We feel constrained to examine the subject of television in the home, especially as it affects the Christian. With this latest giant of the entertainment world growing rapidly, and with the appeals to Christians to open their homes to this masterpiece of human invention increasing, it seems that the question should be faced squarely.
A question once put to King Hezekiah by the prophet Isaiah may be appropriate in this connection—"What have they seen in thine house?" 2 Kings 20:1515And he said, What have they seen in thine house? And Hezekiah answered, All the things that are in mine house have they seen: there is nothing among my treasures that I have not showed them. (2 Kings 20:15). This modern medium of communication will bring an assortment of sights into the home for the mental fare of its occupants and its guests. Will it be to God's glory? Will it further occupation with heavenly things? Will it be a means to help us grow in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? or will it be one more thing to distract us from the only One who is worthy of being our chief occupation? Let us pursue our examination, and may the reader judge in the fear of God.
Perhaps the greatest challenge video makes concerns the welfare of children. Do you know, fellow Christians, what your children will see by means of television? In areas where it is already available, the children in the world have become thorough devotees of this form of amusement. It has a special appeal to the young, and their plastic minds are very easily influenced by it. And what are they seeing with such evident delight?—folly, madness, crime, and moral corruption, among other things. The same things that have poisoned the youth of the country in the picture shows, and brought about much of the juvenile delinquency and lawlessness are now being served hour upon hour, day in and day out, in many homes. This influence will accelerate the coming of the moral conditions in the world similar to that in the days of Noah, and of Lot, as foretold by our Lord (Luke 17:26-3026And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. 27They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. 28Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; 29But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. 30Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed. (Luke 17:26‑30)).
O Christian parents, beware of television for your dear children. You would not think of taking your precious charges from the Lord into the dance halls, theaters, arenas, alleys, and dens of the earth. Shall you bring such sights into your living room? Perhaps it will be said that as they grow up they will meet these things, and that you cannot always shield them. That has a certain amount of truth in it, but have you not a definite responsibility to Him who gave them to you? Their youth is the only time that is yours to help mold them, and to instruct them in the ways of the Lord. Shall these fleeting days be lost? while instead of truth they become acquainted with fiction and fable, crime and horror? You shield their precious bodies from chemical poisons; shall you do less for their impressionable minds?
Stop then, dear Christian, and consider seriously before making such things available to those in your home. Remember that television will not, cannot, be better than stage and screen have been all along, and the vivid pictures of the news will bring a riot and bloodshed in far away Bangkok, a murder in New Orleans, a bank robbery in New York, and such like scenes into your home—for "thou and thy house." If the lawless deeds and foul sayings of the Sodomites vexed Lot's righteous soul from day to day, what did they do for his children? The demoralizing effect on them was great—some were lost in Sodom, and those who were not became a shame and a disgrace. It is an old story of the parents allowing something that grieves them, while the children go wrong:
The contrast to this baneful influence was found in the plains of Mamre. There, Abraham, the friend of God, lived in separation from Sodom, and there he enjoyed communion with God. Would not he have been defiled if he had had those words and ways of the sinners of Sodom televised in his tent? Would he then have been in a fit condition to receive the Lord as his guest? And would not his family have suffered also?
Lot got into Sodom by degrees; declension is always gradual. He first lusted after it with his eye, then pitched his tent near it, later got into it—out of his tent and into a house—and finally became a municipal judge, and all to his sorrow and ruin. And will not the television scenes of borderline immodesty (if not worse), with all the defiling conversation, dull the Christian's senses until at length he comes to not be vexed by the things that would shock anyone of spiritual sensibilities? Let us ask ourselves whether we want to be Abrahams or Lots. If it is the former, then let us not bring into our homes a direct connection with Sodom.
There will not be lacking those who will contend that what we have written is one-sided, and that there are also good things in video. Recently we had occasion to review a book which ostensibly sought to evaluate the good and bad of television; it was written by Edward John Carnell, Associate Professor of Systematic Theology, Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, California. He found plenty of bad in video, but the good things were the very elements of the world which lies in the wicked one. (How can Christians forget the character of this world?) Concerts, orchestras, religious fiction, and such like are things found on the clean side of the broad road. That road is broad enough to accommodate everything—it has its clean and its filthy side. (And may we add here that we feel religious fiction to be one of the worst of all fictions, for it invariably distorts the Word and gives, in effect, a lie. It is particularly deceptive because it poses as truth.)
We presume that Sodom had some good things also—perhaps some things that Lot pointed to with civic pride, but it was all under the sentence of judgment, and was only deluding its populace. By the same token, Cain's world (Gen. 4) had some good things. This murderer invested it with commerce and industry, and the arts and sciences; but could the children of his murdered brother (if there were such) relish anything of Cain and his world? And this world has murdered the Son of God—your Savior and mine, fellow-Christian. Shall we then relish its so-called harmless attractions? Shall we rearrange our homes to make room for it to move in? Let us not forget that it is stained with the precious blood of our Redeemer, that Satan is its god and prince, and that by these very things he is deceiving men and leading them on to destruction. The "desires of the mind" and the "lust of the eyes"—the better things of the world—are ranked in the Word of God with the grosser things of the "lusts of the flesh" (Eph. 2:33Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. (Ephesians 2:3); 1 John 2:15, 1615Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. (1 John 2:15‑16)).
After the children of Israel were redeemed by the blood of the lamb, they began a journey to the land of Canaan; and every poor sinner who comes under the shelter of the precious blood of Christ has started on his way to the Father's house. The Israelites' journey made them pilgrims in the wilderness, and strangers to all in the land of Egypt. They could no longer enjoy Egypt's refinements (and it had many) any more than they could serve in its brick-making; they were strangers to the one as well as the other. And every Christian occupies a similar place here—he is a stranger and a pilgrim, and is on his way to a better land. (May the sight of its glories, and of Him who is its glory, draw our hearts thitherward.)
Christians still have an old nature that if allowed unjudged will readily indulge in things that are unworthy of Him who has called us. And just as the Israelites lusted after the leeks, onions, melons, and garlic of Egypt when they lost their relish for the manna, so can we enjoy the things of the world when our hearts grow cold toward Him who is the true Manna—"the bread which came down from heaven." May we sing from the heart these words:
"Jesus Thou art enough
The mind and heart to fill;
Thy patient life—to calm the soul;
Thy love—its fear dispel."
The Lord taught His disciples to pray, "Lead us not into temptation"; and the disciples in the garden were told, "Watch and pray, lest ye enter into temptation." Bold and self-confident, or sadly indifferent, must be the Christian who can place such temptation in his home, either considering himself, his children, or his guests. It is bringing temptation right in, and deliberately courting its consequences.
There remains one more point to be considered; namely, the use of television for religious dissemination. Some contend that it will be a powerful instrument for the spreading of the gospel, but with this we take exception. Will the Spirit of God endorse video as "communicating spiritual things by spiritual means" (1 Cor. 2:1313Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. (1 Corinthians 2:13); N. Trans.)?
Will not man be preeminently before the video audience? Will it not rather exalt man than honor. God? It may gain a large audience, but let us remember that it is not the number of people who listen, nor the cleverness of presentation, but the Word of God in the power of the Spirit of God that alone will accomplish results.
The book we reviewed admitted that the prime purpose of television is to entertain, and it warned those who would use it for religious purposes that they will have to make their presentation attractive or people will switch to something else. It is well known, and the author of the book concurs, that religious programs will have to compete with the best of Hollywood and Broadway. What a challenge! but verily true! Did God intend that His solemn Word should be used to entertain people? Far be the thought. Is that the way He had His message presented to wicked Nineveh? Jonah was to preach the "preaching that I bid thee," and nothing else. Did he have the accompaniment of an orchestra, or the presence of certain celebrities to make it effective? We all know the answer.
Did the Lord Jesus ever use showmanship in His preaching? NEVER, NO, NEVER! And yet, Prof. Carnell suggests that he did. To us the thought is revolting, and Christ-dishonoring. When His brethren wanted Him to show Himself to the world, did He accede? No. The Jews could not understand Him because they sought honor from men, and He never did. Think how many times He dealt with souls all alone, and of the times when He cautioned them to tell no man what He had done. If on one occasion He cried publicly in the temple on a certain feast day, it was not showmanship, but doing what He had a word from God to do.
Again, did Paul make the gospel attractive? He said that as he knew the terror of the Lord he persuaded men; did he get a band to help him? He even reproved the public display made by a woman in Philippi, and would have none of it (Acts 16). Did he ever mingle fleshly attractions with the warning to flee impending doom? When he went to Corinth (where they gloried in human erudition), he hid his profound learning. He said he was determined not to know anything among them but Jesus Christ, and Him crucified (1 Cor. 2:1-41And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. 2For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. 3And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. 4And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: (1 Corinthians 2:1‑4))—a stumblingblock to the Jews, and foolishness to the Greeks. The gospel itself was the power of God, and Paul knew it. Perhaps some will say, But times have changed. That is admitted, but God's ways and powers have not changed, nor have His divine principles.
God has given the dearest object of His heart to demonstrate His love, and to save sinners, but He never intended His gospel to be adorned with modern inventions to make it palatable. (The way the gospel is often presented today you would think that people would do God a great favor if they would only "give their hearts to Jesus." How absurd! Man needs to know that he is an utterly lost sinner and be brought to repentance; then God will give him salvation, forgiveness of sins, and eternal life. He does not ask men to give something, but to repent.) And yet some Christians are willing to add the world's attractions to the precious glad tidings. We are bold to say, It is not of God. Christians who use devious methods to get an audience are not striving lawfully according to 2 Tim. 2:55And if a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully. (2 Timothy 2:5). They might as well condone adding the condemned attractions of a condemned Nineveh to Jonah's message.
We will, however, add one word about God's sovereignty. He may, if He chooses, use something that a man hears, even though it be mixed up with things He cannot approve, to that man's salvation; but that in no way invalidates the principles set forth above. He is sovereign and can do as He pleases, but we are servants who are to follow the rules. We have heard of people being saved through words spoken by unbelievers—yes, even by infidels—but that does not prove that we should enlist the help of such. At one time God used an ass to speak, but we cannot. Let us remember that God is not dependent on any man, or any group of men, or any invention or innovation to save a soul.
May God give us to have the balances of the sanctuary with which to properly appraise the things that meet us in • the last days. Not everything is edifying, not everything is lawful. We need the anointed eye to discern the things that are excellent, and grace to shun all else.
Is not television Satan's great masterpiece of deception? May it not be the thing that he will use to show the image of the beast and the "power and signs and lying wonders" of the false prophet to the world?