In 2010, a 13-year-old Croatian girl fell into a coma for 24 hours. When she woke up, she spoke fluent German—and could no longer speak Croatian.
She had been taking a German class at school but was by no means fluent, and she had been watching German television in her spare time to learn more of the language. After coming out of the coma, she could speak German fluently.
Television is a powerful medium. It has a profound impact on the mind. Do you realize the impact that those images and sounds have on your mind?
We have to take this subject seriously. If we are filling our minds with something, it will eventually show itself. Proverbs 23:7 tells us that as a man thinks in his heart, “so is he.” If we put garbage in, garbage will come out. “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh” (Matthew 12:34).
We must not carnally reason around filling our minds with the wrong kind of images by saying, Oh, I’m not going to go around murdering someone, or I’m never going to fornicate, so filling my mind with a little of those images isn’t going to do any harm. That is a dangerous attitude. Absorbing even a little of that content can have disastrous effects!
What are the images we are filling up on? What are we filling our minds with?
In a recent New York Post article, journalist Maureen Callahan wrote about how the big networks in television today are all going to the absolute lowest point to try to get more viewers. It’s a competition for who can be the sleaziest—for who can put the most violence, the most gruesome forms of brutality or sexual activity on the screen. Those are the two main themes of today’s media—sex and violence. And the competition for viewers is fierce.
Callahan wrote, “For nearly two decades, we’ve been told that this is the Golden Age of Television: The smartest, deepest storytelling, the most nuanced and morally complex characters, are found here. Perhaps it’s time for a reconsideration.”
The article went on to reference several horrifying examples from recent television. On one show, abc’s Scandal, one of the protagonists beat a man in a wheelchair to death with a metal chair. This is the kind of gruesome scene that people are anxious to see when they turn on programs like this and others—all forms of “torture and dismemberment, politically expedient murders and illegitimate war, rape, kidnapping, blackmail ….”
We watch these gruesome acts of violence, and often we don’t think anything of it. We can easily get desensitized to violence because it is so common. But those images get seared into our minds, creating almost irreparable scars.
Callahan wrote, “Today, the Golden Age is in the throes of an arms race, with show runners attempting to out-shock their audiences week to week, churning out melodrama without consequence.” It’s an arms race to see who can shock the viewers the most—and therefore get the most views. Every show is trying to out-shock the others.
Is this really the Golden Age? Are we, when we turn on the television today, seeing the smartest, deepest storytelling that has ever been? If you listen to the Hollywood directors and screenwriters, you would think so. If you listen to the critics, you would think it’s better than ever.
“In a post-Sopranos landscape, moral transgression automatically signifies high art. Infanticide, incest, pedophilia, matricide, torture, rape, castration, cannibalism, mass murder—all are now commonly employed tropes meant to signify quality” (ibid; emphasis mine). That’s right, quality. The more evil it is, the more awards it will win. That’s the way it is in this Golden Age of television. The more vile the content, the more critically acclaimed it will be.
This is not the Golden Age. It’s the darkest age—the darkest age of television, the darkest age of Hollywood, the darkest age of mankind. That’s what is coming out of Hollywood—darkness.
If you think filling your mind with that darkness doesn’t have an impact on your thinking, you had better think again.
Who is the true author of this dark age of television? Satan, the god of this world (2 Corinthians 4:4). He is behind this anti-family culture—this society that rewards tv shows based on how evil they are. Even if it’s shocking the first time, the more you watch it, the less it bothers you. It’s just like the gladiators of ancient Rome; people today enjoy watching horrible violence. People are obsessed with this violent content—they can’t get enough of it. And Satan, as the god of this world, is only too happy to provide it.
Suppose you’re watching some of these things being carried out on tv—the violence, the rape scenes, child prostitution, dismemberment. Do you come away from those scenes saying, “I want to go right to my prayer closet and give thanks to God?”
The only reason you would go straight to your prayer closet after seeing something like that is out of repentance for having made a terrible mistake. But how many do that?
You could argue, as some do, that it’s not a reflection of society—It’s just tv, just a fantasy, and watching those things won’t turn me into a murderer. But what effect does it really have on your thinking? Is it drawing you toward God—or pushing you away?
Satan’s spirit and power are so strong today. He is using these mediums to absolutely numb people to the reality of what is coming. Absolute garbage is flowing out on the airwaves and into our homes every moment, every minute and every hour of every day. And yet still, there are plenty of people who are convinced that we’re living in a golden age.
What is God’s assessment? He compares our latter days with the days just before the Flood (Luke 17:26-27). They were addicted to pleasure-seeking. In God’s view, the world today is like Sodom (verses 28-30). And as Herbert W. Armstrong said on more than one occasion, universal sin leads to universal destruction.
In God’s Church, we need to take a stand against the entertainment of the world—against the evil that is only getting worse and worse. If you’re filling your mind with these things, it can take you right out of the Church. It can stop you from using the Holy Spirit to grow. If you are filling up on entertainment from this world, you will be immature and lazy, with no self-discipline or drive—and not contributing to God’s Work.
We’re getting close to the destruction of our Sodom and Gomorrah world today, and violent media is driving us ever closer to the brink. Everyone today is doing what is right in their own eyes (Judges 21:25). Only God is able to intervene and save this sick and dying world.
In a radio broadcast in the 1960s, Mr. Armstrong said, “Television brings across its message, whatever it may be, with terrific impact, both through sight and sound simultaneously—a very effective medium. But what are we doing with it—how are we using it? Oh, just to while away our time, to amuse and entertain ourselves, most of us. Listen: It brings with it a tremendous responsibility on your part, and it’s going to require a little bit of self-control and guidance … over your own selves, as to whether you use it wisely.”
Mr. Armstrong warned us of the dangers of television—and that was in the 60s. How much worse is it today? It’s not a golden age for television. It’s worse than it has ever been.
We have to think more deeply and be more mature-minded today. For a lot of young people—even in the Church—it’s all tv, movies, video games, pop music, etc. But it shouldn’t be that way. Gerald Flurry has said that the young people in the Church today need to grow up faster than they have in the past because we’re so close to the end.
What do we consider to be the most important activity each day? What do we look forward to most? What are we interested in? What do we seek first?
We had better be careful of how we think about this subject—about how much time we’re squandering on trivial or dangerous pursuits. There is a blatantly hostile anti-God, anti-father, anti-family message in all of this, and what a powerful impact it has on the minds of human beings through both sight and sound simultaneously.
Unlike any generation before you, you’ve grown up being able to access pornography and violence with the push of a button. That is how easy it is today to fill our minds with things that will make us rotten on the inside. Is this really progress? It’s not progress, not if you step back and see the world as it really is—see the evil as it’s being spewed out over televisions, over the airwaves, in movies and in music all over the world, when you see the suffering, the hatred, the competition, the lack of empathy, the lack of natural affection, the lack of love, the obsession with self, the horrific violence.
Philippians 4:8 gives us a list of the kind of righteous, godly things we should fill our minds with. These are the last things that a screenwriter of today would think to put on the television screen. It’s everything they won’t put on tv. Today’s version of that verse would be more like: “Whatsoever things are evil, perverted, demented, violent, vile and abusive.”
Garbage in, garbage out. But the Bible also says that if you fill up on righteousness—if you fill your mind with God’s law, His vision and purpose—then that will come out as well. That is how we get rid of those mental scars. That is how we remove those satanic images from our minds—by filling up on the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
This starts with you. It is a personal decision. You have to rule your own spirit well. That’s where it starts.
Think about this Christian life—why God brought you and your family into His Church. A true Christian supporter of the Work of God is one who is passionate, zealous, earnest, who carries himself/herself around with an overwhelming sense of purpose. To be that kind of Christian, we must be filling up on the things of God—not the evil of the world’s media.
Go to God for an evaluation. Ask God to reveal those areas of your heart and mind that are still filled with darkness, and let the glorious light of the gospel of Christ fill your heart and mind so that when the time comes, you will be able to help Jesus Christ usher in the true Golden Age.