Pop Culture and Its Impact

I got an email from my nephew Brandon today. This is what he wrote:

Hey uncle Rick,
What do you believe is the timeline for the end time events? I've read Revelation, but I haven't really READ (understood a lot of it) or when Jesus speaks about those times in other books. I'm confused between whether he's talking about the destruction of Israel or the end of the world. Not to mention most of my notions of the end times have been formed by pop culture and movies more than the Bible. I say this because I don't remember reading anything about giant hailstones or boiling oceans, but I vividly remember those scenes from some movie. Anyway could you give me a quick timeline of what you believe?

While my nephew is asking specifically about endtimes events (which I answered in a private email to him), he brings up an important subtext in his email: Pop Culture and its impact on the normal Christian and especially upon those outside the faith who never read the Bible.

So, the CT below is an edited form of my response to my nephew specifically addressing the "pop culture" part of this email.

Hey Brandon,

You know, I just wanted to say that I was really impressed by your statement: "not to mention most of my notions of the end times have been formed by pop culture and movies more than the Bible.”

I cannot tell you the number of times over the years that I have talked with people who have had the strangest ideas, not only about the end times, but about all sorts of things related to the Bible, simply because they got their ideas from pop culture and not from the Bible. One person said to me, "Well, the Bible says that God helps those who help themselves." It doesn't. Actually, it says that God helps the helpless, and the entire message of Salvation through Jesus Christ is because we cannot help ourselves.

PBS, the Discovery Channel, the History Channel, and much of Christian TV
Four of the biggest pop cultural purveyors of theological error are PBS, the Discovery Channel, the History Channel, and, sadly, much of what is called Christian TV.

Some people are smart enough to know that when they watch the Hollywood movie “Stigmata,” they realize that it is just a movie and not a place where they should get their theology. However, sadly, there are some who do think that those sorts of movies are “real.” I remember having a conversation with one young woman after she saw that movie, and she believed the basic premise of the story and especially that the church was hiding the “real text of Jesus’ words from the world.” So, in other words, she “learned” from this movie that the Bible is the “sanitized and anemic” version of the real “words of Christ,” and that we need to throw out the Bible we have and attempt to find the “real Bible.”

One public reviewer of this movie said, “this movie is a good case study for the case of stigmata.”

Oh my.

The “real Bible” has been kept from the average person? This movie is a “good case study for the case of stigmata”? Well, I certainly hope that neither of these two is teaching in the pubic school system.

Pop Culture University?
To allow Hollywood to “inform” you and “teach” you through their movies--which are made to make money, not to make educated citizens--is to have a hodgepodge of confused ideas.

But, PBS, the Discovery Channel, and the History Channel “appear” to be thoughtful, well-researched programs. This is exactly what makes programs like these so dangerous.

I've watched some of their shows on Jesus, the Bible, and so on, and some of what they say is absolutely laughable. Even my freshmen students know better. Yet, these TV programs pass off errors and misconceptions under the guise of "legitimate research."

What makes it worse is that they seem to always find the liberal quacks from well known schools to use as their "sources." They'll interview "Dr. So-and-so" professor of Ancient Languages from Harvard University. Or some "Professor of Theology" from Oxford University. These people have impeccable credentials, but they also have an agenda. Typically these liberal “experts” do not believe that the Bible is the Word of God or that Jesus claimed to be God or that he rose from the dead.

Just because people have read the Bible and have degrees from well known universities does not mean that they (1) believe what the Bible says, or (2) know what the Bible actually teaches. Let’s not forget that even Satan knows the Bible pretty well, but do you want him teaching your Sunday school class?

However, let me hasten to add that not everything that PBS, the Discovery Channel, and the History Channel put out there is bad or incorrect. They have lots of very good information about a large number of topics. But, if a person's education has come mainly from pop culture, he will simply not have the academic ability to sift through the propaganda; or, as my dad used to say, "The ability to eat the meat and throw out the bones."

That’s a Joke Right?
I remember one of my professors had his degree from Drew University. This is a well known and respectable school. But, in class one day this professor said that he did not believe that the devil existed because he could not "buy into the Bible's description of a pointed tailed demon in a red suit sticking people with a pitchfork in the fires of hell."

At first, I figured the guy was joking: After all, who could be that ignorant? This guy was a college professor for goodness sake. Soon, however, I discovered that he was dead serious, and I just about fell out of my chair!

After restoring my composure, I raised my hand, and when called upon, I asked, "Ah, yeah, could you please show me where the Bible gives that depiction of the devil, because I've never seen it in there." (Perhaps he had confused a Gary Larson Far Side cartoon book with the Bible?)

This set the stage for a full semester of “problems” between me--the lowly student--and him--the lofty professor who didn’t like being questioned.

Here was a man who claimed to be a Christian, who had his degree from a well-known and well-respected university, and who was teaching church history at a college, and he didn't have the first clue about what the Bible actually said. Yet, he acted like an "elite professor"; he always walked around with an air of superiority. Simply because of his “degree on the wall” and his fine three-piece suit, and his position at the front of the classroom, the students figured that he must know what he was talking about. He didn’t.

Satan's Doom, not Domain
Only the biblically illiterate would think that hell is Satan’s domain where he runs around making life hard on people. That makes for great Gary Larson "Far Side" cartoons, but in reality the Lake of Fire is Satan’s doom, not his domain.

This professor’s nonsense is a sad but vivid example of how popular culture infiltrates the thinking of people. And, this example is so extreme that had I not been in the class to hear him say it, I would not have believed it.

Truth by Pop Culture?
Certainly the Bible is not the only thing that gets attacked by pop culture. The most recent pop culture indoctrination attempt that I am aware of was the doomed Ronald Reagan movie. Though it never showed on a regular program, it did air on Showtime, and I’ve heard some people quoting sections of the movie as though it were a “documentary.” And, pop culture not only takes positives and turns them into negatives, but the reverse is true as well. Pop culture would have us all believe that homosexuality is simply a “preference” when in fact the Bible says it a perversion (see Romans 1:24-31).

In the late 1980's a movie called “Wall Street” taught us that "Greed is Good."

But Jesus says, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” (Luke 12:15).

We all have a choice: Hollywood or Jesus? They couldn’t be more diametrically opposed on this issue.

Popular culture attempts to indoctrinate us on other topics as well: some of these are, marriage, success, happiness, family, fun, love, and the list goes on and on.

The dreadfully tragic fact is that many people today are learning about these things and about the Bible (and theology) from pop culture.

Christian TV
This, then, leads me to another area of "pop cultural" that many don't realize is "pop culture": much of so-called Christian TV. Now, on Christian TV, there are some very good programs. However, much of it is as theologically accurate as a Far Side cartoon. Just because someone stands (or sits) in front of a camera and intones the name of Jesus from time to time does not make him correct. Let's not forget that much of Christian TV is more about the money than the message of Christ. Many non-Christians see the utter silliness and obvious hucksters, and wonder--and rightfully so--what's wrong with these people? Too often the unsaved has better discernment about these silly people than some Christians do.

The Point
Every pastor and Christian leader and even every average Christian should make it a point to clearly explain to those around them that they should not get their “information and education” from pop culture.

Pop culture can be very entertaining; the movie "Stigmata" was not boring, but pop culture is no substitute for a real education.

I’m glad to know that you make a solid distinction between “pop culture” and real information.