I’m a storyteller. I collect stories by watching movies and TV. Sometimes this is hard on me.
I don’t know whether these TV shows reflect something in Western culture that has really happened, or are just being shaped by somebody’s agenda. But it really does seem, in this vast collection of fiction, that the default position of almost all the characters is ABC–Anything But Christianity. The few Christians who do appear in the screenplays are almost all portrayed as nuts, and the other characters respond to them as they would to a strange animal species inexplicably appearing in their midst.
It is not “unbelief,” because there’s nobody who is without some set of beliefs or other, but rather “misbelief.” They don’t believe in God, they don’t believe in Jesus Christ. Sometimes it’s hard to tell what they believe in. Other times it’s easy: their own smartness, the State, Science, evolution, the coerced perfectibility of man, or some other inanity.
When I was growing up, virtually everyone I knew was a Christian of some kind. Some polls tell us that most people, at least in America, are still Christians. But the TV shows and movies tell us Christianity is over. Are the producers trying to make it be over by saying it’s over? Say it often enough, and people come to believe it, and it becomes true.
So I don’t know whether it’s true or not. But if it is, how did it happen? This has all been within my own lifetime. People are now proud of things they ought to be ashamed of, love things they should hate, and hate things they should love.
What can we do but proclaim Christ’s Kingdom, God’s sovereign grace and love, and truth as revealed in God’s Word? We can’t make them listen. No one can force anyone else to accept salvation.
O Lord our God, keep us from the evils of this age. We fear the institutional church has lost its power: but who knows if that was not your will, because you have something better in mind for us? Give us wisdom to understand these times, so that we might more wisely serve Our Lord Jesus Christ, Our Savior and Our King. In Jesus’ name, amen.
I think it all has to happen. Our salvation and deliverance will be based upon our faith in God’s Son, not our membership in some particular denomination. Isaiah 28:21 tells about God’s strange work and seems to tie this to His deliverance of His people.
Offering only an opinion, I sometimes think the God will cut through the confusion caused by denominationalism by undermining the denominations so that on the day of His judgement there are only two choices, reconcile to God through His Son, or reject God completely. The call will not be indistinct.
There is almost nothing in the media – news, entertainment, magazines, etc. – that does not include references against God/christianity and does include an apology or sneer or ridicule when a character even mentions God. 9 out of 10 Netflx movies contain blasphemy, homosexuality, extreme foul language, sex scenes and heavy drinking by main characters. The anti-everything moral propaganda is a growing tumor.
We don’t have Netflix, and most of the movies we watch are old. A lot of the TV shows, though, are big offenders.
I agree. ALL of Netflix’s TV shows are “big offenders.” (I don’t watch TV itself). There’s no alternative to Netflix and I point out their massive propaganda.
We get our movies on youtube, or rent them from amazon, or buy them: years ago, they weren’t as awful as they are now.
Reblogged this on necltr and commented:
The writing of much Biblical history, the present, and the near future are all in Revelation/Apocalypse 12. We are in the time of the Dragon on earth for his last days increasing in anger. War against Israel, then against Christians is to take place. God, Israel, and Christians have a common enemy, and Israel and Christians have a common protector.
I think “the sky is falling” mentality that took over the American church after Israel became a nation again is a big factor along with the pre-Trib rapture theology. No one knows when Christ returns so let us put our hands to the plow and work to disciple the nation according to Christ’s command. The results are up to Him as we plant and water. Young Christians should be encouraged to go into film making and writing books and screen plays – fight fire with fire. Romans 8 “We are more than conquorers through Christ Who loves us.”
Waitin’ for the Rapture has done the church a great deal of damage.
“I don’t know whether these TV shows reflect something in Western culture that has really happened, or are just being shaped by somebody’s agenda.”
Maybe a little of both, and our culture is more coarse for it.
More like a lot of both.
I think so too.