“Only shoot him from the waist up,” the director instructed the camera operators as they prepared for the scheduled CBS Sunday program January 6. Dad purchased our first TV a short time before this, and I remember watching the program unaware of all the controversy behind Elvis’s appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show. Networks did not allow shots below his waist because the public considered his gyrating hips indecent for family television. The majority of Americans would even label it sinful. This was the standard in 1957. So, how did we get from there to where we are in today’s TV broadcasting?
Lucy and Ricky always slept in separate beds. Fred and Wilma Flintstone first crossed the line from two beds to one in the cartoon. The first live actors were Herman and Lilly Munster 1964-66, but they were ‘monsters’. In 1974, Bob Newhart and Suzanne Pleshette became the first actors playing real people shown in bed together. How many shows would be off the air today if networks and cable reinstituted this separate bed policy? How did we get from The Walton’s to Married with Children and now to South Park? How did we get from Ellen coming out, which some stations refused to air to where we are today?
A bit of embellishment may have taken place over the years, but a story I heard several times by fellow minsters illustrates how change can occur unnoticed. “Do you know how many pastors have been voted out or resigned because they wanted to reposition that piano on the podium?” “Quite a few I’m told,” responded the pastor to his amazed fellow ministers at the Monday breakfast. “I moved it one inch every week for over a year until it was where I wanted it. The congregation didn’t even notice.”
Society has moved from John Boy to Al Bundy to Stan Marsh one inch at the time over decades. Although not omniscience, Satan’s intelligence far exceeds any human. An expert planner, he has a detailed plan of evil for the ages. He plants seeds of thought in one century, which many not reach maturity for hundreds of years. You may not know his name or his philosophy of dialectics, but in the early 19th century, Wilhelm Hegel planted a seed of logic that affects every person alive today. His philosophy influences our governments, educational systems, and social norms, and now, even church teachings. Simply stated he asserted every belief has an opposing belief and over time, these two opposites combine forming a new belief. This in turn has a new opposite. This cycle of tension and compromise continues throughout history. This idea goes back to the beginning of time with the fall of Lucifer. God is truth, Satan is the father of lies—untruth. Since then, Satan has sought to water down the knowledge of God’s truth by diluting it with a little lie forming a new belief then slowly mixing in another little lie, once again watering down and moving away from God’s absolute truth. This process brought us from Ellen coming out of the closet in 1997 to now with over 70 regular weekly characters portraying alternate sexual life styles.
This moral decline is not merely a matter of the sinful world around us. It affects the church more than many realize. The sins of non-Christians, which the church once preached against, are now issues within the church.
Inch by inch the devil has diluted beliefs, convictions, and biblical traditions through subtle deception. Scripture gives repeated warnings about deception. Jesus answered: Watch out that no one deceives you (Mat 24:4). Paul cautioned the church at Ephesus; Let no one deceive you with empty words . . . (Eph. 5:6). Satan’s deception is not always sudden. It can creep into one’s thinking over a period of years.
What is our hope as Christians? The Lord also has a plan for the ages, In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose (Heb 6:17). Neither God nor His Word has moved one inch since Satan began his efforts to water down God’s absolute truth. Yet, like oil and vinegar, truth and lies will not mix. God has not modified truth and morality to accommodate culture, society, or common consensus. All that was sin, fifty years, a hundred years, or thousand years ago, is still sin today.
As a boater, I understand the importance of a good anchor to keep me from drifting. Even on a calm day, a boat will drift and move away unnoticed from the location of fish. The Lord provided believers with an unmovable anchor. By two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast . . . (Heb 6:18, 19). Ask the Holy Spirit to examine your life. See if you have drifted or allowed social norms to dilute your understanding of His absolute truth.
Sustaining Word for the Week: Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever (Heb 13:8). If you are drifting, tighten up on the anchor.