Has anyone else noticed that so many beautifully filmed nature, space, and world travel videos produced by a certain classic, photo-filled magazine very often include a short course in evolution? A few nights ago, my wife and I watched a piece they’d done about a half-dozen of the most beautiful places on earth. But before they would show us any of the beautiful places, we had to sit through a ten minute unrelated presentation explaining the billions of years it took to form those places as well as the naturally selective process that accidentally gave us the film crew and audience. It was a blatant infomercial promoting the physical-law-breaking shuck that we’re all supposed to credit as the source of our lives and home planet. It was another obvious “training film,” and I couldn’t help thinking about the millions of living rooms full of wide-eyed impressionable kids with their ignorant parents who’d already seen this and had swallowed every word of it. It’s very disheartening to know that there is perfectly solid science out there that abundantly corroborates God’s version of the origin of our existence, while only the lies are being spectacularly pitched to and bought by the general public. Few people are aware that even our teachers and college professors are often brutally ostracized or fired for openly expressing a personal leaning towards the Bible’s story of creation. Truly, there is a war on – and the adversary doesn’t miss a trick.

To Satan, the enemy of our souls, selling the fantasy of evolution is a crucial portion of his battle against our knowledge of God (and one he cannot afford to lose.) At the very least, if he can convince us that our distant ancestors were primates without constraining consciences, then anyone can – without regret – stick up a bank or convenience store and shoot whomever gets in his way because it’s all just a revival of our genetic predecessors’ survival of the fittest. And if you haven’t noticed, that attitude is very much in place and working. You can see it demonstrated in the horrifically cold behavior of today’s younger criminals. That same logic is heralded in much of the music, movies, and video games feeding the minds of these monsters. To their thinking, it’s simply all about a return to what we were before we were encumbered by the ‘hypocrisy’ of ‘civilization’ and ‘morality.’ Today’s superheroes are now amoral machines of brute force and terror. Their might makes them right – there is little need for any quaint magnanimity toward the weaker ones in the story – and the kids are eating up and mimicking that hardness. If the television was ever considered a surrogate babysitter in years gone by, we are way past “Leave it to Beaver” now. Truly, we are paying the greatest costs for our pitiful negligence in abandoning our naïve, sponge-brained children to ‘that hideous strength.’ We are effectively sacrificing our precious little ones upon the altar of a heartless communications and video game industry that sees them only as a vast money source.

Most of us have become too dull-minded to realize why a very real devil would work overtime to remove God from everything, including our origins, our schools, our government, and even the stone inscriptions on an old City Hall in a forgotten Midwestern town square. It’s because Satan is anxiously aware that the moment we give a genuine assent to the true reality of God, we instantly become morally responsible and accountable before Him. At that point, we might begin to behave like godly men and women rather than brute beasts and ‘sheeple’ that can be easily herded into hell through our lowest appetites.

A few years ago, Bill Maher did a movie called “Religulous.” It seemed to be just a travelogue of Bill’s round-the-world search for a group of professing Christians who were possibly the very least equipped to answer serious questions about their beliefs. He threw in a few other religions probably for the appearance of fairness, but the bulk of his attack was aimed at Jesus. After an hour and a half of the dumbest answers to a series of inane and loaded questions, the capstone came when Bill made a personal plea discouraging anyone who might still be seriously considering putting his faith in God (especially after having seen his stilted exposition of religion’s silliness). I feel sorry for Bill because of the deadly corner he’s painted himself into. Nevertheless, he is a sharp, experienced comedian who’s used to making a solid close on a punchline; and he perfectly worked the crowd in this instance as well. In fact, it makes me angry that most true Christian film efforts, from simple Bible storytelling to scientific presentations, never seem to come off with the same degree of polish as their magnificently scored and visually seductive opposition. Instead, they are so often underfunded and poorly edited productions, the only true strength of which can be found in the generously documented immovable truth they offer. These days, though, the truth is simply not glamorous or comfortable enough to interest many.

The almost painful bottom line, to me sometimes, is that the Lord God who made us is absolutely adamant in His refusal to titillate the senses of the lost sheep He so cares for. He will not flatter or seduce us into believing in Him. He created us with hearts designed to respond to His sweet conviction. His call,  as tender as a baby’s breath, will remain His ultimate means of drawing us back to Him and our sanity. If we choose not to listen or to pursue distraction, then that will seal our eternal loss. Nevertheless, being the gentleman that He is, He will not patronize us with gimmicks or splashy fanfare. National Geographic or Smithsonian, with their video masterpieces, can continue to indoctrinate and smoke the minds of the most sophisticated. But God will always insist upon wooing us with only the same still, small voice we heard so well as children before we managed to chase Him out of our consciences.  There is an easily seen, deliberate, and well-orchestrated movement afoot today that seeks to laugh God and His children away from ever being taken seriously by the ultra-hip, ‘newly enlightened.’ But as we are told in the New Testament book of John, He has, since the resurrection of His Son, overshadowed all of our hearts with His truth – so that every one of us, deep down, already knows the difference between right and wrong, the truth and a lie (John 15:26, 16:8). We just need to allow the truth a full hearing in order for it to be revived in our hearts and minds. Sadly, too many of us are today running away from that opportunity, wasting precious time entertaining Satan’s constant barrage of richly embellished fables.

“And this is the judgment, that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their works were evil.” (John 3:19)

Photo credit: atheism (Creative Commons)