NEWS BRIEF: "God And Television", TV Guide, March 29-April 4, 1997, Vol. 45, No. 13, Issue #2296, Pages 36-38.

As TV Guide was writing its expose' on the ways in which American television was portraying God these days -- actually, they were surprised that God was being portrayed at all -- their writers evidently felt compelled to solicit "expert" testimony. They turned to a variety of men and women for their views. Naturally, we would expect that they would turn to people who were experts in the Scriptures, since God is revealed in Scripture. Right??! Further, we would expect that these "experts" would believe strongly in the Scriptures of which they were "expert". Right??!!

If these were your assumptions, then you are going to be mightily disappointed. The bevy of "experts", to whom TV Guide turned, contained not one Fundamental Bible believing scholar; rather, they were a motley lot of people who were primarily New Age "Religious Experts"!! Most, if not all, of these "experts" do not believe in the Deity of Jesus Christ, nor of the Godly Inspiration of Scripture, nor of the Inerrancy of Scripture, nor even of the actual existence of the God of the Bible!! Yet, these were the ones to whom TV Guide turned to further educate the American public about God. Obviously, the God whom these "experts" are going to teach, is not the God of the Holy Bible, of Judaism and Christianity; rather, this is going to be "another god", whom Jewish forefathers knew not. Thus it is that End of the Age prophecy concerning Antichrist is being fulfilled here, "Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers ..." [Daniel 11:37a]. Truly, the more you look, the more you discover Biblical prophecy concerning Antichrist, his kingdom, and his followers being fulfilled, right in front of your eyes!

We will examine what these "experts" had to say in this article, but we need to point out several conclusions we might draw from this terrible situation:.

1) The very fact that these type of "religious experts" are given any credence and space to expound their views shows the spiritual bankruptcy into which we have fallen.

2) The fact that these "experts" propound the god of the New Age/New World Order shows us that the conditioning to get people to accept the god of Antichrist continues apace.

3) The fact that Americans are listening to these false teachers, these teachers of another god, another doctrine, is yet another strong sign that we are deeply into the End of the Age.

Let us examine a few Scriptures first, before we show you the type of false teachers that TV Guide has consulted, so you will have the proper frame of reference as you read this material.

1) Matthew 24:4, "And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many."

2) Matthew 24:11, "And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many"

3) Matthew 24:24, "For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect."

We have seen this type of false Messiah in the many cults which have sprung up in the last 20 years, but we see it here, as well. While none of these people are claiming to be a Messiah, they are false prophets propagating the religion of the coming false messiah, Antichrist. The deception of the people to accept Antichrist has been going on now for many decades; these false teachers simply fit into this mold.

The Apostle Paul had to deal with false prophets in his days as an Apostle, and many people then were being led astray. What did Paul say about these propagators of another Gospel, another doctrine? In Galatians 1:8, Paul pronounced a severe curse upon these false religious teachers, "But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed." Ryrienias states that this word, "accursed. Literally means., anathema, or devoted to destruction". In other words, Paul is calling down the curse of eternal damnation in Hell for those purveyors of false teaching, of false doctrine.

Let us now examine the "Religious Experts" whom TV Guide consulted to further educate Americans about "God And Television".

1) Rev. Robert H. Schuller -- "Ecumenical TV minister, host of the syndicated Hour of Power, and author of 'If It's Going To Be, It's Up To Me'. " -- "With the advent of global television, the old boundaries set up by indoctrinated minds of different faiths don't hold anymore. But before religion is allowed to board TV, it should pass three security checks: Can it inspire hope? It must not contribute to the cynicism, despair, or negativity that is seemingly part of human nature. The third: Does it generate love, which we define as recognizing that people deserve to be addressed with dignity and respect? Faith, hope, and love are the three nonnegotiable values necessary in the communication process."

Wait a minute! Schuller did not even mention God, only religion in his little homily. Further, he truly shows his New Age counterfeit Christian colors when he repeats their mantra that only "indoctrinated" minds could believe in the God of the Bible, or in Jesus Christ. But, what else can we expect from a man who does not believe in Man's Inherent Sinfulness, or in the Divine Inspiration of Scripture, or in the Deity of Jesus Christ? Schuller's religious world is a humanist "feel good" religion, where people are told how "good" they are, and how they shouldn't worry about the "negativity" of sin or of doctrines of Judgment, and eternal Hell!!

2) Father Andrew Greeley -- "Professor of social sciences at the University of Chicago and the University of Arizona, and author of 'Irish Lace', and 'White Smoke'." -- "TV's job is to represent life and religion is an important part of human life. It's a form of censorship to ignore religion, which TV generally does. The Star Trek series sometimes deals with spiritual matters, and Touched by An Angel certainly is explicitly religious ... TV can be part of a spiritual education ..."

This Roman Catholic priest also had nothing to say about God. He assumes that the spiritual "lessons" given by Star Trek and Touched By An Angel are true, and worthy to be trusted. In reality, as we pointed out in NEWS1070 and NEWS1071, these shows are nothing more than slick propagators of New Age religious doctrine, and are leading people straight into the arms of the Antichrist.

3) Sarah Ban Breathnach -- "Author of Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy." -- "Television is our communal campfire and we're hungering for stories that inspire us. Our souls are nourished by the simple things -- making a meal, kissing your daughter on the top of her head, arranging flowers. If more ordinary moments were featured on television, we would start to see the mystical in the mundane. Television is a spiritual gift ... TV is getting better ..."

You can see that this author has never had a Close Encounter With God, the True God, that is. His Holy Bible tells us that our souls are to be fed with His Spiritual Food, "But he [Jesus Christ, speaking to Satan] answered and said, 'It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.' We are to be fed by the Word of God, the Bible. When men and women reject the Truth of the Bible, they become spiritually empty, without realizing it.

You can thank Ms Breathnach for at least admitting that TV is a spiritual medium. At least we got that truth out of her! But, she displays her lack of true morality and obedience to God's Word when she states, "TV is getting better"! If it is getting better, it is getting better only for the antiChristians like this author who is really advancing the cause of Antichrist.

4) Thomas Moore -- "Author of Care of the Soul and The Re-enchantment of Everyday Life" he is a former Catholic monk". -- "Nurturing the soul does not mean telling people the right path to clarity and success. It's more about helping them sort out the issues involved. A real moment of transcendent television for me is comedy. Comedians are like priests in a way, they break apart all the pieties, all those things that we hold to be more sacred than we should ... When the comedy is pure and free of cynicism, then it serves a very important purpose: nourishing the soul."

This former monk obviously has never read the Scriptures, either, nor has he ever come into direct contact with Jesus Christ. After rejecting the Biblical definition of soul nourishment, he then says the ridiculous, that comedy is nurturing the soul!! Comedy has become the purveyor of sexual slime and innuendo, of tearing people up so others can have a few laughs at their expense. How very sad!!

5) James Redfield -- "Author of The Celestine Prophecy, which is scheduled to be made into a four-hour miniseries on CBS next season." -- "When it comes to spirituality, prime-time TV should focus on direct experience -- how it feels, how it affects people's lives -- but without pushing one religious orientation over another ..."

This New Age author again has nothing to say about God, but you can tell that he does not believe in Absolute Right and Wrong, or in the Absolute Never-Changing power of God. If he did, he wouldn't be uttering the New Age nonsense that one religion should not be "pushed" over another. This nonsensical statement just reveals his New Age belief that all religions are the same, and that there are many roads to finding "Spiritual Truth". Notice, also, his emphasis on the New Age concept of "feelings" rather than the Anchor of the Soul, Jesus Christ.

6) Rabbi Harold Kushner -- "Author of When Bad Things Happen To Good People and How Good Do We Have To Be?" -- "Prime-time dramas are the natural place to deal with questions of faith. I applaud NYPD Blue for bringing in issues of anger and forgiveness in the episode where Sipowicz dreams of his son coming back to life, accompanied by a man who turns out to be Jesus. I would rather see a character with a specific religion, even if it doesn't turn out to be mine -- someone named Sipowicz has every right to be specifically Christian." [Cutting Edge Note: this is the episode where Andy angrily says that "God can kiss my ass", NEWS1071]

Everyone knows that this Rabbi is a Humanist, Liberal Rabbi, who does not believe in the God of his own Bible. This is the reason that his homily on God, above, is so ridiculous. The Rabbi applauds the sensuality and the blasphemy of NYPD Blue?!! This man certainly has nothing to teach anyone about God!

7) Elaine Pagels -- "Professor of religion at Princeton University and author of The Origin of Satan." -- "Religion has been taboo as a prime-time TV topic... but it's finally coming out of the closet, perhaps because it's increasingly in public conversation in a way that it was not a generation ago. We can talk about religion now because we've lost the sense that presenting such material is an attempt to sell it, to convert someone to a point of view. And that's good ..."

Obviously, this Professor of "Religion" at Princeton University has never read Jesus' Words, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned." These are Jesus' Words, not mine, but they just kind of sum up her homily, don't they? I also find it highly offensive that this woman would use the language employed by homosexuals when they speak of going public with their lifestyle ["coming out of the closet] to speak of the public beginning to speak more openly about religion.

8) Robert Coles -- "Child psychiatrist and Pulitzer prize-winning author of The Spiritual Life Of Children." -- "I'm all for some effort to help viewers understand religious and spiritual matters by adapting great stories from great writers like Leo Tolstoy, Flannery O'Connor, Walker Percy, or John Cheever for TV ... TV can and does have a role in America's spirituality. Of course, no program is going to be effective if it tries to indoctrinate people. But TV shows can deal with the universal questions, such as, What does life mean? How should you live it?"

We at the Cutting Edge wish some effort were being made on TV to help viewers understand religious and spiritual matter by teaching great stories from Moses, Joseph, King David, and Daniel in the Lion's Den!! We do not "nourish the soul" by teaching children stories from New Age and/or Humanist writers like the ones mentioned above. To fill children with this kind of nonsense is tantamount to child abuse!

When Coles warns against TV "indoctrinating" people, he is referring, via code word, to teaching people about the Truths of the Bible.

9) Jack Canfield -- "Coauthor of Chicken Soup For The Soul, which is being developed into an upcoming ABC special ... the majority of [TV] shows seem to be full of sarcasm and violence. That distorts people's perception of society so that they lose faith, not only in God, but in each other and in themselves. We need programming that uplifts people, that focuses on triumph of over adversity rather than on conflict, programming that shows people coming from true religious values -- love, inclusion, acceptance, tolerance -- not from dogma. What this country needs to focus on right now is coming together both racially and religiously, so God should be shown in a wide variety of religious perspectives."

This is one of the few writeups from these "Religious Experts" that mentioned "God". Yet, what Canfield says here is more typical New Age tripe. When he says that programming needs to teach "true" religious values, "love, inclusion, acceptance, tolerance" he is speaking code words that mean accepting anybody of any belief or lifestyle practice. The words, "inclusion" and "tolerance" have been used several million times lately to speak of the "necessity" to accept homosexuality as normal and good. Of course, when Canfield says that we do not need "dogma", he is referring to the "rigid" doctrines of the Fundamental Christian Church. Finally, when Canfield says that God should be "shown in a wide variety of religious perspectives", he literally means that God should be shown in a New Age context, a Buddhist context, or in a Native American Shaman context, etc. Has no one ever thought of showing God in the context in which He wants to be shown? Of course not, because they do not believe in the "exclusive" God of the Holy Bible. Canfield is as New Age/New World Order as you can get.

10) Rev. Peter J. Gomes -- "Professor of Christian morals at Harvard University and author of The Good Book: Reading The Bible with Mind and Heart." -- "I don't think, as many conservative clergymen do, that television is by nature antagonistic to religion. I think TV recognizes religion as a problematic area into which it doesn't want to step unless absolutely necessary. But the big story is that religion is not necessarily driven by conflict. There are people for whom religion is not a negative or fearful reaction to the world or to difference, but for whom it's the defining experience of life. People are devout Jews; people are observant Catholics. If TV wants to be a serious contributor to culture, it ought to reflect that and find a way to deal with religion."

Rev. Gomes sounds less than a New Ager and more like a middle-of-the-road Ecumenical leader. He wants TV to show God in a wide variety of religious contexts, i.e., Jewish, Roman Catholic, New Age. Of course, this is precisely the Plan to produce the One World Religion of the False Prophet of Revelation. Ecumenicism is the high road to that goal, the Roman Catholic Church is leading the way, and the ultimate goal is to deliver the worship of the peoples of the world to Antichrist. This is the goal, and TV can contribute mightily to it, given its unbelievable power to gradually change people's hearts and minds, without them being aware that any change has occurred!

There you have the 10 "Religious Experts" whom the writers of TV Guide turned to get guidance and advice as to how to present God in TV programming. The God they are speaking of is not the narrow God of the Holy Bible; the God of whom they are speaking is the broad God of Freemasonry, the god who supposedly stands above all man's religions wishing that men could stop being so petty, selfish, and separative. If man could ever see this "Transcendent Truth" he could stop insisting on the rightness of his particular brand of religion and start serving the Creator, Architect of the Universe, the God of all mankind.

These 10 false prophets simply advance this agenda. They preach spiritual poison all dressed up like a harlot, to appeal to the human senses, and to the human reason apart from God. In Jesus' day, He had to deal with false religious prophets. They called themselves the Pharisees. Let us see what Jesus had to say about the false prophets of His day, because the same can be applied to these 10 false prophets, in this TV Guide article.

1) Matthew 15:12-14 -- "Then came his disciples, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended, after they heard this saying? But he answered and said, Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up. Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch." These 10 "Religious Experts", above, are nothing more than blind leading blind followers. Both shall fall into the eternal ditch!

2) Matthew 3-7 -- "But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?" [Also Luke 3:7] Here, John the Baptist rightly called the false prophets "vipers", or snakes.

3) Matthew 23:27-28 -- "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity." These 10 "Religious Experts" appear to the deceived American people as outwardly religious and wise, but Jesus Christ, Who will judge them against His Biblical Truth, will find them full of dead men's bones.

4) Jude 10-13 -- "But these [false teachers] speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves. Woe unto them! ... clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots; Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever."

5) Isaiah 30:9-11 -- "... this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the LORD: Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits: Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us." Isn't this precisely what Americans are doing today, as they embrace every kind of "religion" except the True One? We have said to our preachers, "Do not teach us the right way, from the Bible, but speak unto us smooth things, deceits. Tell us how "good" we are, how there is no sin, no judgment, no eternity in Hell to be worried about! And, for crying out loud, cease holding up that narrow-minded God of the Bible in front of us! We're tired of Him!!"

Therefore, the One True God of the Bible will say unto this generation of Americans, as He said to the Jews 2,500 years ago, quoted below. Remember, the One True God never, ever changes. What made Him mad 2,500 years ago makes Him equally mad today.

Listen to what God said then:

6) Amos 8:11 -- "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD" Certainly, this is what is occurring in America today. When America began to throw God out of our national institutions in the early 1960's, we set ourselves up for ultimate judgment. God has graciously delayed His judgment, according to His loving kindness and Mercy, but now the time has come for judgment, and God is acting to cause the American people to not be able to hear and understand His Word. Thus, God sets our judgment in concrete.

This is what is happening in America today. God has allowed Satan to raise up false prophets in our midst, to "speak to us smooth, deceitful" things, to falsely assure us that everything is just fine. They are assuring the American people that the awful old God of the Bible doesn't really exist after all. We can believe whatever we want to believe, we can do whatever we want to do, and we can view anything we want to view. Why? Because there is no judgmental God, there is no such thing as sin, and there is certainly no such thing as Hell.

The time is growing short. Soon, the Antichrist will appear, setting off the prophesied chain of events which the Bible calls the 7-year Tribulation Period. This kind of TV programming, and these kinds of false prophets, are clear signs of the impending doom. Are you spiritually ready? Is your family? Are you adequately protecting your loved ones? This is the reason for this ministry, to enable you to first understand the peril facing you, and then help you develop strategies to warn and protect your loved ones. Once you have been thoroughly trained, you can also use your knowledge as a means to open the door of discussion with an unsaved person. I have been able to use it many times, and have seen people come to Jesus Christ as a result. These perilous times are also a time when we can reach many souls for Jesus Christ, making an eternal difference.

If you have accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, but have been very lukewarm in your spiritual walk with Him, you need to immediately ask Him for forgiveness and for renewal. He will instantly forgive you, and fill your heart with the joy of the Holy Spirit. Then, you need to begin a daily walk of prayer and personal Bible Study.

If you have never accepted Jesus Christ as Savior, but have come to realize His reality and the approaching End of the Age, and want to accept His FREE Gift of Eternal Life, you can also do so now, in the privacy of your home. Once you accept Him as Savior, you are spiritually Born Again, and are as assured of Heaven as if you were already there. Then, you can rest assured that the Kingdom of Antichrist will not touch you spiritually. If you would like to become Born Again, turn to our Salvation Page now.

Finally, we would love to hear from you.

You can contact us by mail or email.

God bless you.


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