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Sunday, December 18, 2016

Conclusion of the Menace of the Religious Movie

One thing may bother some earnest souls. Why so many good people approve the religious movie. The list of those who are enthusiastic about it includes many who cannot be written off as borderline Christians. If it is an evil, why have not these denounced it?

The answer is, lack of spiritual discernment. Many who are turning to the movies are the same who have, by direct teaching or by neglect, discredited the work of the Holy Spirit. They have apologized for the Spirit and so hedged Him in by their unbelief that it has amounted to an out-and-out repudiation. Now we are paying the price of our folly. The light has gone out and good men are forced to stumble around in the darkness of the human intellect.

The religious movie is at present undergoing a period of gestation and seems about to swarm up over the churches like a cloud of locusts out of the earth. The figure is accurate; they are coming from below, not from above. The whole modern psychology has been prepared for this invasion of insects. The fundamentalist have become weary of manna and are longing for red flesh. What they are getting is a sorry substitute for the lusty and uninhibited pleasures of the world, but I suppose it is better than nothing, and it saves face by pretending to be spiritual.

Let us not for the sake of peace keep still while men without spiritual insight dictate the diet upon which God 's children shall feed. I heard the president of a Christian college say some time ago that the church is suffering from an "epidemic of amateurism."  That remark is sadly true, and the religious movie represents amateurism gone wild. Unity among professing Christians Is to be desired, but not at the expense of righteousness. It is good to go with the flock, but I for one refuse mutely to follow a misled flock over a product of precipice.

If God has given wisdom to see the error of religious shows, we owe it to the church to oppose them openly. We dare not take refuge in "guilty silence." Error is not silent; It is highly vocal and amazingly aggressive.  We dare not be less so. But let us take heart: there are still many thousands of Christian people Who grieve to see the world takeover.  If we draw the line and call attention to it, We may be surprised how many people will come over on our side and help us to drive from the church this latest invader--The spirit of Hollywood .

Sunday, December 11, 2016

Part 7 The Menace of the Religious Movie

I am against the religious movie because of the harmful effect upon everyone associated with it.

First, the evil effect upon the "actors" who play the part of the various characters in the show; this is not the less because it is unsuspected.  Who can, while in a state of fellowship with God, dare to play at bing a prophet? Who has the gall to pretend to be an apostle, even in a show?  Where is his reverence?  Where is his fear?   Where is his humility?  Anyone who can bring himself to act a part for any purpose, must first have grieved the Spirit and silenced His voice within the heart.  Then the whole business will appear good to him.  "He feedeth on ashes; a deceived heart has turned him aside" (Isaiah 44:20).  But he cannot escape the secret Working of the ancient laws of the soul.  Something high and fine and grand will die within him; and worst of all he will never suspect it. That is the curse that follows self injury always. The Pharisees were examples of this. They were walking dead men, and they never dreamed how dead they were.

Secondly, It identifies religion with the theatrical world.  I have seen recently in a fundamental magazine an advertisement of a religious film which would be altogether at home on the theatrical page on any city newspaper, illustrated with the usual sex- bait picture of a young man and young woman in a tender embrace, and spangled with such words as "feature-length, drama, pathos, romance," it reeked of Hollywood with the cheap movie house.  By such business we are selling out our Christian separation, and nothing but grief can come of it late or soon.

Thirdly, the taste for drama which these pictures develop in the minds of the young will not long remain satisfied with the inferior stuff the religious movie can offer.  Our young people will demand the real thing; and what can we reply when they ask why they should not patronize the regular movie house?

Fourthly, the rising generation will naturally come to look upon religion as another,  and inferior, form of amusement.  In fact, the present generation has done this to an alarming extent already, and the Gospel movie feeds the notion by fusing religion and fun in the name of orthodoxy.  It takes no great insight to see that the religious movie must become increasingly more thrilling as the tastes of the spectators become more and more stimulated.

Fifthly, the religious movie is the lazy preacher's friend.  If the present vogue continues to spread it will not be long before any man with enough ability to make an audible prayer, and mentality enough to focus a projector, will be able to pass for a prophet of the Most High God. The man of God can play around all week long and come up to Sunday without a care. Everything has been done for him at the studio.  He has only to set up the screen and lower the lights, and the rest follows painlessly.

Wherever the movie is used, the prophet is displaced by the projector. The least such displaced prophets can do is to admit that they are technicians and not preachers. Let them admit that they are not sent-man, ordained of God for a sacred work.  Let them refuse ordination and put away their pretense.

Allowing that there may be some who have been truly called and gifted of God, but who have allowed themselves to be taken in by this new plaything, the danger to such is still great. As long as they can fall back upon the movie, the pressure that makes preachers will be wanting.  The habit and rhythm which belong to great preaching will be missing from their ministry.  However great their natural gifts, however real their enduement of power, still they will never rise.  They cannot while this broken reed lies close at hand to aid them in the crisis. The movie will doom them to be ordinary.

Sunday, December 4, 2016

Part 6: The religious movie is out of harmony with the whole spirit of the Scriptures and contrary to the mood of true godliness

To harmonize the spirit of the religious movie with the spirit of the Sacred Scriptures is impossible.  Any comparison is grotesque and, if it were not so serious, would be downright funny. Try to imagine Elijah appearing before Ahab with a roll of film!  Imagine Peter standing up at Pentecost and saying "Let's have the lights out, please."  When Jeremiah hesitated to prophesy, on the plea that he was not a fluent speaker, God touched his mouth and said, "I have put My words into thy mouth." Perhaps Jeremiah could have gotten on well enough without the divine touch If he had had a good 16mm projector and a reel of home-talent film.

Let a man dare to compare his religious movie show, with the spirit of the book of Acts . Let him try to find a place for it in the twelfth chapter of first Corinthians.  Let him set it beside Savonarola''s passionate preaching, or Luther 's thundering, or Wesley 's heavenly sermons, or Edward''s awful appeals.  If he cannot see the difference in kind, then he is too blind to be trusted with leadership in the Church of the Living God . The only thing that he can do appropriate to the circumstances is to drop to his knees and cry with poor Bartimaeus, "Lord, that I might receive my sight."

But some say, "We do not propose to displace the regular method of preaching the gospel. We only want to supplement it."  To this I answer: If the movie is indeed to supplement anointed preaching, it can only be because God's appointed method is inadequate and the movie can do something which God's appointed method cannot do.  What is that thing?  We freely grant that the movie can produce effects which preaching cannot produce (and which is should never try to produce), but dare we strive for such effects in the light of God 's revealed will and in the face of the judgment and the long eternity? 

 . 

Sunday, November 27, 2016

Part 5 of the Menace of the Religious Movie.

The Menace of the Religious Movie Part 5: God has ordained four methods only by which Truth shall prevail--and the religious movie is not one of them.

Without attempting to arrange these methods in order of importance, they are (1) prayer, (2) song, (3) proclamation of the message by means of words, and (4) good works.  These are the four main methods which God has blessed.   All other Biblical methods are sub-divisions of these and stay within the framework.

Notice these in order.  (1) Spirit-burdened prayer.  This has been through the centuries a powerful agent for the spread of saving truth among men.  A praying church carried the message of the cross to the whole known world within two centuries after the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.   Read the book of Acts and see what prayer has done and can do when it is made in true faith.

(2)  Spirit-inspired song has been another mighty instrument in the spread of the Word among mankind.  When the church sings in the spirit, she draws men unto Christ.  Where her song has been ecstatic expression of resurrection joy, It has acted wonderfully to prepare hearts for the saving message.  This has no reference to professional religious singers, expensive choirs, nor the popular "gospel" chorus. These for the time we leave out of consideration, but I think no one will deny that the sound of a Christian hymn sung by sincere and humble persons can have a tremendous and permanent effect for good. The Welsh revival is a fair modern example of this.

(To learn more about Biblical worship, please peruse other posts within this blog)

(3)  In the Old Testament, as well as in the New, when God would impart His mind to man He embodied it in a message and sent man out to proclaim it.  It was received by hearing and reading on the part of those to whom it was sent.  We are all familiar with the verse "Speak easy comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her."  John the Baptist was called "the voice of him that crieth in the wilderness"  Again we have,  "And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, write."   And the apostle John opens his great work called the Revelation by pronouncing a blessing upon him that reads and them that hear and keep the words of the prophecy and the things which are written therein.  The two words proclaim and publish sum up God 's will as it touches His Word.  In the Bible, men for the most part, wrote what had been spoken; in our time men are commissioned to speak what has been written.  In both cases the agent is a word, never a picture, a dance, nor a pageant.

(4)  By His healing deeds our Lord open the way for his saving words.  He went about doing good, and his church is commanded to do the same.  Faber understood this when he wrote,

"And preach thee, too, as love knows how
By kindly deeds in virtuous life."

Church history is replete with instances of missionaries and teachers who prepared the way for their message with deeds of mercy shown to men and women who were at first hostile, but who melted under the warm rays of practical kindnesses shown to them in time of need.  If anyone should object to calling good works a method, I would not argue the point.  Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that they are an overflow into everyday life of the reality of what is being proclaimed.

These are God's appointed methods set forth in the Bible and confirmed in centuries of practical application.  The intrusion of other methods is unscriptural, unwarranted and in violation of spiritual laws as old as the world.

The whole preach-the-gospel-with-movies idea Is founded upon the same basic assumption as modernism, namely that the Word of God is not final, and that we of this day have a perfect right to add to it or alter it wherever we think we can improve it.

A brazen example of this attitude came to my attention recently.  Preliminary printed matter has been sent out announcing that a new organization is in process of being formed.  It is to be called "The international Radio and Screen Artist Guild"  And one of its two major objectives is to promote the movie as a medium for the spread of the gospel. It's sponsors, apparently, are not Modernist, but confessed Fundamentalist.  Some of its declared purposes are: "to produce movies  "with or without a Christian slant"; to raise and maintain higher standards in the movie field (this would be done, it says here, by having "much prayer" with leaders of the movie industry); to "challenge people, especially young people, to those fields as they are challenged to go to foreign fields."

This last point should not be allowed to pass without some of us doing a little challenging on our own account.  Does this new organization actually propose in seriousness to add another gift to the rest of the gifts of the Holy Spirit listed in the New Testament?  To the number of the Spirit's gifts, such as pastor, teacher, evangelist, is there now to be added another, the gift of the movie actor?  To the appeal for consecrated Christian young people to serve as missionaries on the foreign field is there to be added an appeal for young people to serve as movie actors?  That is exactly what this new organization does propose in cold type over the signature of its temporary chairman.  Instead of the Holy Spirit saying "Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them," these people will make use of what they call a "Christian Talent listing", to consist of the names of "Christian" actors who have received the Spirit 's gift to be used in making religious movies.

Thus the order set up in the New Testament is openly violated,  and by professed lovers of the gospel who say unto Jesus, "Lord, Lord,"  but openly set aside his Lordship whenever they desire. No amount of smooth talk can explain away this serious act of insubordination.

Saul lost a kingdom when he "forced" himself and took profane liberties with the priesthood.  Let these movie preachers look to their crown.  They may find themselves on the road to Endor some dark night soon.

Sunday, November 20, 2016

Part 4 The Menace of the Religious movie.

They who present the gospel movie owe it to the public to give Biblical authority for their act: and this they have not done.

The Church, as long as she is following her Lord, goes along in Bible ways and can give a scriptural reasoning for her conduct.  Her members meet at stated times to pray together: this has Biblical authority back a it. They gather to hear the word of God expounded: this goes back in almost unbroken continuity to Moses. They sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs: so they are commanded by the apostle.  They visit the sick and relieve the sufferings of the poor: for this they have both precept and example in holy writ.  They lay up their gifts and bring them at stated times to the church or chapel to be used in the Lords work: this also follows the scriptural pattern.  They teach and train and instruct; they appoint teachers and pastors and missionaries and send them out to do the work for which the spirit has gifted them: all this has plain scriptural authority behind it.  They baptize and break bread and witness to the lost; they cling together through thick and thin; they bear each other's burdens and share each other's sorrows; this is as it should be, and for all this there is full authority.

Now, for the religious movie where is the authority?  For such a serious departure from the ancient pattern, where is the authority? For introducing into the church the pagan art of acting, where is the authority? Let, the movie advocates quote just one verse, from any book of the Bible, in any translation, to justify its use. (...of the religious movie) This they cannot do.  The best they can do is to appeal to the world's psychology or repeat brightly that "modern times call for modern methods"  But the Scriptures-- quote from them one verse to authorize movie acting as an instrument of the Holy Ghost.  This they cannot do.

Every sincere Christian must find scriptural authority for the religious movie or reject it, and every producer of such movies, If he would square himself before the faces of honest and reverent men, must either show scriptural credentials or go out of business.

But, says someone, there is nothing  unscriptural about the religious movie; It is merely a new medium for the utterance of the old message, as printing is a newer and better method of writing, and the radio an amplification of familiar human speech.

To this I reply: the movie is not the modernization or improvement of any scriptural method; rather it is a medium in itself wholly foreign to the Bible and altogether unauthorized therein.  It is play-acting--just that and nothing more.  It is the introduction into the work of God of that which is not neutral, but entirely bad. The printing press is neutral; so is the radio; so is the camera.  They may be used for good or bad purposes at the will of the user.  But play acting is bad in its essence In that it involves the simulation of emotions not actually felt.  It embodies a gross moral contradiction in that it calls a lie to the service of truth.

Arguments for the religious movie are sometimes clever and always shallow, but there is never any real attempt to cite scriptural authority.  Anything that can be said for the movie, can be said also for the aesthetic dancing, which is a highly touted medium for teaching religious truth by appeal to the eye.  Its advocates grow eloquent in its praise--but where is it indicated in the blueprint?

Saturday, November 12, 2016

Part 3 The religious movie is a menace to true religion because it embodies acting, a violation of sincerity.

Without doubt the most precious thing any man possesses is his individual being; that by which he is himself and not someone else; that which cannot be finally voided by the man himself nor shared with another.  Each one of us, however our place in the social scheme, is unique in creation.  Each is a new whole man possessing his own separate "I-ness" being.  It is this quality of uniqueness which permits a man to enjoy every reward of virtue and makes him responsible for every sin.  It is his selfness, which will persist forever, and which distinguishes him from every creature which has been or ever will be created.

Because man is such a being as this, all moral teachers, and especially Christ and His apostles, make sincerity to be basic in the good life.  The word, as the New Testament uses it, refers to the practice of holding fine pottery up to the sun to test it for purity.  In the white light of the sun all foreign substances were instantly exposed.  So the test of sincerity is basic in human character.  The sincere man is one in whom is found nothing foreign; he is all of one piece: he has preserved his individuality unviolated.

Sincerity for each man means staying in character with himself.   Christ's controversy with the Pharisees centered around their incurable habit of moral play acting.  The Pharisees constantly pretended to be what he was not.  He attempted to vacate his own "I-ness" and appear in that of another and better man.  He assumed a false character and played it for effect.  Christ said he was a hypocrite.

It is more than an etymological accident that the word "hypocrite" comes from the stage.  It means actor.  With that instinct for fitness which usually marks word origins, it has been used signify one who has violated his sincerity and is playing a false part.  An actor is one who assumes a character other than his own and plays it for effect.  The more fully he can become possessed by another personality the better he is an actor.

Bacon has said something to the effect that there are some professions of such nature that the more skillfully a man can work at them the worse man he is.  That perfectly describes the profession of acting.  Stepping out of your own character for any reason is always dangerous, and may be fatal to the soul.  However innocent his  intentions, a man who assumes a false character has betrayed his own soul and has deeply injured something sacred within him.

No one who has been in the presence of the Most Holy One, who has felt how high is the solemn privilege of bearing His image, will ever again consent to play a part or trifle with that most sacred thing, his own deep sincere heart.  He will thereafter be constrained to be no one but himself,  to preserve reverently the sincerity of his own soul.

In order to produce a religious movie someone must, for the time, disguise his individuality and simulate that of another.  His actions must be judged fraudulent,  and those who watch them with approval share in the fraud.  To pretend to pray, to simulate godly sorrow, to play at worship before the camera for effect--how utterly shocking to the reverent heart!  How can Christians who approve this gross pretense ever understand the value of sincerity as taught by our Lord?  What will be the end of a generation of Christians fed on such a diet of deception disguised as the faith of our fathers?

The plea that all this must be good because it is done for the glory of God is a gossamer-thin bit of rationalizing which should not fool anyone above the mental age of six.  Such an argument parallels the evil rule of expediency which holds that the end is everything,  and sanctified the means, however evil, if only the end be commendable.   The wise student of history will recognize this immoral doctrine.  The Spirit-led Church will have no part of it. 

It is not uncommon to find around the theater human flotsam and jetsam washed up by the years, men and women who have played false parts so long that the power to be sincere has forever gone from them.  They are doomed to everlasting duplicity.  Every act of their lives is faked.  Every smile is false.  Every tone of their voice artificial.  The curse does not come causeless.  It is not by chance that the actors profession has been notoriously dissolute. Hollywood and Broadway are two sources of corruption which may yet turn America into a Sodom and lay her glory in the dust.
The profession of acting did not originate with the Hebrews. It is not a part of the Divine pattern.  The Bible mentions it, but never approves it. Drama, as it has come down to us, had its rise in Greece. It was originally a part of the worship of the god Dionysus and was carried on with drunken revelry.

The Miracle Plays of medieval times have been brought forward to justify the modern religious movie. That is an unfortunate weapon to choose for the defense of the movie, for it will surely harm the man who uses it more than any argument I could think of just offhand.

The Miracle Plays had their big run in the Middle Ages . They were dramatic performances with religious themes staged for the entertainment of the populace. At their best they were misguided efforts to teach spiritual truths by dramatic representation;  at their worst they were shockingly irreverent and thoroughly reprehensible.  In some of them the Eternal God was portrayed as an old man dressed in white with a gilt wig! To furnish a low comedy, the devil himself was introduced on the stage and allowed to cavort for the amusement of the spectators. Bible themes were used, as in the modern movie, but this did not save the whole thing from becoming so corrupt that the Roman church had finally to prohibit its priests from having any further part in it.

Those who would appeal for precedent to the Miracle Plays have certainly overlooked some important facts . For instance , The vogue of the Miracle Plays coincided exactly with the most dismally corrupt period the church has ever known.  When the church emerged at last from its long moral night, these plays lost popularity and finally passed away. And be it remembered, the instrument God used to bring the church out of the darkness was not drama; It was the Biblical one of Spirit-baptized preaching. Serious minded men thundered the truth and the people turned to God.

Indeed, history will show that no spiritual advance, no revival, no upsurge of spiritual life has ever been associated with acting in any form . The Holy Spirit never honors pretense.

Can it be that the historic pattern is being repeated? That the appearance of the religious movie is symptomatic of the low state of spiritual health we are in today?  I fear so.  Only the absence of the Holy Spirit from the pulpit and lack of true discernment on the part of professing Christians can account for the spread of religious drama among so-called Evangelical churches. A Spirit filled church could not tolerate it.

Sunday, November 6, 2016

The Menace of the Religious Movie Part 2: The religious movies embodies the mischievous notion that religion is, or can be made, a form of entertainment.


This notion has come upon us lately like a tidal wave and is either openly taught or tacitly assumed by increasing numbers of people.  Since it is inextricably bound up with the subject under discussion, I had better say more about it.
The idea that religion should be entertaining has made some radical changes in the evangelical picture within this generation.  It has given is not only the "gospel: movie but a new type of religious journalism as well.  It has created a new kind of magazine for church people,  which can be read from cover to cover without effort, without thought -- and without profit.  It has also brought a veritable flood of religious fiction with plastic heroines and bloodless heroes like no one who has ever lived upon this well known terrestrial ball.

That religion and amusement are forever opposed to each other by their very essential nature's is apparently not known to this new school of religious entertainers.  Their effort to slip up on the reader and administer a quick shot of saving truth while his mind is on something else is not only futile, but it is, in fact, not too far short of being plain dishonest.  The hope that they can convert a man while he is occupied with the doings of some imaginary hero reminds one of the story of Catholic missionary who used to sneak up on sick people and children and splash little holy water on them to guarantee their passage to the city of gold.

I believe that most responsible religious teachers will agree that any effort to teach spiritual truth through entertainment IA at best futile and at worst positively injurious to the soul.  But entertainment pays off. And the economic consideration is always a powerful one in deciding what shall not be offered to the public -- even in the churches.

Deep spiritual experiences come only from much study, earnest prayer and long meditation.  It is true that men by thinking cannot find God; it is also true that men cannot know God very well without a lot of reverent thinking.  Religious movies, by appealing directly to the shallowest stratum of our minds, cannot but create bad mental habits which unfit the soul for the reception of genuine spiritual impressions. 

Religious movies are mistakenly thought by some people to be blessed of the Lord because many come away from them with moist eyes.  If this is a proof of God's blessing, then we might as well go the whole way and assert that every show that brings tears is of God.  Those who attend the theater know how often the audiences are moved to tears by the joys and sorrows of the highly paid entertainers who kiss and emote and murder and die for the purpose of exciting the spectators to a high pitch of emotional excitement.  Men and women who are dedicated to sin and appointed to death may nevertheless weep in sympathy for the painted actors and be not one bit the better for it.  The emotions have had a beautiful time, but the will is left untouched.  The religious movie is sure to draw together a goodly number of persons who cannot distinguish the twinges of various sympathy from the true operations of the Holy Ghost.

Sunday, October 30, 2016

The Menace of the Religious Movie, Part 1

Part 1: It Violates the Scriptural law of Hearing.

The power of speech is a noble gift of God.  In his ability to open his mouth ND by means of words make his fellows know what is going on indie hid mind, a man shares one of the prerogatives of the Creator.  In its ability to understand the spoken word the human mind rises unique above all the lower creation.  The gift which enables a man to translate abstract ideas into sounds is a badge of his honor as made in the image of God.

Written or printed words are sound symbols and are translated by the mind into hearing.  Hieroglyphics and ideograms were the fist symbols used to represent ideas.  These ideograms were, in effect, not pictures but letters, and the letters were agreed upon marks which stood for agreed upon ideas.  Thus words, whether spoken or written,  ate a medium for the communication of ideas.  This is basic in human nature and stems from our divine origin.
It is significant that hen God gave to mankind Hid great redemptive revelation He couch it in words.  "And God spake all these words" very well sums up the Bible's own account of how it got here.  "Thus saith the Lord" is the constant refrain of the prophets.  "The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life," said our Lord to His hearers.  Again He said, "He that hearth My word, and believe that on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life." Paul made words and faith to be inseparable: "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." And he also said, "How shall they hear without a preacher?"
Surely it requires no genius to see that the Bible rules out pictures and dramatics as media for bringing faith and life to the human soul.
The plain fact is that no vital spiritual truth can be expressed by a picture.  Actually, all any picture can do is to recall to mind some truth already learned through the familiar medium of the spoken or written word.  Religious instruction and words are bound together by a living cord and cannot be separated without fatal loss.  The Spirit Himself, teaching soundlessly within the heart, makes use of ideas previously received into the mind by means of words.
If I am reminded that modern religious movies are "sound" pictures,  making use of the human voice to augment the dramatic action, the answer is easy.  Just as far as the movie depends on spoken words, it makes pictures unnecessary; the picture is the very thing that differentiates between the movie and the sermon.  The movie addresses it's message primarily to the eye, and to the ear only incidentally.  We're the message addressed to the ear as in the Scriptures, the picture would have no meaning and could be omitted without loss to the intended effect.  Words can say all that God intends them to say, and this they can do without the aid of pictures.
According to one popular theory, the mind receives through the eye five times as much information as through the ear.  As far as the external shell of physical facts is concerned this may hold good, but when we come to spiritual truth we are in another world entirely.   In that world.the outer eye is not too important.   God addresses His message to the hearing ear.  "We look," Paul says, "not at things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal."  This agrees with the whole burden of the Bible, which teaches us that we should withdraw our eyes from beholding visible things, and fasten the eyes of our heats upon God while we reverently listen to His uttered words.
"The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is the word of faith, which we preach." Here, and not somewhere else, is the New Testament pattern, and no human being, no, and no angel from heaven has any right to alter that pattern.

Sunday, October 23, 2016

The Menace of the Religious Movie: Introduction

One of the many fruits of the flesh is selfishness, the strong desire to please our own wants with whatever makes us feel good.  This is a struggle for Christians and one reason may be because that selfish want is more pervasive than we might think.  In seeking truth from God's Word, we want to learn more and be drawn closer to God, but almost always only on our terms and with methods that we are comfortable with.  This was also true in the life of A. W. Tozer. (1897-1963)  Apparently, a lot of Christians felt the need to use worldly methods in their search of knowledge about God and other Biblical truths, even back then.  This will be the first of an 8 part series of a booklet by A. W. Tozer on the religious movie, however this is certainly true in regards to any entertainment or addition to the methods of imparting truth.

The Menace of the Religious Movie: Introduction
By A. W. Tozer

When God gave to Moses the blueprint of the Tabernacle, He was careful to include every detail; then, lest Moses should get the notion that he could improve on the original plan, God warned him solemnly, "And look that though make them after their pattern, which was showed thee in the mount."  God, not Moses, was the architect.  To decide the plan was the prerogative of the Diety.  No one dared alter it so much as a hairbreadth.

The new Testament Church also is builded after a pattern.  Not the doctrines only, but the METHODS are divinely given.  The doctrines are expressly stated in only so many words.  Some of the methods followed by the early New Testament Church had been given by direct command; others were used by God's specific approval, having obviously been commanded the apostles by the Spirit.  The point is that when the New Testament canon was closed, the blueprint for the age was complete.  God has added nothing since that time.

From God's revealed plan, we depart at our peril.  Every departure has two consequences,  the immediate ad the remote.  The immediate touches the individual and those close to him, and may expand so far as to influence for evil the whole Church of God on earth.

The temptation to introduce "new" things into the work of God has always been too strong for some people to resist.  The Church has suffered untold injury at the hands of well-intentioned, but misguided persons who felt that they know more about running God's work than Christ and his apostles did.  A solid train of box cars would not suffice to haul away the religious truck which has been brought into the service of the Church with the hope of improving on the original pattern.  These things have been, one and all, positive hindrances to the progress of the Truth, and have so altered the divine planned structure that the apostles, were they to return to earth today, would scarcely recognize the misshapen thing which has resulted.

Our Lord while on earth cleansed the Temple, and periodic cleansings have been necessary in the Church of God throughout the centuries.  Every generation is sure to have its ambitious amateur to come up with some shiny gadget which he proceeds to urge upon the priests before the altar.  That the scriptures do not justify it's existence, does not seem to bother him at all.  It is brought in anyway and presented in the very name of Orthodoxy.  Soon it is identified in the minds of the Christian public with all that is good and holy.  Then, of course, to attack the gadget is to attack the Truth itself.  This is an old familiar technique so often and so long practiced by the devotees of error that I marvel how the children of God can be taken in by it. 

We of the evangelical faith are in a rather awkward position of criticizing Roman Catholicism for its weight of unscriptural impedimenta and at the same time tolerating in our own churches a world of religious fribble as bad as holy water or the elevated host.  Heresy of method may be as deadly as heresy of message.  Old-line Protestantism has long ago been smothered to death by extra-scriptural rubbish.  Unless we of the gospel churches wake up so, we shall most surely die by the same means.

Within the last few years, a new method has been invented for imparting spiritual knowledge; or, to be more accurate,  it is not new at all, but is an adaptation of a gadget of some years standing, one which by its origin and background belongs not to the Church, but to the world.  Some within the fold of the Church have thrown their mantle over it, have "blessed it with a text" and are now trying to show that it is the very gift of God for our day.  But, however, eloquent the sales talk, it is an unauthorized addition nevertheless, and it was never a part of the pattern shown us on the mount.

I refer, of course, to the religious movie.

For the motion picture as such I have no irrational allergy.  It is a mechanical invention merely, and is in its essence amoral; that is, neither good nor bad, but neutral.  With any physical object or creature lacking the power of choice, it could not be otherwise.   Whether such an object is useful or harmful depends altogether upon who uses it and what he uses it for.  No moral quality attaches where there is no free choice.  Sin and righteousness lie in the will.  The motion picture is in the same class as the automobile, the typewriter, or the radio: a powerful instrument for good or evil, depending on how it is applied.

For teaching the facts of physical science, the motion picture has been useful.  The public schools have used it successfully to teach health habits to children.  The army employed it to speed up instruction during the war.  That it has been of real service within its limited field is freely acknowledged here.

Over against this is the fact that the motion picture in evil hands has been a source of moral corruption to millions.  No one who values his reputation as a responsible adult will deny that the sex movie and the crime movie have done untold injury to the lives of countless young people in our generation.  The harm lies not in the instrument itself, but in the evil will of those who use it for their own selfish ends.

I am convinced that the modern motion religious movie is an example of the harmful misuse of a neutral instrument.  There are sound reasons for my belief.  I am prepared to state them.  That I may be as clear as possible,  let me explain what I do and do not mean by the religious movie.  I do not mean the missionary picture nor the travel picture which aims to focus attention upon one or another section of the world's great harvest field.  These do not come under discussion and will be left entirely out of consideration here.

By the religious movie, I mean that type of motion picture which attempts to treat spiritual themes by dramatic representation.  These are (as there advocates dare not deny) frank imitations of the authentic Hollywood variety, but the truth requires me to say that they are infinitely below their models, being mostly awkward, amateurish and, from an artistic standpoint, hopelessly and piteously bad. 

These pictures are produced by acting a religious story before the camera.  Take for example the famous and beautiful story of the Prodigal Son.  This would be made into a movie by treating the narrative as a scenario.  Stage scenery would be set up, actors would take roles of Father, Prodigal Son, Elder, Brother, etc.  There would be plot, sequence and dramatic denouncement as in the ordinary terror film shown at the Bijou movie house on Main Street in any one of a thousand American towns.  The story would be acted out, photographed, run onto reels and shipped around the country to be shown for a fee wherever desired.

The "service" where such a movie would be shown might seem much like any other service till the time for the message from the Word of God.   Then the lights would be put out and the picture turned on.  The "message " would consist of this movie.  What followed the picture would, of course, vary with the circumstances,  but often an invitation song is sung and a tender appeal is made for erring sinners to return to God. 

Now, what is wrong with all this?  Why should any man object to this or go out of his way to oppose it's use in the house of God?  Here is my answer.


...until the next part of the series, we'll begin to find out the answer A. W. Tozer came up with.

Monday, October 17, 2016

What does apathy and irreverent worship lead to?

Earlier this year, a worship service in New York served as a modern day example of the lewdness involved with some worship. A new church was starting, a Hillsong church, and at the opening there was a women's conference which, of course featured Hillsong.  Thinking about the passage in Exodus 32 and the lewdness portrayed there, this was similar.  The article is found here, Please copy and paste:

http://bereanresearch.org/hillsongs-dance-world/

Apathy and irreverent in worship, over time, will result in an "anything goes" and an "I'm doing this unto the Lord..." attitude.  The Lord has said in his word how he is to be approached.  Some churches might be a few years from this and others might be a few steps, but if Christians are not steadfast in the way they approach worship, God will not accept it and there will be dangerous consequences. 

Saturday, July 30, 2016

Who has authority to lead worship?

Are Christian bands worship leaders? Are church choir directors worship leaders? Can anyone lead worship?
          There is a big church not too far from me and routinely, there are christian concerts held there.  There is a common argument that I have heard over the years, that these bands are, in a sense, worship leaders and do these concerts to lead people to the worship of God and it seems that fans are convinced that they are being led into worship and need to be led into worship.  John 4:24, when broken down, states that they who worship MUST CONTINUOUSLY worship in Spirit and Truth.  Furthermore,  Romans 12:1 beseeches the believer to present himself as a living sacrifice.  This verse commands the believer to present themselves as a sacrifice, not have others be the sacrifice for you.

"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service."

          But is there really such a thing as a worship leader?  Growing up in a Bible-teaching, independent, fundamental and nondenominational church, I was unaware of the title worship leader.  From what I understand and, infinitely more importantly, what the Bible says is that worship is strictly in the heart of a believer. (See post titled "Heart worship") The title worship leader is just that, a title.  The real question is, can a person lead worship, especially if it's in the heart of a believer?   I think it is safe to say that no one on earth can see into the heart of anyone else and so there are a few dangers in calling a person a worship leader.  First, it is inaccurate, since no one can actually lead someone's heart to the worship of God.   Second, a person may begin to, if there is consistency in being referred to as a worship leader, feel as though they are more capable than others in leading worship, which results in the thinking of entitlement to that leader.  Finally, and probably most importantly, over time, the consistency of being called a worship leader, will diminish the true and Biblical appropriateness and importance of PERSONAL worship to each individual believer and the reverential practice of Biblical, corporate worship. The thought of "I need a worship leader so that I can worship" becomes more and more common, and thinking something more and more solidifies it to us and therefore if a person thinks they need a worship leader, over time they'll be convinced of that, that it's true and that it's not up to the individual believer to personally worship the Lord, but that they NEED to be led into worship and only *this* band or *that* person(s) have the capability to do so.
           However,  there is a worship leader for the believer.   The One who knows all.  The One who knows exactly what the worship of the believer looks like, both outwardly, but more importantly, inwardly.  The One who wrote the utmost and authoritative instruction book on worship and the One who does not waver in any Biblical principle of worship.  Of course, I am referring to God Almighty.   God wrote the one and only manual of how HE is to be worshipped.   Others have tried various ways and it has not ended well.  In Leviticus 10:1-2, Nadab and Abihu, though sincere in there desire to please God, were instantly struck dead.  There is no question that because God wrote the book on worship and will only accept worship that is biblical, there should be no question to compromise on the Biblical worship.   So why are there so many different ways that people worship?  The main and number one reason is because of the sin nature.  Sin is innate in man, and has been ever since Adam took of the fruit.  Unfortunately, at the moment of salvation, the sin nature remains in the life of the believer.  Thus the ever present struggle between right and wrong.  One thing that is very evident in all people, to some degree, is selfishness.  Selfishness to always want to do things "MY" way and that "MY" way is the best way or even just that "MY" way is how I want to express myself.  The Lord commands believers to worship in a way that only God will accept.  So, what does God accept? 

See "Acceptable worship" posts.

           

             

Monday, May 30, 2016

What type of worship does God accept?

Is this worship and music that God accepts, and if so, why?  Are there examples in scripture?  Does this music fit into Christian liberty?  These are a few of the fundamental questions I ask whenever I hear a new worship song.  All of these answers are found in scripture and scripture is the fundamental basis and rule book on worshipping God.  One verse that will help is found in Psalms 29:2.

"Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name; worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness."

The Believer's worship is not only unto the One, True Lord, who humbled himself for the salvation of all, and upholds our lives, and very beings, by his grace, but needs to be an appropriate reflection of the glory He should recieve.  So how much of or what does this glory look like that God the Father so richly deserves?  To begin with, God, the creator and sustainer of everything in life, needs to be given all the honor and respect that His children can give.  Of course and unfortunately, being fallen human beings, this is limited. Not only should honor and respect be given voluntarily, but it is also commanded in numerous other passages.  In previous posts, it was noted that worship is an appropriate expression of love towards God, and, in essence, an appropriate expression of love is obedience.  There is one account in scripture that I keep being reminded of and that is found in Genesis  22, where Abraham is told to sacrifice Isaac.  That obedience was not contingent on anything other than what God commanded.  The feelings, emotions, thoughts, reasoning, and human common sense of Abraham all went against God's command to sacrifice.  Also, Abraham did not change anything.  He didn't  say to himself,  " well, I'll just sacrifice Isaac's hand." Or "God doesn't actually mean that.....I'll sacrifice  a lamb instead, like everyone else." Or even "God told me to sacrifice Isaac, but what he really means is that any form of sacrifice is fine, as long as my heart is right."  No, when God commands, it is to be obeyed, wholly.  This is what He expects, and commands, and this is what our reasonable response should be (Romans 12:1) and every effort to adhere to God's commands with appropriate responses, so to not cause confusion, is part of the responsibility of the believer.  Since we are fallen humans, the demands of God also remind us how infinitely short we fall, and can not fulfill in and of ourselves, and how infinitely understanding and gracious our Father in heaven is.

The middle of this verse gives believers a hint of the very appropriate practice that should be in our daily lives.  I say "hint" because....well...believers won't  completely understand  worship until we are in glory.  There are all types of worship described in the bible.  On the other hand almost all of the "experiences" and various worship music found in today's contemporary worship movement, are not the various forms of right worship described in scripture.  None of the true worship found in scripture is contingent on the believer, but wholly on God's command. Scripture does describe different types of worship, as HEART worship, VOCAL worship, and worship in our THOUGHT life.  A few of these do have in common that they're completely personal and no one other than the believer and God are the participants of that act of worship, and each of these are further elaborated on in earlier posts. 

"Music is used as a tool to reveal God to man and as a tool for man to respond to God" from God's Word, The Final Word on Worship & Music - Dr. Dean Kurtz

The final thought in this verse is that the believer is to worship in the beauty of holiness.  To find out the meaning of this phrase, we need to first understand what exactly the word holy means.  In all its essence, holy means to set apart, but also it is a two fold meaning.  Holy means to be set apart UNTO God, but also apart FROM the world.  The Believer's worship needs to be holy.  Also, beautiful.  In God's eyes, worship that is holy unto Him is beautiful  because there is beauty within holiness.  For instance:  God's creation is absolutely beautiful and spending a clear and cloudless night just looking at all the beautiful stars is beyond words.  In order to see all the beauty in the night heavenlies, it must be a clear and cloudless night and away from the city lights or other distractions and things that get in the way of seeing that pure beauty of creation.  It's quite hard to see all the beautiful stars when there are lights from a big city, or even any artificial light. Some stars may be able to be seen, but those artificial lights are distracting from the pure beauty.  God's creation is beautiful because God created it, not because we think or know it's beautiful.  Beauty is not in the eye of the beholder, as the saying goes.  The worship of the believer is similar in that any artificial distraction, detracts from the pure and beautiful worship that God intended for us to use to honor Him.

To learn more about worship, explore other blog posts, order my book, or simply study what God says about worship.

James 1:5-6