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Television
– A Modern day Idol
When
will we learn that the world’s offerings are garbage
- that only Jesus satisfies?
Look
inside the average house of anyone earning more than
Rs.3,000/- a month. Amongst the various things you
will find there will almost invariably be a television
set. In the lounge room, the chairs will all be
arranged so that everyone can see the television. Day
after day, the occupants of this house will have the
television running. Everyone, from the little children
to grandpa and grandma will spend an average of 3-5
hours per day with their eyes glued to this marvellous
invention. Young people, as well as Mum and Dad, will
most likely have their own television set in their
bedroom also, so as to be able to watch what they
want, when they want, and avoid conflicts with others
in the house about what to watch.
The
television industry today has tremendous influence
over what people today think and believe. Like the
church steeples of former times, today, television
antennas rise from virtually every apartment block and
home, reaching as it were, to heaven. They bring to
your home the values and the messages that
television’s masters want you to hear. They don’t
tell you what they don’t want you to know about. Of
course you trust them. If something is presented as
truth on TV, it must be true, right? And if it is not
on TV, its obviously not worth knowing or talking
about, right?
Are
You Worshipping at the Shrine of Television?
If
I was to tell you that in order to follow Jesus you
should spend at least two hours a day praying I would
be told off by pastors everywhere (perhaps rightly so)
and would be regarded by many as a religious fanatic.
But two hours a day is not enough for most people
today to give to the television set. They would gladly
devote more time to the television, if it were
possible, and often it is. Men come home tired from
work, and the first thing they do is grab something
out of the fridge and plonk themselves right in front
of the tube, often totally ignoring their wives and
children. Wives and mothers, often feeling neglected
by husbands who compare them with the beautiful women
on the tube, spend hours every day escaping into a
fantasy world of television soap opera romances. Young
children, feeling rejected by their parents who have
no time for them, spend hour after hour watching the
cartoons and TV shows. Many times these cartoons are
full of occultic images and depict a lost world
without God, a pagan world of witchcraft and magic.
MTV is full of lustful images, mockery of God and the
Bible, and music designed to impregnate the soul with
a spirit more in harmony with the spirit of antichrist
than with the Spirit of God. Yet preachers all too
often remain silent. Perhaps it is because they and
their children are watching the same garbage and they
are unable to offer them anything better.
Incidentally,
I am not saying you must pray two hours a day to
follow Jesus, nor am I saying that the television is
intrinsically evil. We follow Jesus because we want
to, we pray because we want to, not because someone
tells us we have to.God gives us time to grow. Some
television programs may have value, but usually they
impart the spirit of those people who produced the
show, which is usually not the same thing as the
Spirit of God. This statement applies many times to
television evangelists as well - not always, but
certianly at times. The News often imparts a spirit of
fear, while many times even documentaries about the
beauties of nature are constantly full of the unproven
and godless nonsense concerning the theory of
evolution. Instead of giving glory to God for His
Creation they subtly seek to deny His existence and
put it all down to mindless chance and the laws of
physics which are assumed to exist eternally without
the need for anyone to create them.
The
television is useful when used to play worthwhile
Christian videos - be they films or teachings. Beyond
this, there may be many profitable things the
television could be used for, but most of what I have
seen will not draw you closer to God at all. It will
make you focus on the things of this world and lose
the vision of eternity, if you ever had it. It won’t
renew your mind; it will corrupt your mind and conform
you to the world. When you sit glued to the
television, you have no way of controlling what image
will appear on the screen next.
Some
things on television are not harmful in small
quantities - like sport, but they are irrelevant
distractions for anyone who has a high purpose in
life. I’ve found something worth giving my life for
- I’d rather develop a focus on that now. You may
feel that the television doesn’t affect you. You are
mature, and you can control it. If it doesn’t affect
you, why are you wasting your time with it? Why not do
something creative yourself? Why not change the world
for better instead of just observing all the real and
imagined evil that the television will bring into your
living room?
One
of the most honest advertisements I have seen for
television was in Southern India. There is a brand of
television that has on its advertisements the image of
a horned devil claiming to exercise power over those
who watch it. Big business also knows about the power
of television. That is why they spend multiplied
millions of dollars to use it to tell you to buy their
products. They know it works, even if you think you
are not being brainwashed by the TV. That is part of
the power of it.
An
idol is anything people value more than God Almighty.
An idol is what we are willing to trust in, sacrifice
for, and give time and attention to more than God. If
people gave the kind of time to God which they
currently give to receiving the things of the world
through television, there would be a worldwide revival
and incredible blessing. How wonderful it would be if
we would give time to considering the things of God
instead of the things of the world, and get hold of a
real Christian faith. We could experience the things
God promises believers in the Bible - love, peace,
joy, purpose, prosperity, healing and so on - after we
pass through the initial wilderness experiences that
come to all who begin to follow the Lord. The greatest
thing of all is the incredible fulfilment that is
found in actually knowing God personally.
Source
: https://www.angelfire.com/ab/fullgospel/articles.html
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