To download a printable version of this transcript, click here.
 
 
iQuestions Faculty, Ted Baehr 
 
 
Question: 
 
How can a Christian keep from being polluted by the world but still 
enjoy movies and TV? 
 
Answer: 
 
The question of how we deal with the world when we’re trying to live 
good lives, moral lives, faithful lives, has been asked for centuries.  
 
That question was asked in the Bible. Paul said we can’t escape the 
world.  
 
At the time that Paul was writing in the epistles in the New Testament, 
the world was pretty debauched. In fact, at one point it said that 
Pontius Pilate had 60,000 people killed in the gladiator games.  
 
There was a time when you went from Jerusalem to the coast, and 
every few feet you would see a person crucified on a cross in a most 
gruesome way.  
 
What did Paul say— what did God say through Paul? He said to be in 
the world, but not of the world.  
 
That means that you have to get your thoughts and life in order. You 
have to not get seduced by the lust of the eyes and the lust of the 
flesh. You have to focus on the good, the true, and the beautiful. You 
have to think upon what’s good.  
 
All that takes self-discipline and mental discipline, but it makes a 
tremendous difference in your life. And you can do that.   
 
 
 
There’s probably no place in the world today that you can be 
completely disengaged from the culture.  
 
When I was teaching in the Ukraine, in Kieff, I went down at 11:00 at 
night the first day I was there to get something to eat.  
 
I noticed kids standing in line to take drugs. I noticed all of these 
posters of semi-nude American pop idols and pop stars. I noticed kids 
having sex as I was walking to the McDonald’s across the park.  
 
It was a society that had bought into consumer culture. Even there in 
the former Soviet Union, which had been so strict, they had 
succumbed to consumerized culture.  
 
They were talking about a counter-revolution, going back under 
communism. Or, they could develop self-discipline. 
 
That is the choice that you make. 
Baehr -2- 
To download a printable version of this transcript, click here.