Brother Dan Glass recently submitted the following important article about one of Satan's biggest weapons--the television set. Ever notice how you can sit in front of it for hours and hours everyday? In the article entitled, "Are You Inviting Devils..." I chronicled a terrible day of my television watching.
Many of us are watching short-order perversity fried up hot and heavy like a cheese burger in a greasy spoon--but this burger is laced with arsenic and we are slurping it down. The results? No kind of witness to this world because we are too busy acting just like them. No knowledge of the Word. No spiritual zeal. A defeated life. Loss of rewards. Disobedience to Jesus. Sin. The list goes on and on. Without further adieu, here's Brother Dan.
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Christian, do you have a television in your home?
You do? Why?
If Jesus came back tonight, do you think He would be happy to find His army staring glassy-eyed at some flesh-pleasing trash being pumped out of Hollywood into the minds of His soldiers?
Have you ever stopped to think about that thing that you stare at night after night, day after day, year after year?
Did you spend more time on your television today than you did on your knees or reading your Bible?
You did? Why?
Do you allow your children to sit hour after hour, day after day, year after year in front of a boob tube?
Why?
Would you invite Satan to come into your home, sit down in your living room, talk, tell jokes, show evil pictures for hour after hour to your wife and children? Would you invite a sex pervert into your living room to brag to your family about his or her "alternate lifestyle"? Would you let a drug-pusher come into your home and give everyone in your household a drug that would dull their mind, make you forget God, make you feel nice and happy and stupid, day after day, year after year?
Isn't that what many Christians do [by watching mindless television]? Are you one of them?
If statistics are true (and every one knows they lie), then 97% of American homes have a television in them. Have you wondered why that is so? Does your preacher ever mention it?
I wonder why not.
What does God say about it?
In the second epistle of John, verses 9-11, we read:
9 Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.10 If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed:
11 For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds.
The Word of God tells us to not invite someone into our house who abideth not in the doctrine of Christ.
Do the people on your tv screen abide in the doctrine of Christ?
Do you think that those actors and producers out in Hollywood love the Lord and abide in His doctrines? Maybe you think so. I don't. Friend, you don't have to be in Hollywood long to realize what kind of a place it is. I lived there once years ago, and I don't think it has probably changed much. It's not the kind of environment you want to bring into your living room everyday. In fact, those Hollywood people who pump out their programs into your household hate the Lord and despise His doctrines and blasphemously mock Him. Should ANYONE give ear to their programs? Millions do -- Christians among them! Why is this?
Do you think that the sponsors of television program tell you the truth in their advertising? You don't? Then why do you sit there listening to LIES?
The Law of God tells us that we should not covet. Now what do you suppose is the purpose of ALL advertising you see on tv? Is it to encourage you to a simpler lifestyle? Is it to make you content with the things that God has blessed you with? Does it make you want to sell ALL and follow the Lord with a whole heart?
Remember the sin of Achan. He brought destruction on his entire household by coveting a goodly Babylonish garment (Josh. 7:21).
Psalm 101:3 says:
I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me.
Is your tv a "good thing"? Do you think that if the Lord Jesus were here on earth today, He would sit and watch the things you watch?
In 2 Corinthians 6:17, the Bible says:
Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you...
Friend, are you being separate when you sit in front of your tv? Do you think that the shows you watch on tv are "clean" by any biblical definition?
Walk down your street sometime at twilight. Look at the houses you see along the way. What is that glowing thing in the living room of house after house of Christian and non-Christian alike? Who are these zombies transfixed by staring into its flickering glare?
"Well, what about Christian programming?" I hear you say.
Well, what about it? Is it really Christian? Is it necessary? Is it for you?
"Well, I know someone who was saved by watching a Christian program." Well, fine. Now that they're saved, there's no reason to go on watching it, right? The Lord has better things for them to do from that point on than to sit and gape stupidly at their television set any more.
"Well, what about the news? How am I supposed to know what's going on in the world if I don't watch the 6 o'clock news?" you say.
Friend, do you really think that the 20 minutes of non-advertisement time in the 6 o'clock news is pure and objective? Are the values of CBS, NBC, CNN, ABC YOUR values? Do they honor God? It seems to me that these networks, in their news presentations, are among those who call evil good, and good, evil. They are very powerful in shaping people's attitudes, Christians and non-Christians alike. You need to be very wise to withstand them. There have been dramatic changes in people's attitudes toward sin in the past few decades. A lot of this has come from constantly breathing the poisonous atmosphere of television.
Friend, God tells us in His Book, that we should "redeem the time." I think that has a special application to this time in which we live and our television watching. Get into your King James Bible, get down on your knees in prayer, life up your hands in Holy praise, don't waste your time and the Lord's time glued hour after hour to your tv.
"Well, you can't tell me it's a sin to watch my tv," you will say.
Of course I can't. But let me ask you, do you control your television watching, or does it control you? If you can have the thing sitting in your living room and turn it on occasionally for something really "time-redeeming," then fine. Let it sit there. It's your choice.
But if you are someone who needs to turn the thing on compulsively every time you are in the same room with it, then by all means, get rid of it NOW! Haul it down to the dumpster right now. Get evil out of your living room and out of your life. After a couple of days, you will forget all about it. Television is like any addiction -- once you go for a few weeks without watching it, you'll soon forget all about it -- it's really the easiest of all addictions to break, which is all the more remarkable considering how many people are snared by it.
Friend, I ask you to examine your attitude toward tv watching. Go to the Lord and ask Him what you should do about it. Listen carefully to His answer, and then if He tells you to unplug it and hide it in your closet, then DO IT! If He tells you to take it out to the dumpster, then DO IT! If He tells you to warn your friends and co-workers and fellow-church members about it, then DO IT, but not until you have resolved this important issue in your own life first.
God wants us to lead pure and holy lives. "But thou oh man of God, flee these things and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness." (I Timothy 6:11.)
And may the Lord richly bless you.
