I was reading the last of a series of articles that have been in the paper about today's younger generation of teens. It was analysing the 12-year-olds to the 37-year-olds, but with pre-eminent emphasis on the 12 to 19-year-olds. It's a marketing survey by Madison Avenue, telling how to reach the teenagers & sell them through advertising & it's the inside story on how they're doing it, mainly with television. And all the way through this article the author kept talking about images, that teenagers today are only persuaded by these images, you can only get your point across & sell your product if you can produce the right image!
This article talked about how the youth of today are the first generation who have been almost entirely educated by electronics, by technological means of information.--First radio, then television, then video & now the computer! I think many of these new modern inventions are inspired by the Devil, instruments with which he's destroying the World, destroying the minds of men, destroying the hearts of children through things like television. But you see how God can turn around & use it for His glory? The Family uses television, we even make television videos of the Family!
Now, can you think of anything I ever suggested that is certainly a forerunner of the Image of the Beast?--That speaks with the voice of the Beast & is worshipped by almost everybody on Earth right now today & stands in the holy place of their hearts, the spiritual holy place of their affections & their imagination & their worship & their love! It is the very personification of materialism, at whose feet the whole World who are well off enough to have one, sit at least an average of 2 or 3 hours a day! What am I talking about? (Fam: Television!)
I suggested this once upon a time, I said television reminds me of the Image of the Beast because it already portrays everything that the Beast stands for! I think I got the thing about television long ago. While reading that article I remembered that my Father even had that kind of idea. That's already the Image of the Beast & he's already being worshipped & the Antichrist spirit already controls the World!
It's the Image of the Beast & all that he advocates & all that he advertises & all that he tries to get the world to fall down & worship! "Fall down & worship me & you can have all these things!"--The same temptation he gave to Jesus! (Mat.4:8-9) "Worship me, worship material things, worship my products!" That came to me so clear this morning reading this article about these young people, how they worship television & they idolise their idols. Youth today is worshipping images, TV images, music images, dramatic images, movie images! They're already worshipping the Image of the Beast!
Satan, the Devil himself, already rules this world & the people who worship television & worship its images & worship its idols & worship its music & worship its portrayal & displayal of all that is materialistic & all that is fiendish & devilish, as well as a little good here & there sprinkled in just to get by! Satan is the ruler of this World & its communications & the Lord gets very little of it. (2Cor.4:4; Eph.2:2)
Every human being is supposed to be the temple of God, the creation of God made to be the temple of God! (1Cor.6:19, 2Cor.6:16) But Satan has usurped that temple & he is sitting there himself as god, claiming that he is God! And he has already got his Image all over the World, in some of the most remote places in the World, in the middle of Indian deserts & everywhere you can imagine! (Fam: They have satellites now so that people can see the same program at the same time all over the World!)--Anywhere!
I'm just saying what if? what if this is true? What if television is the Image of the Beast? It's an image. Who has to wait for a computerised Image to look just like the Beast, the Antichrist? You say, "But Dad, TV's not a statue, it's not the image of a man, a statue of a man!" Who said it was the statue of a man?--Me! That's not what the Bible says, it says it's the Image of the Beast!--The Antichrist! Can you believe it? Is it possible? Although, who knows, we may yet see it actually, literally!
I'm trying to show you how a lot of that can be spiritually interpreted. (Maria: And some of the things can even have both a spiritual & a literal interpretation!)--Yes! I am not saying that TV is actually it & the only fulfilment, but a spiritual likeness. I'm really still expecting the Image & all. I'm just suggesting "What If?" it could be fulfilled spiritually right now? If you don't want to accept it, you don't have to accept it. I don't know if it's true myself, I'm just proposing the possibility that that could be a possible interpretation, that we may be much further along in the Endtime than we think!
My name is James Arendt. I was raised in the Hegewisch neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois, served in the USAF from 1970 to 1974, and became a full-time missionary for Christ living 40 years in Japan, 3.5 years in Russia, and a few months in other countries such as Finland, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, South Korea, Taiwan and mainland China where I also served the King of Kings, Jesus, as an Ambassador for His Kingdom. My full bio.
On September 24, 2023, I had an accident and broke the bone of the tip of my left elbow. A boy ran in front of my motorbike less than 2 meters from me as I was leaving home. I stopped suddenly and my front tire slid on the sandy concrete road which caused me to fall. I did not hit the boy. On October 18th I had surgery done on my elbow. The doctor put in titanium rods to hold my bones together. The entire procedure including an entire week in the hospital was roughly $4000 USD. This was done in the Philippines where my wife and I have been living since June this year.
It would be a super blessing to us if any of the visitors of this website can help us cover this expense!
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