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.
Related Videos
Why can't Christians just have their own movies and TV shows, and forget about the secular media?
Watch Ted Baehr's Answer
If the church doesn't have an impact on pop culture, how can the church be effective at all?
Watch Ted Baehr's Answer