Santa Claus

It is amazing how, as we grow and mature in Christ, we see things differently. Day by day, the Lord illuminates different things to us. He shows us how we should grow in His likeness.

Shortly after I was saved, I played the role of Santa at a company Christmas party. At first, I was quite excited about it, looking forward to in, in fact. But as the time drew near, I had an uneasy feeling in me which I did not understand. As the party went on, that uneasy feeling grew and I recognized it as the grieving of the Holy Spirit. I knew what I was doing was wrong, but I did not understand why. However, at the conclusion of that night, I knew I would never dress as Santa again.

The years passed, and I really didn't think about it again until we had children. Really, I didn't think about it until our kids were old enough to talk and start to understand things. As I thought about the subject, I remembered dressing as Santa and my spirit being grieved. I started to look at why. Why would the Lord be upset with me over this? After all, it's really all just in fun, right? Let's just look at that. Is it really all in fun? Does that make it ok?

Suppose I told my kids, like so many parents do, that they need to be good for Santa, that Santa could see them when they sleep and know if they were being good or bad. The first question is wouldn't that be a lie? Wouldn't I be lying to my children? Mat 19:18-19 He saith unto him, Which? Jesus said,
Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, (19) Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. What exactly does it mean to 'bear false witness'? Isn't that a lie? Are there degrees to lies? Is a lie ok as long as it is just in fun? Of course not. There were no conditions set on lying. A lie is a lie, pure and simple. So, what if you don't have kids, but you promote Santa to others? Wouldn't you be promoting the same lie in someone else's kid's minds?

But lying is just one aspect. Think about the attributes of Santa.

• He can see you wherever you are and he knows if you have been bad or good: he is all knowing. Jehovah God is omniscient. No one else is. To claim that someone else can 'know' if you have been bad or good is a lie and it is assigning attributes of God to another.
  
• To deliver presents as he does, Santa must be able to transcend time and space in ways no one else can, or he is not subject to time. God is timeless.
  

But, there is more! Really, this is, in my opinion, the worst part. A few years ago, someone gave us a Christmas card which typifies the concern. This was a card with the simple phrase 'Merry Christmas' inside and a Norman Rockwell style picture on the outside. The picture was the concern. It was a picture of a young child on his knees, beside his bed, praying. Over his head, in the clouds was an image of Santa making a list. Who was the child praying to? Exo 20:3-5 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.
Do you get this? God is proclaiming that He is a jealous God and that he will not hold him blameless who puts another god before him. Clearly, God is commanding us to put no other god before him, yet as a society, we are holding Santa up as an alternative god for children. The card was an image of a child praying to Santa Claus. I met a young boy a few years ago who did not even know who Jesus was, but he quickly told me that Christmas was about Santa Claus.

Really, though, it's all harmless since it is all in fun, right? It's all done with a smile and a wink, right? Speaking of the fool: Prov 10:10 He that winketh with the eye causeth sorrow: but a prating fool shall fall. Whether it is with a wink, or in fun, playing or promoting Santa Claus is still a clear violation of one of the commandments of the Word of God, and likely two.

 

 

Monkeys can do mental math, too

Ok, here is the article from MSNBC.COM:

Rhesus macaque monkeys performed nearly as well as college students at quick mental addition, researchers reported Monday, adding to the evidence that non-verbal math skills are not unique to humans. The study from Duke University follows findings by Japanese researchers earlier this month that young chimpanzees performed better than human adults at a memory game. Prior studies have found that non-human primates can match numbers of objects, compare numbers and choose the larger number of two sets of objects. "This is the first study that looked at whether or not they could make explicit decisions that were based on mathematical types of calculations," said Jessica Cantlon, a cognitive neuroscience researcher at Duke whose work appeared in the open-access journal PLoS Biology. "It shows when you take language away from a human, they end up looking just like monkeys in terms of their performance," Cantlon told Reuters in a telephone interview. Her study pitted Boxer and Feinstein — two female rhesus macaques named after U.S. Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein of California — against 14 Duke University students. "We had them do math on the fly," Cantlon said. The task was to perform mental addition on two sets of dots that were briefly flashed on a computer screen. The teams were asked to pick the correct answer from two choices on a different screen. The humans were not allowed to count or verbalize as they worked, and they were told to answer as quickly as possible. The monkeys and the humans all typically answered within 1 second. The college students answered correctly 94 percent of the time, while the monkeys were right 76 percent of the time. Both the monkeys' and the students' performance worsened when the two choice boxes were close in number, following a similar downward-sloping curve. "If the correct sum was 11 and the box with the incorrect number held 12 dots, both monkeys and the college students took longer to answer and had more errors," Cantlon explained in a Duke news release. "We call this the ratio effect. What's remarkable is that both species suffered from the ratio effect at virtually the same rate." Cantlon told Reuters that the study was not designed to show up Duke University students. "I think of this more as using non-human primates as a tool for discovering where the sophisticated human mind comes from," she said. The researchers said the findings shed light on the shared mathematical abilities in humans and non-human primates and shows the importance of language — which allows for counting and more advanced calculations — in the evolution of math in humans. "I don't think language is the only thing that differentiates humans from non-human primates, but in terms of math tasks, it is probably the big one," she said. As for the teams, both were paid. Boxer and Feinstein got their favorite reward: a sip of Kool-Aid soft drink. As for the students, they got $10 each — enough for a beer or two. This report includes information from Reuters and msnbc.com. © 2007 MSNBC Interactive URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22303264/ © 2007 MSNBC.com

I know, there are many out there who will trumpet this study as an example of how the fairy-tale of evolution must be true. But, honestly, is that the correct spin on this? Is that really what this study means? If we believe the Bible, we must reject any finding that is in odds with the Bible. After all, if God is not a liar, and some science comes along that disproves God, then the science must be flawed. In this case, they are proving that monkeys are smarter than (or at least as smart as) students at Duke University. Can this be true? Does it mean God is wrong? No!

If this study is not proving evolution to be true and God to be a liar, then what is it proving? I believe the answer to that question is quite simple! The education system in America is not just failing, but failing miserably. Our lack-luster public education system has produced a generation of college students who can be bested in simple cognitive skills by a chimp