I am often amazed over our human reaction to truth. From early on, many of us are taught as children by our parents to always tell the truth and not to lie. Yet, strangely enough, we allow, no, in fact, encourage certain lies or untruths to proliferate in our society by the parents to their children!

"So, what are you saying, Bruce?" I'm saying that parents and society lie to the children deliberately and joyfully in the mythological creature known as Santa Claus (of course, we could say the same thing about the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy, too). On the one hand, we tell our children that lying is wrong and not to do it, yet on the other hand we give them a world-wide example of lying and giving approval to it!

We have thousands of Santa's helpers on the streets and in the stores during Christmastime to spread the holiday cheer, a plethora of television commercials with children on Santa's lap asking him for presents, the United States Postal Service forwards children's letters to the North Pole, and NORAD tracks Santa's trip on RADAR as he makes his way to our cities on his annual flight to deliver his gifts from his chilly abode in the far north. In short, we not only tell them the lie, excuse me, the white lie (untruth), but we make a major production out of it!

Then eventually, after years of telling our kids that Santa exists, when they get old enough we tell them the real truth, Sorry, there is no Santa, but there is the spirit of Saint Nicholas wherever people of good will share together. Ho, Ho, Ho...

Now, while I am not against having fun or against the spirit of giving, I really do have a problem with this Santa lie and this whole Christmas thing especially in regards to the over-commercialization of this holiday. But to me, it goes much, much deeper than that: not only is Santa a lie, but also the date of Christ's birth that Christians celebrate it on is, too a carryover from an ancient Roman celebration of Saturnalia. Historically speaking, Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the Church and most definitely does not have an Apostolic origin. In truth, December 25th as the day of nativity was not generally observed until the 5th century AD, though, as the winter solstice, it had long been observed as a pagan festival of Sol Invictus (unconquered sun).

If we are really committed to truth in our society, should we be purveyors of this untruth? Shouldn't we be more committed to spreading truth as a society? More poignantly, should believers in Jesus be promoting Santa Claus and Christmas when, indeed, the early church did not?

"Ahh, its just harmless fun? Chill out! Its no big deal like you make it out to be!"

Since when is lying no big deal? Is there not a disappointment when children finally find out the real truth about Santa? Isn't that a big deal?

But there is more to it than that: Does this set them up to ask another question later that has more serious ramifications?

(sigh)"Whats that, Bruce?" Well, they were told as little children that there is a God, too (and they can't see Him anymore than they could see Santa). Perhaps someday when they get old enough, they'll be told that He isn't real, either! [And believe me, they will...]

I think it best that we tell the truth from the beginning as best as we could and carry that out through the rest of our lives. We don't need a Santa to share of God's love for us by sending His "only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him would have everlasting life." We don't need a separate and pagan-originated holiday to express Gods great gift to us! Instead, we have the appointed Biblical feasts in Leviticus 23 and one of them is the Feast of Tabernacles, which Scripturally portrays a more accurate time in which Gods Son would come to earth to Tabernacle among us (John 1:14)!

Jesus, in His criticism of the Pharisees in Matthew 15:3 asked, "Why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? Now, it was not that Jesus was against tradition - Jesus Himself observed many Jewish traditions (Channukah being one). He was simply against those traditions which violate or invalidate Gods commandments.

Does Christendom also have traditions that violate or invalidate Gods commandments? Indeed it does! Christmas and Easter are just two of these!

"Why do you say that?" Well, God in numerous places tells us not to inquire as to how the nations worship their gods (Deut. 12:30; 18:9; 29:18, et al) or to practice the pagan practices of those nations. Since both Christmas and Easter are built upon and have incorporated pagan practices into them, they are not to be observed.

The question we all need to ask ourselves is this: "What do we do with those traditions in our lives when we discover that they do invalidate or violate Gods commandments?" Do we ignore the truth and pretend that it doesn't matter? Do we say, "Well, I know it was pagan, but I'm not doing it for the same pagan reasons as they observed it?"

Let me ask you, "Is truth truth simply because we say or believe it is so? Or is truth truth regardless of our position on it?" If the latter, should we not acknowledge the truth, follow it and let the chips fall where they may?

More importantly, what should we do with the truth? when we find it?

In John 18:38 - as Jesus stood before Pilate, Pilate asked Jesus, "What is truth?" And when he had said this, he went out again he didn't even bother to stay around to listen as The Way and the Truth and the Life was speaking to him right to his face.

What are we going to do? Walk away from it, as Pilate did, or as men and women of God act upon it?

The choice is ours.

This article is the viewpoint of Bruce R. Booker and does not necessarily represent the views of all the members of Beth Yeshua Messianic Congregation.