On August 25, 2013, I had the privilege to interview noted homeschool speaker and author, Israel Wayne. He is an outspoken proponent for the homeschool movement and teaches Christians that home education should be considered an extension of our God given parental duties. Mr. Wayne also states that homeschooling should not be done so that we can produce smarter and more conservative minded children than their government school counterparts. Rather, homeschooling should be done for the express purpose of cultivating a biblical worldview in our children, leading them to the blood stained cross of Jesus Christ and bringing God the glory He is due. Our interview was aired during the Cross Encounters Radio program and can also be heard at Sermon Audio by clicking on the link below. I pray you take the time to listen to this interview. Whether you are just considering homeschooling or you are an experienced pro, I believe Israel Wayne’s insights will be a blessing to you.
Liberal
Book recommendation: “Primetime Propaganda” by Ben Shapiro.
I grew up on a steady diet of TV and have fond memories of such shows as CHiPs, the A-Team, Miami Vice, Facts of Life, Dukes of Hazzard, Diff’rent Strokes, Family Ties, Silver Spoons, Punky Brewster, Alf, the Cosby Show, BJ and the Bear, and Sheriff Lobo.
As I grew older my TV watching waned considerably, but it wasn’t until 2007 that my family and I completely cut TV out of our life and I haven’t regretted it one iota.
So since my TV watching days were long over, I would never have expected to be interested in or actually read a book about television, let alone one that was over 300 pages in length. But when Ben Shapiro’s book Primetime Propaganda was on sale at last year’s Border’s going out of business sale for a ridiculously low price, I couldn’t pass it up.
I must say that I was pleasantly surprised at what an engaging and thoroughly researched book it turned out to be. Shaprio has written a definitive work on the history, politics, and propaganda of television. He meticulously examples how so much of what has been broadcast on television leans left–far left–and how that came to be.
Here is Amazon.com’s description of the book:
The inside story of how the most powerful medium of mass communication in human history has become a propaganda tool for the Left
Primetime Propaganda is the story—told in their own words—of how television has been used over the past sixty years by Hollywood writers, producers, actors, and executives to promote their liberal ideals, to push the envelope on social and political issues, and to shape America in their own leftist image.
In this thoroughly researched and detailed history of the television industry, conservative columnist and author Ben Shapiro argues that left-leaning entertainment kingpins in Los Angeles and New York have leveraged—and continue to use—their positions and power to push liberal messages and promote the Democratic Party while actively discriminating against their opponents on the right. According to Shapiro, television isn’t just about entertainment—it’s an attempt to convince Americans that the social, economic, and foreign policy shaped by leftism is morally righteous.
But don’t take his word for it. Shapiro interviewed more than one hundred of the industry’s biggest players, including Larry Gelbart (M*A*S*H), Fred Silverman (former president of ABC Entertainment, NBC, and vice president of programming at CBS), Marta Kauffman (Friends), David Shore (House), and Mark Burnett (Survivor). Many of these insiders boast that not only is Hollywood biased against conservatives, but that many of the shows being broadcast have secret political messages. With this groundbreaking exposÉ, readers will never watch television the same way again.
Reading this book solidified for me what I already knew: That programs on television are intentionally liberal with the purpose of changing the hearts and minds of its viewers.
This book also furthered my bewilderment regarding Christians who use this medium as a form of entertainment. It simply boggles my mind at just how many Christians will not only willingly digest the steady stream of messages from television that are deliberately antithetical and hostile to their faith (and allow their children to do so as well), but also how so many Christians will defend and justify their consumption of this trash.
It’s amazing to me that they wouldn’t dare step foot in (and take their kids to) many places in this world because of the sin present there, yet they’re perfectly fine with allowing just about anything and everything the world has to offer to be piped into their home via a television set. What they shun in real life is happily digested as “entertainment” in the comfort of their living room.
I cannot recommend this book enough to those Christians who see little to no problem with regularly setting the images, messages, and “wisdom” of the world before their eyes, ears, heart, and soul through the medium of television. And the author of this book simply can’t be dismissed as a Legalist because he has no affiliation with the Christian faith and did not write the book from a theological point of view.
Shapiro reveals the covert and overt liberal, socialist messages in everything from All in the Family to Sesame Street and will cause you to never watch television the same way again.
See also:
Planned Parenthood’s propaganda machine would make Goebbels jealous.
This very disturbing cartoon churned out by Planned Parenthood of San Francisco is the type of propaganda that’s reminiscent of Nazi Germany (not counting their similar goals of the mass killing of innocent, defenseless human beings).
Hitler would be so proud of what Planned Parenthood has accomplished, after all, they’ve picked up where he left off and they’ve exterminated more human beings (specifically minorities) than he ever could have ever dreamed of doing.
It’s the same thing.
Not one to shy away from controversy, I present the following short video that I can only describe as sobering, shocking, and disturbing. This video depicts one of the arguments I’ve made for years in the abortion debate, and now that argument is effectively visual.
I wholeheartedly believe this video needs to be seen (truth should never be hidden), but I strongly urge caution for younger viewers. It’s one of the most powerful videos I’ve seen in quite a while (first viewing left me speechless, second viewing brought me to tears). Its impact will leave you shaken.
Viewer Discretion is Advised
How “socialized” government school kids “interact” on the bus.
It’s pretty bad when a local news station has to get involved in a matter like this because the school won’t help to put a stop to the violence perpetrated against a four-year-old girl.
You can see the video and read the article here.
If this is the Lord of the Flies socialization I keep hearing that my home educated kids are missing out on, then I think they’ll be just fine.
Pay no attention the the government education professionals behind the curatin.
Here is a quote from a great article by Bruce Shortt writing for WorldNet Daily:
“Of course, evidence of catastrophic educational failure is always dismissed by highly trained education professionals by alternately screeching ‘socio-economic status’ and ‘demographics.’ These phrases are the education establishment’s equivalent of squid’s ink: When cornered by inconvenient facts, shouts of ‘socio-economic status’ and ‘demographics’ usually allow highly trained education professionals to create confusion and slip away quietly from embarrassing revelations about what they have done to the children entrusted to them.”
Read the entire article here.
Quotes (868)
There has never been a time in this dispensation of grace when the enemies of the gospel have so actively sought the support of the Lord’s people. The doctrine-free, false prophets of ecumenism are the respected apostles of our age. They turn to us with invitations to cooperate, share pulpits, join campaigns, reach communities, and support good causes. The new evangelicals have heeded these siren songs and gone over to dialogue. The fundamentalist, as the prophet of old, must see them as the Devil’s invitations.
– John Ashbrook
It’s better for Timmy.
Thanks to Revival And Reformation for posting this sobering piece:
This fictitious “letter” was taken from the book ‘Facts of the Matter, Daily Devotions for the Marketplace‘, by Dwight Hill.
“‘Dear Mom:
‘Gosh, can you believe it’s 2023 already?…It seems just yesterday I was sitting in first grade celebrating the century change. I know we really haven’t chatted since Christmas. Sorry. Anyway, I have some difficult news and I really didn’t want to call and talk face-to-face. Ted’s had a promotion and I should be up for a hefty raise this year if I keep putting in those crazy hours. You know how I work at it. Yes, we’re still struggling with the bills.
‘Timmy’s been ‘okay’ at kindergarten although he complains about going. But then, he wasn’t happy about daycare either, so what I can I do? He’s been a real problem, Mom. He’s a good kid, but quite honestly, he’s an unfair burden at this time in our lives. Ted and I have talked this through and through and finally made a choice. Plenty of other families have made it and are much better off.
‘Our pastor is supportive and says hard decisions are necessary. The family is a ‘system’, and the demands of one member shouldn’t be allowed to ruin the whole. he told us to be prayerful, consider all the factors, and do what is right to make the family work. He says that even though he probably wouldn’t do it himself, the decision is really ours. He was kind enough to refer us to a children’s clinic near here, so at least that part’s easy.
‘I’m not an uncaring mother. I do fell sorry for the little guy. I think he overheard Ted and me talking about ‘it’ the other night. I turned around and saw him standing at the bottom of the steps in his PJ’s with the little bear you gave him under his arm and his eyes sort of welling up. Mom, the way he looked at me just about broke my heart. But honestly, I believe this is better for Timmy, too.
‘It’s not fair to force him to live in a family that can’t give him the time and attention he deserves. And please don’t give me the kind of grief Grandma gave you over your abortions. It is the same thing, you know. We’ve told him he’s just going in for a vaccination. Anyway, they say it’s painless. I guess it’s just as well you haven’t seen that much of him.
Love to Dad:
Jane’”
“You shall not murder.” (Exodus 20.13)
Quotes (786)
A few years ago the Moral Majority was the rage. The expressed goals of the group appealed to fundamentalists who were against pornography, homosexuality, and abortion and were for restoring morality, strengthening defense, and opposing communism. Why not join in? Answer: It would not practice biblical separation. Any fundamentalist knows that we are a minority. The world’s way is always to win with a majority. Stop to think for a moment. Can you name any time in Scripture where God followed that policy? . . . The battles of Scripture were always won by an obedient minority, not a diverse majority.
– John Ashbrook
Second-grader sent home and ordered to undergo a psychological evaluation for drawing a crucifix.
After a class was instructed to sketch something that reminded them of the Christmas holiday, one student drew a crucifix. Apparently, however, according to the godless government-run public school, not only did Christ’s birth have nothing to do with His birth (like they know anything about theology anyway), but it also warranted this child’s removal from school and necessitated a psychological evaluation. Read more about this shocking story from Massachusetts.
Welcome to a brave new world.
Book review: “The Marketing of Evil” by David Kupelian.
I just completed a page-turner that I highly recommend to the readers of DefCon. David Kupelian’s provocative missive The Marketing of Evil: How Radicals, Elitists, And Pseudo-Experts Sell Us Corruption Disguised As Freedom, takes you behind the scenes of how the media, entertainment, and politicians drive the culture and how they not only shape how the masses think, but also what to think.
If you ever wanted to know how sodomy went from a commonly shunned taboo (i.e. a sin) to now not only being accepted as normal, but those who dare to speak against it considered the new outcasts of society, you have to read this book.
If you ever wanted to know how our society can decry the atrocities of the Nazi Holocaust while simultaneously accepting and condoning the barbaric dismemberment of their own children under the guise of “freedom of choice,” you have to read this book.
Recommended to me by a friend, I found this book to be shocking, riveting, compelling, and impossible to put down.
Although I can’t recommend this book enough, I do caution some readers that the material dealt with can be disturbing at times and even profanity is present in the section dealing with the hip-hop culture’s grasp on our youth.
Well over 200 reader reviews have been done on this book on Amazon.com with an overall rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars. Click here to read the reviews on Amazon.
Quotes (641)
It takes an incredible amount of effort and energy on the part of the news media to maintain such an obviously outrageous suspension of reality. But what would happen if the press reported accurately, objectively, and courageously on the Middle East conflict? Media reports would reflect, truthfully, that Israel is a Western democracy surrounded by dozens of backward, repressive, terror-supporting Arab police states dedicated to Israel’s annihilation. They’d show that the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Arafat was the father of modern terrorism. They’d show that the so-called Palestinian problem was cynically created for the precise purpose of eliminating the Jewish state by deception. The media would reveal that the Palestinian leadership is not now, nor has it ever been, interested in a separate Palestinian state next to Israel, but rather, in taking over all of Israel.
– David Kupelian
Nada Scriptura?
The world’s false religions and cults have many similarities, and one common thread among them all is their disbelief / distrust / disdain for the Bible.
And among these groups, five stand out as surprising when you consider that they believe themselves to be Christian, and as everybody knows, “Christians” believe the Bible . . . don’t they?
Whether it’s the Jehovah’s Witnesses who discourage individual understanding of the Scriptures . . .
Thus the Bible is an organizational book and belongs to the Christian congregation as an organization, not to individuals, regardless of how sincerely they may believe that they can interpret the Bible. For this reason the Bible cannot be properly understood without Jehovah’s visible organization in mind.
The Watchtower / October 1, 1967 / Page 587
. . . even going so far as to employ scare tactics that you’ll become apostate for reading the Bible on your own or in a small group:
They say that it is sufficient to read the bible exclusively, either alone or in small groups at home. But, strangely, through such ‘Bible reading,’ they have reverted right back to the apostate doctrines that commentaries by Christendom’s clergy were teaching 100 years ago…
The Watchtower / August 15, 1981/Pages 28-29
Or whether it’s the Mormons spreading their seeds of doubt . . .
It was apparent that many important points touching the salvation of men, had been taken from the Bible, or lost before it was compiled.
Joseph Smith /Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith /Page 10
. . . and blatantly attacking the Word of God:
This congregation heard brother O. Pratt scan the validity of the Bible, and I thought by the time he got through, that you would scarcely think a Bible worth picking up and carrying home, should you find one in the streets.
Brigham Young / Journal of Discourses / Volume 3 Page 116
Or whether it’s the liberal churches who “take the Bible seriously but not literally.”
Or whether it’s the Emergents whose greatest “virtue” is ambiguity, and whose mantra is “did God really say that?” all the while dismissing the importance of the very Bible they claim to believe:
This is part of the problem with continually insisting that one of the absolutes of the Christian faith must be a belief that “Scripture alone” is our guide. It sounds nice, but it is not true. In reaction to abuses by the church, a group of believers during a time called the Reformation claimed that we only need the authority of the Bible. But the problem is that we got the Bible from the church voting on what the Bible even is… When people say that all we need is the Bible, it is simply not true.
Rob Bell / Velvet Elvis / Pages 67-68
I grew up thinking that we’ve figured out the Bible, that we knew what it means. Now I have no idea what most of it means. And yet I feel like life is big again—like life used to be black and white, and now it’s in color.
Kristen Bell (Rob Bell’s wife) / Christianity Today / November 2004
Or whether it’s the Roman Catholic Church who in times past would burn you at the stake for merely possessing the Scriptures in your native tongue, but who now settle for pompously looking down their noses at you for daring to hold God’s inspired, infallible Word above that of their fallible, uninspired popes, priests, and man-made traditions.
So, whether you’re discouraged from reading your Bible, or the Bible is impugned so that you conclude it can’t be trusted, the desired result is always the same: Once you put down the word of God, or place some other “authority” above it, heresy will always follow.
As Gary Gilley aptly said in his book This Little Church Went to Market:
Today, virtually every heresy found in the Christian ranks can be traced back to some form of rejection of the Bible as God’s final authority. It may be pragmatism (which adds success to the Bible); mysticism (which adds experience); tradition (which adds the past): legalism (which adds man’s rules); or philosophy such as psychology (which adds man’s wisdom). The end result is all the same: the Word of God takes a back seat to the inventions and imaginations of men.
Essentially, all these false religions and cults have one goal in mind: To get you to stop trusting the words of the living God and instead, put your trust in their organization. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord and we will trust His word over the lies, rumors, heresies, doubts, and traditions of these false organizations. But what about you? When the question of the authority of Scripture comes up are you going to believe the empty words of false prophets, teachers, popes, and organizations, or the words of God Himself?
For the most part these counterfeit groups would agree that God created the heavens and the earth and that He is the architect of everything from the vastness of the galaxies yet to be discovered by man, to the tiniest microorganisms that are more complex than any supercomputers that we could ever build. And with few exceptions I’m confident that these groups also believe that God sustains His creation and that He’s omnipotent, omniscient, and all powerful.
Yet ironically they do not believe He had or has the power to sustain and preserve His word from generation to generation. How convenient for them that the God of all creation has this one weakness (that their popes, prophets, and programs can help God out with).
God was very clear about the tenacity of His Word: It is forever settled in Heaven (Psalm 119:89), it endures forever (Isaiah 40:8, 1 Peter 1:25), the smallest letter or stroke of the law shall not pass (Matthew 5:18), and Heaven and earth will pass away before His word does (Matthew 24:35, Mark 13:31, Luke 16:17, Luke 21:33).
Yet the false prophets will have you believe that the sovereign God who created and sustains the universe simply could not ensure the preservation of His own Word, but their “new revelation” on the other hand, is accurate and can be trusted in spite of the fact that their doctrines keep being added to, subtracted from, and changing from prophet to prophet, from leader to leader, and from pope to pope.
The Scriptures are for our instruction and to provide hope (Romans 15:4), for teaching (Deuteronomy 11:9, 2 Chronicles 17:9), for equipping Christians for good work (2 Timothy 3:16-17), and it gives us assurance of salvation (1 John 5:13).
Furthermore, God’s Word is more precious than silver and gold (Psalm 119:72), it’s a lamp, a light, and the way of life (Proverbs 6:23), it’s a lamp unto our feet (Psalm 119:105), it teaches us to fear the Lord (Deuteronomy 17:19), it purifies (Psalm 119:9), it gives understanding to the simple (Psalm 119:130), it teaches us so that we can walk in His paths (Isaiah 2:3), it sanctifies (John 17:17, Ephesians 5:26), it testifies to Jesus Christ (John 5:39), it leads us to Jesus Christ (Galatians 3:24), and it judges our thoughts and attitudes (Hebrews 4:12).
When you consider what God’s Word does, you can see why false religions and cults wish to separate you from it! If they can drive a wedge between you and the word of God, then they will have successfully separated you from the only source by which to measure truth. Then you are easy prey for their new revelations, their other gospels (Galatians 1:6-9), and their false christs.
So, I have three questions:
1. The Bereans were commended for searching the Scriptures to assure that what the Apostle Paul was teaching was accurate (Acts 17:11). Why are these false religions and cults advising you not to take up the Scriptures to see if what they’re teaching is true?
2.The Apostle Paul told us that our struggle is against spiritual powers and forces of wickedness (Ephesians 6:11-12) and in this fight he tells us to put on the armor of God (Ephesians 6:13), in which one of these is the sword of the Spirit–the very word of God. Why would false religions and cults want to disarm you from one of the best offensive and defensive weapons God has provided the Believer and instructed him to wield?
3. Jesus Christ, the Apostles, and the Disciples read the Scriptures and quoted from them regularly. In fact, when Satan tried to thwart Jesus’ mission on earth by twisting Scripture, Jesus quoted from the Scripture each time in rebuttal, effectively disarming the father of lies with the words of truth (Matthew 4:1-11). If the Scriptures were good enough and valuable enough for Jesus Christ and the Apostles, why do the false religions and cults say that they’re not good enough for you?
For all the reasons above it is apparent why false religions and cults reject the Bible and the idea of Sola Scriptura. When those groups claiming to be “Christian” are compared to the Light of the Scriptures they always come up short and their errors, falsehoods, heresies, and soul-damning doctrines of demons are exposed. If they can get you to doubt the Bible, they will quickly fill that void with their own “authority.”
Remember, we were never told that man shall live on the Church, the prophets, or popes, but we are told that man shall live on “every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Deuteronomy 8:3).
So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” – John 8:31-32
________________________________________________________________________________
For more on the Bible see : Bible Reference Notes – The Holy Scriptures