Lately, I read the several following pieces of news online:
On February 15, 2016, a five-year-old girl played with her ten-year-old sister in their courtyard and her sister discovered an electric saw somehow. Suddenly, her sister, imitated Logger Vick, a character in a Chinese cartoon entitled Boonie Bears, and sawed her face with it. All at once, the little girl’s nose and right face were sawed apart. Then she was hurried to the hospital by her mother cooking the meal inside. Attached to this news was a picture: A long and open wound, as if a curved red centipede, was lying prone on the girl’s tender face, horrifying and grieving us. It was hard to imagine how great pain she was suffering at the time of being sawed.On the afternoon of March 20, 2014, a similar accident happened in Suqian city, Jiangsu province, China. A two-and-half-year-old boy injured his own two fingers with an axe by imitating Logger Vick, a cartoon character in Boonie Bears. On July 2, 2014, in Xuzhou city, Jiangsu province, a seven-year-old boy, alias Qiqi, after watching the same cartoon scene, took apart the cover of an electric fan with tools and plugged in the fan when his families were sleeping. Unfortunately, his whole hand was tangled into the rapidly rotating blades. …
A string of tragedies arising from the imitation of cartoon indeed deserve our deep thinking. However, ignorant children are not alone in doing such absurd things; even adults with mature humanity and self-discipline can also make tragedies in the same way.
Mr. Deng had worked as an automobile mechanic for seven or eight years. Last month, he was intrigued by a TV scene, where a man smashed a car window only with a slingshot. “I have repaired cars so many years, but I have never tried to break a car window, so I wanna give it a try,” he said after his arrest. Then one day in late June, 2016, he bought a slingshot and tried it at a car in Honggutan New District, Nanchang city, Jiangxi province. And the result was that he really made it with just one try. Consequently，since that day, Mr. Deng was addicted to theft and began to commit crimes crazily in Honggutan New District.
On the morning of December 9, 2015, in Huaian city, Jiangsu province, a man, alias Qi Bo, aged 41, was irritated at the news that his wife, alias Wang Qing, asked him for a divorce, because the conflict between Qi Bo and his wife’s brother had worsened their relationship. That night, after he watched on TV a news report titled “Frustrated in Love: The ‘Hammer Man’ Took Crazy Revenge,” he imitated the criminal’s behavior and killed his sleeping wife with an axe. After that, he gave himself up to the police and was sentenced to death penalty with a two-year suspension of execution for intentional crime.
News of this sort is more than what’s listed above. This suffices to prove that, people, regardless of age, gender, education, or occupation, can get injured, disabled, or be killed as a result of their imitating the characters in television series, and some even commit crimes and murders. Why can cartoons and TV shows lead to so many tragedies? Who is pulling the strings behind the TV screen? What magic do these motley shots have, so that they can bewitch people to imitate them without reason and humanity, or even at the cost of their life? Almighty God’s words have already told us the answer:
Almighty God says: “For example, if you were watching a television show, what sort of things in it could change your view? Would what the performers said, the words themselves, be able to corrupt people? (No.) What sort of things would corrupt people? It would be the core thoughts and content of the show, which would represent the director’s views, and the information carried in these views could sway people’s hearts and minds. Is that right? (Yes.)” (“God Himself, the Unique V”).
Then, how does Satan achieve its purpose of afflicting and devouring man by using movies and TV programs? Almighty God says: “‘Deception and paralysis’ is that Satan makes up some sweet-sounding statements and ideas that are in concert with people’s conceptions to make it seem as though it is taking people’s flesh into consideration or thinking about their lives and futures, when actually it is just to fool you. It then paralyzes you so that you do not know what is right and what is wrong, so that you unknowingly follow its road and thereby come under its control. … It instills these things in you every day, every day using these ideas and cultures to influence and nurture you, very slowly ruining your will, making you not want to be a good person any longer, making you no longer wish to persevere standing up for what you call righteousness. Unknowingly, you no longer have the willpower to swim upstream against the tide, but instead flow down along with it” (“God Himself, the Unique VI”). Through the revelation of God’s words, we can understand: Satan raises up various evil trends to corrupt man, and with extremely base, cruel, and sinister means, it turns its poisons of corrupting man to a kaleidoscope of fantastic movies and TV shows to catch people’s eyes. Thereby it conveys to the audience a core thought, which can release a sort of satanic poison that, like a drug, controls and directs people to indulge in TV shows, till the poison occupies every corner of people’s heart. Following that, people’s thoughts and behaviors come under its control and dominion, and further, people will lose their conscience, humanity, and morality and begin to imitate and put into practice what they have seen in TV programs. In this way, people become degenerate step by step and are completely devoured by Satan in the end.
Now, various programs tie the audience, old and young, men and women, before the TV set tightly, as a result of which, people want to do nothing all day long, but lose their head over them and abandoned themselves to Satan’s bondage and control instead. From the outside, people are spending more on leisure and entertainment, or amusing themselves, but as a matter of fact, they are being afflicted by various evil teachings and fallacies, which are corroding their minds and bodies …
Now, let’s make a list of the hottest types of TV programming and use Almighty God’s words to dissect the satanic poisons and tricks contained in each type. Then we can see how Satan corrupts man more clearly.
Topping the list are programs of dueling and boxing, favored by almost all the boys. They instill into people the thought of “advocating violence—losers are always in the wrong.” Upon watching them, people will receive this poison and then live out the image of a desperate criminal who displays sham courage, struggles with fierce means, and even is prone to solve problems with violence. Take my four-year-old nephew for example: He used to be polite, lively and adorable. But ever since he went in for watching martial arts competition last year, he has become bad-tempered and will shake his fists before adults once in a bad mood. Punching his grandpa and kicking his grandma is a common occurrence. When he is scolded for such behaviors, he should imitate the tone of a boxer and angrily say, “I’ll kill you!” A young life is poisoned by Satan to such degree. Alas! It’s really awful to imagine what he will be like if he goes on like this.
Next, let’s have a look at talent shows. They have the highest audience ratings because they cater to people’s desire of being somebody, being a star, and pursuing status and vanity. Carrying the dream of becoming famous overnight, many young girls take part in various talent shows and resort to any possible means to show their talents: Some expose their own secrets or love affairs to create entertainment gimmicks; some follow the hidden rules by selling their bodies; some harm their bodies unstintingly to master a unique exquisite skill and challenge their limits; still some fabricate rumors to attack and edge out their opponents…. To scramble for fame and fortune, each person behaves foolishly.
Now let’s move on to the next topic. The comedy show nowadays is rather vulgar and ridiculous. To play to the gallery and get a laugh, comedians speak dirty jokes and do indecent acts without restraint. Some can even advertise themselves as a Mr. Dreamy or goddess to make others look up to them and follow them. Isn’t this even more ridiculous? Man is a created being, and man is man, so how dare man impersonate God and stand in God’s place to let others worship them?
How about romance dramas and idol dramas, which are greatly loved by female friends? They are disguised with nattily-dressed stars and high-tech means, but their inner contents are advocating “Love is above everything and love is sinless,” and agitating people to find what they call “true love.” Under the influence of such programs, people blatantly start to get a mistress or develop an extramarital affair and consequently bring bitter fruits and disasters to both themselves and their families. Besides, many explicit love scenes in them actually inject evil, licentious and abnormal views of love into people, making them all advocate and accept this evil trend.
Then, let’s talk about another high-rated TV programs—the court series. Their plot mainly centers on how the concubines in the royal palace intrigue and plot against each other as well as create factions to win favor with the emperor. Their substance is that Satan is teaching man about how to fool others and commit fraud. After people accept these poisons, they guard and fight against each other in their daily life, and this ends up in crime of passion or revenge.
There are also some programs that the old like most: those of health preserving and protection. Outwardly, they are spreading some common medical knowledge, but in truth, they aim to turn people into atheists and tell people to live by medicine and drugs, so that they deny God’s almightiness and sovereignty. This also applies to the fanciful films and fairy tale movies echoed by the young people: Satan makes up “fairies, gods, and aliens” to deceive and blind people’s hearts, to make them completely deny the truth that God created man, to replace God in people’s hearts with these monsters and evil spirits, and to ultimately have them bow down to and worship these unclean spirits and evil spirits.
Last, let’s talk about the funny and quirky movies which used to be my favorite. From today’s perspective, I see: The poison contained within them is that they convey the thought of “fooling, fixing and lecturing others.” The amusing scenes in them are always about playing ticks on, fixing and lecturing others, and making others unbearably painful and beg for their life, while they themselves just look on, having a good laugh. To speak frankly, this means building one’s happiness on the foundation of others’ pain.
In view of what are called the blockbusters in the big screen of the world, those that proclaim uprightness, beauty and kindness are almost in extinction. To have high box office and high hit-rate, entertainment companies are swift in action to explore some material of the dark and ugly sides of humanity and make a big issue about them. This accounts for the fact that movies released during holidays or vacations are mainly about crimes, thrilling ghosts, fantastic monsters, and even homosexuality. … Obviously, the direction of the mainstream movies and TV series is guided by the black hand of Satan. The more people watch them, the more corrupted and degenerate people will become, and the more empty and distorted people will feel: As the movies and TV series about pornography and violence which used to be reviled by people can’t satisfy their desire for pursuing thrill, Satan then concocts the gorier, the more perverted and inhuman ones to keep on afflicting people’s souls. This shows that Satan painstakingly avails itself of every opportunity to corrupt man, which is impossible to guard against.
As can be seen from the facts listed above, Satan is evil in substance. No matter how respectable and dignified its words are, no matter how well its means meet the needs of mankind’s flesh, its ultimate aim is to corrupt and afflict man, and devour man at last. Only when we mankind come and prostrate ourselves before God in worship, and accept God’s words as our life can we discern the positive and the negative, see through Satan’s tricks, get free from Satan’s affliction, and live in God’s care and protection. Just as God’s words say: “Because the essence of God is holy, that means that only through God can you walk the bright, right road through life; only through God can you know the meaning of life, only through God can you live out a real life, possess the truth, know the truth, and only through God can you obtain life from the truth. Only God Himself can help you shun evil and deliver you from the harm and control of Satan. Besides God, no one and nothing can save you from the sea of suffering so that you suffer no longer: This is determined by the essence of God” (“God Himself, the Unique VI”).
