I remember watching the Opening Ceremonies for the 2008 Olympic Games. This fare dominated our senses from a Sony 60″ rear projection television.
What a spectacular job the Chinese did with lights, fireworks, dancers, and effects! I was fascinated by the vision being offered. I was also reminded again as to why no channels appear on our 20″ screen at home. As soon as the commercials played, I was thankful that the images and messages being bombarded at us never enter our minds or the minds of our children at home!
Previews of a television show displayed a quick view of a woman dressed in a white teddy as she sensuously walked towards a character, her filmy robe flowing open behind her. Previews of another program depicted Christian Slater kissing one woman, then a different one, and then another! I guess he couldn’t make up his mind. Target featured women with hair flowing behind them, sexy poses, spaghetti strap tops, etc.
It got to the point that at every commercial I just turned my head to talk to friends across the room so that I was not exposed to what the media had decided was the role of a woman.
After one hour, I had enough and we went home. My husband had decided earlier not to watch any of it and had stayed in another room to read a book. My kids were not there, thankfully. And my friend’s four boys were spared the brain-washing as they played in the basement.
Television, Video Games, DVD’s, Computer Games – my husband has defined these as the antichrist in the corner of our Living Room/Family Room.
What does the Bible say about the antichrist?
The antichrist is mentioned in 1 John 2:18,22; 1 John 4:3; 2 John 1:7. Easton’s Bible Dictionary defines it as “against Christ, or an opposition Christ, a rival Christ.”
1 John 2:18 “Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour.”
The Rival
I consider television, computers and video games to be rivals to Christ in our society today. Many kids come home from school and sit in front of the TV for relaxation. Saturday mornings offer many venues for them. Adults come home from work exhausted and like to “relax” in front of the TV. Many homes have a TV on all day just for background noise. Video and computer games are played hours on end. These are thieves; they steal valuable time that could be spent with family, but more importantly time spent with God.
God wants to enjoy a relationship with us, but that requires time and effort. He wants time with us. When you meet someone, in order to get close to them and love them, you must invest some time with them. It is no different with God. God wants us to get to know Him.
Jeremiah 29:13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
He wants us to meditate on His Law.
Joshua 1:8 Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate (muse, speak, imagine, study) on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.
How valuable a lesson it is when a child is being helped through a problem or is being disciplined and a memorized scripture is used to back it up! I have seen their eyes light up with understanding knowing that it’s not my word but God’s Word that is instructing them. He carries a lot more authority than I do!
This would mean that quality time must be spent in the Word, studying, pondering, musing, speaking, memorizing it. Time must be spent in teaching these to our children, reading to them, talking about it, encouraging them to memorize, underline, and apply the Word to their lives.
Deuteronomy 6:7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
Time away from these forms of media gives you time to invest in the study of the Word and it also provides time to bond with your family.
I have entered homes where the TV is going non-stop in the background, while a video game is being played in another area of the home for hours. Family time, where there is interaction between all members, has become something either forgotten, or has to appear on a schedule as an outing or a set time at home. The people that children spend their evenings with are the people they will bond with. This does not mean in front of the TV together. This means quality time playing a game, throwing the football, reading a classic, studying some scriptures, and some good time putting them to bed. No matter how old my children get, they still love that time when I tuck them in and rub their backs while we chat for a few minutes. Even a quick cuddle means the world to them.
Think about time for a minute. Let’s suppose you are spending two hours a day in front of the television. That would equate to at least 520 hours a year IF you did it only on weekdays. What would that 520 hours invested in the Word of God and in your children mean to you? What difference would it make in your lifestyle, in your relationships, in your attitude? It would be a tremendous, positive investment in your future and the future of your descendants!
The Opposition
What do these avenues offer us that is in direct opposition to Christ? We have shows and commercials that portray women as sexual objects; husbands and wives who bicker and put each other down for the sake of amusement; excess violence; adultery; children who grow up without parental intervention and who have relationships with the opposite sex before they are mature enough to handle it; children who disrespect and disobey their parents; homosexuality; broken marriages; the gain of material possessions to have happiness; games that reward the theft of autos; the list goes on.
These are all in opposition to Christ. We have been given children to raise according to God’s Word. They are a gift from God.
Psalms 127:3 Sons are a heritage from the Lord, children a reward from him.
When their minds (and ours!) are filled with these untruths, we are doing them (and us) a big disservice. God says:
Romans 12:2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
We must watch what goes into our minds. You’ve heard of the story of the boiled frog. He begins in a pot of cold water. As the heat is turned up, he slowly adjusts his body temperature until he dies because he never felt the heat.
It is the same with what goes into our minds. It starts with little permissions here and there until we have become desensitized to the horror it all represents. God never intended for His precious daughters to be lusted after; for His special children to disobey their parents and lose out on a good life; for husbands and wives to live as two instead of as one. The media has drummed these untruths into our minds, each year getting a little more bold in the opposition of The Word.
I spoke with someone once about this and asked how their family deals with the way women dress and act on TV. I was told that they look at each other and exclaim, “can you believe that?” Unfortunately, the image and the message has already made its way into the mind by then. And the TV stays on…
If I offered you a glass of juice when you were thirsty and, just as you were about to take a drink, I mention that there is only a pinch of dog feces in it, would you still drink it? Should we allow that pinch in our homes?
Deuteronomy 7:26 Do not bring a detestable thing into your house or you, like it, will be set apart for destruction. Utterly abhor and detest it, for it is set apart for destruction.
These images and lessons portrayed on the media are detestable things! They are a rival to Christ and are in direct opposition to His Word. God warned the Israelites not to mix with the pagan nations so that they would not pick up their practices. We inadvertedly will pick up those practices if we allow paganism into our homes.
A Visualization
A dear friend of mine explained it in a way that helps us visualize the effects. She said that she was watching a show on TV one night and an image came on that made her turn her head and recoil in disgust, exclaiming, “Ooh! I wish I hadn’t seen that!” She had felt violated – forced into seeing something she didn’t want to see.
At that moment the Holy Spirit revealed to her that He felt the same way. He had recoiled in disgust and wished He had not seen it either. He felt violated – forced into seeing something He didn’t want to see.
See, once we accept Jesus, the Holy Spirit takes up residence inside of us.
2 Timothy 1:14 Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you; guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.
1 Corinthians 6:19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?
Therefore, whatever we see, He sees. Whatever we touch, He touches. Whatever we hear, He hears. This puts it all into a different perspective, doesn’t it?
How much more reason for us to really watch what we allow into our minds and our hearts through our senses! Filter what we watch, what we hear, what we read, what we touch, and make sure that it is not offensive to the Holy Spirit who resides in us.
I know that when we stopped allowing ungodly things to enter through our senses, the Holy Spirit moved stronger in our lives. It didn’t take very long for us to see how subtly evil has permeated our world under the guise that, “oh, it’s okay, it’s not THAT bad.” There are things that we catch glimpses of, like we did that night during the Olympic opening ceremonies, that four years earlier we would not have thought much of. But once we fasted from them, the truth of how offensive it really is to God was a true revelation! A lot of what is portrayed in the media is offensive to God and goes against His very Word!
We, like Joshua, should proclaim:
Joshua 24:15 “But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”
Is It Easy?
No – it wasn’t easy when we took the TV out of our home 2004. We cleaned everything out – music was replaced with Christian CD’s only, radio stations tuned to Christian Channels, DVD’s and videos cleaned out, books exchanged for classics and spiritual books. There was an addiction that suffered withdrawals when the source of pleasure was removed from all of us.
Our kids were angry at us for about two weeks. And grumpy! But slowly and surely, we have run out of time to watch anything except for an occasional dvd that has been preapproved and that contains no sexuality, no profanity, no negative elements.
Our nights are filled with other activities. An example would be last Wednesday. School was out by 4:00PM and Preston and I went for our exercise walk together to get conditioned for snowboarding this year. After that we played a game of Dutch Blitz. He then asked me to throw the football with him. We cooked dinner together and cleaned up. At the end of the evening, he looked up at me with a huge smile and with a contented sigh said, “I love spending time with you.”
I love spending time with him, too…
