I get your point but my plate is full already. I haven't watched TV in over 4 years and I don't miss it. I'd much rather read. However, the pastor of the church I have been attending recently has warned me not to learn anything about the occult. I've been learning about that for 35 years because my family and my wife's family had people who were in it. We live in an occult world in an occult nation. Our government was founded in occultism and personal political liberty is a Free Masonic concept, not a Biblical concept. The Pastor says the Bible is enough. Well, the Bible is all sufficient and the measure of all things. He says all he needs is the Bible. And I say, then why do you have New Age sycretism in your church? Why do your members think the Golden Don is America's savior when he has appointed the heretic Paula White, the The Faith Office in the White House? Why do you not understand that "The Golden Age" or "The Golden Era" is the Age of Aquarius? Why do the sermons of guest preachers sound more like lessons in American government than the Bible? Why is there an American flag in the church? Why can't you see that New Age doctrine ran through the Third Reich and that the Trump Administration is the Fourth Reich reconstruction because the first one failed? I want to say that the Bible is all anyone will ever need. If that is true, I don't understand why the churches are in such a mess.
That is similar to what I told the pastor in a rather angry email. I said when he allows one of the heavily politically involved attenders (not even a member) fill in when the pastor is gone, he preaches the doctrines of the US Constitution, personal sovereignty, and how "godly" our founders were and how Biblical the Constitution is. That's nonsense. I told the pastor that is "another gospel."
This is the reason why the Constitution has the clause of separation between church and state, giving citizens the right to religious freedom and to worship as they choose to believe and want! That our founding fathers didn't want religions and politics mixing because that's one reason why they escaped England because the state controlled everything, even what the people believed and that too many people have been killed in the name of religion and over religious beliefs other than what the state approves of!
Our founding fathers believed that our rights come from the Creator/God/Yahweh and not the state! Our freedoms and sovereignty comes from our Creator and not the state! Our founding fathers believed that to truly be sovereign and free that the people deserved religious freedom too!
Isn't this one reason why Jesus flipped over the money tables in the church, because politics and stately business started to mix in with the church and worship! That favor in the Creator's/God's/Yahweh's eyes cannot be bought with gold and earthly money!
Pastors/Preachers that preach the Constitution is Biblical and "godly" is deception because our nation was not founded on Christianity and the Bible! Our nation was founded on Masonic tradition and free masonry!
America is and has always been a Christian nation but it was not founded on Christianity or any other religion because that goes against what the Constitution stands for which is religious sovereignty and people having the freedom to practice their beliefs and worship based on their beliefs! I think people get this concept confused because I used to believe that America was founded on the Bible and Christianity too!
It's easy to be confused because the first people who came to America were Christians, the puritans, the colonists and were from England and Europe and they brought their Christian practices and beliefs along too which were also quite oppressive and forced onto people to believe because the puritans and Europeans were also raised this way!
The founding fathers saw this happening and didn't want this new world(America) to be like England with the government controlling people's thoughts and beliefs which includes religious beliefs with people being persecuted for believing in another religion other than Christianity! Our founding fathers wanted a free nation with its citizens living as the free sovereign beings that they were created to be, which included religious freedom and worshipping according to each person's beliefs without having to worry about being persecuted by the state and killed for religious beliefs!
Christianity just became the nation's main religion because European Christians were the first settlers here and those Christian beliefs were passed down and those beliefs have been etched into generation after generation and still continue to be passed down today but not insisted on as much as in previous generations!
Christianity in America is in decline today and those biblical teachings that have been passed down to generation after generation aren't getting passed down much anymore so it's easy for deceptive teachings to get worked in with the truth! I think this is where "America was founded as a Christian nation and how biblical the Constitution is" comes in at!
I learned the truth when I started asking questions and searching for the truth and going down the rabbit hole in search of answers! This information is very easy to find today and the truth is finally coming out about how much influence free masonry had with the founding of America and our Constitution!
I must gently disagree with you my friend. God alone, God only, is Sovereign. If the founders of America believed man is sovereign, it is only because they believed man could become his own god. Self-rule means God is not ruling you or that you are rebelling against God's rule.
Why are the churches in such a mess? The tradition-bound institutional churches, with their pastors and sermons and proof-texting and "worship" and expensive buildings (and on and on), that don't even faintly resemble the practices of the early assemblies described in the New Testament?
Is there a way to find a church that resembles the early assemblies of the New Testament? I'm ready! But I'm still waiting on a part for my time machine. 🙂
An awesome teacher on YouTube. His name is David Benjamin. He also has a website Called Christiansneedthegospel.com.where you can download eBooks for free. When you proceed to check out, just put 0 in the box. I highly recommend the e book called new covenant versus new testament ministry. With technology today You can fellowship online. You don't have to be there physically. I haven't been in the institutional church for 12 years. And I've learned more from this guy than any other teaching that I've heard.And i've learned more from this guy than any other teaching that i've heard sofar.
I appreciate your writings very much. I am going to make a guess that you took the term Winter Christian from the original contrast with the Summer Soldier or Sunshine Patriot of Thomas Paine. Thereby a Winter Christian is one who stands by his guns when the weather turns bad. I just rediscovered that this concept was used in the Winter Soldier Investigations of the Viet Nam war. Is all this a part of your ethos? Kudos John Childs
I’ll be honest, I heard the term “Winter Soldier” from the Captain America movie and learned that it was a real term then, but I had already been trying to find a term for the kind of Christianity that would withstand all the hardship and betrayal of the end times, so it instantly resonated. I assumed it would fit nicely with those kinds of discussions, but I didn’t know about Thomas Paine’s term or the Viet Nam investigations! Thank you for properly bridging the connections for me. To me it’s exactly that kind of thinking, the idea that you would “continue the mission” even when there’s no longer an army or a support system.
I am trying to see if I can find the full film "Winter Soldier" but have not been able to.
I am curious how you perceive the hardship and betrayal at the end times. This is a great concern of mine as well. Do you have a succinct presentation on your eschatology? I think we are in a time of significant deception particularly with the issue of Zionism.
You can email me at maybewrong@protonmail.com as well. Unfortuantely my eschatology rethinks almost every major topic (the Beast, Whore of Babylon, the Rapture, the Mark, the Tribulation, the Two Witnesses, the Antichrist, and more) so I can't find a way to make it succint. My book "Maybe Everyone Is Wrong" is my attempt to bring it all together into one coherent study. And I have that in free audiobook form on this Substack.
This publication is dedicated almost entirely to end times deception, the coming tribulation, and how geopolitics and Zionism fit into it, so maybe it would be worth scrolling through the backlog. I hope to hear more from you, and just so you know, I'm currently writing a significant article on Zionism right now.
Interesting article. I agree with much of what you have said. I too liked violent TV shows, comic books and heavy metal music once. However since I really found Jesus, all of that has become 'of the world' and I avoid it like the plague now. I simply do not find any of it edifying. I agree with your comments about Roman Catholism. My research on that subject, idol worship and the historic death of millions of Christians for simply wanting to read God's Word in their own language etc. has led me to reject that. The unbiblical teaching and accepting of sin in many, so called Christian denominations (that were once fervent for God's Word), has led me to reject them too (Anglicanism, Methodism, Calvanism to name some). I accept that to know good you have to know bad. But I find the things 'of the world' distinctly bad, unedifying and just plain sinful and I recommend avoiding them.
I've heard similar accounts of Christians. I don't doubt their sincerity or wish to separate themselves from ungodly media. To me it reminds me of the verses about how eating meat is not wrong, but we should refrain around those who it offends
Where did I say it's how we acclimate ourselves to the needs of the world? You just made up your own idea, don't project it onto me. And I have talked to thousands of people who have concerns and troubles, also as a mature Christian who isn't offended by sinful or sad facts of life.
We should be salt and light in the World but not of the World. We should also be real and recognise that we are no better than unbelievers but we do have someone who is our helper who helps us overcome sin and empowers us to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. What we should be aiming for is to be more like the One we worship.
When I was a young man I used to watch the tv series Kung Fu with David Caradine whose character Qui Chang Cain was what I imagine a Christian could call an architype of Christ likeness minus the violence, peaceful but strong, obviously he did not the preach and spread the Good News but in his demeanour.
A very complex consideration, properly suspicious of the "nice" fantasizers, and the squeamish.
The deeper issues arise around Iain MacGilchrist's distinction between "propositional," in which realm this makes sense; and the "dispositional," as in the "mind of Christ."
Secondarily, there is the matter of private inclination in reference to unnecessarily offending the many(!) weaker sort.
I have to say that I find myself disagreeing to an extent. "Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things." I've heard it said SO much that Christian-marketed "art" is terrible, but, it points me to Christ and his Way more than any other. The depth of Christ and what he has done is much more interesting and nuanced than any art form that explores the depths of the consequences of sin. I do agree that we have to understand how bad things are before we know how much we have been saved from, but we don't have to revel in, collect, and like the things that are entirely depraved.
That's not to say that I don't delve into worldly thing or into trying to find explanations for why things are the way they are, but, if I am not to lose hope, I have to cling to the light.
That particular passage you quote has been used to forbid the acknowledgment of anything evil in the world, and basically creating an isolated bubble for Christians. I have struggled with it for decades, and I believe it was important for the early believers who were literally being persecuted by pagans. Because we are also told to be "wise as serpents, but harmless as doves." And there's no way we could be as wise as serpents if we don't think about the way evil works.
And I agree that things that are "totally depraved" should simply be avoided. But a lot of stories include depravity while actually having a good moral perspective on it. But I do also think this should only be done if a Christian is very grounded in the biblical sense of morality.
At least I quote the Word unlike your article which doesn't have one biblical reference but instead talks about how you find such depth in demonic things and expressions of fallen humanity. And yet, for some reason, you say that I'm quoting such a scripture as a weapon of ignorance? No, it's meant for our good, because our God is good.
In a sense, I can see where you are coming from. The common graces that God gives all humanity and the communicable attributes of God which are inherit in all of humanity can shine through in any expression of humanity. However, I find that people all too often strain to look for these things instead of looking to the source of where all of the goodness comes from. There are people dedicating their lives and giving over their lives to the full expression of praising God for what he has done in Christ. To nibble on bits of goodness that shine through the depravity of those who are not seeking God is not the sustenance that God wants us to have.
Fourth: If you're making a case that you should watch those shows and listen to Tool to immerse yourself in reality, you might as well go to Strip Clubs too! To evangelize! I'm sure that's what God is calling you to do in order to Love Reality!
As I have drawn closer to Him in the last five years through more serious, focused Bible study and prayer, I find that I have less and less tolerance for the world's entertainment. Movies and music I used to love, I can't listen to anymore. It promotes sin and doesn’t honor God. I keep culling my DVD collection.
Not because a preacher told me to, but because as I’ve learned what God loves and what God hates, I have to stop halfway through watching it because it promotes sin without glorifying God in the process, and I don't think I'm pleasing God by watching it.
Music: The last public community dance party we went to played “classic rock", and I had to stop dancing and walk away. I was singing every word that had been programmed into me, and I found that I couldn't sing them anymore. I couldn’t sing the lyrics out loud with happiness, surrounded by people that I loved, because they were depraved. The lyrics offended God. The lyrics promoted sin. So I walked away.
I've been a Christian for years, and I'm getting more and more sensitized by the transforming of my mind to God's mind by His word and my conversations with Him. I don't need to put filth and sin in my mind on purpose. I don't have to watch what Hollywood puts out in order to know the true depravity of the evil in this world. You're making a very strange case with this article that is the opposite of my experience in my walk with God.
Third: Hollywood is not reality. Watching The Sopranos and Berserk is not "wading into a sinful world and discovering what God wants to do with it."
Walk under the bridges and in the alleys where the homeless live. Talk to them. Get the SH*T scared out of you when an actual demon talks back to you. Get deeply sad when you realize how broken these people are, how much evil there is in this world that got these people to this place.
Then find out that when you get home, you don't want to turn on the Sopranos or Berserk and fill your mind with more evil crap, but that all you want to do is pray and read your Bible, and talk to people who are already helping the homeless so you can too.
My first question is: What is YOUR story? What prompted you to write this article? Which Christians in your life have been easily "offended"? Which Christians in your life have not been "realistic"? Who are you talking about? What did they say or do? Why did you write this? I don't see Christians in my life being easily offended or avoiding reality. I see Christians feeding the poor and the homeless, helping the autistics, reaching out to the drug addicts, casting out demons, and helping the abused get out of sex cults. Helping all these different people get out of their misery into happier, more hopeful lives. So your premise falls very flat with me without a few stories of your own.
I am one of the Christians who has discussed these topics with the author and one of the frustrations that I've discussed with him is that many of the systems that Christians use to do the charitable deeds that you list are exploitable and can lead to doing harm instead of the good that was intended. This frustration then builds as honest people try to create awareness of the exploits or problems but meet resistance from others who become discouraged by hearing about the negative aspects (since they are often kindly volunteers just trying to make the world a better place). When they get discouraged they lose enthusiasm for the work and gain resentment towards those who created awareness of the problem because until they were forced to face the reality of the situation they were happy (or atleast content) to do the work. The next dilemma comes when asking someone for examples of these problems because it can very quickly become a list of "black pills" that act as fuel for cynics and critics who can use them as proof of charity's being "scams" or for justifying their own selfishness. Obviously this does not answer all the questions that you asked but I hope it gives some insight into why there could be a reluctance to answer them. I will give atleast one example though I will make it a reply to your comment on the next article due to how long this one already is.
As much as I avoid nihilistic nonsense from the media, I agree to some extent. Sometimes we just need to step away from worldly media and focus on whatever is pure, whatever is good, and sometimes we need to be aware that we live in a fallen world and thus among dark depraved people.
For instance, the persecution of Christians in Nigeria. If anyone is offended, not because persecution is happening to your fellow Christians, but because the subject of persecution is depressing and dark…hmmm.
And ironically, some fiction media with dark content seem to be warnings of the kind of future ungodly man want the rest of the world. Take C.S. Lewis’ That Hideous Strength, which describes gradually the villainous N.I.C.E’s plans to take over the world and abolish organic life. Even the thing about a literal head of the organisation was taken from experiments involving keeping a dog’s head alive by scientists in Germany back then!
And the Bible does have examples of not just the sinfulness of man, but God’s saving grace to ensure man returns to Him.
I get your point but my plate is full already. I haven't watched TV in over 4 years and I don't miss it. I'd much rather read. However, the pastor of the church I have been attending recently has warned me not to learn anything about the occult. I've been learning about that for 35 years because my family and my wife's family had people who were in it. We live in an occult world in an occult nation. Our government was founded in occultism and personal political liberty is a Free Masonic concept, not a Biblical concept. The Pastor says the Bible is enough. Well, the Bible is all sufficient and the measure of all things. He says all he needs is the Bible. And I say, then why do you have New Age sycretism in your church? Why do your members think the Golden Don is America's savior when he has appointed the heretic Paula White, the The Faith Office in the White House? Why do you not understand that "The Golden Age" or "The Golden Era" is the Age of Aquarius? Why do the sermons of guest preachers sound more like lessons in American government than the Bible? Why is there an American flag in the church? Why can't you see that New Age doctrine ran through the Third Reich and that the Trump Administration is the Fourth Reich reconstruction because the first one failed? I want to say that the Bible is all anyone will ever need. If that is true, I don't understand why the churches are in such a mess.
Because the institutional church is preaching another gospel.It's called the apostate church.
That is similar to what I told the pastor in a rather angry email. I said when he allows one of the heavily politically involved attenders (not even a member) fill in when the pastor is gone, he preaches the doctrines of the US Constitution, personal sovereignty, and how "godly" our founders were and how Biblical the Constitution is. That's nonsense. I told the pastor that is "another gospel."
Which is
No gospel at all
This is the reason why the Constitution has the clause of separation between church and state, giving citizens the right to religious freedom and to worship as they choose to believe and want! That our founding fathers didn't want religions and politics mixing because that's one reason why they escaped England because the state controlled everything, even what the people believed and that too many people have been killed in the name of religion and over religious beliefs other than what the state approves of!
Our founding fathers believed that our rights come from the Creator/God/Yahweh and not the state! Our freedoms and sovereignty comes from our Creator and not the state! Our founding fathers believed that to truly be sovereign and free that the people deserved religious freedom too!
Isn't this one reason why Jesus flipped over the money tables in the church, because politics and stately business started to mix in with the church and worship! That favor in the Creator's/God's/Yahweh's eyes cannot be bought with gold and earthly money!
Pastors/Preachers that preach the Constitution is Biblical and "godly" is deception because our nation was not founded on Christianity and the Bible! Our nation was founded on Masonic tradition and free masonry!
America is and has always been a Christian nation but it was not founded on Christianity or any other religion because that goes against what the Constitution stands for which is religious sovereignty and people having the freedom to practice their beliefs and worship based on their beliefs! I think people get this concept confused because I used to believe that America was founded on the Bible and Christianity too!
It's easy to be confused because the first people who came to America were Christians, the puritans, the colonists and were from England and Europe and they brought their Christian practices and beliefs along too which were also quite oppressive and forced onto people to believe because the puritans and Europeans were also raised this way!
The founding fathers saw this happening and didn't want this new world(America) to be like England with the government controlling people's thoughts and beliefs which includes religious beliefs with people being persecuted for believing in another religion other than Christianity! Our founding fathers wanted a free nation with its citizens living as the free sovereign beings that they were created to be, which included religious freedom and worshipping according to each person's beliefs without having to worry about being persecuted by the state and killed for religious beliefs!
Christianity just became the nation's main religion because European Christians were the first settlers here and those Christian beliefs were passed down and those beliefs have been etched into generation after generation and still continue to be passed down today but not insisted on as much as in previous generations!
Christianity in America is in decline today and those biblical teachings that have been passed down to generation after generation aren't getting passed down much anymore so it's easy for deceptive teachings to get worked in with the truth! I think this is where "America was founded as a Christian nation and how biblical the Constitution is" comes in at!
I learned the truth when I started asking questions and searching for the truth and going down the rabbit hole in search of answers! This information is very easy to find today and the truth is finally coming out about how much influence free masonry had with the founding of America and our Constitution!
I must gently disagree with you my friend. God alone, God only, is Sovereign. If the founders of America believed man is sovereign, it is only because they believed man could become his own god. Self-rule means God is not ruling you or that you are rebelling against God's rule.
🤗
Which is
No gospel at all.
Why are the churches in such a mess? The tradition-bound institutional churches, with their pastors and sermons and proof-texting and "worship" and expensive buildings (and on and on), that don't even faintly resemble the practices of the early assemblies described in the New Testament?
What could go wrong?
Is there a way to find a church that resembles the early assemblies of the New Testament? I'm ready! But I'm still waiting on a part for my time machine. 🙂
There's.
An awesome teacher on YouTube. His name is David Benjamin. He also has a website Called Christiansneedthegospel.com.where you can download eBooks for free. When you proceed to check out, just put 0 in the box. I highly recommend the e book called new covenant versus new testament ministry. With technology today You can fellowship online. You don't have to be there physically. I haven't been in the institutional church for 12 years. And I've learned more from this guy than any other teaching that I've heard.And i've learned more from this guy than any other teaching that i've heard sofar.
I agree 💯 with everything you said here!
Great topic. Spiritual warfare is front and center.
No, it isn’t. It is only so over your mind. You have no power in the world except the spread the Gospels — which only a few will respond to.
Terry,
I appreciate your writings very much. I am going to make a guess that you took the term Winter Christian from the original contrast with the Summer Soldier or Sunshine Patriot of Thomas Paine. Thereby a Winter Christian is one who stands by his guns when the weather turns bad. I just rediscovered that this concept was used in the Winter Soldier Investigations of the Viet Nam war. Is all this a part of your ethos? Kudos John Childs
I’ll be honest, I heard the term “Winter Soldier” from the Captain America movie and learned that it was a real term then, but I had already been trying to find a term for the kind of Christianity that would withstand all the hardship and betrayal of the end times, so it instantly resonated. I assumed it would fit nicely with those kinds of discussions, but I didn’t know about Thomas Paine’s term or the Viet Nam investigations! Thank you for properly bridging the connections for me. To me it’s exactly that kind of thinking, the idea that you would “continue the mission” even when there’s no longer an army or a support system.
Terry, Is this the best way to correspond? I was looking for the Vietnam connection and find that this archive opens with Paine's quote at about 45 seconds in. https://archive.org/details/201360_202146_The_Winter_Soldier_Investigation/201360_The_Winter_Soldier_Investigation_1_Copy_1_master.intros.mov
I am trying to see if I can find the full film "Winter Soldier" but have not been able to.
I am curious how you perceive the hardship and betrayal at the end times. This is a great concern of mine as well. Do you have a succinct presentation on your eschatology? I think we are in a time of significant deception particularly with the issue of Zionism.
Anxious to hear more. Thanks. John jchilds.midam@gmail.com
You can email me at maybewrong@protonmail.com as well. Unfortuantely my eschatology rethinks almost every major topic (the Beast, Whore of Babylon, the Rapture, the Mark, the Tribulation, the Two Witnesses, the Antichrist, and more) so I can't find a way to make it succint. My book "Maybe Everyone Is Wrong" is my attempt to bring it all together into one coherent study. And I have that in free audiobook form on this Substack.
This publication is dedicated almost entirely to end times deception, the coming tribulation, and how geopolitics and Zionism fit into it, so maybe it would be worth scrolling through the backlog. I hope to hear more from you, and just so you know, I'm currently writing a significant article on Zionism right now.
Interesting article. I agree with much of what you have said. I too liked violent TV shows, comic books and heavy metal music once. However since I really found Jesus, all of that has become 'of the world' and I avoid it like the plague now. I simply do not find any of it edifying. I agree with your comments about Roman Catholism. My research on that subject, idol worship and the historic death of millions of Christians for simply wanting to read God's Word in their own language etc. has led me to reject that. The unbiblical teaching and accepting of sin in many, so called Christian denominations (that were once fervent for God's Word), has led me to reject them too (Anglicanism, Methodism, Calvanism to name some). I accept that to know good you have to know bad. But I find the things 'of the world' distinctly bad, unedifying and just plain sinful and I recommend avoiding them.
I've heard similar accounts of Christians. I don't doubt their sincerity or wish to separate themselves from ungodly media. To me it reminds me of the verses about how eating meat is not wrong, but we should refrain around those who it offends
The fact you think consuming entertainment is how Christians acclimate themselves to the needs of the world is so naive.
Have you tried talking to actual people who actually suffer?
Where did I say it's how we acclimate ourselves to the needs of the world? You just made up your own idea, don't project it onto me. And I have talked to thousands of people who have concerns and troubles, also as a mature Christian who isn't offended by sinful or sad facts of life.
We should be salt and light in the World but not of the World. We should also be real and recognise that we are no better than unbelievers but we do have someone who is our helper who helps us overcome sin and empowers us to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. What we should be aiming for is to be more like the One we worship.
When I was a young man I used to watch the tv series Kung Fu with David Caradine whose character Qui Chang Cain was what I imagine a Christian could call an architype of Christ likeness minus the violence, peaceful but strong, obviously he did not the preach and spread the Good News but in his demeanour.
A very complex consideration, properly suspicious of the "nice" fantasizers, and the squeamish.
The deeper issues arise around Iain MacGilchrist's distinction between "propositional," in which realm this makes sense; and the "dispositional," as in the "mind of Christ."
Secondarily, there is the matter of private inclination in reference to unnecessarily offending the many(!) weaker sort.
The very fact that the easily offended Christians are consistently called the "weaker" tells us that we should strive not to be so offended!
I have to say that I find myself disagreeing to an extent. "Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things." I've heard it said SO much that Christian-marketed "art" is terrible, but, it points me to Christ and his Way more than any other. The depth of Christ and what he has done is much more interesting and nuanced than any art form that explores the depths of the consequences of sin. I do agree that we have to understand how bad things are before we know how much we have been saved from, but we don't have to revel in, collect, and like the things that are entirely depraved.
That's not to say that I don't delve into worldly thing or into trying to find explanations for why things are the way they are, but, if I am not to lose hope, I have to cling to the light.
That particular passage you quote has been used to forbid the acknowledgment of anything evil in the world, and basically creating an isolated bubble for Christians. I have struggled with it for decades, and I believe it was important for the early believers who were literally being persecuted by pagans. Because we are also told to be "wise as serpents, but harmless as doves." And there's no way we could be as wise as serpents if we don't think about the way evil works.
And I agree that things that are "totally depraved" should simply be avoided. But a lot of stories include depravity while actually having a good moral perspective on it. But I do also think this should only be done if a Christian is very grounded in the biblical sense of morality.
At least I quote the Word unlike your article which doesn't have one biblical reference but instead talks about how you find such depth in demonic things and expressions of fallen humanity. And yet, for some reason, you say that I'm quoting such a scripture as a weapon of ignorance? No, it's meant for our good, because our God is good.
In a sense, I can see where you are coming from. The common graces that God gives all humanity and the communicable attributes of God which are inherit in all of humanity can shine through in any expression of humanity. However, I find that people all too often strain to look for these things instead of looking to the source of where all of the goodness comes from. There are people dedicating their lives and giving over their lives to the full expression of praising God for what he has done in Christ. To nibble on bits of goodness that shine through the depravity of those who are not seeking God is not the sustenance that God wants us to have.
Fourth: If you're making a case that you should watch those shows and listen to Tool to immerse yourself in reality, you might as well go to Strip Clubs too! To evangelize! I'm sure that's what God is calling you to do in order to Love Reality!
As I have drawn closer to Him in the last five years through more serious, focused Bible study and prayer, I find that I have less and less tolerance for the world's entertainment. Movies and music I used to love, I can't listen to anymore. It promotes sin and doesn’t honor God. I keep culling my DVD collection.
Not because a preacher told me to, but because as I’ve learned what God loves and what God hates, I have to stop halfway through watching it because it promotes sin without glorifying God in the process, and I don't think I'm pleasing God by watching it.
Music: The last public community dance party we went to played “classic rock", and I had to stop dancing and walk away. I was singing every word that had been programmed into me, and I found that I couldn't sing them anymore. I couldn’t sing the lyrics out loud with happiness, surrounded by people that I loved, because they were depraved. The lyrics offended God. The lyrics promoted sin. So I walked away.
I've been a Christian for years, and I'm getting more and more sensitized by the transforming of my mind to God's mind by His word and my conversations with Him. I don't need to put filth and sin in my mind on purpose. I don't have to watch what Hollywood puts out in order to know the true depravity of the evil in this world. You're making a very strange case with this article that is the opposite of my experience in my walk with God.
Third: Hollywood is not reality. Watching The Sopranos and Berserk is not "wading into a sinful world and discovering what God wants to do with it."
Walk under the bridges and in the alleys where the homeless live. Talk to them. Get the SH*T scared out of you when an actual demon talks back to you. Get deeply sad when you realize how broken these people are, how much evil there is in this world that got these people to this place.
Then find out that when you get home, you don't want to turn on the Sopranos or Berserk and fill your mind with more evil crap, but that all you want to do is pray and read your Bible, and talk to people who are already helping the homeless so you can too.
Second: "Love reality"? Really? Are you sure you want to go with that Subtitle? How do you get THAT out of the Bible?
There is much I want to comment on here, Terry.
My first question is: What is YOUR story? What prompted you to write this article? Which Christians in your life have been easily "offended"? Which Christians in your life have not been "realistic"? Who are you talking about? What did they say or do? Why did you write this? I don't see Christians in my life being easily offended or avoiding reality. I see Christians feeding the poor and the homeless, helping the autistics, reaching out to the drug addicts, casting out demons, and helping the abused get out of sex cults. Helping all these different people get out of their misery into happier, more hopeful lives. So your premise falls very flat with me without a few stories of your own.
I am one of the Christians who has discussed these topics with the author and one of the frustrations that I've discussed with him is that many of the systems that Christians use to do the charitable deeds that you list are exploitable and can lead to doing harm instead of the good that was intended. This frustration then builds as honest people try to create awareness of the exploits or problems but meet resistance from others who become discouraged by hearing about the negative aspects (since they are often kindly volunteers just trying to make the world a better place). When they get discouraged they lose enthusiasm for the work and gain resentment towards those who created awareness of the problem because until they were forced to face the reality of the situation they were happy (or atleast content) to do the work. The next dilemma comes when asking someone for examples of these problems because it can very quickly become a list of "black pills" that act as fuel for cynics and critics who can use them as proof of charity's being "scams" or for justifying their own selfishness. Obviously this does not answer all the questions that you asked but I hope it gives some insight into why there could be a reluctance to answer them. I will give atleast one example though I will make it a reply to your comment on the next article due to how long this one already is.
As much as I avoid nihilistic nonsense from the media, I agree to some extent. Sometimes we just need to step away from worldly media and focus on whatever is pure, whatever is good, and sometimes we need to be aware that we live in a fallen world and thus among dark depraved people.
For instance, the persecution of Christians in Nigeria. If anyone is offended, not because persecution is happening to your fellow Christians, but because the subject of persecution is depressing and dark…hmmm.
And ironically, some fiction media with dark content seem to be warnings of the kind of future ungodly man want the rest of the world. Take C.S. Lewis’ That Hideous Strength, which describes gradually the villainous N.I.C.E’s plans to take over the world and abolish organic life. Even the thing about a literal head of the organisation was taken from experiments involving keeping a dog’s head alive by scientists in Germany back then!
And the Bible does have examples of not just the sinfulness of man, but God’s saving grace to ensure man returns to Him.