SENSITIZE US JEHOVAH TO THE SECULAR MEDIA’S INFLUENCES

1John 2:15-17

THE SCENARIO The human brain is like a sponge, absorbing at the most primitive level that which is presented to it by the five senses: hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting, touching. And that absorption is qualified further, less primitively, deeper, by way of memory; for our purposes, processed emotional memories rooted in sensory experiences. As such, a given brain-sponge is inclined to preferentially soak up that which appeases and pleases its quite personal and unique sensory assessments accrued heretofore. The distance from preferential, brain-sponge saturation, to saturation-guided exercise of the same, is minute. We speak of what the Word of God calls the “flesh” here, the carnality of humankind—that which the secular media engages for its own purposes. The bigger, more profound picture is the spiritual consequences of that engagement. This sensitivity training scenario is interested in that bigger, more profound spiritual picture.

For starters, here follows a typical (secular) media-influenced day in the life of SpoggoS, our main character. SpoggoS is not a Christian at the time of this writing.

SpoggoS gets up at 5:00 AM to the sound of their alarm-radio, and the first thing they hear besides the music and lyrics is the latest news, replete with commercials selling this and that and the other. Commercials couched in body things, money things, ego things, “me and my comfort zone” things, largely Godless things. And the news is typically bad, sin-laden things, usually quite sad and/or gross. In the course of the news, time is allotted by the station for the weather report, which is largely neutral, except for sponsor credits and perhaps an introductory and closing commercial: more body things, money things, ego things, “me and my comfort zone” things, largely Godless things. And further in the course of the news, time is allotted by the station for the latest sports results, including perhaps a segment with a proud, secularly secure athlete promoting this and that (not all athletes fit a negative [with respect to Scripture] mold, some are very good role models, and even have the courage to publicly witness for Jesus Christ). Popular and highly influential athletes here. After a shower, and some breakfast while catching some of the morning talk shows, either by radio or TV or internet, SpoggoS gets in their car and heads off to work, listening to the radio; more commercials: more body things, money things, ego things, “me and my comfort zone” things, largely Godless things. And on the way to work, while listening to the radio, SpoggoS is confronted by eye-catching billboards promoting more of the things already mentioned. The workplace is largely neutral, no media influx, except for SpoggoS’ company’s logos and promotions. Then comes the ride home, more radio, billboards, and finally leisure time at home in front of the computer and “social” media, and/or TV.

By the time SpoggoS’ day is over their brain is saturated with the secular media’s hype. And this happens day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year. So as time goes by, SpoggoS has probably learned and to some degree apprehended a way of thinking consistent with the secular media’s programming. And that programming is largely, nay is certainly, Godless, and thus, effectively, satanic. We hope to bear this out below. The Spirit of God will have to reprogram SpoggoS for any chance of their Salvation—blessed life eternal in the presence of Jehovah God.

In the outworking of this scenario please consider the following:

Sensitivity Points under Consideration

1. What/who is” the media”?

2. What motivates the media’s influences?

3. How does the media influence this and that and whatnot?

4. The Word of God is the sensitizing Standard.

5. Personal inventory time.

6. Media-man antiChrist.

7.Supply and Demand.

1. We have in view mass media here, secular, liberal, the modus operandi being print, the airwaves, the internet, cable, satellite (wire, wireless communication), to reach a wide audience. More specifically, the media is an information and entertainment distributing entity. And there can lie the problem, from the perspective of Scripture (from the Word of God). Why? Spiritually, it is always a problem when conveyed information dismisses Jehovah God as Prime Mover, He, causal, and primitive, as does the secular media. In this way is mocked the Divine Providence, and the God Jehovah behind that Providence, in the interest of so-called objectivity (to affirm God is “bad science” to the secularist [a return to the mindset of the Dark Ages]). And with God thus dismissed, information is misinformation (but nay the secular media would say, just the opposite). Then what of secular entertainment, why is that a problem from the perspective of Scripture? Not all entertainment fits the mold here in the twenty-first century, but much of it does (this hardly needs proving), and the problem is the ubiquity of that bad entertainment owing to the media, impressed upon a gullible, Jehovah-naïve, that is, a holiness-naïve, audience. In the interest of good taste, let us define “bad” entertainment by contrast. Good entertainment is Godly entertainment. A practical, concrete case in point here is the Bible Broadcasting Network (BBN; if you wish, check http://bbnradio.org). BBN is committed to the Word of God ”24/7/365,” its preaching, its teaching; disseminating it, the best of all information, the Word of God, in all that they do, entertainment and whatnot. We wanted to present the reader with a concrete, positive (pro Jehovah God), media example, and BBN is one of the best, if not the best at this time. Most of the secular media would do well, for their own souls, and the souls of others (like SpoggoS), to follow the Godly broadcasting standards set forth by BBN. That Standard is unequivocally Jehovah God at BBN. The success of BBN across the years is a testament to the fact that God blesses those dedicated to His service, and it is a testament to the fact that one does not have to follow the unGodly broadcasting standards of the secular media to be successful.

2. Money motivates the media’s influences, and with that, self-preservation; and, not least, the promotion of a liberal agenda—these motivate the media’s influences. Entertainment is big business. Advertising, itself just a hair’s breadth shy of being entertainment, is big business. And to be successful, the secular media pushes into the audience’s brain what the audience loves and wants: carnal things, skin-deep (nothing substantive is meant), low-plane, flesh things are very popular here. Why does the media push these things? Because the skin-deep, carnal stuff brings a lot of eyeballs to the screen and ears to the speakers, which in turn is a potential goldmine for big business commerce selling this and that and whatnot by way of advertisements—big business commerce that pays the media well to advertise and promote their products and interests. Aside, we must point out that money per se is not evil—Scripture does not condemn money—Scripture does say that the love of money is the root of all evil (RIZA GAR PANTWN TWN KAKWN ESTIN hH FILARGURIA, 1Timothy 6:10, KJV), and hardly has there been a more intimate lover of and champion for money than the media. In a cut-throat market where anything goes under the aegis of “survival,” the audience is being blitzed by eroding broadcasting standards as one competitor in this market endeavors to gain market share over the others by bringing to the audience the Godless pleasures and interests that it loves. The affluent cultures of this world are most guilty/participatory here, not just because of their wealth which allows them to exceedingly buy in to what is brought before them, but precisely because these cultures have long ago untethered themselves from Jehovah God and thus hardly blink at what is brought before them.

3. The media influences not least by subtlety; oftentimes half-truths—things that are true “just enough” to keep them out of trouble legally, and yet at the same time allow them to push their ideals and achieve their financial goals. The influence is not always overt; for example, sequences of suggestive, fast, one-second images or audio that stick in the brain of the audience. The reader may wish to test us on this—monitor for a while this flash-imagery and flash-audio designed to get in your head and brain wash you (referred to as subliminals, which are designed to enter the brain below the threshold of conscious perception); this flash-imagery and flash-audio is highly effective: here the carnality of humankind, namely sex, pride, ego, money, comforts, and so on—the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life—is the quite effective and largely welcomed flash-vehicle.

The media influences politics—it gets into the heads of voters, largely by spinning the news concerning politicians, spinning it in the direction that benefits those politicians that they and their supporters either outright “own” or wish to see elected to best serve their interests. Controlling politics is especially of concern to the media because politics can shut them down or limit what they can impose upon the public. What we refer to as an imposition here not a few media types would rather refer to as “freedom of speech.” Oftentimes conservative politicians come under their attack, because the media, the majority decidedly liberal, is somewhat throttled in a conservative political environment (any guesses as to why the media is decidedly liberal by the way? Is not the prince of the power of the air decidedly liberal?). A persistent, focused, propagandizing media blitz can undo a good politician or endear a bad one by the time election or reelection comes up. The media is very powerful in this respect, again, because it has the five senses and the emotions of the audience at its disposal, to influence this audience, by projecting time and again to this audience, that sits before it wishing to be entertained and whatnot (like SpoggoS, time and again sitting before it).

Religion also, especially Christianity, is negatively projected by the secular media (are we surprised here?), because the Gospel exposes the media, like it exposed those businessmen-Pharisees in Jesus’ day, who hated Jesus (they hated the Word of God, same thing), and in no small way influenced His murder; these are facts of the times, then, and now. Moreover, the Gospel shuts the media out of a large audience; Christians here, who do not buy into the media’s befooling influences nor participate in the Godless, evil aspects of that which they flaunt before the senses and emotions on behalf of themselves and their financial bedpartners/supporters (typically but not exclusively big business commerce). There is without question an aspect to the secular media that is exceedingly evil, that is anti-Jehovah God to the core—more on that in point six.

4. The Word of God sensitizes us to the influences of the secular media, and the Word of God is made lucid by Jesus Christ, who is in fact the Word of God. It follows that the Gospel is the illumination we seek here. But the Gospel is an open-ended study for mortals because of the deity of its main Character, the God-man Jesus Christ. Nevertheless, we have a Helper, the blessed Spirit Jehovah, who guides us (believers) individually.

The (spiritually negative) influences of the secular media are not apparent when the Word of God is fuzzy or worse lacking in one’s mind. That is why Bible study, corporate and individual, is important here and of course in general. The corporate setting is good, because Spirit-guided discussions on this subject are very revealing.

Dear Christian friend, are you Word-savvy? Is your lamp fueled? Can the Holy Spirit, over against His Word, sensitize you to the influence/s of the media that confront you (Matthew 25:1-7,8-13, “Matthew Chapter Twenty-Five Commentary: Watch Therefore…concerning the Parable of the Ten Virgins”)?

5. In this point we would like to take personal inventory. Please join us. The purpose here is not to condemn ownership of this inventory, but to inventory how many avenues of influence the media has in my/your life.

How many TVs are in my home? How many radios? How many computers, including mobile? How many cell phones? How much subscription-print comes to my mailbox? What of the theatre? How many other such media-hosts are a part of my life? Why do I own these hosts? Think about each one carefully and write down if you wish why you own it (we do not doubt that you have good and needful reasons for some of these today).

Okay, now how about these tangents: what is my favorite entertainment and why? Is entertainment necessary for healthy and vital human functioning, particularly my own?

How much of my monthly budget is dedicated to my entertainment (and thus to the pocketbooks of the media)?

Do I go to church…to be entertained? If so, is there anything wrong with that? Either way, explain please.

Do I tithe (to Jehovah God), either of my time or money, commensurate to my entertainment outlays?

Now, in fairness to the media, please allow us to consider the Jesus, Amen website, which as you know Christian friend has its own (spiritual) goals. We write things here, and then by way of our hosting service (a form of media to be sure) send the writings out to the far reaches of the world by way of the internet. The thing about our website is that we do not seek sponsorship, and thus there are no advertisements on our site. We fund this site out of our God-given savings (and we thank Him for that grace, and the work of our hands for Him). Secular sponsorship, and otherwise even, can be dangerous for a spiritually-motivated entity like Jesus, Amen. We said in our heart when we launched this site that we will not seek sponsorship, and if the money ever runs out, we will give our readers plenty of notice to copy the material that they deem worthy, and then this site will be shut down and we will commence another manner of service for our Lord with His help and guidance. Jehovah God can raise up myriad Jesus, Amen-type websites from the stones if He so wishes—JA is not that important—but now, and while He yet allows us to persist, our work is very important to us, for His sake, and yours. Hopefully, prayerfully, He will allow us to continue to do this work for Him. So, after saying all that, we shall try as best as we can to distance ourselves from the negative things we have written about in this scenario by sacrificially giving of ourselves rather than taking from others and becoming beholden to them, which can be dangerous for a servant of God for various reasons. Jehovah God is our Sponsor; we are, and shall be going forward, beholden to Him alone.

We understand that there are Christian ministries that have much expense and need the financial support of sponsorship and donations. We support them and pray for them. May Jehovah God richly bless the work of their hands for Him for His glory.

6. The world has not known the sort of media blitz that will unfold at the time of antiChrist. He will be the consummate (pejorative sense) “media man.” He will know how to use the media and what to do with it; he will no doubt control it; he will effectively leverage it to serve himself and his overlord Satan.

The erosion of broadcasting standards (with respect to the Word of God) that we witness today early in this twenty-first century will continue to gain momentum and finally come to a head under antiChrist. This increased momentum is consistent with the acceleration of lawlessness (let us be clear—God’s law here) and cold love (again, the love that God qualifies) that pervades our world. We are seeing only the tip of the iceberg today on both fronts. The media feeds this momentum for Satan’s man antiChrist even today, maybe unwittingly in some instances. The stage is being set for media man antiChrist’s appearance.

Notice now and consider please the implications for the times: the erosion of broadcasting standards quite betrays the character of humankind in its generation, because the media conveniently provides that which humankind craves and loves (and thus buys: money “talks,” and volumes are being spoken here). Media programming is a “window into the times” in this way. Those “spoken volumes” of our times translate already, concretely, to the kind of environment that antiChrist needs in which to establish himself, excel therein, and reveal himself through—it is here today and borne out by the media’s programming “food”—the stuff it feeds its exceedingly “junk food hungry” audience (like SpoggoS, time and again at the feeding trough). Satan has been setting the stage for the appearance of his media man antiChrist for quite some time (among other things, technology as we know it today had to unfold). And today, right now, and going forward, as we witness technology rolling, and Godlessness exploding, in lockstep we are satisfying more and more and faster and faster the contingencies that Scripture predicts will attend antiChrist’s appearance (“Matthew chapter Twenty-Four Commentary”). So, as our Lord commanded us, let us be on our guard, and listen to His fig trees (fig trees can talk by the way). The Godless influences of the media that we witness today because of the erosion of broadcasting standards and the appetites of its audience will pale in comparison to what is coming under antiChrist. This erosion and the attendant unGodly influence is not going to get better, it is going to get much worse and continue to erode, already in this present generation going forward. After all, the younger generations are “media-generations,” are media-weaned folks, that can carry the media-baton forward for Satan better than ever. God have mercy on these media-generations that are buying into a lie ("A Letter of Invitation" to the media-generations).

Aside, please note that telecommunications technology growth follows roughly a Moore’s law trajectory. Moore’s law says that the number of logic gates (capacity) that a microprocessor houses doubles every two years thereabouts (microprocessor: together with short term and long term memory comprises a computer’s “brain”). With this increased capacity follows naturally increased computing power. The capacity for control and Godless influence that is in the hands of governments and institutions and peoples is unprecedented in this twenty-first century going forward. Let us not be shocked that the capacity for human-sourced, widespread catastrophe is tracking in lockstep here; this too has a bearing on the appearance of antiChrist, for he is a bloody man, the bloodiest that this world has ever known and will ever know (imagine).

7. Demand. Supply, and demand. Those are the watchwords in free, market-oriented economies. Free-market governments understand and utilize supply and demand economics (monetary policy, fiscal policy, combinations thereof). The media too understands and utilizes supply and demand economics. On which side of the equation do we find the media, or both? Both. The media supplies as a function of demand. That fact allows us to bring this discussion back to God, theology. Jehovah God is not in high demand these days, relatively speaking. That explains why the secular media does not care to “supply” much for Him (every Christian consumer must hold themselves accountable here). The things of this world and its prince are in high demand; carnality, the flesh, that is always in vogue. These things the media realizes it can leverage successfully for its clients—carnality, the flesh—and thus readily supplies. Here is a window into the times in a given generation, even a fair place-marker on the prophetic calendar (Fig. 1). We, the consumer, are on the demand side of the equation of course. Our demands, oftentimes electronically recorded these days, and carefully studied, are supplied, because that is how the money is made. Money quantifies the supply and demand equation. So, it is hypocrisy for a Christian on the one hand to moan and groan and complain about the Godless course of the media, and on the other to quite bump up the consumer-activity bar charts that motivate the media to supply by way of advertisement or otherwise the air-time for the Godless things we complain about. Let us be very careful here dear Christian friend, and prayerfully enter the marketplace, be it entertainment or purchases or whatnot, because these days everything we do is on the record for further study. Let us show Jehovah God in high demand simply by the decisions we act out in the marketplace and otherwise.

Praised be your Name in the marketplaces of the world great Jehovah God. Amen.