An Old Question

The apostle Jude began writing a letter. He knew what he would write. But something happened to change his mind. A report came in which deeply disturbed him regarding what was going on in the churches. Therefore, he wrote a letter concerning the need for believers to contend for the faith. From the report he learned that false teachers had entered the churches. These false teachers taught that Christians could serve God and enjoy the world at the same time. Against them Jude wrote as clearly and forcefully as he could. He warned earnestly of the judgment that would come on these false teachers, and on those who followed their teachings.

Apparently some early Christians readily followed these teachings. Rationalizing, we would say, they easily slipped back to a former life style. We all must admit that it is easy to slip into the way of sin. Therefore, none of us should be surprised to find Scripture warning us repeatedly against the errors and sins Jude mentions. A notable example is given in Revelation Chapter 2. Here mention is made of “that woman Jezebel.” (vs. 20) This lady taught that one can enjoy sin and serve God at the same time. She taught this deceptively. She made it appear necessary to sin in order to know sin. To know life one had to know “the deep things of Satan.” (vs. 24) She taught that to know Satan’s wiles you had to experience Satan’s wiles. To fight sin you had to know sin. In this way she lured men to sin.

We can understand that some people were beguiled by such teaching. Coming under the guise of godliness, it sounds sensible and logical. How can you know sin if you have not experienced sin? And does it not follow that the deeper knowledge you have of sin the deeper knowledge you will have of God’s grace? In this way sinning received a sanction that made it the thing for Christians to do. Sinning received a veneer of piety. This is what some concluded in the church at Rome. They said, “Let us do evil that good may result” and “Let us go on sinning so that grace may increase.” (Romans 3:8; 6:1, NIV) Because the church failed to see Satan’s cunning in Jezebel’s teachings, it tolerated her to its own undoing.

Teachings of this kind have plagued the church throughout the ages. We can therefore understand Jude’s concern. These teachers, says Jude, “. . . change the grace of our God into a license of immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.” (Jude 4) Such false teachers have one thing in common. They promote sinning under the cloak of piety. They make sinning necessary to the service of the Lord. When Satan can sell that kind of teaching to members of a church he has brought a deadly cancer into its life with seeming Biblical sanction.

Our “Amusement Problem”

An important question for us today is whether such demonic teachings are being foisted on our churches. Do we condone teachings that promote sinning under such a guise of piety? It is necessary for us to examine some of the teachings concerning this important matter among us. We must look, for example, at some of our recent synodical decisions and compare them with past decisions, but more importantly, with Scripture’s teachings. I assume all readers are familiar with some decisions of the Synod of 1928. Those decisions were rightly called “a declaration of war upon worldliness.” But some felt these decisions were much too negative. They contended that this Synod looked at the world with too-darkly–tinted glasses. This Synod didn’t see anything good in the world. It judged too firmly from a black-and–white mentality.

Synod of 1966 also spoke on our relation to the world, in particular to the film arts. The significant difference between the decisions of 1928 and 1966 seems to be that “in 1966 there were many more people attending the movies.” (Federation Messenger, Vol.XI, March 1969) A great deal of time and work went into compiling statistics concerning practices among the membership as to their use of TV and movie attendance. The idea back of this survey was to see what effect the principles laid down in 1928 had had on practice (the Church and the Film. p.11,2) Evidently the principles were not good since they were not heeded. Something else had to be done in the light of the indiscriminate use of TV and movie attendance.

Just what does a church do in such a situation? Just what does a church do about members who ignore principles? Such were the questions we had to answer, and answer them we did. In the answer we gave the principles were not criticized or censored in any way. Rather, it was emphasized that the principles were correct. No one had an argument with 1928 on that. The argument centered on application. The area of application, so it was suggested, had changed. Since 1928 the film arts had improved. The world was still the world, but somehow it had become better. It had somehow improved its cultural output.

But another factor played a key role. This was the practices within the community of those who are called God’s children. After all, when God’s family makes free use of TV and movie, there must be some good there. God’s children’s practice must show that the world of film arts is not all evil. Surely, it was intimated, among those whom the Holy Spirit is leading, a sinful practice would not be tolerated. Therefore, we went to work with diligence to take a closer look at what the world had to offer. What did we find? Synod of 1928 was wrong! There was much good in the film arts of the world. A wicked world was somehow producing good culture fit for Christian use.

With this new insight, in view of the fact that both young and old were attending all kinds of movies and watching TV programs, it was thought that we also had a new insight as to why the old principles did not work. Evidently we needed a whole new approach to the application of these indisputable principles. We concluded that the church must “in preaching, catechetical instruction, family visiting, counseling and in all other official functions give specific guidance and instruction . . . in this complex and difficult situation,” and it must “warn against all movie and television products which promote a philosophy of life and a way of thinking that is contrary to the Christian way of life.” (The Church and Film Arts, p. 39)

Such guidelines make a complex situation more complex. Approximately 99% of all movie and TV programs stand condemned under the above named guidelines. Some qualified person has to ferret out the 1% and inform members concerning this 1%. And this means that the congregation must be educated “in a practical way so that its members may become more qualified to distinguish between good and evil in movie and television programs.” This guideline would be very easy to follow if Synod 1966 had not declared that there was considerable good in the film arts of the world. Somehow ministers and elders have to be able to instruct the members under their care to become professional scavengers in the garbage can of this wicked world and try to find something good for the spiritual enrichment of their lives.

How can we escape the conclusion that we are following the same course of action that was being taught and advocated by the false teachers of Jude’s day and by Jezebel in Thyatira? There is this subtle difference, however, that since about 90% of our membership attend movies and/or watch TV programs of every kind, and since applying principles has failed, we must educate our members to an intelligent use of these products of the world. Since there has been “a long history of fearful refusal on the part of Christians to deal with the world” (Credo, June–July 1969, p.19) in which we failed to guide our youth, we must come to grips with the issues. Our youth need guidance.

Two things must be said at t his point. The first is that our forefathers never avoided facing the world and the issues in it. They saw the life of the world for what it truly is, the way of death. They warned against the dead-endedness of the unbelievers’ life. They saw what Scripture declares its end to be, that is, that the very “way of the wicked will perish.” (Ps. 1:6 NIV) They knew what was in the world (I John 2:15–17) and did not hesitate to warn their children to keep free from it.

But in the second place, just what kind of an answer do we give our young people today? So we have movie reviews, instructions as to what is good or bad in the film arts, then what do we do? Do we counsel them to quit seeing such movies and programs? Then we are right back to where our forefathers were. Only they were miles ahead of us. They did not ask young people to sin or order to know and flee sin. Neither did they think of changing labels on the poison containers. They saw clearly that the way of the world, so forcefully displayed and taught in the movies, was the way to hell. They sought to lead their children into the way of holiness in God’s service.

There is more to this whole question. Our approach to it is not Scriptural. We are called in God’s Word to be positive in our dealings with the world. We must not fear to face the issues head on. Scripture speaks of that again and again. To give a few examples, “Overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:21), “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh” (Romans 13:14), “Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh,” (Gal. 5:16), “For the rest, brothers, whatsoever things are true . . . honorable . . . just . . . pure . . . lovely . . . of good report . . . be thinking on these things” (Phil. 4:8,9). “On the things that are above set your minds, not on the things that are upon earth.” (Col. 3:2)

“Called to Holiness”

Very clearly Scripture, beside warning us against the way of the world, calls us into the way of holiness. What we are called to do is to teach and lead our children and young people into the beautiful, holy life of service to the Lord. Only then will they be able to stand against sin and evil. But what we are recommending and practicing with sanction of our Synod is that young people can enjoy wicked movies if they intelligently ferret out what is good. We can, so the argument seems to imply, expose ourselves to the whole corrupt practice and philosophy of the world and be the better Christians for it. Dr. Hendriksen, in his commentary of Colossians (p. 141) warns against this pernicious practice when he says, “Now a minister who seeks to help his people in their struggle against immorality should not preach a series of sermons on the theme IMMORALITY, going into all its sordid details. If he does, his sermons might do more harm than good. Instead of banishing the evil he may be creating a taste for it.”

I assume that no one will ever say that every film produced by ungodly men is unfit for any Christian to see. I am sure we all agree that there are films made of nature, of various voyages and happenings in this world that are not in themselves evil. They do not teach or portray evil. But our contention is not with these. Synod of 1928 did not take a stand against such films either. When we seek to defend the world’s film arts on such ground we are altogether too naive. What we are concerned about is the stream of worldly filth oozing out of Hollywood. This is almost entirely entertainment that portrays and finds its appeal in the breaking of God’s law. About 1% is fit to be seen, and that is hardly worth viewing. It is a fallacy to try to educate anyone to be an intelligent viewer of filth. It is leading young Christians into the way of sin, to create in them a taste for what is evil. Let us not be deceived. In the film arts of the world you find the very heartbeat of the world. That is a world fully involved in deadly sin. Our practices today are feeding many members into that death with our sanction.

It is strange to what lengths men will go to rationalize sinning. Instead of urging our churches to call their members away from movie attendance and TV viewing some refer to I Thessalonians 5:19–22. Here we read, “Do not quench the Spirit, do not despise prophesying, but test everything; hold fast what is good, and abstain from every form of evil.” You see, we are reminded, that Scripture calls us to “test everything” and to hold on to “what is good.” In other words, Scripture wants us to dig around in this world’s filth and keep what’s usable. However, this is misinterpreting this passage. We must ask: Just what does Scripture mean by testing everything? It is referring to prophetic utterances. We are called to be careful and critical listeners to all who proclaim God’s Word. But we must not be misled. False prophets are always with us. We must keep what is good. By God’s grace believers know what in preaching is good and what is evil.

But more must be said at this point. Surely Scripture would not tell us to “abstain from every form of evil” while at the same time telling us to get into every form of evil. God’s Word never confronts us with double talk. It is overwhelmingly clear on this. Just listen to some of its warnings; “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,” (2Cor. 6:17) “But fornication and all uncleanness . . . , let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints; neither foolish talking or jesting, which are not convenient, but rather giving of thanks.” (Eph. 5:3–4; 7–8) “Let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, and make holiness perfect in the fear of God.” (2 Cor. 7:1)

Another argument must be faced. Some suggest that we must be “with it” and claim also this area of life for Christ. To be sure, the instruments in themselves are sinless, but their use by the world is corrupting unto sin, therefore deadly. If we can use the instruments for Christ we must do so. We must as God’s children be culturally busy. But, we must stop looking with longing eyes at how well the world does it, for they are using culture unto damnation. Let us use also these means for the promotion of God’s Kingdom here on earth.

And that leads me to one concluding thought. If we are going to be what the Lord calls us to be (a light, leaven, salt, etc.) in this world, we must be distinct from it. We must be in the whole world with our message of life, and we must present to the world a distinct godly life-style. If we don’t do this we have lost our witness and the worldly will see nothing different in us. If we join it in movie attendance, in dancing, in gambling, in drinking, in its lifestyle, we cannot also in this way be a witness. How subtly Satan is working among us, luring us into the paths of evil. How shall we change this? By calling God’s people back to obedient Scripture-directed service to Him, the God of their salvation. Then once again we will flee from all wickedness.

Cecil Tuininga is Pastor of the Christian Reformed Church at Grande Prairie and La Glace, Alberta, Canada.