Back in January, the Golden Globe Awards ceremony was held. I do not watch exhibitions of this kind originating from Hollywood. I cannot tell you the difference between the Oscars, Emmy, Golden Globe, Tony, or whatever other award spectacle celebrities organize to get together and congratulate themselves. Why do I have such opposition to such? Mainly because over the last few decades these events are nothing more than platforms to attack values that Christians hold dear and to instead promote agendas entirely at odds with Scripture. These elites, as they consider themselves, denigrate those who disagree with them on issues like homosexuality or abortion. They have no regard for God, are unwilling to submit to the truth of His Holy Word, and take the greatest delight in ridiculing those who do attempt to honor their Creator. If you combine this with the filth they produce for the public to consume via the mediums of movie, TV, music, internet, etc., I have little desire to do anything to show any measure of support or endorsement to the Hollywood industry and those who work in it.
If the previous paragraph seems harsh, I simply wanted to make it crystal clear that I have a great distaste for the Hollywood culture and accompanying celebrity worship that infects many in our country today. Sadly, I have observed and believe that this infects Christians, too! (I beg parents who are reading this to be very diligent in monitoring what your children consume. I suppose this is a warning that all of us need to heed what we watch and listen to, whether we are parents or children. This is an important issue, but not the purpose of this article.)
I was surprised sometime later to see an article about an actor who gave a very unusual acceptance speech. The headline read like this: “Actor Christian Bale Thanks Satan For Helping Him Play Role Of Dick Cheney.” I do not know anything about Mr. Bale and am not sure if he played the former vice-president in a movie or TV show of some kind. The article reporting this news I suppose made mention of these details, but again, as noted above, I really do not care to find out or learn more about such matters. The acceptance speech for the award given for his portrayal was transcribed: “Thank you to Satan for giving me inspiration on how to play this role.” I am sure most of the audience members enjoyed this analogy that attempted to connect the former vice-president with the archenemy of mankind.
I am in no way endorsing this comparison, but it made me think that sometimes we perhaps do not give the devil credit. It pains me to say, but the evil one is effective at what he does. He achieved his devious purpose in the Garden of Eden in Genesis 3 and has been accomplishing mischief through temptation and deceit ever since. Let me be clear, the devil or Satan or evil one or however you wish to refer to him cannot force us to sin. He simply provides the temptation or the deception and urges us to put our will before the will of God. While we do not study his tactics in order to imitate or praise them, Paul urged us not to let him get an advantage over us because we are not ignorant of his devices (2 Corinthians 2:11). He is sneaking about seeking an opportunity to devour us (1 Peter 5:8). Let us, like Jesus, fortify ourselves with the Word of God so we can resist his temptations (Matthew 4:1-10), and when we submit to God we are assured he will flee from us (James 4:7).