AMERICA forsaking
GOD
for:
T -elevision
H -omes
E -ducation
M-usic
M-odernismBy E. L. Bynum This last Monday, March 30, 1981, the United
States almost lost another president by assassina-
tion. Only inches saved President Reagan from a
sudden death that would have certainly upset our
nation and plunged many into despair. We firmly
believe that this awful catastrophe, his death, did
not take place because of the mercy and providence
of God. There is no guarantee what the future holds
for our nation in respect to the safety of our leaders.
In fact, there is a continuing atmosphere of fear in
our land, for many people fear for their very lives
because of the marauding criminals that populate
the streets of our cities.
Almost immediately, many people began to try to
figure out what was the problem in our land, and
who was responsible. Some, like Senator Kennedy,
search for an easy solution through gun control and
registration. To many, this is the easy and plausible
solution to the problem. We heard Senator Kennedy
on the news this week and it was printed in the
Lubbock Avalanche-Journal (hereafter LAJ),
"Whether the victim is Ronald Reagan or someone
whose name the nation will never know, it is time for
us to disarm the violent criminals, the killers and the
psychopaths of their . . . cheap handguns." (LAJ,
4-2-81). Frankly, we would feel a lot more
comfortable if we could hear the good Senator say
something about doing something with the criminals
themselves, instead of just their guns. Of course, we
sympathize with Kennedy, because after all he has
had two famous brothers shot down while engaged
in politics. (We also have sympathy for the parents
whose daughter drowned in the Senator's car under
mysterious circumstances that have never been
satisfactorily explained. Would Betty Jo have been
any worse off, if she had been shot?)
Of course, it is the very nature of man to try to find
an easy solution to a complex problem. And it is also
a fact that man also seeks some way to pass the
buck, so that the blame falls on others. We see this
in church constantly where many people have
become pitchfork listeners. They just catch the
message on their fork and pitch it over to someone
else. Such listeners seldom apply the message to
self, but always pass it on to others.
However, we do believe it is time for Christians
and all thoughtful people to take a long hard look at
our nation and its society. While we shall make no
claim that we have touched all bases, nevertheless,
this article will try to reveal some of the real and
horrible problems that are set to ruin and destroy this
great nation. Unless God's people wake up and a
merciful God intervenes, our nation is doomed."Students Cheer Shooting Of President" A four column front page headline in the LAJ of
April 1, 1981 said, "Students Cheer Shooting Of
President." According to this (AP) dispatch the
teachers were "stunned" and "shocked" by this
reaction. "Tulsa, Okla. (AP) -- English was the last
class of the day of 16 seventh-graders at Tulsa
Central Academy. Just before dismissal, the
principal came on the intercom and told them
President Reagan had been shot. About 10 of the
students cheered. ‘I was dumbfounded. I didn't
know what to do,’ said John Zannini, their teacher.
‘Here were these kids cheering that the president
had been shot. I didn't know what to say.’ He
checked around and found that some students in the
eighth grade had reacted the same way.
"Teacher Lynn Morris was out of her room when
the announcement was made, but returned to find
her eighth-graders discussing it. ‘Three or four were
laughing about it. They asked me if he (President
Reagan) was dead. When I said no, that he was doing
well, they snapped their fingers and said shucks,’
she said. ‘I was stunned, shocked.’ Mrs. Morris said
the students responded to her reaction and made
sarcastic comments such as, ‘Oh, she really thinks
we're cold-hearted, doesn't she?’ ‘They didn't seem
to care at all that someone could be dying,’ she said.
‘It was like TV to them. It didn't seem real.’"
Principle Tom Hayes said, "The teachers told
me, and I agree, that they felt it came from an
insensitivity to violence that has built up over a long
exposure to television."They Cheered In Other Cities Also The shocking incident in Tulsa is not an isolated
case, for we have reason to believe that many such
incidents took place across the nation. If this is the
case, this is even more serious than the shooting of
the president. A similar incident took place here in
Lubbock, as you can see from the following letter
written to the LAJ by a mother who is a member of
Tabernacle Baptist Church.April 1, 1981
Editor:
"The shooting of President Reagan Monday was
very tragic, but what happened in my son's sixth
grade class when the announcement was made to
the students was even more alarming. Some of the
students began to clap and say, ‘Hey! All right!’
"Could it be we are beginning to reap what we
have sown? Could this be the result of the pledge of
allegiance not being said at all or only occasionally in
our local schools? In the classroom, prayers and
Bible reading are not allowed, and students are told
they ascended out of the mire from lower life forms.
Could it be that books being used in our classrooms
depicting sadism and a low regard for life promotes
this attitude?
"Perhaps we need to heed the words of Jeremiah
6:16, ‘Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and
see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good
way, and walk therein....’"Mrs. Wes Mitchell
Information has also come to us concerning an
incident of the same kind in at least one class at
Coronado High School here in Lubbock. I am afraid
that we would be terribly shocked if we knew how
many times this did happen in schools across our
land. Some of you parents might get a shock if you
ask your son or daughter what happened in their
school.
Our Nation Has Left God
To Follow T.H.E.M.M.America has come to a sad day in her history that
is well described in Jeremiah 2:8-13. "The priests
said not, Where is the Lord? and they that handle
the law knew me not: the pastors also transgressed
against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal,
and walked after things that do not profit.
Wherefore I will yet plead with you, saith the Lord,
and with your children's children will I plead. For
pass over the isles of Chittim, and see; and send
unto Kedar, and consider diligently, and see if there
be such a thing. Hath a nation changed their gods,
which are yet no gods? but my people have changed
their glory for that which doth not profit. Be
astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly
afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the Lord. For my
people have committed two evils; they have forsaken
me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them
out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no
water."
Here is a text that goes to the very heart of the
matter. It is not the children of our nation that are
responsible, but it is the adults. The reason for the
problem is not to be found in Washington, or any
other narrow segment of our nation. It cannot be
blamed on the politicians, the labor unions, big
business, or even on the communists. The problem
is deep and it is basic. The solution may not be easy,
but there is a solution. Though the problem can be
identified and the remedy prescribed, in all honesty
I feel that remedy will not be applied. In all
likelihood, our nation will be destroyed by this ugly
cancer-like growth that is spreading at an alarming
rate.
The problem is simple. Our nation has forsaken
God and has followed T.H.E.M.M. "T.H.E.M.M."
is an abbreviation for five terrible things that plague
our land, namely, television, home, education,
music, and modernism. There are indeed other
things, but these five get to the very heart of the
matter.
I. Forsaking God For T-ELEVISION Television is being used to destroy our nation
more than anything ever invented by man. Man has
used the accumulated knowledge of the past to bring
many wonderful inventions into the society of
mankind. Many of these things have been used for
good, but many have been used for evil. There is not
a shadow of a doubt but what television is the most
destructive, vile, and wicked machine that has ever
come into being. No other invention even comes
close. This is not to say that the television set is evil
and sinful within itself, but we are talking about how
it is being used by the devil and other wicked beings
to destroy a whole generation of people.
The theatre and old-time movie houses were evil,
but nothing to be compared with modern television.
For most people it has only been on the scene for
about 30 years, but in those 30 years it has just about
demolished our nation. In the 50's, television
showed many of the old movies, which were not
good, but nothing to be compared with modern
shows. They had restrictions on what could be said
and done on TV, and the industry itself to some
extent. There were many programs on travel and
industry that were to some extent educational and
considered by most to be harmless.
The language of this article will be strong, and
will prove to be offensive to some, but we feel
compelled to state the case as pointedly as possible.
None of us would think of taking a crawling tour
though the sewer lines of our city. It would offend
our nose, our eyes, our touch, and it would of course
be deadly to our physical health. Yet, night after
night, millions of Americans sit glued in front of
their television sets while the sewer of the world of
entertainment is dumped into their home via TV.
The garbage of filth dredged up from the putrid
prolific minds of perverted men is poured into eyes
and ears night after night. It is no longer offensive to
most people, but it is deadly to their moral and
spiritual health.
During the 50's, TV was not nearly so bad, though
it was too bad to say the least. But gradually during
the 50's, 60's, and 70's, the dosage of evil was
increased until we have arrived in the 80's with very
little good left. Most drunkards started out drinking
small amounts of alcohol, but increased the amount
until they became drunkards. Most dope addicts
started out with small dosages of weaker drugs, then
increased until they worked up to the hard stuff. In
the same way, the television industry has taken the
American people from programs with small amounts
of evil to programs that are almost 100% evil, and
America is hooked on it today!
Adultery, fornication, h*m*sexuality, prostitu-
tion, killing, drinking, taking dope, and every sordid
sin is now portrayed on the screen in a favorable
way. Endless numbers of programs have showed
prostitutes as heroines and pimps as heroes.
H*m*sexuals are made heroes or portrayed in such
a way as to drum up sympathy for them. Murder and
stealing are often portrayed in a favorable light.
Guns, knives, and other weapons are used illegally,
and break-ins and assault are demonstrated for
inquiring young minds to learn the techniques. The
detectives and policemen who seemingly, in the
programs, seek to catch the crooks, are themselves
usually portrayed as committing adultery or
fornication.
"Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman" and "Soap"
were bad enough, but they were only the
forerunners of a full schedule of such depraved
entertainment. The worst programs are generally
the most popular programs. What can we say about
such filthy programs as "Flamingo Road," "Knots
Landing," and "Dallas." Not one character on
Dallas is not sooner or later portrayed in lying,
cheating, divorce, or adultery and fornication. Yet, it
is one of the most popular programs on television.
In one episode, which was to reveal who shot J.R.,
more people watched that one program than any
other program in the history of TV. None of the
really popular programs are fit for a Christian or a
child to watch. Even the so-called "best" of the
programs are filled with falsehoods, lies, and
questionable things.
What about, "The Last Of The Wild," and other
similar programs that show some of the rare and
exotic creatures of the earth? Which episode of any
of these does not manage to get in several good licks
for evolution? The comics and the cartoons are filled
with violence, cruelty, and outright sadism. Most of
the cartoons promote violence and implant bad ideas
into pliable eager minds that will bear a terrible
harvest in the lives of many in the future.
But preacher, the SPORTS are good!! Yes, tell us
about the sports. Multitudes of professing
Christians sit at home on Sunday and watch
Christian (?) athletes play ball, when all of them
should be in the house of God. All of America is
hooked on the ball games and the season never
ends. They bounce it for part of the year, they kick it
for part of the year, and they hit it with a stick for the
rest of the year. For 365 days, no holidays, patriotic
day, or holy day is sacred anymore. Brutality, poor
sportsmanship, fighting, and vile language is all a
part of the game. And more than likely, the whole
program will come your way sponsored and paid
for by some rot-gut brewery that is out to instill the
habit of drink in the minds of you and your children.
Television has destroyed family life. There is no
time for the family to read the Bible and pray
together. There is no time for meaningful
conversation and it has destroyed communication
between parents, and between parents and children.
It is the great time waster, and it helps to keep
people from reading helpful books and materials.
Television has become the baby-sitter in the
average home and is used to keep the children quiet
and entertained. Those who ought to know say that
by the time a child reaches the age of 17 they have,
on the average, watched 17,000 hours of television.
All who have so done will be affected in a bad way,
some will be deeply scarred, and many will be
completely destroyed by this monster. If a child
went to Sunday School every time for 17 years, that
would only be about 737 hours. It would be our
guess that the average child will spend much less
than 400 hours in Sunday School in 17 years. No
wonder we have children who cheer when a
president is shot.
Educational TV is a vast wasteland, where tax
dollars and private grants pay for programs that are
evil, bad educationally, or so dull that most people
do not watch them.
Now via cable TV, we have HBO or other
subscriber movie programs. They openly boast that
the movies are uncut and uncensored. The little that
we have seen contains unbelievable filth. Many are
subscribing to this service and multitudes of
children watch it on a regular basis.
Many people are getting their church each week
by watching Billy Graham, Jerry Falwell, Oral
Roberts, the 700 Club, or PTL. The importance of
the local church is played down, false doctrine mixed
with truth, and outright heresy is promoted by the
charismatics and others. There may be and surely
are some local programs produced by sound
churches with godly pastors, but their audience is
small when compared to the others.
The news broadcasts select the wrong stories to
broadcast and then badly pervert and twist the
news. Any person who depends on TV for almost
100% of the national and local news they receive,
will be badly misinformed and over a long period of
time be subject to brainwashing!The Would-Be Assassin Controlled By
Television And The MoviesAccording to the LAJ 4-2-81, a young actress by
Yet,
the name of Jodie Foster played the part of a
12-year-old prostitute in the movie "Taxi Driver."
In that film, Travis Bickle writes a letter to the
prostitute just before leaving home with the
intention of shooting a political candidate. He
doesn't succeed.
In real life, John W. Hinckley, Jr. wrote a love
letter to actress Jodie Foster who played the
12-year-old prostitute in the film. That letter was
found in his hotel room and was dated the same day
he shot President Reagan and three other people. In
the letter Hinckley said, "There is a definite
possibility that I will be killed in my attempt to get
Reagan." After expressing his love to her, he said in
closing, "Jody, I'm asking you to please look into
your heart and at least give me the chance with this
historic deed to gain your respect and love."
Hinckley had never met her personally. Where did
he get the idea for what he did? He got it from the
movie, of course. And frankly, we fear that this is
only the tiny tip of the iceberg. One Texas Tech law
student who grew up with Hinckley in Dallas said,
"He didn't like to play baseball. All he did was sit
inside in the air-conditioning watching TV."Where Are The Churches In This Battle? Long ago, the true New Testament Bible believing
churches should have declared war on the rotten
television and movie industry. Now, the Mississippi
based organization and Moral Majority have
launched a campaign to clean-up television. Any
good that they can do will surely be helpful, but in
our estimation, even though they will win some
battles, the war has already been lost. Cleaning up
the television and movie industry may be likened to
cleaning up a pig, while it can be done, it is difficult
to make it last.II. H-OMES Have Forsaken God The home is one of the basic bulwarks in any
strong society. Marriage, home, and family were
instituted by God long before nation or church were
begun. God used Christian homes to make this
nation great, and the fact that most homes have
forsaken God now spell the doom of our nation. Men
no longer want to take their place as head of the
home and to be the spiritual leader of the family.
Women no longer are willing to fill the God ordained
role of helpmeet, homemaker, and child trainer.
During World War II, mothers and daughters left
the home to go into the offices and factories and they
have never returned. Now multitudes of women
dress like men, talk like men, curse like men, drink
like men, and smoke like men. They have chosen to
accept Satan's way and reject God's way for their
lives.
Discipline is at an all time low in the home.
Children are allowed to sass mom and dad, and are
free to do pretty much as they please. Spiritual
training is sadly neglected and all but entirely
absent even in the homes of so-called Christians.
The overwhelming majority do not take their
children to a Bible teaching church and Sunday
School. Father and mother both work and the
children are left with a baby-sitter. Then as they get
old enough to barely get by, they are left to fend for
themselves until the parents get home from work.
No wonder that so many kids are taking dope and
smoking pot, even before they get into their teens.
According to recent polls, the majority of high school
students drink, and a large percentage of these are
heavy drinkers. Venereal disease and pregnancy is
spreading like a flame among the teens of our
nation. Now they can get birth control devices,
treatment for venereal disease, and even abortions
with the promise that their parents will not be
notified. Many parents wouldn't care anyway.
Parents get rid of their guilt feelings by buying
the children things, and furnish them with money.
With the money they can buy the pot, dope, and
liquor that the world offers them. John W.
Hinckley, Jr., the 25-year-old would-be assassin of
President Reagan, attended Texas Tech University
off and on from 1973 to 1980. There has no evidence
been given that he ever had a steady job, even on a
part-time basis. For almost 8 years he simply
attended college for a very few semesters, and the
rest of the time roamed around over the country,
flying in planes and staying in hotels. Apparently,
this was all paid for by his wealthy, well to do, but
busy parents. According to the Bible, those who will
not work should not be allowed to eat. Of course, an
idle mind is the devil's work shop. The future
attorney quoted above added that, "Hinckley's
parents were never there (at home during childhood
visits) you never saw them." (LAJ, 4-5-81)III. Forsaking God For E-DUCATION The "E" in T.H.E.M.M. stands for education. Of
course, there is nothing wrong in sound, good, and
truthful education, but humanistic education has
just about destroyed America. Not long ago, I read
the testimony of a man who lived in China when the
communists took over after World War II. The
communists moved swiftly to reorganize the schools.
Some thought that the first emphasis in the
communized schools would be to install the
teachings of Marx, Lenin, and Mao. This was not the
case. Instead, they set out to thoroughly indoctrinate
the pupils in the teaching of evolution. Why?
Because evolution is basic in the process of learning
the awful doctrine of communism. Not every
evolutionist is a communist, but all true communists
are evolutionists.
For over a generation, the public school system of
the U.S. has taught evolution from the first grade
through the twelfth grade. The colleges and
universities have given the postgraduate course in
evolution to all who attend. Thereby they have
furnished a fertile seedbed for the recruiting of
communists and countless other radical causes.
Prayer and Bible reading has been thrown out, and
permissive behavior has been encouraged. Co-ed
dormitories have been furnished and immoral
behavior promoted. Godly teachers and professors
have quit by the hundreds, because they could see
what was happening and were powerless to change
it.
The progressive system of education fathered by
John Dewey has decimated the minds of America's
youth for over a generation. The Bible is scoffed at,
and pliable minds are made to believe that their
ancestors were animals. No wonder that over 20
little Negro boys have been slain in Atlanta and the
murderer has not been found. No wonder John W.
Hinckley, Jr. admired the Nazis and espoused Nazi
causes. (Nazis and communists are first cousins,
both born in the fetid left wing socialist household,
and slated for the same hell.)
Patriotism is played down in the schools and
religion and prayer is out, but evolution and sinful
behavior are in. Children are required to read filthy
and sadistic books. In San Francisco and perhaps
in other places, h*m*sexuals are brought to the
schools to lecture to the children on alternate life
styles. They are there to recruit h*m*sexuals and
they will succeed. Eighth graders in Lubbock have
been required to read a sadistic book which tells of a
future age when firemen will no longer fight fires,
but will go forth to burn books and people. Another
book has been required which tells of a baby who is
born with mysterious powers. The baby uses that
power to kill its parents and the rest of the family.
Nice story don't you think!! Others are required to
read, "Catcher in the Rye," and other filthy books
which would pollute even a garbage dump.
I can hear the cry even now, "We don't believe in
censorship!!" I have heard it till I am sick of it. We
already have censorship, and have had it for a
generation. The librarian, and library committees
are censors. Those who select the textbooks for our
schools, and those who select the books for required
reading in our schools are censors. They have
pushed out, censored out, the great literature of the
ages, and at the same time they have put in the filth,
the ugly, the sadistic, and the unpatriotic. Yet, when
concerned parents and citizens want to do
something about it, then they are accused of
censorship.
We would never allow a mixture of filth and germs
to be added to the public water supply, nor
poisonous deadly gases to be added to the gas lines
going to our homes. But we have sat down at ease,
while the pipelines that feed the minds of our
precious children have been loaded with that which
will destroy them morally and spiritually.
Humanism has invaded and conquered the public
education system of our nation. Humanism is
anti-God, anti-moral, and anti-Christ. It places
human wisdom, values, and desire above anything
that God teaches in His Word. Space and time does
not permit a full disclosure of this evil, but it is here
and it is strong! Sex education is freely taught. The
mechanics and mystery is taught, but moral
restraint and Biblical teaching would not be
permitted. Then they worry about teen pregnancies.
Anyway the abortion clinic can mop up the bad
results, no matter if it brings the curse of God upon
our nation because of this senseless wholesale
murder of infants.IV. Forsaking God For M-USIC Modern day rock music and other related types
have ushered in a new age for the youth of our
nation. What needs to be said about this awful music
curse would fill a book. The advent of John Lennon
and the Beatles ushered in a new era, and the world
has never recovered from it. (Incidentally did
anyone hear any cheering when John Lennon was
shot?)
We read in "A Christian View Of The News"
(hereafter ACVN) a report that was published in the
Atlanta Constitution, December 16, 1981. Dr. Irving
Goldaber of Miami is a sociologist who is an expert in
crowd behavior and the field of social conflict and vio-
lence. He taught 22 years at City University in N.Y.
and is a consultant to the International Association of
Chiefs of Police. He said, "To the unskilled eye, kids
seem to be at rock concerts to see the group and hear
the music." But the real reason "is to enter another
world; another nation; an enclosed nation where the
volume of sound surrounds them like a bubble.
Within this bubble is a style of life free and apart
from the outside world. Kids run this nation. Here
they can vent the pulsating psychic, social and
sexual power that is percolating in them that they
can't release in the controlled outside world."
Dr. Goldaber also said, "Drugs are the doorway
through which kids go to get into the spell of the
music. Drugs and rock music are closely related.
Lyrics of rock songs legitimatize drug usage. And
drug usage puts people in the spell of the music.
Drugs and rock music mix very well. They support
each other."Rock Concert: A ‘Zoo’ Ruled By Youth
Another issue of ACVN quotes from the Atlanta
Constitution of the above date. The Omni Coliseum
of Atlanta is the largest house in town for rock
concerts. The report says, "School children as
young as 11 or 12 can with impunity smoke
marijuana and drink alcoholic beverages at the ‘free
zone’ created during some rock concerts at the
downtown coliseum, according to police officers,
parents, Omni employees, medical technicians, a
city judge and observations by Constitution
reporters. These same sources estimate that as
many as half the audience at certain concerts here
are using alcohol or drugs. And one Omni official
says, ‘The harder the rock the rougher the crowd.’
‘You get 4,000 or 5,000 kids who are drunk or high
and that crowd is like a 10-ton elephant--it does
whatever it wants to,’ said one police officer.
"Ray Vinsik, head of the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration's Atlanta office recently took his
teen-age daughter and seven of her friends to a rock
concert at the Omni Coliseum. Vinsik, who spent 20
years with DEA working the streets of Chicago
before taking over the Atlanta office a year ago, saw
things at the Omni he had never seen before. ‘That
place was a zoo,’ he said in amazement. ‘Fights
were going on and nothing was done to stop them.
More than half the kids I saw were drinking or high
on drugs. They were selling booze to minors. There
were kids that looked no more than 12 years old
falling down on the floor. You couldn't walk without
your feet sticking to the floor because it was covered
with beer. Those kids were in their own private
world. I never would have believed that went on
there,’" Vinsik said.
"Drug paraphernalia is visible among young
concert goers. Bottles of whiskey are seen being
passed back and forth among youngsters. So much
sexual activity is said to take place in the balcony
during a few rock concerts that some Omni
employees have running jokes about babies born
nine months after a concert. ‘You have 13 and
14-year-olds stoned and drunk at concerts. People
are throwing bottles. They are fighting. Grass
smoking is so widespread that if you want to enforce
the law you'd have to arrest everybody there,’ one
police officer said. ‘Kids get blasted out of their
skulls down there. I've seen children as young as 13
and 14 who are dangerously disoriented from drugs
and alcohol,’ says Arthur Kaplan, a city judge and
medical rescue officer who has won national
recognition for his rescue work with Atlanta police.
He often works the rock concerts. ‘The average age
of the drunks here tonight is 13,’ said an emergency
medical technician at a recent concert."
I am sure that some of you are thinking, "I'm glad
we don't have that in Lubbock." Oh, but we do.
Perhaps not on the same scale, because of the size of
the cities, but it is here nevertheless. I have talked to
police officers in Lubbock who have worked rock
concerts in Lubbock, and they were literally sick
because of what they saw, but were powerless to
change.
Revolution And Rebellion By Rock Stars Those who know, realize that the Beatles and
many other rock stars were leaders against morality
and decency. In a 1971 interview with Rolling Stone
magazine John Lennon said, "I am wearing a
Chairman Mao badge. I'm just beginning to think he
is doing a good job." In a 1964 interview with
Saturday Evening Post, Derek Taylor, press officer
for the Beatles said, "They're anti-Christ. I mean, I
am anti-Christ as well, but they're so anti-Christ,
they shock me, which isn't an easy thing." In a 1966
interview with the London Evening Standard,
Lennon said, "Christianity will go. It will vanish and
shrink. I needn't argue about that: I'm right and I
will be proved right. We're more popular than Jesus
now." Many of Lennon's songs promoted the use of
drugs. We deplore his murder, but it came from the
culture that he helped produce.
The Bible Believers' Bulletin for April 1981 quotes
some of the rock stars concerning their beliefs. They
took their quotes from "Satan's Music Exposed" by
Lowell Hart. Here are the quotes. The Beatles: Our
music is capable of causing emotional instability,
disorganized behavior, rebellion and even revolu-
tion. Spencer Dryden: Get them while they're
young. Bend their minds. Donnie Brewer of Grand
Funk: We take the kids away from their parents and
their environment to where the only reality is the
rhythm and the beat. John Denver (folk and
country-western singer): Rock music is a greater
influence on the souls of men than primitive
Christianity.
"Imagine" was one of the songs by John Lennon.
Listen to the words, "Imagine there's no heaven,
It's easy if you try, No hell below us, Above us only
sky, Living for today. / Imagine there's no countries,
It isn't hard to do, Nothing to kill or die for, And no
religion too, Imagine all the people, Living life in
peace./ Imagine no possessions, I wonder if you
can, No need for greed or hunger, A brotherhood of
man, Imagine all the people, Sharing all the world./
You may say I'm a dreamer, But I'm not the only
one, I hope someday you'll join us, And the world
will be as one." No wonder that after his death, he
was mourned in the Soviet press as a "fighter for
peace."
Yet, John Lennon died a multi-millionaire, and he
gained it all from the rock culture.
How sad that some modern Christians have
introduced the rock rhythm in the churches. This is a
bad setback for the cause of truth. It would be just as
easy to convert the devil as to convert rock music to
real spiritual use. Rock is the beat of the jungle, of
witchcraft, of sensual feelings, and of illicit sex. It
has no place in any sound church, and it should have
no place in the hearts and minds of God's people.
Any close look at the Christian (?) rock artists, their
songs, and their performances, should reveal the
spiritual bankruptcy of that movement to any
thoughtful and spiritual Bible believer.
V. Forsaking God For M- ODERNISM The last "M" in T.H.E.M.M. stands for
modernism in Christianity. There is not a doubt but
what those who call themselves Christian are more
responsible for the sad conditions that exist in our
nation than any other group. Those who have access
to the truth are the most responsible in the sight of
God. The Saviour expressed this in saying, "...For
unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be
much required...." Luke 12:48. Much has been
committed unto us, and much is going to be
required.
Invariably, the decay of a nation can be traced to
the religious leaders and their followers. It was so in
the days of Jeremiah who lived on the eve of the
destruction of Jerusalem and Judah. He delivered a
stinging rebuke to the priests, pastors, and prophets
of his day. "The priests said not, Where is the Lord?
and they that handle the law knew me not: the
pastors also transgressed against me, and the
prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after
things that do not profit." Jer. 2:8. How sad that
priests did not seek the Lord, and those who handled
His Word did not even know God. How deplorable
that the pastors literally refused allegiance to God
and rebelled and transgressed against Him. The
prophets who were to deliver God's message to the
people, literally delivered a message from the false
god Baal. Yet, it is even so today in the religious
world.
This wholesale departure from God on the part of
the religious leaders resulted in the nation changing
from God to gods. Even the heathen had not
forsaken their gods, but Israel had forsaken the one
true God. "...They have forsaken me the fountain
of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns,
broken cisterns, that can hold no water." Jer. 2:13.
Here is where religious America is standing today,
at the broken cistern that can hold no water.
The true prophet further tells us, "A wonderful
and horrible thing is committed in the land; The
prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule
by their means; and my people love to have it so:
and what will ye do in the end thereof?" Jer.
5:30,31. In chapter 6, he tells us that the prophets
and priests were dealing falsely. They had cried, ".
..Peace, peace: when there is no peace...." Jer.
6:13, 14.
The New Testament clearly declares and predicts
the apostasy of our day. "...In the latter times
some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to
seducing spirits and doctrines of devils." I Tim. 4:1.
Paul by the Spirit clearly describes the "perilous
times" which we are seeing when "silly women"
would be led into great prominence in religion, and
that people would be, "Ever learning, and never able
to come to the knowledge of the truth." A time
when, "...All that live godly in Christ Jesus shall
suffer persecution. But evil men and seducers shall
wax worse and worse, deceiving and being
deceived." See II Tim. 3:1-14.
Without a doubt we are living in that time "...
when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after
their own lusts shall they heap to themselves
teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn
away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned
unto fables." II Tim. 4:3,4.
Modernism has proven to be a curse to 20th
Century Christianity in America. It crossed the
ocean to us as German rationalism and infiltrated
almost every segment of religion in America. Under
the guise of higher criticism it has attacked every
fundamental doctrine of the Word of God. Nothing is
sacred to these wolves in sheep's clothing. They
have worked with insidious persistency in attacking
the verbal inspiration of the Bible. The Genesis
account of creation, the miracles of the O.T., and the
prophecies have been attacked. Its history, dates,
and writers have been denied. Modernism should
have been driven back into the Atlantic Ocean, but
instead it has conquered most of the old line
denominations, captured their publishing houses
and schools, until millions of American Christians
(?) are standing at the broken fountain of modernism
that cannot and does not hold the water of life. The
plan of modernism is to produce a one-world
church.
The modern charismatic tongues movement has
arisen in the 20th Century, and is helping to bring in
the one-world church in areas where modernism has
failed in its plan. This movement is growing by leaps
and bounds as people continue to depart from the
truth. The charismatic movement now has a
considerable number of followers in the Roman
Catholic Church, all the major Protestant
denominations, and unfortunately multitudes of
Baptists have been deceived by it. It is almost
devoid of all Bible doctrine, but places heavy
emphasis on love, tongues, visions, and dreams.
They are opposed to the Bible doctrine of
separation, and urge their charismatic followers to
stay in the church they are in, and it matters not
whether it is Catholic, modernist, or some other
false system. This is totally unscriptural and is doing
more than anything else to bring in the church of the
anti-christ. When people who pray to Mary,
modernists who deny the Bible, ritualists who
believe in salvation by baptism, and others who
believe in falling from grace, can all get together
and speak in tongues and have fellowship together,
you may know that the whole thing is false religion!!
The new evangelical movement is currently
responsible for leading many to a broken cistern that
can hold no water. The new evangelicals claim to
believe the same thing as the fundamentalists, but
without the fighting. Their view of love and their
reluctance to separate and fight for the truth has led
them into all kinds of compromise. They have sought
to maintain good relations with the modernists, and
have steadfastly refused to separate from them.
Their dialogue with liberals has become the vehicle
of compromise and confusion. No doubt many of the
new evangelicals are saved, but like Jehoshaphat
they have not learned to separate from the Ahabs.
The father of the new evangelical movement was
Dr. Harold John Ockenga in the 1950's. He came up
with the idea of infiltrating the liberal denomina-
tions which has led to disaster. Without a doubt, the
ministry of Dr. Billy Graham has done more to
advance this movement than any other ministry.
Multitudes of undiscerning people have been led into
this confusion and the end is not yet.
The modern fundamentalist movement has drifted
a long way from the anchor held by the
fundamentalists of yesterday. The writer of this
article is a fundamentalist and will die a
fundamentalist, but he does not agree with much of
the compromise going on in the fundamentalist
camp. Many who call themselves fundamentalists
are not, but are really new evangelicals. They are
changing the course of fundamentalism and drawing
many closer and closer to the new evangelicals.
Certain Southern Baptists such as Dr. W. A.
Criswell, James Robison, Adrian Rodgers, and
Bailey Smith claim to be fundamentalists. While
they no doubt believe the fundamentals, they are not
fundamentalists. They do not believe in separation
from apostasy, and while they talk about the
fundamentals they continue to support the
modernists and liberals in the SBC through the
co-operative program. Dr. Bailey Smith recently
said that his church was going to increase their
support of the co-operative program by 300% and be
the largest supporting church from Oklahoma. That
is deplorable. These men are openly fellowshipping
with modernists of the worst kind.
Others, such as Dr. Jerry Falwell, claim to be
fundamentalists, but their compromise says
otherwise. Dr. Falwell and others of his kind
continue to fellowship with these compromising
Southern Baptists and with others who are new
evangelical. They are not changing the new
evangelicals, but they are changing the fundament-
alists. The house of fundamentalism has been
stretched to the breaking point to enable those with
variant beliefs to be ushered in.
Many fundamentalists have been deceived into
believing that gain in numbers is godliness. The
body count mania has almost destroyed a large
segment of this group. They are going to have
numerical increase, no matter what it takes to get
them. The crowds must be gathered at any cost,
even if the Sunday School and church service must
be turned into a side show, with karate, wrestlers,
weight lifters, midgets, giants and you name it. The
world's largest banana split, or popsicle, is what
some of these churches are best known for. This all
leads to a watering down of the message to suit the
crowd. More and more, man is elevated and God is
lowered so that repentance can be de-emphasized
and the new birth reduced to a decision or a prayer.
Modern Independent Baptists have in many
instances shown growing symptoms of the same sort
of compromise. They have become infatuated by the
success of Jerry Falwell and they have gone off to his
and similar meetings and they have come back with
new ideas. They are going to the same Bill Gothard
meetings being attended by fundamentalists, new
evangelicals, modernists, and Roman Catholics. All
who expose such practices are declared to be devoid
of love and to have no concern for souls.
Not only is there a growing disregard for
separation from apostasy, there is also a lack of
personal separation. Holy living is seldom
emphasized as in yesteryears. The Christian's
habits, dress, and deportment has rapidly
deteriorated. Bible believers (?) are at peace with
TV, movies, dancing, mixed swimming, and
indecent dress.
Is There Any Hope? It is not our desire to produce pessimists. There
is hope, for God still lives. In spite of the widespread
compromise there are yet 7,000 that have not bowed
the knee to Baal. All across this land there are
preachers and churches that are doing their best to
stand for the faith once delivered to the saints. None
of these are perfect, and we all need to examine our
lives and our practices in the light of God's Word.
There are fundamentalists and independents who
are ready to die for the truth, and how we pray that
their number will increase.
There is hope because the promises of God are
still true. America's basic problems are not political,
economic, or social, but the problem is spiritual. The
need of 3,000 years ago, is still the need of today. "If
my people which are called by my name, shall
humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face,
and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear
from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal
their land." II Chron. 7:14. Not only is the need the
same, but the remedy is still the same, and we serve
the same God. May we be driven to the point that we
shall give up all hope, except that hope and faith
that is in Him. None of us should be so satisfied with
what we are and what we are doing, that we would
fail to see our sins and confess them to Him who is
able to forgive and restore.
The options are simple, it is either repent or
perish. God will not long put up with what modern
day Christians are doing. The handwriting is on the
wall, the enemy is at the gates, and only God can
save us!
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