Easy Winners

By: Ellsworth E. McIntyre

It is common among some political conservatives and liberals to blame movies, television, and the arts in general for subverting our youth. The bony fingers of the end from all spectrums of the political and religious community. No one really seems to believe that art is powerless to corrupt the youth.

Happy & Content in Filth

No where does the Scripture blame the arts for our evil nature. Instead the Scripture declares plainly that all of us are born depraved and evil. We do not need artists to make us evil. We are born in filth and rest quite content and happy in filth from the day of our birth. It never seems to occur to parents that their children have a native talent for sin (Rom. 3:10).

The World Cannot Defile Our Children

If we follow teachers who blame the arts for the fall of our youth, we are buying into humanism in a big way. For example, if our children are basically good and made evil by artists, then it follows that we should construct an environmental bubble or imprison our children behind monastery walls so they may remain pure. The Scripture, on the other hand, commands us to go into all the world (Matt. 28:19,20) and witness. The Lord also assures us that nothing in this world has power to defile us (Matt. 15:11). It is clear from Scripture that when we fall, it is because we have neglected the means of grace.

Westminster Confession of Faith, ''Q. 88. What are the outward and ordinary means whereby Christ communicateth to us the benefits of redemption?

A The outward and ordinary means whereby Christ communicateth to us the benefits of redemption are, his ordinances,especially the Word, sacraments, and prayer; all which are made effectual to the elect for salvation."

" ...Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world (I Jn. 4:4). "I can do all things through Christ..." (Phil.4:13). Teachers who blame the artists, therefore, drive us from the remedy which is trust and obedience in Christ. False teachers teach the Christian to fear the world. (I John 4:4 "...greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world orPhil. 4:13 "I can do all things through Christ...") A Christian soldier in terror of the enemy has lost his armor or failed to clothe himself in the armor of God. The Lord warns those who fear the world shall be turned into hell (Rev. 21:8 "But the fearful... shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone.")

All Blessings Come By the Covenant

The parent, the teacher, and the pastor need constantly to point out the folly of seeking any reward or blessing by means of sin. Artists who tend to teach that crime pays and sin is pleasure will always outnumber those supporting God's law. We need to freely admit that temporary gains may seem to come to us by lying, cheating, stealing and murder, because we are unable to see the ultimate punishment of the sinner. We must live by faith, not sight.                                                                  Faith has a better vision of reality than the artist. To trust only in empirical evidence (i.e., science), as all government schools do, is to act as a brute beast (Jude 1:10). Pastors and teachers need to preach against sinners and not against innocent, inanimate objects in the environment. Since it is true that nothing in this world can defile us,sermons must condemn murderers and not guns. Sermons must condemn fornicators and adulterers instead of pornography. Sennons must condemn drunks and not whiskey. Sermons must condemn unbiblical use of substances such as tobacco, marijuana, and drugs. The preacher must not condemn sin in the abstract, because sin does not exist in the abstract. As always, the rot in society begins at the house of God.

Teach Pity For the Sinner

If our prayer for grace is granted and our child’s baptism is effectual, we can inoculate the child against trash art in the same manner we vaccinate against disease. We don't remove the child from the filth of the world; instead we strengthen the child to fight off evil transgressions of God's law that can pull our child down to premature death, poverty, or disability. So likewise the careful teaching of the fear of God may give the child, if the Lord wills, a new nature to triumph

over the evil nature of his birth. In time, if the Lord blesses, the child will feel pity for liars, cheaters, and sexualadulterers and perverts. Without the covenant, they will envy the sinner and want to "have fun" without consequences,just like they mistakenly suppose the sinner to be enjoying.

Jesus Blesses and Curses

The solution is to believe today that every child is a hopeless sinner. Then moved with fear for the horrible condition of your child, teach the covenant. If you don't know how, get yourself a

copy of The Institutes of Biblical Law by R. J. Rushdoony and find a church or start a church in your home that supports and teaches the Bible from the Bible's point of view. Find a school that

supports the Institutes or home school or start a Christian school. Whatever you do, don't blame the artist when a child matures into a sinner. Blame ourselves and our failure to make proper use of the means of grace, because that is what God may do at the judgment seat of God.

Now, this is not to say we should tolerate Godless trash in our homes, but we must recognize that the Christians' first line of defense against moral trash is not cleaning up the environment. Rather our first trust is to train the child "in the nurture and admonition of the Lord" (Eph. 6:4).

That is why we bring the child to the Lord for baptism as an infant. We renounce blaming the world and its fallen system and instead ask the Lord to save or give a second birth to our evil and lost baby. We make a covenant with the Lord to teach the child to fear, trust, and obey the law word of God. THIS WE CAN DO. We ask the Lord to give the child a new heart for training. this WE CANNOT DO, not with the best artists, or the best teachers, or the best churches this world can offer. Jesus saves and Jesus condemns-never can the world save or condemn.

Thomas Sowell, the national syndicated columnist writing about the massacre in Littleton, Colorado in The NaplesDaily News (May 5, 1999) points out that ''we can't hold parents responsible ...after stripping them of control." Sowell writes, "But it is truly galling to have those who have been undermining both morality and parents for years now demand that parents be held legally responsible for the acts of their children." As in the world, so in the church, spineless moral idiot Christians could not bring themselves to condemn the killers at Littleton. Instead they blamed the National RifleAssociation. Clearly the blame lies with ignorant Christians, particularly those in the pulpit, who cannot seem to say a harsh word against sinners. The murderers in Littleton are called "shooters'' by the media. As in the media so in theChristian schooL every school teacher knows he cannot say, "You are a bad boy." The teacher (especially in a church school) is fired if he dares to label sinners as evil. I repeat, moral rot begins at the house of God and so will judgment.

Our nation has stripped the paddle from the parents and the Ten Commandments, prayer, and all Biblical morality from the schools, but Christians don't have to send their children to government schools. We acknowledge that some because of economics, ignorance, etc. may be compelled to use the public schools to educate their children, but that is not the situation of most readers of this publication.We must not celebrate the evil artist by pretending that the artist

caused any Christian family to fail. Every one will understand who is to blame on Judgment Day, but we need to pray now for grace to believe before Judgment Day that our children are doomed without saving grace from Christ and diligent teaching of the covenant from parents. We are required to bear children (Gen. 1:28) and rear them to battle the Lord's enemies (Ps. 128). We are not powerless to carry out this task. We are more than conquerors in Christ provided we patiently run the race, following the Lord's commands. We can easily win this battle. The resources of Christ are more than adequate for our task (re. Caleb's report Num. 13:30,14:6-10).

To the extent that we trust first in prayer, covenantal teaching, baptism, and the Lord's table, we are easy winners. To the extent we make excuses by blaming this evil world, we play into the hands of our enemies.