DOUBLE STANDARDS
There are mainly believers who are easily offended by the use of satanic themes in music and videos. I am addressing this because a few years ago, I was in that camp, easily prone to judge individuals i deemed as deviants of God’s law. I do not claim to know better now than those i might address now, the attempt is try to show them that the bridge to being peaceful at heart is to give up the lifestyle of suspicion often masked as high spiritual discernment
Most people or ministries claiming to be discernment ministries looking for heresy do very little to acknowledge the "heresy" or deception in their hearts. To them, everyone is flawed except them. They hold perfect theology; they will deny of course when pressed, but they certainly act it out. Especially brothers from the reformed camp. I recently asked one Calvinist on Twitter why he felt the need to be condescending to those whom he did not agree with. I did not receive a response.
The pursuit of truth is a lifelong project and is analogous to being married. It is foolish to assume you know your spouse well enough. You may know him or her, but not with all certainty. The choice to marry is based on and dare I say faith, faith is the assurance or trust based on a hope that the action of the spouse will continue to be consistent. That inspires love also. So within the marriage context, faith hope and love must work together as the foundation for a good marriage. Same with the truth. Being married to truth comes with faith that the understanding one has of truth will continue to grow with each passing day as one commits himself to study. the blessed heart is the one open to continuous studies, open to correction.
Well, what is truth? Truth is a person and not a dogma. Truth is Christ the God-man. And
his lifestyle of love and humility is the guideline in emulation. Do we believe we have apprehended all the depths and heights of Christ No, but we trust that he perfects our understanding even as he perfects all that concerns us.
Yesterday at the Grammys sam smith, he had a satanic themed performance, and many Christians have taken this case to Twitter to express their sentiments. Many have accused the Grammy committee of endorsing satanic rituals and spiritism. Some said Sam was an anti-Christ, and others pointed to his audacity for dressing up as Satan. So, I was asked what I thought about it, and I decided to expand my answer to this article.
Historically and culturally, men and women from all manner of cultures have cosplayed their gods during festivities and events for
entertainment purposes. It is not anything new. During the festival of opet, the Egyptians would carry a statue of their god Anum and the priest and priestess would dress up as gods and goddesses as they paraded over the streets, in Greece during the festival of anthesteria, the people would often dress up like Dionysius the goddess of wine and fertility as they had their procession through the streets. Even in Africa, we cosplay our gods in festival traditions called masquerades. This is first of all human behaviour culturally from the past to the present. It is not something new
It is uncertain where the reddish devil with two horns and a tail with pitchforks emerged. We have no idea. Only it was adapted within Christian and pagan circles, which gained stridency during the medieval period. This imagery has become a universal symbol that represents the devil. Issue is
nowhere in the bible is the devil given such a description. But this imagery emerged from the fertile imaginations of people and throughout the years has been used as the symbolic representation of our concept of the devil. But truly, who has seen the devil before, and what does he look like? What if he looks another way and this red appearance is merely distorted imagery of him? Would that affect your perception if you saw another person cosplay the red devil with a pitchfork?
Who is the devil? I have two answers. One is a psychological answer, and the other is a spiritual answer. The devil is an enemy of man, a spirit being who uses deception to sway men from the purposes of the creator. The second answer is that the devil is what we call an archetype. In Jungian psychology, archetypes are universal themes within the psychic structures of man called
The collective unconscious of every man. These themes manifest themselves to us as symbols. One of the archetypes that Jung described was the shadow archetype, which is the part of the unconscious mind that deals with dark impulses. This archetype is linked to what cultural and religious circles perceive as Satan. The trickster archetype is also linked to this devil symbol. And we find these symbols occurring within various stories from different cultures. Anansi is the typical trickster archetype. But the truth is Anansi is describing all of us and our potential at deceiving ourselves and others.
The stories we create and the songs we sing using these types of archetypal imageries describe us and our behaviours, whether it’s the hero or the trickster archetype or the shadow archetype. Fact is the devil, or if you would prefer, the shadow is alive in all of us. Nietzsche was the one who said that humans have vestigial or primitive tendencies within our psychic structures and through the process of
discovery and achieving wholeness, one could overcome those animalistic tendencies. This is perhaps the reason why cosplaying the devil appeals to many of these artists. I think they are trying to tell a story about their dark impulses, their own shadow, and their life mimicking the trickster archetype. The audience is also captivated for the same reason. The artist’s work reflects their proclivities for darkness.
I may be wrong but that is what I have been able to conceive of. These people are atheists they do not give reverence to the scripture we hold dear and that’s the reason they plagiarize from various sources to tell their stories. As always humans love stories and art is best received in a mythological way.
I certainly don’t claim to know what is within their heart. But I think it’s quite good to turn off your tv if you think something is offensive to your faith. Why watch and endure all the so-called satanic symbols only to complain about them? This is like someone watching porn only to critique the styles used in it. In the first place, you believe Hollywood and these Grammy people are anti-Christian. Why watch it in the first place? I don’t watch such things and when I see pictures of them on Twitter I just scroll. When you value your peace of mind you hardly entangle with music that will take it away
And then again, we seem to play these double standards. Most Christians are against secular music because, according to them, these artists have made a pact with the devil for fame. Question: Do you watch Avengers? Are you aware that they were written and acted by these same unbelieving people who you claim to be demonic? Have you or do you watch Netflix? Some of us perch the accounts of others because we don’t want to be late on these shows. They aren’t written by Christians? The question is, why then do we apply a standard to music that we don’t apply to our movies? I’d leave that for you to answer
I think it will be valuable if you want to be consistent with avoiding satanically inspired music and movies to stop listening to any of these things. You can throw in your phone and the rest since they were or could have been invented by a godless atheist who hates God. Or you could be an Amish.
I am not trying to bring in licentiousness. Only that discernment doesn’t deal with form. It is not the character that goes easily pointing fingers at people because they tap into their traditions and cultures. But if you insist then be at least consistent. The only way we arrive at true discernment is
to have a heart that is genuinely humble in search of the accuracy that the Lord's dividing line brings and not the conjured-up idiosyncratic hype we make for discernment.
Peace is a valuable virtue. Let’s learn to find peace and not point fingers . If you don’t like satanic-themed performances don’t watch. It’s your eyes, after all. Furthermore, it is important to go for the things that are edify, at least by the standards of scripture.
