The theaters are fountains of vice!
“The Lord, the Lord Almighty, called you on that day to weep and to wail, to tear out your hair and put on sackcloth. But see, there is joy and revelry, eating of meat and drinking of wine! ‘Let us eat and drink,’ you say, ‘for tomorrow we die!’ The Lord Almighty has revealed this in my hearing: ‘Till your dying day, this sin will not be atoned for!’ says the Lord, the Lord Almighty.” Isaiah 22:12-14
My dear Madam,
I am well convinced that if there is any practice in this land which is sinful–attendance on the playhouse is eminently so. The theaters are fountains of vice! I can hardly think there is a Christian upon earth who would dare to be seen there–if the nature and effects of the theater were properly set before him! By its innumerable train of dissipations, the god of this world blinds the eyes of multitudes, lest the light of the glorious gospel should shine in upon them.
I wish you, therefore, to use all your influence to make them shunned as pest-houses, and dangerous nuisances to precious souls! Especially if you know any who you hope, in the main, are seriously disposed, who yet venture into those haunts of Satan–endeavor earnestly and faithfully to undeceive them!
The time is short! Eternity is at the door! Was there no other evil in these vain amusements, than the loss of precious time (but alas! their name is legion)–we have not leisure time to regard them.
And, blessed be God, we have no need for them! The gospel opens a source of purer, sweeter, and more substantial pleasures! We are invited to communion with God! The wonders of redeeming love are laid open to our view. Well then, may we bid adieu to the perishing pleasures of sin!
Well may we pity those who can find pleasure in those places and parties . . .
where Jesus is shut out;
where His name is only mentioned to be profaned;
where His commandments are not only broken, but insulted;
where sinners proclaim their shame, as in Sodom, and make no attempt to hide it;
where wickedness is veiled in the disguise of amusement–to make it more insinuating!
“You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God?
Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.” James 4:4
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Abba,
So often did I hear, years ago, a sort of legalism and ultra conservatism in things such as this.
Years later, I begin to see it differently. What I see is a heart for the gospel. When one comes to see the gospel as gloriously as it is, when one comes to delight in it as you intend us to, the vanity, frivolity, vile vices of our amusements and entertainments becomes clear. It becomes easy to see how one so enraptured by the gospel is suddenly repulsed by the world’s amusements.
I know not what the content of these theater amusements were to which Newton speaks. But I do know OUR amusements and the content of it. And his words are spot on. Even when the content is not overtly crude, sexual, or vulgar, it most assuredly still heralds and encourages attitudes and priorities, passions and pursuits that are no where near as glorious as that which the gospel heralds.
And we wonder why the Church today is so lack luster with its gospel passion. We wonder why there is no sense of urgency and passion to save the lost. We wonder why marriages and families are crumbling and why worldly philosophies have so invaded our thoughts and hearts.
No, it has nothing to do with legalism and the pursuit of earning our righteousness before you. It has to do with SO ENRAPTURED by the gospel that we cannot stomach the same amusements and delights we once did and our passions are changed by the glorious work of the redeeming gospel.
Abba, help me to examine my own passions and interests, my own vain amusements. Guard my heart from the fleshly pursuit of vain, empty vices which rob a sense of glory for the gospel from my heart. Keep my heart ever and always passionate for the gospel of Jesus Christ that would send a perfect God to die for worthless sinners so that we could be reconciled to you and restored to a right relationship as you always intended from the day of creation.
I love you, Abba.
A Singular Passion 