Demolish Imaginations

A Sermon by Dr. Neil Chadwick


"When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me." (I Corinthians 13:11)

In recent years there has been great progress in the development of brain-scanning technology. These new devices are able to look inside the skull, and "observe, amplify, record, rapidly analyze, and graphically display the brain substances and signals that reflect activity in very specific brain regions." (Pollard) There are several of these new types of scans: Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT), Positron Emission Tomography (PET), Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)

One of the learnings from this new technology is that the brain develops from the lower parts, "amygdala," nearest the spinal chord, to the upper regions called, "hippocampus" and "neocortex". The lower parts are much like animals' brains, governing survival, instinctual reactions to pleasure and pain, and reproductive functions. This lower part of the brain develops very rapidly in infancy, long before the upper regions which have to do with memory (the hippocampus) and rational thought (the neocortex).

The goal for brain growth is that it would progress to the stage when the upper sections of the brain would dominate the lower, especially during waking hours. As this development takes place, we become capable of resisting inappropriate urges having to do with eating and drinking, lashing out in anger, and crying or trembling uncontrollably. For example, courage happens when we use our upper brain portions to overcome the lower instinctual fear when in a threatening situation. So the job of parents, teachers and preachers is to strengthen this upper level of brain activity. Moral instruction is given and reinforced, consequences are explained, and our children learn to reject impulses which if followed, will cause harm to themselves or others in their social environment.

However, we have also learned that certain substances, when introduced into the brain, very quickly can bypass these upper, more rational brain functions, and activate the lower, impulse-driven sections of the brain. When this happens, powerful chemicals are released, and we become less able to take into account our surroundings, analyze important information, and predict consequences of our behavior. At that point, there seems to be nothing to deter the behavior, not even prospects of loss of money, loss of job, relationships, or even freedom - nothing is able to deter us from doing whatever is necessary to continue in this state, or, as we say, get the next fix.

The sensations caused by the release of these chemicals is highly pleasurable, and very quickly the user becomes addicted, not only to the chemicals, but also to whatever it is that brought about their release.

Having listened to this explanation, it would be natural for us to assume that what is being talked about here is illegal drugs such as heroin, cocaine and ecstacy. And that is true. But researchers have also discovered that the very same results come about with the introduction of visual, sexually arousing stimuli, what we all know as pornography. Yes, in as little time as three tenths of a second, these visual images pass from the eye through the brain, quickly bypassing the upper regions of the brain to the lower, calling for an immediate response regardless of what the consequences may be. This stimuli produces a change in the structure of the brain, leaving a trace that can last for years, creating a kind of speed lane from the eye to the instinctual portions of the brain. And once these new neurochemical pathways are established they are difficult, or seemingly impossible to delete.

To say it another way, pornography triggers several kinds of internal, natural drugs that mimic the 'high' like that acquired from a street drug. On November 18, 2004, Dr. Judith Reisman, Ph.D., president of the Institute for Media Education, testified before the US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, & Transportation. In part, this is what she pointed out, "Addiction to pornography is addiction to what I dub erototoxins -- mind-altering drugs produced by the viewer’s own brain." (http://commerce.senate.gov/hearings/testimony.cfm?id=1343&wit_id=3910)

In a way, in one of the most quoted chapters of the Bible, Paul spoke to this when he said, "When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me." (I Corinthians 13:11)

Hmm.

Paul is saying that the difference between childhood (the Greek word refers to infancy), and manhood, is in the way we think. The first word, "understood" is the Greek word "phroneo" which simply means to "exercise the mind." The other word, "thought" is the verb, "logizomai" from which we get our word "logic." When operating out of the lower regions of the brain, we are being like infants, incabable of responding according to mature judgment.

An honest statement is to say that addictions are regressive, and perpetualize an infantile state.

When we were thinking about offering the "True Love Waits" class for the second time, one of the teens asked, "Why do we have to talk so much about dating and sex?"

A good question. However, this message is not particularly for the teens. Truely, if adults get this right, it won't be nearly so hard for our young people to get it right - let's stop being so ready to blame what's wrong in the world on our youth. It is us adults who have created a greed driven society that sacrifices all moral restraints for the sake of the almighty dollar.

Last week, when we noted that several commonly used words like "trinity" are not found in the Bible, I had at the same time noticed that the word "sex" is also not in the Bible. However, what we do have, many, many times, are the expressions "sexual relations" and "sexual immorality." In fact, these are surprisingly found in almost half of the New Testament books (13) as well as in 5 books of the Old Testament.

The Old Testament law places a clear taboo on sexual relations outside the marriage covenant. This is clearly laid out for us in a section in Leviticus which begins with the statement, "No one is to approach any close relative to have sexual relations." This ancient rule book then lists a myriad of examples:

    Do not have sexual relations with: your mother, your father's wife, your sister, your grandchildren, the daughter of your father's wife, your aunts, or wives of your uncles.

    Do not have sexual relations with: your daughter-in-law, your brother's wife, or with both a woman and her daughter, your wife's sister, your neighbor's wife or with an animal.

    The section ends with this stern warning, "Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, because this is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you became defiled. Even the land was defiled; so I punished it for its sin, and the land vomited out its inhabitants." (Leviticus 18:6-25; also see Deuteronomy 27:20-23)

We are prone to think that all such commands are to be limited to the Old Testament, and therefore are no longer binding on us because, after all, we are in the age of Grace, not Law. However, Jesus, who was always stressing the importance of the spiritual over the behavioral, taught us that, "From within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality," etc. (Mark 7:21-23), and that's why He made the startling comment, "Anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart." (Matthew 5:27)

When early church leaders laid out a list of expectations for Gentile converts, they included abstaining from sexual immorality along with abstaining from food sacrificed to idols, and from blood. (Acts 15:19, 20, 29)

But the strongest words concerning sexual immorality come from the Apostle Paul.

    In his longest and most intentionally laid out letter, Paul chronicles the downward spiral of persistent athiesm, following it to the depraved conclusion of indecency and perversion. (Romans 1:24-27) But then he adds a note which certainly applies to what is happening today in our society. "Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them." (Romans 1:32) Doesn't that sound like pornography to you? Aren't those who view pornographic material implicitly giving their approval for these immoral acts?

    Near the end of this same treatise, Paul returns to this theme when he writes, "Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature." (Romans 13:13-14)

    Elsewhere, Paul includes sexual immorality in his list of "acts of the sinful nature" ("works of the flesh" - Galatians 5:19) and exhorts that among Christians, "there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity. . . ." (Ephesians 5:3-5) Rather, Christians are responsible to crucify whatever belongs to their "earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry." (Colossians 3:1-5)

    So strongly did the Apostle feel about the wrongfulness of sexual immorality that he firrmly pronounces, "Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders . . . will inherit the kingdom of God." At the end of this passage Paul concludes with a question, the answer to which he thinks his readers already know, "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body." (I Corinthians 6:9-20)

    And some of Paul's sharpest criticism is leveled aganist a church that permitted to go unchecked the sexual immorality of one of its leaders. (I Corinthians 5:1)

    In yet another letter, perhaps his first, Paul wrote, "Finally, brothers, we instructed you how to live in order to please God . . . . It is God's will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God . . . . For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life." (I Thessalonians 4:1-7)

Near the end of the New Testament, other authors added their admonitions:

    "See that no one is sexually immoral. . . ." (Hebrews 12:16);

    "Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral." (Hebrews 13:4)

    "Sodom and Gomorrah . . . gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire." (Jude 7)

John the Revelator puts a period at the end of the sentance when, in an otherwise somewhat confusing book, he states very clearly that the sexually immoral will have a place ". . . in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death." (Revelation 21:8) Eternal life in the beautiful City of God is offered to "those who wash their robes," but "outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood." (Revelation 22:13-16)

This is strong language, but we must stop waffling and waltzing around this subject, avoiding the reality of a growing spiritual and social epidemic. According to some reports, the startling statistic is that nearly two thirds of America's Christian men and 17 percent of women have struggled, or are right now struggling with pornography.

What are we to do?

First call it by its right name. It is not "adult entertainment." Pornography is nothing less evil than sexual immorality; pornography is perversion; pornography is displeasing to God; pornography is disgusting to any who seek after holiness.

Second, we must turn to God for help. Let's be honest and accept the truth that this is a life-controlling substance, and the bondage can only be broken through the power of the Holy Spirit.

    How can that power be accessed? Simply through a verbally expressed prayer of confession, repentance, and petition. Yes, it must be prayed out loud, admitting to God that the viewing of pornography is sinful, you've been doing it, you don't want to do it anymore, and you desperately need God's help to overcome this addiction.

Then, third, with the self-discipline provided by the Spirit, carefully, truthfully, and thoroughly log in a journal everything you view - anything at all that you intentionaly look at that has sexual conotations. It's like when someone is trying to reign in poor spending habits - they have to write down every single expenditure before they can ever expect to get control of their finances.

Last, you have to tell it to someone, another human being. Confess your problem to at least one other person, your wife or husband, or a spiritually strong close friend of your gender - tell them that you are struggling to overcome this bondage, and offer to become accountable to that person. Let them in on the first three parts, admitting it, what it is that you're praying, and what it is that you're writing down.

Notice that all of these steps require openness. The truth is, as long as sin is kept secret, it continues to have power. "Men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil."

As Christians we understand that we have a Biblical mandate to seek for holiness in every aspect of our lives. However, there may be some here today who have all but abandoned the Bible as the all-sufficient guide for faith and practice, and quoting from its pages is futile. However, if you won't bring this beast under control to please the Lord, and you won't do it for your own well-being, then please, please do it for the women and the children.

Let's stop trying to be self-centered men of brutality and domination and become real men who tenderly care for our wives and do our part to raise up godly children.

Dale Pollard is a 45 year ordained minister with the Assemblies of God. He also taught at Trinity Bible College several years prior to my being there. In the recent update of his book, "How Long Will God Wait?" he writes concerning the proliferation of pornographic materials:

    "Product after product has been introduced with one goal in mind: to sexually arouse - or to heighten sexual arousal - causing man's base nature to take over. When this happens, the effects become quite evident. Man chooses sexual satisfaction over almost everything else - including his wife's needs and his children's welfare. He begins to take unnecessary risks and make poor judgments. His quality of life and relationships (my words) plummet every time he allows himself to come into the throes of pornographic material. The grip gets tighter and tighter, causing his roles as marriage partner and parent to become less functional." (p.21,22)

For those who do honor the Bible's exhortations, it may come as a surprise that there's a verse near the very beginning of the Bible that clearly speaks to this issue. It's found in Genesis 6, as part of the story of Noah and the Great Flood. "And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." (6:5) Notice in this verse that "the wickedness" refers to the "imagination of the thoughts." Also notice that the larger word "imagination" includes the smaller word, "image". Let's be clear about this, pornography involves "wicked images."

A verse in Proverbs points out that this is one of the seven things that are destable to God, "A heart that deviseth wicked imaginations." (Proverbs 6:18)

The Bible's answer to pornography is to put a two-fold responsibility squarely on our shoulders when it says we must demolish these imaginations and allow the purity of Christ to control our thought lives. "The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds, casting down (demolishing or destroying) imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." (II Corinthians 10:4, 5)

"Casting down" these images of the mind is to forcibly reject them, to violently throw them away; "bringing them into captivity" is to put them in a prison with Jesus Christ as the jail-keeper - there, under His lock and key, they will no longer be able to do harm to us or anybody else. Any response short of this means that we are determined to clutch our filth, submit to the devil, and, as James says, allow ourselves to be "dragged away and enticed." (James 1:14)

"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable -- if anything is excellent or praiseworthy -- think about such things." (Philippians 4:8)

Discussion Questions
Demolish Imaginations

1. What are some of the things we have learned from the new technologies related to the functions of our brain?

2. Which region of the brain develops first, and what functions are impacted by this area?

3. Regaarding the development of the brain, what is the goal of parents, teachers and preachers?

4. What area of the brain is quickly triggered by the use of drugs such as heroin, cocaine and ecstacy?

5. How is viewing pornographic material much like the use of these drugs?

6. Do Old Testament rules apply to Christians?

7. According to Jesus, what is the source of "evil thoughts, sexual immorality," etc.? (Mark 7:21-23)

8. Who, besides those who practice sexual immorality, are guilty according to Paul in Romans 1:32?

9. Besides being harmful to one's self and important relationships, why is pornography spiritually damaging?

10. Why does it matter whether we call it "pornography" or "adult entertainment"?

11. How do we differentiate between these types of prayer: confession, repentance, and petition?

12. What is the value of itemizing in writing, and telling someone else about our slips and failures?

13. If pornography is practiced in private, why do we think it adversely affects others such as spouses and children?

14. When God decided to send the judgment of the Great Flood, besides their wicked behavior, what was God upset about?

15. What mental pictures are elicited by these phrases from II Corinthians 10:4, 5, "Casting down" and "bringing into captivity"?

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