I believe, unequivocally, that all these questions produce in you and me a sickened, guilty feeling because we don’t truly understand the power we have been given as a result of the life Jesus Christ led and the death He willingly suffered. If these questions don’t produce this feeling of guilt and shame, either we’re engaged in battle already (fight on, brother/sister!) or we’re jaded and scarred from lives of sin – even as we call ourselves Christians – to the point that the Holy Spirit’s conviction has lost all sting. I pray it’s the aged! What then are we to do? If we truly wish to have the power we are promised, we must understand it! We must know how to access it! We must know what we are currently involved in which will hinder that power and flee from it!

As Christians, we’ve all heard – or possibly made – excuses for our lack of growth and maturation in Christ: “I know what I should be doing; I objective don’t (fill-in-the-blank)”. The key is the excuse, “I know what I should be doing”, or its numerous variations with which we are all familiar. Saying this is totally unacceptable and naively self-deceiving. We can look around and conclude firmly that knowledge without action is not a luxury we as Christians – engaged in a very literal fight for the souls of men – can afford. Knowledge is action; there is no distinction between the two! If we know what God commands us and what is required of us we either obey or we disobey: free will doesn’t end once we’re born-again! We still must daily choose life over death, Christ over Satan, obedience over disobedience! If we think we can forgo the act of making a conscious decision, the decision has thus been made and made for the worse!

If, as Christians, we profess a certain truth about God, we gain that truth to be final and complete. We can neither add nor detract anything from it, for fear of God’s wrath upon us (Rev. 22:18-19)! If that’s so, knowledge of Scripture coupled with the legal interpretation – God’s interpretation – necessitates action on our part! To steal from Don McClure, the formula for Christian living is to first observe the law, which translates to the importance of time spent daily in the Word of God studying and reading His love letter to us. Next, we must meditate on what we’ve observed. Its here Scripture is revealed to us through the power of the Holy Spirit, and we are given the value of Scripture and how to apply it to our lives and make it part of who we are. Finally – and this is where the disconnect seems to be the greatest – we must obey! We must do! We must act! If Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 6 that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit and goes on to warn us of the dangers of putting into our temples unclean things, why do we do it? If we know the movies and TV shows we watch are dishonoring to God, why do we fail to obey and turn the channel or, better yet, shut it off and engage up His Word! Why don’t we pursue activities that bring Him glory and advance His kingdom? Why do we sit by idly as the devil roams the earth devouring souls? Where is Christ’s army in our country today?

It seems as though we are our bear worst enemy, as it were. If we know that “No weapon formed against (us) shall prosper…This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord…” (Isaiah 54:17), why aren’t we putting that knowledge into action? I truly believe it’s an issue of spiritual laziness, which has been instilled in us as a result of the degradation of our culture and society, of which the floodgates opened in the 1950s/60s. We are taught that instant gratification and self-worship should be our aim, and if something looks to set us outside of our comfort zones, we must avoid it in favor of lesser pursuits. Specifically, we as a nation have given our intellectual lives over to the power of the devil in the originate of our unhealthy – spiritual, physical, mental, and otherwise – devotion to television.

America’s guide to Christian living (hint: it’s not the right one)

I’m going to try to explain the dramatic effects of television on the viewer in an attempt to persuade you from engaging in any form of extended TV viewing. If, at the slay of this section, you are not fully repulsed by TV to the point of taking action, the fault lies not in the truth of the matter but rather in my inability to convey the message correctly. This is not to say that I have thrown out my hold TV or do not spend time watching it. I do. While I feel certain we all know to avoid the scandalous over-sexualized programming we’re bombarded with, switching the channel to a less offensive show is not the answer. The respond is a return to the friendly pursuits we sought after before we as a country sacrificed our intellect and ambition and motivation to the nightly sitcoms. Ultimately, we need to watch far less TV. On average, Americans watch about five hours of television a day. Conclude and think where you fall in that average, be it higher or lower, but understand the significance of this number nonetheless. It’s truly frightening to think of what this means, to which I’ll now turn.

The effects of viewing TV are scary, to say the least. Most of what follows is taken from a great website I’ve linked to here. I’ve checked out its references and verified its contents with other sources, which I now encourage you to do. Don’t simply bewitch my word on this, please. Our culture – specifically our infatuation with TV – has also dangerously eroded our God-given skepticism towards new information, so we hardly pick the time to test the spirits, as we’re told in 1 John 4:1. This means to challenge what we hear, to take a studious look at new ideas or information (old ideas if they previously entered us untested) and line them up with what the Word of God teaches. We read in verses 2 and 3 of 1 John a simple test by which we can resolve if an opinion is worthy of our temple:

“By this you know that Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.”

Whoa! What does that mean? As food for plan of which I will return to later to avoid my propensity for digression, it means the battle has begun? Are we fighting alongside our Lord and Savior or are we standing on the sidelines with our back to the war raging on?

In returning to the effects of TV, the results are in. TV is overwhelmingly negative for anyone, but especially more so for the active plan life necessary to be an effective soldier in God’s army! To begin, humans are hard-wired (by God) to have a natural response to turn their attention to things that change in their environment. This is called the orientation response. This is obviously beneficial to us for basic survival, even today in our relatively violence-free society. If you’ve ever instinctively ducked out of the way of something as it’s thrown at you – or moved to catch it – you should thank your orientation response for the initial focusing on that object. What TV does is constantly grab – and contain – our attention by consistently changing the images on Cover every few seconds. This is done on purpose to exploit this natural human response and keep us watching.

Now that we’re glued to the TV (and continually re-glued) we can peer very observable changes in both our cognitive functions and our social interactions, both for the worse. Look at someone who is watching TV. The glazed-over “zombie” eyes of a TV viewer are unavoidable. This achieve is due to the brains transition from a normal, mentally active state producing beta waves (and beyond) to the passive state of mental inactivity, represented by the production of alpha waves. We’ve moved from an active, engaged, defensive brain to a passive, receptive, unguarded brain. This, as one would bewitch, is very dangerous for those of us looking to cultivate a higher degree of intellectualism necessary for the battle we face!

This alpha state is relaxing. It is relaxing to the point where it is a form of hypnosis. Not a mild hypnosis or something similar to hypnosis, but actual hypnosis which is a very real physiological characteristic of human beings. For anyone skeptical of the validity of hypnosis, consider this: We are in a hypnotic status when we’ve driven a number of exits on the highway and can’t remember the last few miles. We’re fully functioning, but our mind is focusing on other things separate from the task before us. We are very quickly able to revert back to full consciousness in either instance, of course, but TV aggressively attempts to hold our gaze by constantly changing the view. It’s in this altered state that TV has the most damaging affects on our minds.

When our brains are producing alpha waves, we know that the left side of our brain, the critical thinking part, has basically gone to sleep. It’s no longer functioning in any meaningful blueprint, and the images and ideas we receive from the TV are left unchecked by our reasoning faculties to assimilate themselves into our subconscious without any resistance. Basically, TV’s messages are able to bypass our natural skepticism as it’s been shut off and the message portrayed becomes part of who we are, regardless of our desires to the contrary. Here’s a fun question: Are these ideas good ideas, conducive to a Christian worldview and edifying to the body of Christ, or does Hollywood and Big Media have other plans for us? I don’t need to answer that question, and I certainly don’t consider the answer is the least bit fun. Unfortunately, I do need to ask it as it seems we, as Christians, have yet to square off in battle against it!

So, our brains are now receiving, unchecked, the images and ideas of none less than the Antichrist, which we learned from 1 John was already in the world. As an aside, the man himself who will fill the role of Antichrist may not yet physically be here, but the power he will receive from Satan is long since been established as ruler of this age. What does TV give us, now that we are mindlessly glued to it? (Again, if I haven’t thoroughly convinced you of the seriousness and scientific validity of TV’s ability to do this, please get online and research this topic on your own.) The message of TV is simple, yet totally destructive in its purpose. On TV, simple, short, segments are preferred over lengthier development of thought-provoking materials. Advertising is infinitely more effective when appealing to emotion rather than logic or reason. To this end, television applies these simple messages to our emotional rather than logical faculties and has instilled in us values which stand firmly against the message of Jesus Christ.

What follows is a brief description of Ron Kaufman’s “A Nation of Morons: Is Television Making us Dumb? ” I’ve linked to it here. To begin, Kaufman describes what he calls the “Entitlement of Consumption”. He says,

Television fosters an overall belief that the purchase of a product is the ultimate path to happiness. Additionally, consumption of goods and services is not only important for individual fulfillment, but is also a guaranteed right of society. All men and women are entitled to continue to purchase products as needed without restraint…Television teaches that everyone consumes. Individual needs and happiness are the only criteria. A product’s impact on community or the environment are externalities and pale in comparison to convenience and entertainment value.

There are numerous studies available online to confirm his theory, as well as our own ability to understand that this is a very easily discernible characteristic of those who spend too much time watching TV, to include even ourselves. So, now that we understand the message TV pushes on us, we must, as responsible Christians, do as John tells us. We line up the messages and goals of TV with Scripture and see if they fit. While I don’t feel as though I have to go through the exercise of comparing and contrasting, I’m going to do just that to illustrate my point.

After God made the Garden of Eden and created man, we read in Genesis 2:15,

“Then the Lord God took the man and do him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it.”

Later in the New Testament, the Bible tells us in 2 Thessalonians 3:10-12,

“…If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat. For we hear that there are some who walk among you in a disorderly manner, not working at all, but are busybodies. Now those who are such we command exhort through our Lord Jesus Christ that they work in quietness and eat their maintain bread.”

Numerous other examples abound of this same concept. In both instances, we read of God clearly showing us His purpose for man; that is, we are to work for anything and everything we receive. If a man doesn’t work, he doesn’t eat. The Word of God is very clear in this, and even a cursory study of entitlement in the Bible will prove this to be so. What does this mean for Kaufman’s “Entitlement of Consumption” theory? It means that it is wholly damaging to our idea of God and what He wants for us in our lives. It means every time we subject ourselves to this idea of entitlement we are mocking the commandments of God and willfully placing the television’s precepts and ideals ahead of those of Jesus Christ. Regardless of how worthy we feel we can resist its pull, when we gorge on these ideas day after day they assimilate into our subconscious and our actions/words/thoughts are affected as such.

At this point, after months and years of watching, we have effectively made TV our god as it consumes a great deal of our time. We know how TV affects us and, again, we simply can not help but adopt its values as our own. We’ve made a decision every time we sit in front of the TV to follow after TV (Satan), however briefly we stay tuned. If this sounds extreme, it is! The values preached by TV are not God’s values, so when we fill ourselves with them we’re putting them ahead of God. Again, if this claim is fantastic to some, it’s meant to be! But if we disagree, we must have a logical response and be able to satisfy God’s commandments with that response!

We understand how to test this, and if the two do not match up, Joshua tells us in chapter 24, verse 15 of his book, “And if it seems obnoxious to you to befriend the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve…” Again, we still gain our free will as believers! And, of equal importance, we will be held responsible for what we’ve done with it! Did we serve Him and obey His commandments or did we choose to follow the lies of the devil through our complacency and lack of concern for the battle raging on around us? Before we choose – and choose we must – we’d be wise to remember Jesus’ words in Matthew 25 as He speaks the parable of the talents, specifically to the servant who hid the talent in the ground:

“…You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and regain where I have not scattered seed…Therefore, consume the talent from him and…cast the unprofitable servant into the darkness…”

We’ll either serve our Maker or we’ll serve ourselves, which leads not only to our separation from God if we’re saved and eternity separated from Him if we’re not, but also to the next television ideal.

TV also aims to promote “Individual Superiority”, according to Kaufman. Again, without having to prove this at length, we can all sit back and look at the rampant consumerism and greed which has engulfed our nation and the world. Do you have an “I”pod? What about “MY”space and “YOU”tube? Scary, when we terminate and realize the emphasis on me and what I want. Go to Burger King and “Have it your way”. T-Mobile wants my business because “It’s all about you!” AT&T competes with “Your World. Delivered.” With such an overwhelming focus on self, it’s easy to imagine what this produces in the viewer. Never mind the obvious sense of entitlement, but what about what this does to our ability to feel compassion or concern for others? Where does service fit into a focus on only the tangible, immediate, personal benefits this attitude demands? The answer, of course, is that service has no place in it.

Unfortunately, this is all too evident in our society today. I won’t steal the time to provide evidence of our selfishness – both as individuals and as a nation – but suffice it to say the adoration of self has completely wrapped up this world and its largest proponent is television! We only need to observe around to see its affects and understand how speedily it has encroached on every aspect of our lives. As we’re driving in our cars, do we stop for the man walking in the rain? Why not? Is it really fear of attack, or is it fear of inconvenience? Either way, fear, we know, is not from God, and while that person may possibly be dangerous, what does the Bible teach us? Both Jesus’ example of running to the outcasts of society as well as Romans 8:28 should give us pause. No matter how much we try to negate it, we our selfish creatures by nature, and TV reinforces that idea every time we sit down in front of it. The only antidote to selfishness is Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit.

So, for argument sake, let’s take this notion of a self-centered ideology and compare it with Scripture. For brevity, we’ll look at only two verses. 1 Corinthians 10:24 says,

“Let no one seek his own, but each one the other’s well-being.”

Hm. Interesting. Likewise, Philippians 2:3-4 says,

“Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit but in lowliness of mind let each adore others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.”

TV wants to net your eyes first on it and then on you. The Bible teaches us to be concerned with the situation of our fellow man, to look out for his interest and well-being and, most importantly, to live as Jesus lived. How did He live? He forewent sleep to pray, He traveled non-stop for three years preaching and healing and comforting, and, ultimately, He bore all of our sins on Himself as He suffered the death of the rotten for us. If we are to follow His example, selfishness – the agents which promote it included – can not be part of our vocabulary.

In light of man’s inherent selfishness, I think Jesus words in Mark 12:31 are especially prescient. Jesus responds to the question of the greatest commandment with recitation of Scripture, first to love God completely and then to “…love your neighbor as yourself”. Isn’t that something? If we love ourselves too much – and He knew we would – He commands us to turn that love outwards onto others even as it means conflict with serving our beget interests. If we truly loved others as ourselves, would we focus our attention so much on ourselves and what we wanted or plan we deserved? Would we terminate for that stranger walking in the rain and trust that God would protect us and maybe even use us to near that person for Christ? Why can we not take our eyes off of ourselves and study to Jesus to guide us and protect us in everything we do?

The answer, as we’ve gone over, is largely our devotion to television and the ill-effects it has on each one of us, regardless of our attempts at combating it. If we read our Bibles for thirty minutes each day and leer five hours of television, which world opinion will ultimately win out? Are we worldly minded or heavenly minded? Accounting for the fact that many of us have already spent a good deal of our lives parked in front of the TV, what will it remove to break these chains and live on fire for Christ? First and foremost, we must assume action, but let’s examine the last of Kaufman’s theories on TV before we delve into the steps necessary to overcome complacency which is both a cause and effect – essentially a dangerous cycle – of his next theory.

TV, Kaufman tells us, has one final trick up its sleeve before it leaves the viewer much worse off than before they sat down. After we’re sucked in and watching and after our morals are corrupted or totally replaced by evil, our last hope for combating these effects is destroyed as television propels us towards the “Acceptance of Stupidity”. Again, turn on the TV and try to argue this point. If we can’t argue this point, why do we ever turn it succor on!?! From reality TV to nightly sitcoms to trashy news to ridiculous game shows, we glorify the stupid and inane.

Beyond the obvious intelligence-robbing programming, the specific aim of TV teaches to prefer visual and auditory stimuli to that of the written word and thus it literally erodes our ability to think creatively or process complex ideas. Reading, on the other hand, not only promotes these concepts but nourishes and causes them to grow! As it turns out, TV literally does rot our brains! Our mothers were right! We increase our reasoning capacities when we read, yet the statistics on reading – one of the antidotes to TV – are simply depressing. A link is included here. These stats are all referenced and come from established, reputed sources. Please click on that link and notice the fact that fifty percent of American adults are unable to read an eighth grade level book. Equally depressing, there are 44 million adults in the U.S. who can’t read well enough to read a simple legend to a child. Why is this? I would say television plays a crucial role in the dangerous mental erosion and subsequent underdevelopment of America and the West, never mind the active thought life necessary for a meaningful walk with Christ.

As reading dies off, we disappear from an intellectually challenging mode of enlightenment and education to that already described of the TV. With the certain decline of thought and mental capacity comes the inevitable decline of complex reasoning and understanding. We are embracing stupidity every time we turn on the TV, whether or not we want to admit it. Kaufman says,

“In the book Technopoly, educator Neil Postman noted how television is winning the contest against books.” When media construct war against each other, it is a case of world-views in collision,” explains Postman. “On the one hand, there is the world of the Printed word with its emphasis on logic, sequence, history, exposition, objectivity, detachment and discipline. On the other, there is the world of television with its emphasis on imagery, narrative, presentness, simultaneity, intimacy, immediate gratification, and quick emotional response.” Television reduces everything to the simplest common denominator. What has evolved is a media environment that is continually being pushed toward the ignorant, silly and idiotic.

So, for the life of the mind – of which we as Christians are called – TV is the very antithesis of God’s commandments to “Love your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37). I strongly encourage everyone to pick up J.P. Moreland’s “Love Your God With All Your Mind” which, as it’s name implies, exhorts us to fully engage our intellect in our relationships with both God and man. To that slay, we must, as the saying goes, expend it (our brain) or lose it! Moreland cites three important passages of Scripture as basis for his call to a renewed interest in the life of the mind in light of our complacency and its effects. First, he cites Romans 12:1-2, which tells us,

“I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of love. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Moreland rightly states the main thrust of this verse as the simple fact that “we cannot prove…what God’s will is, without the renewing or transformation of our minds”. If our free time is eaten up by television viewing, we know this is simply never going to happen, for obvious reasons. Lack of time for study, fellowship, meditation, cherish and godly service has ceased and the overwhelmingly negative affects of TV – sense of entitlement, promotion of self, and the acceptance of stupidity – have replaced them. We anxiety ourselves more and more with a flat stomach rather than a robust intellectual life. We care more about what Britney Spears is wearing than the current state of our nation’s political system. And, most importantly, we choose to live vicariously through fictional TV characters rather than build relationships with our families, friends, and Savior.

Next, Moreland uses Matthew 22:37-39 to provide us the perfect example of Jesus as a skilled intellectual debater. He is here challenged by an expert in Mosaic law, and His response reveals both His extensive knowledge of Scripture and his opponents viewpoint and it teaches us to “be prepared to stand up for God’s truth and honor when they are challenged, and to do so with carefully thought-out answers”. Jesus isn’t caught off guard by anything throughout the Scriptures; even when there is seemingly no proper answer – as with the woman caught in adultery – Jesus is able to deftly maneuver far above their line of questioning and capture the essence of what it means to be intellectually involved in loving God. Our minds play a critical role in our walk with God, and when we actively choose to fill them with rubbish and falsehoods we are guilty of swear disobedience towards our God who commands us to guard our hearts and pursue only things which are honoring to Him.

Finally, Moreland turns to 1 Peter 3:14-15 which nicely continues his last point of having a defense for people’s questions or challenges:

“But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you are blessed. ‘And do not be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled.’ But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense
Moreland goes on to say, “…the apostle does not suggest that we be prepared to do this, he commands it…Peter is saying that we are to be prepared to give rational arguments and good reasons for why we occupy what we believe, and this involves the mind”.

So returning to our friend, television. Hopefully by now you do not see TV as anything befitting the role we are called to as followers of Jesus Christ. TV offers us nothing of substance yet takes from us every hope we have of attaining the life we were created to lead. We, being formed in God’s image, have been subject to the devices and trickery of the devil since Adam fell in the Garden of Eden. Yet I argue that his ultimate weapon against man, his most effective, his most damaging, is the television sitting in our living rooms. It brings in all manner of filth and evil to our homes, and it is responsible for the degradation of our society from the thinking, reasoning state we were as we emerged from the Revolutionary War and built a nation on the principles set forth in God’s Word. It was the TV which projected vast amounts of filth and subversive messaging to the masses, beyond the scope of any manufacture of media before it. A more thorough study could be conducted on the magnitude of TV’s affects on us individually and as a nation, but I’ve done my homework and understand the dangers TV poses. I challenge everyone reading this to do the same.

I hope this has served as a starting point from which you will challenge what has been ingrained into our daily habits and counted as normal. We’re told it’s not the least bit damaging. An interesting question to ask oneself is this: How do we respond when we hear someone who either doesn’t have a TV altogether or rarely if ever watches it? What, we may think, does that person or family do with their time? Whatever it is, I can assure you that in all likelihood it involves books and study and work and family and service and an almost divine focus on Jesus Christ. That’s what we can do when we pull the plug.

Where to turn when the TV goes out

If you’ve stuck with me this far, I’ll assume you’re at least vaguely interested in this topic and are seriously considering changing your viewing habits. Again, I would challenge everyone to study up on this topic and fully understand the effects TV has on us. Don’t objective take my word for it! Do some research, stretch that brain! While I’m sure there are a lot of us who aren’t logging five hours a day in front of the TV, I’m also equally sure there are too many of us who are committing an unhealthy amount of our free time engaged in activities which are not honoring to God. I include myself in that last statement, and this is an issue of very serious concern of which we would all be wise to concern ourselves.

Once our minds are made up, remember to act responsibly. Don’t toss the TV if you’re married and you and your wife/husband haven’t yet discussed this. If s/he doesn’t feel the same procedure, remember not to condemn or judge but to pray and lead by example. We’re told repeatedly in Romans 14 to live peaceably with those whom opinions differ. Above all else, we must love each other, and spearheading the “no-TV” initiative without consulting others is not the intention to go. The Bible is very clear on the fact that we are to live lives holy and acceptable to God. While that life certainly doesn’t include mass amounts of TV, it also certainly doesn’t include rash decision making and independent thinking apart from your spouse.

The Reality Of Television Image

The Reality Of Television Pic

The Reality Of Television Image

The Reality Of Television Photo

The Reality Of Television Image

The Reality Of Television Photo