Bob here and his 745,000 other friends and family members have never heard of Jesus, their Tukulor, Pulaar of Senegal and all Muslim. No man wants to go to them, but at least we have that lame Jesus movie to send to them cause we’re too lazy go. It’s lame because it’s replaced a real living witness to Christ, missions without sacrifice has no basis in the Bible.
Missions, Video Games, Action Movies, and a Nation of Wimps:
This week we had the privilege of having Dr. Akin the president of SEBTS speak on the topic of missions for two days from the Scriptures and the lives of three missionaries. He brought up something I knew about but never really chewed on, the lack of men going into missions and ministry in general. I’ve been thinking about things in our culture which serve as a hindrance to being committed to serving Christ among men. I say men specifically because these are things that have been directed at men.
We live in a country where around 62% of video game players are men and the average age of a video game player with the bulk of video game players being 18-49. As of 1999 Ninety-two per cent of boys played video games. Now let’s just assume that Christian guys fall in line with the statistics. If so many young men are being effected by video games then the question is what kind of influence are these video games having? what kind of examples do they set for the player? Do they promote Christlikeness?
Well to answer those questions let us look at what young men are playing, the following are the top 3 games in various systems.
PS2:
* Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (15 million,may include PC and Xbox versions)
* Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec (14.87 million)
* Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (12 million)
* Grand Theft Auto III (12 million, may include PC and Xbox versions)
XBOX360:
# Halo 3 (8.1 million)
# Gears of War (4.5 million)
# Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (3.118 million approximately, 3.04 million in US,78,000 in Canada)
So the majority of these games on the most popular systems have one thing in common for the most part. They endorse violence and immoral activity. That’s the example feet or cars swift to shed blood and do evil. For charities sake we can even assume that all the Christian men are playing Gran Turismo 3. The question still remains does it promote Christlikeness? I would presume the answer is no, while it may not promote negative virtues, it does not promote positive spiritual growth, and would seem to go against the command to redeem our time Eph 5:16.
Let us move on to action movies and shows and ask the same questions of them. Do the men in action movies and action shows promote godly character and Christlikeness? Is Jack Baeur a good role model for Christian men? Does he reflect a Christlike character? What about Jack Sparrow, Jason Borne, James Bond, or various other action movies characters? Biblically I’d say no. If you disagree look at the portrayal of Christ in 1 Peter. There’s the sexual content in those movies to, but I guess compromise is ok in our culture.
What do these two influence give us? A Nation of Wimps. Men desensitized to violence, pain, and suffering. Men with seared consciences. Men who look up to those who do violence in their own name rather then endure suffering trusting in God. Not men like Jim Elliot and his fellow missionaries who laid down their lives knowing that the Auca were unprepared to appear before the judgement seat. If they were “manly,” which is really wimpy by Bible standards, they would have mowed down the whole tribe with machine gun fire, because that’s what our society sets as the pinnacle of manhood. God have mercy on us.
The only solution is for men to pull the plug, you’re shaped by what you take in and if you take in the garbage of our godless culture it’s no wonder you could care less about the kingdom of God and the souls of people who have never heard the gospel. There was a time when Christians saw this life as an opportunity to serve God and develop holiness, a time to prepare to be in heaven. Theatre and games were vanity and unworthy of pouring our lives into them. Today we know better that’s why in West Africa there are 47 female missionaries and 3 male. We learned the ways of the serpent and today it’s the men who are being deceived and led astray. Some would call them men of old who considered the work of Christ and the care of their own souls so important fanatics and legalists. The Bible says they were men of whom the world was not worthy, pilgrims, aliens, wanderers seeking a city whose builder was God, whose citizenship was in heaven and not X-Box live.
