“Saturday
night at the movies... Who cares what picture you see?”
This is a line from a well-known 1964 pop-song by a singing group called
“The Drifters.”
So then, who does care what
picture you see?
Here is a selection of the movie listings from last Thursday’s
- Law Abiding Citizen
- Where the Wild Things Are
- Astro Boy
- Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
- Amelia
- 2012
- Pirate Radio
- Bright Star
- The Fourth Kind
- This is It!
- Coco
Avant Chanel
- A Serious Man
- The Informant
- The Men who Stare at Goats
- An Education
- New Moon
- Couples Retreat
- Paranormal Activity
- Zombie
- Saw VI
- Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant
The last four or five titles are somewhat questionable; but most of the
others sound harmless enough. But
let us look a little closer. Let us
sample a few of our provincial government censor's warnings about what we can
expect to see and hear if we decide to take in one of these movies:
- Violence
- Adult themes
- Explicit
violence!
- Sexually suggestive
scenes
-
Coarse language
What do you think? Should
God's people be watching such movies?
The purpose of this article is:
- To take a look at the subject
of Movies… from the point of view of God’s Word
-
To review and discuss the benefits of watching good
movies and the disadvantages – and even dangers – of watching bad
movies…
- To offer some Bible-based guidelines to determine whether or not to watch any
particular movie.
The
need to judge righteously
Yes, and
why, even of yourselves, do you not judge what is right? (Luke
12:57)
God does not want me to judge you. He
wants us all to judge ourselves on
these things:
Do you not
know that the saints will judge the world?
And if the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the
smallest matters? Do you not know
that we shall judge angels? How
much more, things that pertain to this life?
(I Corinthians 6:2-3)
God’s ministers have been given a solemn responsibility not
to preach smooth things (Isaiah 30:10) and are not to be guilty of inaction as
were the leaders of the Corinth congregation who were castigated by God for
their failing (I Corinthians 5).
Examine
yourselves as to whether you are in the faith.
Test yourselves. Do you not
know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? ––
unless indeed you are disqualified.
(II Corinthians 13:5)
If we have Jesus and
His Father dwelling in us, and if we are dwelling in them, should
we not be examining and testing ourselves in these things?
Should we not be asking ourselves whether or not we should be allowing
inappropriate forms of entertainment into our homes, into our eyes, ears and
minds?
Product of Satan's world
Some years ago I was assigned the task of finding a suitable movie to show at
a church social. One of my first
considerations – after making sure that the movie was acceptable to God –
was to find a film that would please all age groups – from age 4 to age 94!
The difficulty with such an assignment is that everyone seems to have a
different idea of what a "good" movie is!
Our opinion often depends on our age group.
And this, I believe, is quite natural and OK.
But I also found that different standards exist – yes, even among
Is this natural?
Is this O.K.?
I personally do not believe that it is!
I believe that we all ought to be striving to be unified in living by one
set of moral standards. Not my
standards!... but God's
timeless set of moral standards!
We are, of course, all very aware of the continuing moral deterioration of
Satan’s world in which we must live, and of their huge influence even on
God’s children.
The prince of the power of the air (Ephesians 2:2) and what is transmitted
through his airwaves have tremendous
influence on what the public wants to see and what government censors allow to
be shown in movies and on T.V.
Scenes and dialogue that once would have been frowned upon and censored are
now inserted without question into many regular family shows and adventure
films.
Government film and T.V. censors handle the public’s lowering of standards
by merely going along with them and changing a film's rating; e.g. from
“Restricted” [R] to "Parental Guidance Suggested” [PG].
Please note that not one of
the movies listed above is classified as Restricted or “Adult”!
In the ratings race, TV networks air more recently-made movies rather than the
“good-old oldies,” which are now usually relegated to time slots in the wee
hours of the morning.
If you want to get away from those annoying commercial breaks, you can easily
do so, because we are now well into the age of VCRs, Pay TV, Satellite TV, Movie
channels, high-resolution DVDs and incredibly versatile digital recorders.
Also, for 88 cents or less, you can rent a movie for an evening's entertainment
– whether good or bad!
Many public libraries lend
However, movie theatres are still very popular.
Even though their admission prices are very high, you will have to line
up around the block to see one of the newer, effectively promoted and advertised
films.
Benefits and Disadvantages
What are the benefits of choosing and watching a good
movie? They really are quite
obvious. This might sound corny or
old-fashioned to some, but a good movie should leave you feeling good, uplifted,
in a positive frame of mind, and desirous to emulate the good acts and character
traits of the movie’s heroes and heroines.
A good movie might also leave you perhaps yearning for some of the
simpler lifestyles of yesteryear – not, of course, that yesteryear was so very
perfect or without its share of problems!
The disadvantages of a bad
movie are similar, only in a converse, negative way.
A bad movie will insert sin into the viewer's mind, to dwell on long
after the conclusion. Viewers can
justify vicarious participation in evil acts – perhaps with such thoughts as
“It can't be that bad if it’s allowed to be shown in a movie or on
T.V.”
For the two hours invested in watching a movie, we really can be subtly drawn
into approving evil by identifying with such questionable heroes as Bonnie
and
God's point of view
So again, what is a good
movie? And what is a bad
movie? What is God's point of view?
After all, God is one who defines what is good and bad, holy and unholy,
clean and unclean, pure and impure, righteousness and sin.
Of course, the Bible does not mention the subject of movies specifically, as
motion-picture technology was not developed until 1891, approximately 1,800
years after the Bible writings were completed.
Nevertheless, the relevant principles are all there in the scriptures,
and they come through loud and clear.
From God's viewpoint, and thus from a true Christian's viewpoint, the things
that make a movie bad are
evident. Let us use our British
Columbia Government censor's terminology, and go through some of his warnings,
and see what God’s Word has to say about them:
i)
Coarse language
This would include blasphemy, profanity, taking God's name in vain, swearing and
foul language.
Very little detail is required on this but here is what the Son of God commands
His brothers and sisters:
But I say
to you, do not swear at all: neither by heaven, for it is God’s throne.
(Matthew 5:34)
And through His apostles, James and Paul:
But above
all, my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with
any other oath. but
let your "yes," be "yes," and your "no,"
"no," lest you fall into judgment.
(James 5:12)
But now you
yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy
language out of your mouth. (Colossians
3:8)
That is what God thinks about coarse language!
ii)
Adult themes and sexually suggestive scenes
We can summarize this sub-group under the “immorality” banner, which
would include displays of full-frontal nudity, depictions of fornication,
adultery, homosexuality, etc.
Still in Colossians 3, God warns us to put fornication and other forms of
immorality to death within us. And
that means within our eyes, ears and minds:
Therefore
put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness,
passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of
disobedience, in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them.
(Colossians 3:5-7)
In many other scriptures, God warns us to stay well away from immorality.
Here are just two examples:
For this is the will of God, your
sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality.
(I Thessalonians 4:3)
Flee sexual immorality.
Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual
immorality sins against his own body. (I Corinthians 6:18)
That is what God thinks about immorality!
iii)
Violence
This sub-group would include murder, war, excessive fighting and bloodshed.
For the purposes of His children's education and warnings – not for
entertainment purposes! – God inspired limited accounts of violent acts to be
included in His written Word.
In a similar way, we can learn the futility of war from some historical movies
which contain limited amounts of depicted violence (e.g.
“Cromwell,” “The Battle of Britain,” “Gandhi,” “Zulu”).
But this does not excuse or condone the depiction of excessive ultra-violence
as is included in so many of today's films.
The LORD
tests the righteous, but the wicked and the one who loves violence His soul
hates. (Psalms 11:5)
Do you get a kick out of seeing a hero’s violent revenge being wreaked
against the movie’s bad guy? Take
care! God says that He hates violence… and those who love it! God is
gentle and merciful. He only uses
violence as a very last resort:
Say to
them: ‘As I live,’ says the Lord GOD, ‘I have no pleasure in the death
of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live.
Turn, turn from your evil ways! For
why should you die, O house of
Jesus tells us repeatedly in Old Testament and New: Thou
shalt not kill! As
amplified in His “sermon on the mount,” this would include the spirit of
killing which we can adopt vicariously when watching many action movies.
God instructs us as princes and princesses of spiritual
Thus says the Lord GOD: "Enough, O princes
of
That is what God thinks about violence!
iv)
Supernatural
I am not writing here about the likes of “Superman,”
“Spiderman” or “E.T.” What
I am referring to is ghost, occult,
sorcery, witchcraft, vampire and demon subject matter.
Unlike most other genres, God’s people know
if a movie is demon-influenced. Non-Christians
might just get a spooky feeling when watching one of this type of movie.
But with true Christians, God and His Holy Spirit within us will
automatically and strongly react against the evil spirit.
This subject alone would take a whole series of articles to do it proper justice. It is normally best to keep discussion on such things as demons and witchcraft to an absolute minimum. But for a very good and topical reason, I need to branch off now, and to home in on it directly.
As many readers are aware, “New Moon” is the sequel to the tremendously
popular vampire movie “Twilight” which took the entertainment world by storm
during the past year (2008-2009) – as well as running away with the
imaginations of millions of people – both young and not-so-young people!
I do not believe that this “Twilight” phenomenon is merely some harmless
passing craze that will soon go away. I
believe that it and its more sinister spin-offs may be something very special
– in a very perverse and potentially dangerous way, of course!
Even some
Am I overstating this? Is this
just my own personal opinion? Judge
for yourself:
A recent issue of the U.S.A. Weekend
Magazine featured an article titled "Our love
affair with Vampires” which the author, Brian Truitt sub-titled, "Our
deep, dark obsession with
vampires."
Although I am, of course, fully aware that vampires do not actually exist,
please read this quote from another excellent article about the
“Twilight” phenomenon: “Seven Reasons to Shun this Vampire Tale” by Berit
Kjos (Also, see Note 1 at the end of this article):
Vampires
“are rooted in many pagan cultures around the world.
The various historical expressions of these mythical creatures were
dreaded, bloodthirsty manifestations of evil spirits.”
Manifestations of evil spirits!
Manifestations of demons! Vampires
may not really exist, brethren, but demons certainly do!
I strongly believe that these demons and their leader have
seriously influenced the recent “Twilight” craze!
Please read these quotes from Stephenie Meyer, the author of the
“Twilight” series, and see if you agree that there likely was demon
influence in its origins:
I
never intended to publish “Twilight.” I
was merely writing for my own enjoyment. The
initial idea for the “Twilight” stories came to me in a dream on
And here is a quote from Robert
There is
something about the character that, for some reason, has sparked an interest in
massive degrees in so many different people…
I’m not entirely sure what it is… I’ll probably realize
afterward…"
This young man does not know what forces he is dealing with!
Neither does the authoress! And evidently, neither do the fans!
Here are two catch-phrases from the first “Twilight”
book and movie. Many Twilight fans
wear T-shirts displaying these catch-phrases:
1.
The forbidden fruit tastes the sweetest.
Author Stephenie Meyer (who, by the way, is a Mormon!) says that the apple
on the cover of her first book represents (i) the
forbidden fruit from Genesis 2 (and 3) which is quoted at the beginning of the
book and (ii) the forbidden love between the heroine and the vampire anti-hero.
2.
When you can live forever, what do you live
for?
This is an interesting phrase which could well be adopted as the official
motto for our western world’s increasingly self-destructive “culture of
death.” Please consider this
relevant quote from a book called “The People of the Lie” by Dr. M. Scott
Peck:
We
do not have a generally accepted definition of evil. Yet
in our hearts I think we all have some understanding of its nature.
For the moment, I can do no better than to heed my son, who, with the
characteristic vision of eight-year olds, explained simply, “Daddy, ‘evil’
is ‘live’ spelled backward.” Evil is in opposition to life.
It is that which opposes the life force.
This reminds me of the words of
I would add to these examples: “You
whose professed creed is in total opposition to Satan and his demons, can you
really justify being obsessed with filmed depictions of demon activity, and its
veneration?” Was Paul judging the
Roman brethren here? Yes, he was; but in the proper way, per I Corinthians
6:2-3. Continuing
in verse 24 of Romans 2:
For
"the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you," as
it is written.
Do any of us want to be responsible for God’s name being blasphemed? Do any of us want spiritual Gentiles or fellow spiritual Israelites to say, “Look at what these people are into? What a bunch of hypocrites!”? Surely not! Should we not all have a proper kind of pride for the church groups God has blessed us to have a part in. Should we not all be taking great care not to blacken their good name?
Some
stern warnings
I want to give another stern warning for our members to avoid this genre like the plague! Even more so! It is very, very dangerous! Please do not think that I am saying all this to be a spoil-sport or a kill-joy. I am not. I am warning you of these things because I care about you and I care about God’s name and the good name of His church.
I know whereof I speak… because I’ve “been there – done that!”
While still in my teens, under peer-pressure, I made the truly dumb
mistake of reading an occult thriller novel called “The Devil Rides Out” by
Dennis Wheatley. It was the
in-thing-to-do at that time! But
the result was that I was terrified for the longest time afterwards –
especially at night-time! Some of
my friends “progressed” a few stages further and
messed around with ouija boards and spiritualism, thinking that it was “just
fun.” Soon, they couldn’t
understand why bizarre things started happening in their lives and why they were
unable to sleep without their bedroom lights on.
I can almost guarantee that, if you “Twilight”
disciples do not tear yourselves away from your dangerous obsession very soon,
you too will likely “progress” to heavier, scarier and more dangerous
material (similar to what happens in alcohol and drug addiction) if you have not
done so already!
“Twilight” and other vampire, sorcery and witchcraft series are nothing less than sugar-coated stories of demonism! And Satan has them sugar-coated for a reason! Parents, please take note! The prime targets for this genre are our young people. Please heed this quote from “The Marketing of Evil” by David Kupelian:
Giant
corporations voraciously competing for America’s $150 billion teen market
routinely infiltrate young people’s social groups with undercover “culture
spies” to find out how better to lead children into ever more debauched forms
of “authentic self-expression.
“Oh, come on!” you might be thinking, “This is only fantasy; these are
only harmless cartoons, comedy and musical theatre!”
Am I exaggerating? Am I
overstating this problem? No, I am
not!
Believe me; if some of God’s people are so easily deceived now into following
these kinds of sugar-coated, relatively borderline temptations, what will happen when
the Beast, super-empowered by Satan, lures “all the
world” to worship them? (Revelation
13 and 17). And what will
happen when Satan gushes out his deluge of filthy spiritual water after the
woman of Revelation 12? How many of
God’s people will be deceived and sucked into the vortex of Satan’s
whirlpool then?
Resist
the devil!
The English have an old saying, "Speak of the devil, and here he
comes!" There is actually some
truth to this! If you Twilighters
strike-up a relationship with Satan and/or his demons, believe me, they will be
more than happy to accept your invitation!
Through James, God advises the very opposite of that old English saying:
Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
(James 4:7)
It should be plain and obvious to God's people that we must avoid this type
of movie, literature, TV show and video game – like the plague – literally!
Rather,
that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to demons and not to
God, and I do not want you to have fellowship with demons.
You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot
partake of the Lord’s table and of the table of
demons. (I Corinthians 10:20-21)
I fully realize that you fans of “Twilight” (and the
like) are free moral agents, and that you have liberty to do as you wish.
Neither I, nor other members who are very concerned about this dangerous
trend, have any control in what you choose to do.
But if you insist on using your Christian liberty in order to enjoy
darkness, then God will give you darkness!:
But
there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false
teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even
denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction.
And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of
truth will be blasphemed… For if
God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and
delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment… then the
Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust
under punishment for the day of judgment, and especially those who walk
according to the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise authority.
They are presumptuous, self–willed.
They are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries…
But these… speak evil of the things they do not understand, and will
utterly perish in their own corruption, and will receive the wages of
unrighteousness, as those who count it pleasure to carouse in the daytime.
They are spots and blemishes, carousing in their own deceptions while
they feast with you… They have forsaken the right way and gone astray,
following the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of
unrighteousness… These are wells without water, clouds carried by a tempest,
for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever… While they promise
them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is
overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage.
For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the
knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them
and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning.
For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of
righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered
to them. (II
Another word regarding the improper use of Christian
liberty: This trend is causing a
stumbling-block for some of our members:
I
Corinthians 8:9:
But beware lest somehow this liberty of yours become a stumblingblock to those
who are weak.
Is not the advisable and loving, Christian thing to do to
err on safe side?
Only watching?
Once again, am I going overboard with this opinion?
Some of you might reason, “Hey, I am not committing these sins just by
occasionally watching their acted portrayals in movies or on T.V.”
But Jesus answers this argument in His well-known “Sermon
on the Mount” where He explains the mental and spiritual attitudes behind the
verbal and physical acts of swearing, revenge, violence, murder, war and
immorality.
He also tells us, again through Paul, what kinds of things we should
not be allowing into our minds.
These are His stern warnings:
But
fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among
you, as is fitting for saints; neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor
coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather give thanks.
For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man,
who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the
Here is a repetition for emphasis! Find
out what God’s will is on these things… and do it!
Brethren, these are not my warnings… or even Paul’s warnings.
These are God’s warnings!
Suggested guidelines
And the peace of God, which surpasses all
understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble,
whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely,
whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is
anything praiseworthy––meditate on these things.
The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these
do, and the God of peace will be with you.
(
It might be a good idea for us to make signs quoting
Based on
i) Remember that this is Satan's
world; so, sadly, very few of its movies are
completely free of swearing, violence, etc.
So, if we reject every movie that is not absolutely 100% pure, we will
reject most of them, incl. some that might be very worthwhile for the most part.
ii) Here are five immediate clues to a movie's suitability for viewing by
God's people that can be obtained from your newspaper's movie listings:
·
The title
·
The classification: e.g. General [G], Parental Guidance [PG],
Mature [M], Restricted [R], etc. These
might vary in different provinces, states and countries; but you can quickly and
easily find out what each means. Most
TV programs now have classifications too
·
Government censor's warnings (e.g. Frequent gory violence)
·
The still pictures on the movie’s ad
·
The comments published (usually weekly) by the newspaper’s movie
or entertainment critic
If we apply these clues to the movie listings we read earlier, there are only
four that a Christian family could safely watch!
iii) The movie should not promote, glorify or condone war, violence,
demon-contact, immorality or other sins.
iv) When renting, if possible, preview and edit the movie for family viewing.
If a preview is not possible, watch very carefully, and fast-forward as
necessary. If you find yourself
doing too much editing or fast-forwarding, then hit the stop-button and watch
something else! Even relatively “good”
movies may need some editing or fast-forwarding.
An example of this would be the two violent scenes in the otherwise
excellent “Oliver” musical.
v) Without apology, parents should strictly control their family’s TV
habits. Do not allow your children
to sit for hours, unsupervised, watching anything
that takes their fancy. If your family likes to watch a substantial amount
of TV, then buy a TV Guide each week, and plan in advance what your family can
watch.
vi) Beware of channel-flipping! You’ll
see things you’ll wish you hadn’t!
vii) Beware Pay-TV movies. They are
expensive, but are often cheaply-made and are probably mostly unacceptable
viewing for a Christian family.
viii) Some good movie categories might include (and these are not necessarily
all appropriate viewing for all age-groups):
ix) Ask yourself, "Would I watch this if Jesus was sitting here with
me?" We have sometimes
ridiculed the “What would Jesus do?” concept; but it is very valid in this
case. Please think about it!
If Jesus and His Father are in us and we are in them, then it follows
that they see and hear what we
see and hear! Should we be allowing
garbage into the temples of God’s Holy Spirit?
This
is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is
light and in Him is no darkness at all. If
we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not
practice the truth. (I John 1:5-6)
Spiritual light and spiritual darkness are total opposites!
They are totally incompatible!
Again,
a new commandment I write to you, which thing is true in Him and in you, because
the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining.
(I John 2:8)
x) If in doubt, switch off!
If you’re in a movie theatre, get up and leave!
Don’t worry what the people sitting around you might think!
Be more concerned about what God thinks!
There are lots of better pass-times available.
Go bowling! Or go for an
ice-cream!
Most of the concepts we have covered in this article can also be applied to standards in TV, live theatre, literature, video games and music.
To summarize, in this article, we have:
- Examined movies from God's point of view,
- Discussed what makes a movie good
or bad in God's eyes,
- Discussed the benefits of good
movies,
- Discussed the dangers and disadvantages of bad
movies,
- Looked at some guidelines for choosing and watching
movies.
So, once again… Saturday Night at
the Movies… Who cares what picture you see?
Someone does care! God cares!
And so must we!
Footnotes:
Note 1: Seven Reasons to Shun this Vampire Tale:
http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/08/twilight.htm
Note 2: The Fear of the Lord is to Hate Evil… Sermonette by
http://cgg.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Audio.details/ID/2503/Fear-of-Lord-is-Hate-Evil.htm
Note 3: Twilight on the Land:
United Church of God (UCG) warning article:
http://www.wnponline.org/wnp/wnp0903/twilight-vampire.htm
Note 4: The Rising Darkness in Children’s Games:
http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/009/bakugan.htm
Note 5: Dangers of Rock Music Video channels:
http://www.worthynews.com/top/onenewsnow-com-Perspectives-Default-aspx-id-724962/
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This page updated March 12, 2010