A sudden inspection of the American Consulate in Cairo was carried out last week after the New York Post reported that the U.S. State Department was investigating complaints hard-line Islamic employees inside the Consulate office kept posters on the walls of the militant group Hamas.

The only posters inspectors found, though, were of the black-robed Coptic Christian pope, Shenuda III, and Santa Claus.

I found this news somewhat comical in light of my pastor's Christmas Day sermon the Sunday before last, in which he outlined the underlying Satanic-counterfeit theme to the whole myth of Jolly Old St. Nick.

As my pastor (Richard Jordan, Shorewood Bible Church, Rolling Meadows, Ill.) reminded the congregation, Satan is the great imitator of the Lord Jesus Christ. His whole M.O. and methodology is to counterfeit what God's doing—trying to look like, imitate and take the place of Jesus Christ.

So take a look at this outtake from his sermon, which I've simply edited and paraphrased in spots:

Someone asked me this morning, "You know where Santy Claus is in the Bible?" Well, look at Zechariah 2:6. It reads, "Ho, ho, come forth, and flee from the land of the north, saith the Lord: for I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the heaven, saith the Lord."

This is God calling Israel back to Jerusalem (for Jesus Christ's return to set up His kingdom), and when He does, He says, 'Ho, ho.'

He's not Jolly Old St. Nick, He's 'Jolly Jehovah'! He's excited about regathering Israel and putting them back into their land.

Isn’t that interesting—that excitement of the Lord? Most people think about god, "He's this gray-haired old man up in heaven looking around trying to find someone who doesn't believe to tell him, 'I've got a Coke bottle here; I'm gonna fix you with it.' "

How many times have you talked to someone about salvation, and life, and peace, and forgiveness, and liberty, and happiness, and purpose and meaning in their life, and they say, "Well, you're just trying to take something away from me"?

I talked to a guy not long ago in the airport in Detroit who pulled a pack of cigarettes out and said, "If I get saved, can I still smoke these?"

Imagine, the guy's going to let that pack of cigarettes take him to hell. The answer is, "Sure you can still smoke 'em." You may smell like you've been to hell, but you're not going to be sent to hell.

Here the guy's afraid he'd have to give something up that's killing him anyway!

So people get this idea of God being an ogre, but the Bible talks about God being the happy God—the God, who when He sees His purposes being accomplished, He says, "Ho, ho." And you just thought that was Santy Claus. But you know people mistake Santy Claus for God anyway. Sure they do.

If you take the name Santa, and make an anagram out of it (an anagram is where you confuse the letters to hide a word), just moving one letter, isn't it interesting?

Who has claws? Doesn't a cat have claws? Didn't you ever read that verse that talks about Satan going around as a "roaring lion seeking whom he may devour"?

I'm just playing with you now. You can do this stuff on down through. But isn't it interesting, the Great Counterfeit of Jesus Christ, and what's he doing? He's "ho, ho, hoing" from the land of the north, when that's really God doing that. That's the thing that strikes me.

In Rev. 1:14, talking about the Lord Jesus Christ, it says, "His head and his hairs were white like wool." So what kind of hair does this guy have?

Verse 15 says, "And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace." So when this guy comes to your house, what does he come down? The chimney. Did you ever look up the word "chimney" in the dictionary? It means "a furnace of fire."

Come with me to Isaiah. 63:2. This is talking about the Lord Jesus Christ coming. It says, "Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel." What color clothes does he wear?

You got a guy in red clothes with white hair, shouting "Ho, ho, ho" when he's coming, and who is he?

Look at what Deuteronomy 33:26 says about the Lord Jesus Christ when He comes back to establish His kingdom.

(And, by the way, if you notice verse 24, it says, "And of Asher he said, Let Asher be blessed with children; let him be acceptable to his brethren." Asher is the name of the boy Leah had back in Genesis when she said, "Happy am I, for the daughters will call me blessed." Asher means "happy.")

So when the happy God comes to accomplish His purpose, verse 26 says, "There is none like the God of Jeshurun, who rideth upon the heaven in thy help, and in his excellency on the sky."

You know how He comes back? He's riding in the sky. So we've got a guy with white hair and a red suit, riding in the sky, going, "Ho, ho, ho," from the land of the north. And when I describe him to you, who do you think of?

In Matthew 7:7, when Jesus Christ's speaking to the "little flock" in Israel, talking about when He comes to say "Ho, ho, ho" to the nation Israel—when He comes with that white hair and red garment, riding in the heavens to establish His kingdom—He says to that kingdom group of saints, "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you."

You take your kids down to the mall and what do you tell them to tell this other guy in a red suit and white hair? You say, "Tell him what you want." Because whatever you want, he'll give it to you.

In Genesis 18, the question's asked, "Is anything impossible with God?" Whatever you want, this dude will get you.

In Matthew 28, Jesus said, "All power in heaven and earth is given to me." This other guy over here, we say, "Well, he knows everything. He knows when you're sleeping, he knows when you're awake, he knows when you're bad, he knows when you're good. He's making a list and checking it twice."

Rev. 20:12 says men are going to stand before God and the books are going to be opened, and they're going to be judged out of the things written in the books. God's got a list.

Gets kind of spooky, doesn't it? Think somebody's trying to counterfeit something along the way here?

Psalm 102 talks about god being "throughout all generations." Everybody in this room, every generation in here, has had that same exact guy in the white hair and red suit, etc. "ho, ho, hoing" every Christmas.

Titus 2:13 says, "Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ." You know what believers ought to be? You ought to be as excited about the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ as you tried to talk your kids into being last night about Santy Claus coming.

That's how excited you ought to be. By the way, in John 10:42, it says about Christ "many believed on him." I took my kids to the mall when they were small and a lady walked up to my son and said, "Oh, sonny, do you believe in Santa Claus?" What you have to do with kids, you have to tell them to believe in Santa Claus.

People say, "It's just a fantasy; it's just a joke. It's just fun." I used to tell my kids if you want Santa Claus to bring it to you, let him bring it, but there's no big fat guy in a red suit with a white beard gonna get credit for money I spent."

The most important time in the life of a person to reach them with the gospel is when they're children. It's the most fertile time, but it's also the most important time. Because why would you want to wait until you're an adult?

Why would you want your kid to have to lose an arm first, as it were, before they came to Christ and learned to have His life live in them?

Little kids are impressionable. I've heard testimony after testimony from people who say, "When I grew up, the stuff I was learning about God, and Jesus, and all of that, it was just like all this 'Santa stuff.' The stuff I learned about Satan was just that kind of stuff too, and when I gave up believing in Santa Claus, I gave up believing in Him (God and Jesus Christ). It was all the same fantasy."

When we talk about the incarnation of Christ, and the Cross work, and the resurrection, we're talking about historic realities—things that happened in history that prove God's love is not a hoax and it's not a fantasy.

You know, the thing about Santa Claus, and all the merriment associated with it, it just isn't true. Nobody can even tell you where it came from. They argue about it. They don't know where it came from.

About 70-80 years ago in America, some merchants hit upon the idea we can make more money. Dress the dude up and have the kids come. A lot of it's commercial driven.

Your faith, the Christian faith—being complete in Christ—doesn't rest on a pathetic echo from the bygone past. It rests upon historic realities that are as real in history as you sitting in this room this morning.

Remember the "Ho, ho, ho" is God Himself rejoicing in what He's doing in His Son, not some bearded clown dunce trying to get your money or your soul.