There was a time when there was no radio, no television, no internet, no electricity, and it's hard for us to imagine what people did in their free time from work. But they lived and lived well. And then came scientific and technological progress, and our world transformed into something new. All past fantastic stories became reality, and there's still so much interesting ahead.
Did man become happier in all of this? Did he become closer to God, from Whom he receives so many new ideas for amazing discoveries?
Our children, being born at this time, are not surprised by what we didn't have in our childhood. For them, all these unique things are part of their daily life, and they are very interested in trying and studying everything.
Television has firmly established itself in every home. And the TV has become an indispensable piece of furniture in every family. The most honorable place is allocated for it. Comfortable furniture is arranged around it. The best time is devoted to it, and the lives of many people pass in the company of this companion, which has no mind, has no feelings, but is a soulless object through which all kinds of media can share whatever they want.
A television is not something that accidentally fell from somewhere into your home, and from which you now have nowhere to escape. I can say with confidence that this is the thing that a person chooses himself, buys himself, and himself allocates it that place in his dwelling where it will be located all the subsequent time.
The television itself poses no danger, except for the radiation that comes from the screen and has not yet been fully studied. But the programs it broadcasts to its viewers have a very strong influence on a person's mind and can form thought patterns, because they possess amazing convincing power. To prove something as truth, it's sometimes enough to say that it was shown on television, and no one has doubts that this is true.
Much has already been said and written about the danger of television's influence, but since this question remains open even for God's people, it's worth considering it again, especially when there are small children who hear and see everything that comes from screens in their home. Although recently the internet has absorbed radio, television, cinematography, and computer innovations, television remains a classic source of propaganda, agitation, and information. It has a direct influence on viewers and forms in their consciousness what the producers of corresponding content desire.
Although television contains some channels devoted to the science of Salvation, for the most part all television content represents Babylon, which waters all nations with the furious wine of its fornication.
Jesus comes to those He loves, reproves and chastises, at the best time for communication and wants to spend it together with His disciples to teach them to use what they bought from Him, so that they could enrich others too. He stands at the door and knocks. But the noise of the turned-on television drowns out the knock at the door, and in the light of another series, Christ's voice is completely inaudible. And many don't want to tear themselves away from interesting world events so as not to miss something important.
It's difficult for God to compete with television. The Lord has an unshakable principle of respecting freedom of choice, and even offering the most vitally important things and wise advice, He does not violate human will, but patiently waits when His children take what is offered to them from pure sources.
The peculiarity of television is that the stream of broadcast information gets into the viewer's mind, bypassing barriers of critical perception, and forms a certain thought pattern in consciousness. The abundance of received information leads the mind to satiation, and to somehow protect itself, it turns on a self-defense function and forms forgetfulness and indifference.
It's important to note that all visual information is deposited in the storage of our subconscious and is not forgotten by the enemy of the soul, who at a convenient moment reproduces in our memory what was placed there.
In essence, television becomes a direct competitor to God, occupying that place in human life which the Creator claims. Jesus promised us that the Holy Spirit would remind us of everything the Lord said. But if the shelves of our memory store informational junk of this world, whose supplies are constantly replenished, it will be difficult for a person to distinguish the clean from the unclean. And it's not entirely clear how the Holy Spirit will be able to use this spiritual Babylon for His plans.
Watching television takes away from a person the most important life resource—his time, which can be used to pay for heavenly goods. What can I appear before the Lord with if my resource is exhausted?
Information received from television programs is a convincing argument that forms the viewer's thinking. Whether I want it or not, in the end I will have to agree with the position that I constantly hear and see. And if we consider that we live in the last time, then now they broadcast a lot of news about all kinds of catastrophes, wars, bloodshed, natural disasters, and lawlessness, which overflow the mind and make me a passive viewer. And this viewer can only look and be transformed by the renewal of his mind, but does nothing to somehow ease human suffering and help others in their grief.
Children do not have the ability to distinguish good from evil and believe everything that is said to them from the television screen. About children's channels, it can be said that for the most part they corrupt and decompose the child's mind, making it incapable of perceiving serious truths of God's word. After television, the Bible looks rather boring. The mind of a child who has become accustomed to feeding from abundant sources of this world becomes incapable of accepting and digesting vitally important truths of Divine science of salvation. And if you consider how much evil and violence a child sees every day, you can only be horrified by what forms his mind.
Man was not created for television or to spend hours at a flickering screen. What happens to those who sit for a long time on a comfortable sofa and continuously look in one direction? The body gets used to such pastime and adapts to such a lifestyle. The flesh likes this very much, and in such a state a person is open to thoughtless food intake. When the visual process occupies all attention, then the stomach doesn't receive proper signals from the brain and doesn't understand what gets into it and what to do with it.
Dopamine dependence in this case extends to television programs as well. But besides pleasure, television forms a certain view of many things that don't always correspond to Divine criteria. Television owners will find hundreds of justifications for this furniture to remain in their home. And the saddest thing is that we bring all this burden to the assembly of believing people and share with them what we ourselves are overflowing with. And what fruit will such assemblies bear for God?—You can easily imagine.
And coming for us, will the Lord find faith on earth?
Questions for Reflection
Please read Isa. 33:14-17; Eph. 5:15-18; 1 Cor. 15:33; Rev. 3:20; 14:8; 18:1-4; Prov. 4:23; 1 John 4:1; Matt. 26:41; Ps. 100:3, in light of this lesson. What other verses from the Bible came to your mind? What did you understand from this lesson? What is the difference between a television and television broadcasting? Is it worth understanding this? What represents danger: a knife in a person's hands or an evil spirit in the one who holds the knife? Do you think modern television is Babylon, from which we are advised to come out? Rev. 18:4. How can television drown out spiritual calls? Why is information from the television screen perceived without critical thinking? Why are children especially vulnerable to television content? How does television form passivity and forgetfulness in the viewer? What role does television play in forming public opinion and society's culture? How can constant sitting in front of the television affect physical and mental health? Why does the more time a person spends in front of the television, and the more information he draws from there, the less wise he becomes? Why doesn't the Lord Himself turn off our television to communicate with us? Do you think television will participate in imposing the mark and image of the beast?