“Ye make your sons to pass through the fire, ye pollute yourselves with all your idols, even unto this day” (Ezekiel 20:31)
How many young men burn today because our society worships the image of Eve at the altar of “freedom”? We are so interested in protecting the rights of fornicators that we refuse to protect the hearts and minds of our children. No corner of society is safe. The “harlot’s attire” is on virtually every magazine cover that awaits us at the checkout counter. In some Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods supermarkets are asked to and put protective covers in front of magazines that line the checkout counter. Elsewhere, parents gawk at them right along with their kids. We have become so bombarded by erotic imagery that our society has become jaded concerning it.
Men and women are valued and devalued largely on the basis of their “sex” appeal.
While in Solomon’s day women in “harlot’s attire” were lying in wait “at every corner” today they lie in wait at every checkout counter, on every TV screen and on every computer. Our country is under a spell of seduction. The “sirens’ call” fills the land and is obeyed. Idolatry is the order of the day. The true worship of God is rare. Men and women are valued and devalued largely on the basis of their “sex” appeal. From our fashion industry to our film industry; from our music industry to our advertising industry, American society is inundated with a continuous appeal to enflame and indulge the sensual appetites. It is strange indeed for anyone to rise up and say, “This is not right and I won’t be a part of it!” Instead, we foolishly make light of such things, believing they are relatively harmless. “Fools make a mock at sin” (Proverbs 14:9)
Mothers, know that your sons are being turned into “pornos” (whoremongers) who, without being rescued by Jesus Christ, will go down to “the chambers of death” via the harlot’s house. The seductive poster of the sexy pop star on the wall of your 12 year olds bedroom is the first step towards a pornographic mind. Allowing your young person to have an unrestricted diet of pop culture will insure that by the time they reach adolesence they will be thoroughly captivated by the lustful fare served up by the merchants of vice. Hollywood or Nashville or Madison Avenue will not stop producing the “goods” which will keep your children coming back for more. Why? Because sex sells. Yes, “the love of money is the root of all evil,” even the evil of pornography. Pornography is big business, but so is every other entertainment venue, so is the fashion industry, so is the music industry. Every merchant involved in these industries wants your child to become a lifelong customer. Satan has even longer plans for your child.
If anyone is to care for your child’s soul it must be you.
If anyone is to care for your child’s soul it must be you. The politicians who pander to the business community and the so-called artitistic community believe their dedication to “freedom of expression” is in the best interests of our ever-evolving democratic society. The truth is: we have lost all sense of right and dignity. We have become callous to the effects of sin on our own souls, let alone the souls of our children. The blind are leading the blind and all are falling into the ditch. In our day, godly men are not leading, but are being led by ungodly men and women. Plain and simple, it the desire for the image of whores that keeps foolish men falling into the ditch. “For a whore is a deep ditch; and a strange woman is a narrow pit.” (Proverbs 23:27) We have become so decadent that we call evil “good.” We are so duped that we actually believe that pornographers are champions of freedom! Our country once had the moral backbone to rise up and see slaves set free. Today, we lay enslaved in chains of sin that grow tighter every year and yet we believe we’re on a glorious road that will bring greater and greater freedom to the human spirit.
The truth is: we have lost all sense of right and dignity. We have become callous to the effects of sin on our own souls, let alone the souls of our children.
No one who has a spirit of fornication at work in their life, who has a “pornographic mind” is free. Such lust is insatiable, it “enlarges itself as hell.” It wants no limits. It is as addicting as any drug. Our society cannot be satisfied with what is presently allowed to be shown before their eyes – it must get more explicit to satisfy, it must become more vile. Such is the nature of fornication – it is greedy. It cannot be content with what it has – it must have more. It cannot be satisfied with one, it must have many. It is not enough that it has its own partner, it must have yours too – if not in body, then at least in mind.
The standard of our society is not the standard of God. Despite what is permitted, condoned, and celebrated by our culture, it is not a “normal” thing in the sight of God for men to lust after women, nor for women to lust after men. Parents, (who perhaps worry that their young man might “go the wrong way”) may be glad to see that their son is a “red-blooded” male lusting after the female sex. They allow their children to put poster images of pop sex goddesses on the walls of their bedrooms. Daughters are permitted to “idolize” images of male stars. Parents permit movies to be watched and music to be listened to that promote lust after some unknown figure of the opposite sex. What real relationship is being established with these pop images? Only one that fosters fornication in the spirit.
There is little hope for a child to escape the spirit of fornication if his or her parent never has.
To foster a spirit of fornication in anyone, let alone your own child, is not harmless. A spirit of fornication usually takes hold early in a person’s life, unless a parent is walking enough in the fear of God to warn and guard them against it. But so often the iniquities of fathers and mothers become the iniquities of their sons and daughters. There is little hope for a child to escape the spirit of fornication if his or her parent never has. Such a spirit passes from one generation to the next, until one person in that chain loves God (and their children) enough to see it broken from off their life.
How many people in our society are willing to deny their own pleasure? Pleasuring themselves has become their god. Does this current generation with it’s “eyes full of adultery” care for the next generation? The heart of the adulterer and fornicator is insensitive to all but his own lust. He is the champion of “liberty” not because he cares about his fellow man but because he wants to protect and expand his insatiable lust. Our country protects the rights of the vilest pornographers, not because we are dedicated to high ideals, but because the average “Joe” sitting in front of the TV enjoys what he sees too, and wouldn’t want any “puritans” depriving him of his “mild” visual pleasures. Each generation has been willing to sacrifice their children to greater vileness in order to protect their own “right” to see more provocative images that delight their eyes.
Under the banner of “freedom” our land has become subject to the most shameful form of slavery.
The current explosion of pornography in our country is the product of the preceding generations refusal to repent of the spirit of fornication in their midst. Previous generations were not more godly than this generation. Decency laws simply did not allow our “fathers” to be as audacious in satisfying their lusts. But bit by bit, the trendsetters within our fashion and film industry, knew they could whittle away at those laws because “it was what the public wanted.” All the while, under the banner of “freedom” our land has become subject to the most shameful form of slavery.
When men and women are stubbornly committed to idolatry God gives them over to their lusts. (Romans 1:23-28) God not only turns individuals over to their lusts but whole societies as well. When Israel was committed to the fulfillment of its lust in the wilderness, God’s judgment was to let them have what they wanted till it came out their nostrils. “Ye shall not eat one day, nor two days, nor five days, neither ten days, nor twenty days; But even a whole month, until it come out at your nostrils, and it be loathsome unto you …” (Numbers 11:19, 20) The plague of pornography that inundates our land, the relentless bombardment of sensual imagery that covers our children, the unclean spirit that fills our youth, is the judgment of God turning a stubborn people over to their own lusts until it comes out of their noses.
Keeping the gates of our home is preparation for keeping the gates of our heart.
The price a father pays for allowing one unclean influence in his heart and home is the sight of his children captivated and enslaved by a host of unclean spirits. The price one generation pays for their flirtation with immorality is to see the next generation smothered in exposure to desperately wicked influences.
The supreme court wouldn’t define pornography but one justice said, “I know it when I see it.” We know in our heart of hearts when we are lusting after the image of another human being. It is not a matter of unawareness, it is a matter of unconcern. Our land has become so intoxicated with sensual pleasure and the erotic that we are completely callous to the effect such fare has on our youth. We are no longer our brother’s keeper – we are not even our children’s keeper. We are our own keeper – living first and foremostly to protect and guard our own right to an ever expanding smorgasbord of fleshly lusts. We have become a nation of fornicators – the pornographic spirit has overwhelmed our land.
Parents who are of the opinion that there’s little point in trying to shield their children because they’ll have to deal with it eventually miss the point. Guarded attitudes towards the spirit of fornication need to be forming well before one is personally solicited. Our homes should be sanctuaries where our children learn by experience what unclean things are not welcome in a holy place. Engraved in their conscience should be these words: “I will walk within my house with a perfect heart. I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me. A froward heart shall depart from me: I will not know a wicked person.” (Psalm 101:2-4) Keeping the gates of our home is preparation for keeping the gates of our heart.
Our homes should be sanctuaries where our children learn by experience what unclean things are not welcome in a holy place.
When parents take a casual approach toward sin, allowing sensual music and images within their home, is it any wonder that their children have no defense against the spirit of the world? When the Israelites encountered idolators God required them to “destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire.” (Deuteronomy 7:5) Why? Firstly, so they would not be around as a continuing source of temptation to them and their children. Secondly, to declare to God, the devil, themselves, their families and the world, that they were a holy people and would have nothing to do with works of darkness.
Instead of sacrificing our children to our lusts, it is time that “the heart of the fathers” turn “to the children …” (Malachi 4:6) Do you feel free to bring a TV or the internet into your home? “Take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumblingblock to them that are weak.” (1 Corinthians 8:9) Our children’s spiritual welfare should be paramount in every choice we make. If we are insensitive to the spiritual needs of our own children we will never care for the spiritual needs of other children. While adults looked past the needs and concerns of children Jesus was highly sensitive to them: “And they brought young children to him, that he should touch them: and his disciples rebuked those that brought them. But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not … And he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them.” (Mark 10:13,14,16)
Instead of sacrificing our children to our lusts, it is time that “the heart of the fathers” turn “to the children …”
Jesus unequivocally told us whose side He is on when it comes to adult rights and the well-being of children: “But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.” (Matthew 18:6) In light of such a dire warning, our country and every home in it must examine its ways and take away every stumblingblock we have laid for our children. If not, a curse awaits us.