The key to surviving temptation involves guarding our eyes with all diligence. In Matthew 18:9, Jesus said if your eye causes you to sin pluck it out! Seems rather drastic but it makes the point. No we are not saying pluck out your eyes but we are saying do what's necessary to avoid/shun evil. You may have to pluck out your cable television if it's causing you to sin. You may have to pluck out certain internet websites by putting up proper safe guards. Your eternal life depends on how you live your life now and if your eyes are causing you to sin against a holy God you had better do something about before it is too late.
Jesus said it's better to go to heaven missing an eye than to go to hell with both eyes. This battle with our eyes is a life long battle. This battle starts when we are young and continues into our old age. It continues until we reach the other side. We don't want to be like Solomon who loved and honored God in his youth but fell away in old age as a love for women stole his heart.
God said to Solomon "Tell me what you want and I’ll give it to you.” A humble, King Solomon asked for wisdom instead of riches and fame. And God responded by giving him all three, wisdom, riches and fame. “Yet, King Solomon loved many foreign women, as well as the daughter of Pharaoh; women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, Hittities from the nations of whom the Lord had said to the children of Israel, “You shall not intermarry with them, nor they with you. Surely they will turn away your hearts after their gods.” Solomon clung to these in love. And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart.” 1 Kings 11:1-4 (NKJV)
When God uses the word foreigner he is not referring to ethnicity but to someone who worships other gods. Webster’s New World Dictionary says a "foreigner" is any person thought of as an outsider or stranger. Television and the internet allow us to invite foreigners and strangers into our homes. These outsiders are ruining our homes.
They enter into our homes and bring their gods with them. We entertain them, we interact with them, we have dinner with them (eating while watching TV), we dress like them, and we talk like them. Yet, God said we should not go to them and they should not come to us. (1 Kings 11:2 KJV) But with the touch of a button we go to them and mingle with them. Thanks to television, many Christians spend several hours per day entertaining ungodly men and women in their living rooms and bedrooms.
Like Solomon we love them and they are turning us away from God. Their god's glorify the kingdom of darkness and its vile ideologies and it appears as if we love it. We watch the sitcoms and movies their gods produce. And listen to their music.
We enjoy watching actors and actresses, pretend to commit adultery, pretend to commit fornication, pretend to murder, kill and maim all in the comfort of our own homes. We watch them glorify the vile acts our God calls sin.
Author David Wilkerson said, one day while praying he heard the Holy Spirit say, “Sodomites are in the house, Sodomites are in the house.” He reminded him about the men of Sodom who, inflamed with lust tried to break into Lots house to rape the angels, who looked like regular men. He says unfortunately, the Sodomites are in our homes thanks to homosexual actors, writers, and producers of modern television programs.
Through television programs and media personalities Christians learn to adopt the world’s attitudes and beliefs. Yet, scripture says, whoever wants to be friends with the world is the enemy of God (James 4:4).
Baal
As Christian's we cannot imitate the Israelites who desired to worship God and worship Baal. They knew God was the one true God but they also wanted to worship their neighbor’s gods. Canaanite gods not only allowed sexual immorality but they encouraged it. Canaanites, worshipped their gods with orgies, homosexuality and prostitution. These acts were performed on elevated open space platforms. The sensuality of the Canaanite religions caused the Israelites to want to worship their Gods. Televised sensuality entices Christians to worship the gods of this world and lead them away from God.
Broadcasting sexual promiscuity ensnared the Israelites as it does American Christians in our modern culture. A young lady in one of our bible study groups decided to try the lesbian lifestyle because of a certain television show. She stopped going to church to pursue several lesbian relationships. She has since become engaged to a young man but the desire to try an alternate lifestyle was fueled by a television show.
Some Christian men are addicted to internet pornography, although they may be pastors or in other leadership positions. God will not continue to allow you to view pornography (worship at the temple of Baal/Asthar) and worship him too. You are grieving the Holy Spirit and are in great danger. The Holy Spirit may depart from you, David asked God not to take His holy spirit away from him (Psalms 51:11). God took his Spirit away from a sinful Saul and an evil Spirit tormented him with depression, anxiety and fear for the rest of his life (1 Samuel 16:14). We need to remember that God told the Israelites to keep their surroundings clean because he walked in the midst of them. And if he saw something unclean He would have turn away from them (Deuteronomy 23:14). We are made clean by keeping God's word (John 15:3-17),therefore we are not cast off.
Broadcasting Sin
The word media is a root word for medium. According to Webster’s dictionary, the word medium means an intervening thing through which a force acts or an effect is produced. The word broadcast means to scatter seeds over a wide area. Satan uses the media to broadcast ideas that will lead people away from a biblical worldview to a humanistic worldview.
In the book of Ephesians, the Apostle Paul, tells us to put on the whole armor of God to avoid the wiles of the devil. Wiles refer to sly tricks and deceitful schemes. Satan’s cunning devices attempt to delude us and destroy us. They are designed to bring our souls into perdition. For David, numbering the troops appeared to be harmless but resulted in the deaths of seventy thousand innocent people. (1 Chronicles 21:1-15). Watching violent television shows or sexually provocative television shows appear to be harmless but can be dangerous. We need to realize, we can’t watch what the world watches because we are the “salt of the earth.” We are called to preserve our surroundings and keep it from spoiling as people figure out “the God thing.” If we fall prey to its entertainment values, we are destined to be trampled under the foot of men.
It is amazing that companies spend billions of dollars to advertise products because they know how television affects behavior. But when it comes to violence and sexuality producers and broadcasting companies say television doesn’t affect behavior. In a report by Brown University Author James W. Prescott says, “The brutality of much of the physical violence against infants and children which occurs primarily in the home, eerily matches what is often seen on television and movie screens. When the entertainment media dramatize parents killing children, children killing parents and children killing children can it be claimed that such media events are only a mirror reflection of the real world? Or do these violent media events actually help forge the reality? There is ample evidence that both forces are at work in a cruel synergy."
I agree with an editorial from the Lancet which noted that “Screen violence can be regarded as an international threat to the public health.” As I witness new types of crimes being committed I'm beginning to believe Lancet and Brown are on to something. Recently I've heard of unbelievable crimes that seem to duplicate movie scenes or themes, an armored truck was robbed after thieves set fire to cars on a busy highway. The blaze forced the armored car off the road allowing thieves to steal gold! Normal everyday people have been kidnapped at their local bank, forced to drain their bank accounts, while someone holds a gun to their back. Perhaps there should be a class action law suit against certain entertainment companies and media moguls (just a thought) as they have caused people to see crime and violence as ways and means to make a living and handle life's problems.
As a Christian you must realize God hates crime and violence whether it is simulated or not because it does not reflect his nature but Satan’s. Satan is a thief, Satan is a murder. Why come under his domain by entertaining yourself with his sinful ideologies? God is the God of life and light and in him there is no darkness. The dark, evil violence on television is not of God. Do you think Christians should watch crime scene shows like CSI, How to Get Away with Murder, Dexter and the like? If Jesus came to your house today would you sit down and watch CSI or Dexter with him? Would Jesus watch Scandal? Would you watch Empire with Jesus. If you wouldn't sit down with a bag of popcorn and watch your favorite television show with Jesus, perhaps you shouldn't watch it. If you are a Christian Jesus is in your house. Are you grieving him by watching programs He may find offensive.
Avoid Inviting Foreigners into Your Home
When falling into the pleasure trap of godless entertainment you open yourself up to outsiders offering temporary pleasures that come with trouble. The unholy spirit of Satan will reign in your home instead of God’s Holy Spirit. Your children may rebel against you as the spirit of the world takes hold of them inspiring their thoughts and imaginations. You may begin to stir up ungodly lusts and desires that will affect your marriage. This must stop.
We cannot continually to defile our minds by processing images of murder, death and sexual content. Our thoughts and imaginations will be captured by the enemy. The apostle Paul told Timothy that, those caught in Satan’s snare are taken captive to do his will (2 Timothy 2:26).
Do you want to do God's will or Satan's will. God's will is good, it brings abundant life. Satan's will is evil, it brings death and destruction. The choice is yours, I hope you will choose to guard your heart by not setting wicked things before your eyes (Psalms 101:3).
