Catholicism and Santa Claus Style of Salvation

Having grown up in a Roman Catholic family meant that lying about Santa Claus was very normal. It may already be past the feast day of Nicholas of Myra but the myth of Santa Claus has him delivering presents on December 24. It's a problem that Roman Catholic salvation is faith plus works rather than salvation by faith that results in works. There's that license to pride going on when salvation is faith plus works. Even worse, it also teaches that the Catholic priest can restore salvation or that God restores salvation through the Catholic priest. This is really nothing more than a Santa Claus style of salvation. 

How does Santa Claus work as a fictional character? The song "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" says that he's making a list and checking it twice. The song says that he's finding out who's naughty or nice. The song then concludes "so be good for goodness sake". In short, Santa Claus' determination of who's been naughty or nice is based on worldly standards - not God's perfect standards. It's true Heaven is for the righteous and Hell is for the wicked. However, God's standard of a good person is not the same as the worldly standard for a good person. God's standard requires 100% absolute obedience to attain salvation - something man is incapable of doing (James 2:10-11). It's really typical for people who grew up believing in Santa Claus that salvation is by works, isn't it?

The problem of Roman Catholicism is that it tends to view salvation in almost the same way as Santa Claus' naughty and nice list. I remembered I was often told to do more good than bad to attain salvation. I was also told that Santa Claus rewards good little girls and boys and leaves no nice stuff for those who were naughty. I was told to confess frequently to a priest if I ever committed a mortal sin. However, the Bible makes no distinction between mortal and venial as all sin condemns man to Hell. Worse, Romans 3:10-19 says that no one is righteous according to God's holy standards. God's Law is opened and we all realize that we're cut short of the holy, righteous God. That's something that Santa Claus' naughty and nice list isn't. Santa Claus rewards a child for being "overly good" and punishes the child for being "overly bad". Yet, in God's case - not even the most worldly righteous person will attain Heaven (Galatians 2:21). Check out 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 and you'll notice nobody is exempt from that list. Did you get into idolatry? You're unrighteous. Did you steal even one candy? You're unrighteous. You get into God's naughty list for just one sin and you can't do anything about that apart from Jesus!

The issue with God is that we've all been naughty. God's naughty and nice list is even filled with the most worldly righteous people ever. I don't doubt some Roman Catholics are living their best, doing all the good they can. However, even the most well-behaved Roman Catholics are still going to Hell with Roman Catholics who live like they've got a license to sin. It's because God's salvation is not dependent on the way Santa Claus makes his naughty and nice list. Hell is for the wicked and Heaven is for the righteous is just half the truth. The full truth is nobody is really a good person by God's standards. The solution is that Jesus was born to die for the sins of mankind. Jesus lived the perfect life nobody could keep and provided salvation from sin for the best and the worst of sinners.