Uncompromising Entertainment

Yesterday, I wrote a post urging the people of God to wake up and take responsibility for what they have allowed the entertainment industry to become. Today, I am here to explain to you a little bit more about why I feel the way that I feel about modern-day television and so on and so forth. I feel that the church has grown lukewarm about this thing we call entertainment. Sadly, what I feel is quite frankly a satanic mindset has been infiltrated into the church. This mindset says that it is alright for Christians to participate in worldly entertainment because it allows us to see how the world views God and humanity, thus allowing us to be more effective witnesses to them. This mindset is sadly mistaken and I think it comes straight from the devil himself.

If you are one of these people that believe the lie that I just told you about, I am not here to condemn you today. I could not do that even if I wanted to. However, I am here to tell you the truth that the Bible says has the power to set you free (John 8:32). If you have believed this lie, you fit into one of two categories. Either you have been misguided and truly believe that such a thing really is biblical, or you believe it because you want to believe it because it seems to justify the fact that you just plain enjoy wallowing in what you know to be sinful behavior. If you are in category one, which I believe very few people are, you need to ask God to wake you up to the truth. And if you are in category two, you need to beg God for mercy because you have known the truth but yet chose to live in willful rebellion against God and His Word. After all, 2 Peter 2:21 says, “For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.”

Having said all that, I can now explain to you why this mindset makes no sense. People who have this mindset obviously have never seriously thought it through. If they had, they would realize how erroneous it really is. My entire point is to keep from compromising one’s relationship with Almighty God. That is the whole point of this post. I do not want you to compromise your relationship with God by watching a certain movie or television show. And I do not want the actors in that movie or television show to compromise their relationship with God by making that certain movie or television show.

When you say that you can drown out or filter out the blasphemy, profanity, and immorality in a movie or television show and just see the good stuff, you are doing yourself a huge injustice. You cannot filter out that filth. Satan has specially designed it so that it is impossible for it not to stick with you. In watching such things, you will find yourself laughing at such heinous and dreadfully wicked things that, if you were to go back and think about them, you should be appalled. And Adrian Rogers used to say, “What the devil can get you to laugh at, you will never take seriously again.” And you cannot take those things seriously apart from the grace of God. If you find joy in such things, you need to get on your knees and pray with David, “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10).

Secondly, not only does such entertainment cause you to compromise your relationship with God, but it causes the makers of that entertainment to compromise their relationship with God, as well. Do you know what a kissing scene in a movie really is? It is glorified adultery. You say, “Well, it doesn’t really mean anything. It’s just for a movie. And it’s just a kiss.” Oh, yeah? Then why do so many actors and actresses end up leaving their spouse for someone they costarred in a movie with? There is something real going on there, and I am telling you that it is something the Bible says we are to flee from. And the same thing goes for every word of blasphemy, profanity, and every other sinful thing those people might be required to do for a certain movie.

We can have good, wholesome, godly entertainment. We once did, and we can have it again if God’s people will wake up from their slumber and stand up for the truth. God has put me here to tell you today that this is something worth fighting for. I honestly believe that, as long as we continue to saturate our lives with the kind of entertainment that we see on our television and movie screens today, this nation and this world will continue to crumble.

Adrian Rogers called the devil a “master of media.” Satan knows how to twist and bend and pollute your mind in a way that will desensitize you to the truth of God’s Word. And I honestly believe that he uses the attractive images of television to do just that. Watch out! Am I saying that every Christian ought to throw away every television in his household? No. But what I am saying is that each and every one of us ought to get down on our knees and ask God to make it real to us. We need to ask Him to guard our hearts and our minds so that we may keep ourselves pure before Him.

If you do not know Jesus Christ personally as the Lord of your life today, please turn completely from all sin and acknowledge Jesus Christ alone as Lord. If you do that, He will save you today and keep you saved forever.

What God’s People Have Allowed Entertainment to Become

Several months ago, I rediscovered Roy Rogers, Dale Evans, and their movies. Since that rediscovery, I have watched just about every one of their movies that I have been able find on YouTube. Something that is quite interesting to me about those movies is this: To my knowledge, there is not one word of blasphemy or profanity to be found in even one of Roy's more-than-ninety movies. Out of the large number of his movies that I have seen, I have only counted four kissing scenes, and they were very short and almost hidden. As if this were not interesting enough, there's more.

Roy and Dale did not come to know the Lord until sometime within the year of 1948. Roy started making movies in '38. By the time they came to know the Lord, they had already made the majority of their movies. In fact, I just counted and Roy had made sixty-nine movies before that time. It is obvious that all of the immorality was not left out because of some conviction Roy or Dale had, but because of the convictions of someone else. And no doubt, most people back then would not have even considered for one split second watching a movie like the ones we see today.

So why is this generation so much different? I personally think that it is because at some point in time, God's people sat down, so to speak. When are we going to get back up? When are we going to again start letting our convictions mold society, instead of letting society mold our convictions?

I believe that there are enough born-again believers to make a complete change in the entertainment industry. But how do we do it? There are three things that one must know in order to fix a problem: Who created the problem? How did they create the problem? And what has allowed the problem to exist?

First of all, who did create the problem? Was it Hollywood? No! It was God’s people. That leads us into our second question.

Now that we know that God’s people are the ones who created the problem of ungodly entertainment, we must ask ourselves how they did it. Well, they simply let their guard down. If I have a dog in an invisible fence, there is a device attached to his collar that will let him know when he is about to cross over a certain boundary. But suppose one day I turn off the power to the invisible fence. Sure, the dog will stay in the fence for a while. That is until he realizes that nothing is going to happen when he crosses over the boundary. One day that dog is going to accidentally cross over the boundary line and nothing will happen. Although he may not wander far that day, he is going to get out again. And eventually when that dog feels like that fence will never again be turned on, he is going to roam all over the place. This leads us into our third question.

What has allowed the problem to continue? God’s people have failed to speak up for the truth. We learned in the above paragraph that the problem was caused by God’s people letting their guard down. What has allowed the problem to continue is what happened after that as a result of that. Because God’s people let their guard down, Hollywood eventually made a mistake. And when no one corrected that mistake, Hollywood made more and more and more mistakes until the whole thing spun out of control.

There is but one way to fix it all: God’s people need to wake up! Second Chronicles 7:14 says, “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” There is a healing, folks! There is a healing for this nation. There is a healing for the family. And there is a healing for you. Will you wake up and stand guard?

In order to truly fix the problem, however, one must first want to fix it. And it order to want to fix the problem, one must realize the severity of the problem. What will happen if this problem is not resolved? Romans 6:23 tells us, “For the wages of sin is death.” The ways of sin can only bring death and destruction. The ways of Jesus can only bring life eternal.

Satan has designed the entertainment industry of today to defile and destroy the soul. That is his sole purpose. As Adrian Rogers used to say, “what the devil can get you to laugh at, you will never take seriously again.” If you do not know Jesus Christ as Lord of your life, you cannot take this issue seriously. Jesus is the only one who can give you a new heart and new desires. And if you are a child of God and you have saturated your life with the things of this world, you need to get on your knees and beg God for mercy and ask Him to change you and help you to live a life that is pleasing to Him in every way.

If you do not know Jesus Christ as Lord of your life today, please turn completely from all sin and acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord. If you do that, He will save you today and keep you saved forever.

“Four Lies That Ruined the World” by Adrian Rogers

I just watched one of Adrian Rogers’s messages entitled “Four Lies That Ruined the World.” I want you to watch it too. I also made an outline as I always do when I listen to Adrian Rogers, and I will post that below.

You can click here to watch.

Four Lies That Ruined the World

Dr. Adrian Rogers

Genesis 3:1-5

•  Satan’s whole system is built on a lie. (John 8:44)   
• “Satan’s goal is murder. His method is a lie.” A. Rogers 
• "You have to look beyond the surface to see the lies of the devil.” A. Rogers 
• “The best lies are the ones that sound the most like the truth.” A. Rogers 
• The thought is the father of the deed. (Proverbs 23:7)
• Satan’s Four Big Lies
•  God is not good. (Genesis 3:1)
• Satan tries to get us to believe that God is withholding good from us.
• God is not truthful. (Genesis 3:4) 
• The devil wants us to think skeptically about God. 
• “Anyone who cases skepticism regarding the authority, accuracy, acceptability, impeccability, infallibility, and authenticity of the Word of God is doing the work of the devil.” A. Rogers
• What we have substituted for the Word of God.
• Relativism- no fixed truth.
• Subjectivism- feelings and experiences.
• Rationalism- logic.
• Pragmatism- does it work?
• Postmodernism- truth is subjective and individualistic.
• The devil does not want us to have a fixed standard of truth.
• God is not righteous. (Genesis 3:4)
• The devil wants us to believe that there is no God of judgment.
• The devil knows that people fear death. That is why so many people believe in reincarnation.
• God is not gracious. (Genesis 3:4-5)
• Satan tells us that we can be our own god and have our own way.
• Revelation 22:4
• 1 Corinthians 2:9
• Satan tells us that we can never be fulfilled until we do our own thing.
• “Those who know the least about sin are those who are deepest in it.” A. Rogers
• How do we overcome the lies of the devil?
• Revelation 12:9-11
• By Calvary’s conquest.
• By the word of our testimony—courageous confession.
• Bring the Word of God against the lies of the devil.
• By complete commitment. (Revelation 12:11)