A “lure” is a fake entity designed to entice a subject to investigate, then to embrace it because the subject (victim) is convinced that it is real.  It is the unreal made to appear real by the use of characteristics exhibited by the real.  A fishing lure is a prime example.  The subject/victim is attracted to its natural appearance, becomes so involved that it does not inspect it for hooks, then goes for it.  The same holds true for false religion which Jesus warns us about in Matthew 24:4,5 in His discourse concerning the last days of this age when men (and now women) would “come in My name, proclaiming that I am Christ (the lure) and deceive many” (into following them into false religion–Catholicism/Protestantism).

The luring of God-seeking people into “the church” has grown progressively easier throughout history as societies have grown more prosperous and people have less need of God in their everyday lives.  The invention of the radio was a giant step in this direction.  At 80, I can remember the time when, at the end of the work day the family would no longer gather around someone who would read the Holy Bible and perhaps expound upon what was read.  Instead, they would gather around the large wooden box with sounds flowing out of it.  It was at this point that entertainment began to replace God as the focus of family and individual attention.  As with everything else in life, a good thing soon became a bad thing when Satan lured man to make the wrong use of it.  First, he hooked man on music.  Then he began using radio to broadcast his perverted versions of God’s gospel throughout the hills and valleys of the world’s nations.

The invention of the transistor radio enabled man to take his entertainment with him wherever he went.  Time and attention normally spent in meditation on the things of God was now being spent listening to music, sports and other pursuits.  A friend who spent much time in Central and South America remarked that it was not unusual to see a farmer plowing with an ox with a transistor radio hanging from one of its horns.  There is an expression that states that “Music tames the savage beast.”  It also captures the attention of the empty brain.  The brain is like a vacuum–it begs to be filled.  While awake, man’s mind is filled with something.  When man does not deliberately fill it with God, His Word and His way, Satan will fill it with himself, his word and his ways.  God askes for our attention; Satan demands it, and usually gets it.

Television totally changed the mindset of mankind.  The one-eyed monster, which became known as the “bube tube” because of the hours of nonsense that flowed from it, quickly came to dominate the mind of man, including yours truly.  When people were not able to watch it, they often talked about it.  Man talks about what he thinks about.  For several decades the T.V. GUIDE was the most-read printed material in the world.  Individual and family leisure time was planned around “the tube.”  Evening meals and responsibilities were organized around what program came on at what time.  And everyone knew what and when relative to the t.v.  The average citizen, including church members, knew more about the t.v. schedule than about what God said.  I personally knew a preacher who, during football season, deliberately ended his Sunday sermon in time for men to get home before the kickoff.  In an unabashed display of priority arrangement, he installed a t.v. at the church so that, if his sermon happened to go past 12:00, the men could retire to the t.v. room and watch the Cowboys while waiting for him to wrap things up.  Upon answering God’s call to total sanctification, I came to believe that television would be THE cause of man’s spiritual demise.  I was wrong.

The explosion of the internet and its total domination of human life is indeed ground zero of modern man’s existence.  Man, including small children who do not know better and elderly people who should know better, are addicted to the tiny screen they cannot live without.  They are as needy of around the clock entertainment as people with lung problems are in need oxygen tanks.  Their ever-present machines have become their life sources without which they have no life.   As a cigarette is to a nicotine addict, that tiny plastic box is a must-have item.  Being without them is known to cause withdrawal symptoms in true addicts.  I neither know, nor have I ever heard of a Bible addict who exhibits such symptoms when separated from the Holy Scriptures.  Neither do I know or know of even one Truth addict who keeps a miniature Bible on his/her person, or sleeps with one on his/her pillow, or carries one around in one’s hand, or reads one while in the presence of others, etc.

Entertainment source for the vast majority of users is not merely a nice thing to have around. Entertainment is life.  Entertainment is the perfect mind-filler and controller.  As a former t.v. sports and cop show addict, I know of what I speak.  Upon realizing the truth about my time-use choices, as I was walking down the hall to watch a sports program I asked God to take away my addictions.  He did so–INSTANTLY AND TOTALLY.  I literally stopped in my tracks, turned around and walked back to my study where lay my Bible.  God changed the object of my addiction.  I praise God for His mercy, grace and long-suffering kindness toward such a fool as I had been for so many years.  With the exception of the evening news, I now watch t.v. about an hour and a half each week.  And thanks to my Lord, I do not miss being entertained.  With my mind cleared of all distractions, I am able to hear God’s spiritual voice as He opens up the Scriptures and reveals His “fine print” so that I can share it with those with eyes to see and ears to hear His Truth (Jn. 17:17).

Scripturally, Satan is called the “prince of the powers of the air.”  Through his demons (devils/fallen angels) he controls mankind, including the church through the mind, which he fills with his “voice.”  As the Apostle Paul so precisely put it: “We war not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high (mental) places” (Eph. 6:12).  Satan speaks to man and controls man through the mind of man.  Just as “We are what we eat” physically, in the spiritual realm we are what we think about.  Satan fills man’s mind with the things of the world, making man worldly.  And the church has allowed this to take place among parishioners.  We must fight against the devil and his church.  The question is, how?  In verses 11 and 12 Paul tells us to “put on the whole armor of God so that you can stand against the wiles of the devil ….  Therefore, put on the whole armor of God so that you can withstand the evils of the day, and having done all you can do, stand.”  The “whole armor of God” is the “whole counsel (Word) of God” (Acts 20:27).  Even Jesus depended on God’s Word/counsel when dealing with the devil.  When tempted by him, Jesus fought back with God’s armor, saying: “It is written ….” (Mat. 4:6,7,10).  If the Son of God depended on the Word of God to do battle with God’s premiere enemy, what does that tell us?  It tells me to put my face in His Word, not in a screen.

One of the lures of professing Christendom is the belief that one does not need to be sanctified unto God through being totally and continuously saturated with His Word–His counsel, His Truth.  Conventional Christianity is to true Christianity as water is to gasoline.  A car will run on watered-down fuel, but not as it is designed to run.  The problem is that Satan has convinced the religious community that the sputtering, smoking, jerking ride (life) she is on (living) is “normal.”  And he gets away with the ruse because the religious community does not know God’s Word.  She does, however, know what can be found on the internet.  The church says this is okay for the religious “fish” before whom she has dangled her versions of God’s gospel.  The lure has been swallowed.  The hook is set.  And the spiritual fisherman smiles.  L.J.