James 1:17 says "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.". 2 Corinthians 5:10 says "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things {done} in {his} body, according to that he hath done, whether {it be} good or bad.". Dave Mielke, 613-726-0014 856 Grenon Avenue Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K2B 6G3