Satan knows that if he can get us to laugh at things we believe we would never do, our defenses will fall.
Christians should not allow entertainment to define their understanding of happiness, romance, modesty, masculinity, success, fulfillment, justice, or anything else. The Word and the Spirit should shape our worldview, not Hollywood. Sadly, however, many Christians today are more affected by the movies they watch than the sermons they hear. They show more enthusiasm for video games or television sporting events than they do for pursuing Christ likeness. They fill their minds with the sounds of talk radio or perhaps the latest hit albums rather than letting the Word of God richly dwell within them. Deep down, they enjoy exploring the pleasures of the world – even if only vicariously – as they watch actors play out scenes in which sinful pursuits are seemingly rewarded with happiness. The irony, of course, is that in real life though the same actors are just as miserable as everyone else, a sobering reality that keeps supermarket tabloids in business.
Right Thinking in a World Gone Wrong, Grace Community Church, 2009, p. 26.
Many [movies] are not just non-Christian, they are anti-Christian. I don’t mean that they openly attack the Christian faith. But at least in some cases they might as well. They employ filthy language and lewd humor (Col. 3:8; Tit. 2:6-8); they glorify violence rather than peace (Tit. 1:7; 1 Jn. 4:7-8); they glamorize lust and immorality rather than holiness (1 Thes. 4:3-5; 1 Pet. 1:16); they instill feelings of discontentment and desire rather than thankfulness (Eph. 5:20; 1 Tim. 6:6); and they promote worldviews that are antithetical to biblical Christianity (2 Cor. 10:5). Does that mean a Christian should never watch movies? Not necessarily. But we must be discerning about the things we allow into our minds. We are called to renew our minds. When we continually fill our minds with the filth of this world, we do ourselves a great spiritual disservice.
Right Thinking in a World Gone Wrong, Grace Community Church, 2009, p. 25.
We are not encouraged to forsake our sin by having our senses amused or our preferences coddled. The Gospel is inherently and irreducibly confrontational. It cuts against our perceived righteousness and self-sufficiency, demanding that we forsake cherished sin and trust in someone else to justify us. Entertainment is therefore a problematic medium for communicating the Gospel, because it nearly always obscures the most difficult aspects of it – the cost of repentance, the cross of discipleship, the narrowness of the Way. Some will disagree, arguing that drama can give unbelievers a helpful visual image of the Gospel. But we have already been given such visual images. They are the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper and the transformed lives of our Christian brothers and sisters (Mark Dever and Paul Alexander).
Doing Responsible Evangelism, taken from The Deliberate Church, © 2005, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, p. 55, www.crosswaybooks.org.
Entertainment once provided escape from reality, it seems now that entertainment has become the reality from which no one desires to escape (Tom Patton).
Right Thinking in a World Gone Wrong, Grace Community Church, 2009, p. 65.
All great amusements are dangerous to the Christian life; but among all those which the world has invented there is none more to be feared than the theatre.
Pensees,1660.
Even Christians who refuse to indulge personally in sinful sexual activity often watch movies and shows, read books and articles, and visit Internet sites that highlight, display, promote, or make light of sexual immorality. It’s as if we’ve said to the world, “We’re not going to do what you do, but we will gladly entertain ourselves by watching you.” It’s sick, isn’t it, this tendency that brings delight to us when we observe others in sexual sin?
Taken from Counter Culture, Copyright © 2015 by David Platt. Used by permission. Website: Radical.net. Page 164.
After consuming a quantity of junk food, we have no appetite for healthy food. In the same manner, after feeding our souls on Satan’s sinful, sour, salacious cesspool, (media) we have no desire for God’s spiritual food (Bible).
Why do we find it so easy to be amused by behavior that God hates and that Jesus Christ died to save us from?
Everyday Talk, Talking Freely and Naturally about God with Your Children, Shepherd Press, 2004, p. 108, Used by Permission. Get this book!
