About 35 years ago, as I began studying the power of media in our society, I began to realize how all pervasive the Spirit of Antichrist has actually become in America culture. As I researched the subject, I became convinced that every form of media was deeply indwelled with the Spirit of the Age. Books, Films, Music, Plays, Paintings, Poetry, and even Sculpture all showed extensive evidence of an influence that the Bible tells us originated with the angelic entity known as Lucifer - and the cadre of spirits that followed him in the great rebellion so many millennia ago.

    I found that the anecdotal data showed that many great Painters (for example) had attributed their creative talents to a spiritual impulse. Similarly, a significant percentage of well-known Poets also claimed to have been inspired by an elusive higher power. Indeed, the very word inspiration has at its root the word spirit.

    As I sought to probe all forms of media, the story was always the same. Philosophers, Playwrights, and Composers all told similar tales of seeking a spark for their creativity in a mystical context. Famous artists repeatedly spoke of the Muse - a classical reference to any one of nine Greek goddesses that were said to preside over the arts and sciences. In this regard, it's instructive to note how The New American Heritage Dictionary defines a Muse as "the spirit or power regarded as inspiring and watching over poets, musicians, and artists." How revealing to realize that our word music is directly related to these ancient spiritual personalities - to say nothing of the works of art and historically significant artifacts that are found in the temples that are named after the pagan deities. We know them as museums.

    Having been raised among creatives in the film and television industries, it was not difficult to recognize the persuasive power that was consistently being unleashed in motion pictures and episodic TV. I learned how subliminal imbeds have been used for decades to subtly implant psychological manipulative 'hooks' into the public's psyches to motivate them to purchase a particular product - or to be persuaded to a specific point of view. This sophisticated subconscious technique is taught at university level and is being utilized in print advertising, movies, television, and even radio.

    As I read book after book on how the media is the primary methodology for persuasion in the modern world, I found the techniques of mass hypnosis and subliminal seduction have been employed in the manipulation of mankind through the mass media. These complex capabilities that were becoming more and more evident to me came into direct conflict with my then nascent understanding of the kind of person the LORD desired that I become. At the same time, after years of studying the media, I recognized the message that was emanating outwards from an inner spiritual dimension was the primary common denominator in seemingly disparate forms of media.

    Upon the realization that a professional involvement in secular media had the potential to overcome my commitment to the God of the Bible, I retreated to the Christian music industry - and the then infant Christian film arena. I also began to write about the Christian media industries. Incredibly, the more I learned about how the "Christian" media companies operated, the more I realized they were operating in essentially the same fashion as the secular media - except a rather thin "Christian" skin had been stretched around the various companies in an almost superficial effort to legitimatize their "Christian" identity.

    In short, to my great consternation I learned that the "Christian" media organizations were practically identical twins to their secular counterparts.

    Reasoning that the LORD had showed me these things for a reason, I continued to press on in professional involvement as I continued to write, even as I composed and produced contemporary Christian music records, and worked on developing television projects.

    At the same time, my studies in the Scriptures helped me to recognize the hard truth that it was only a matter of time before the entire "Christian" media arena would eventually fall away completely from the historic truth of Jesus Christ. As I began to understand how the media had to be one of the primary targets for the Spirit of Antichrist to bring under its sway, I came to the prophetic realization that spiritual control of the religious media was the veiled long term goal of the Devil.

    Finally, I came to the stunning conclusion that the "Christian" media was destined to become so leavened that it would ultimately become a significant vessel for the prophetic program of the Antichrist and the False Prophet. Every available avenue of religious media would steadily be brought under a barrage of spiritual assault by the Spirit of the Antichrist. Indeed, the more exposure I had to the Christian media companies firmly indicated that the great falling away in their ranks was already well in progress. I further recognized that the efforts to manipulate the corporate Christian media firms would never take the form of a frontal assault. The Satanic tactic was simply to draw Christians with good intentions into the religious media, and to gradually neutralize their ability to hear the WORD of the LORD through a systemic conformity to the ways of the world.

    As contemporary "Christian" culture in America grew through the agency of Christian books, Christian magazines, Christian music, and a seemingly unquenchable thirst for Christian "entertainment," believers working within these organizations slowly developed their personal career aspirations within a New Covenant framework. Like all the other forms of religious media, Christian record labels began to eye the secular marketplace and the increased revenue a 'crossover' hit would bring.

    Christian book marketers realized that millions of religious women had the same intrinsic desire for romance that Harlequin Books had discovered and capitalized upon. Predictably, we saw the oxymoronic phenomenon of "Christian fiction" develop in the sub-cultural ghetto that the churched American believers had come to inhabit.

    As the media firms became more and more sophisticated, the Christian media providers learned that distribution was just as crucial to the marketing formula as content. In order to reach the required number of retail outlets that would bring a product into the fiscal winner's circle, the smaller boutique Christian record producers were forced to align themselves with major publicly traded distribution organizations that had no concept of a mission statement - or any sense of commitment to the Evangel of Christ.

    Meanwhile, the Gospel book publishers quickly learned that controversial subjects were the equivalent of commercial suicide. Following their secular counterpart's lead in demographics and market research, they began to issue "guidelines" of what types of books and articles they would be interested in publishing. Young writers quickly learned that certain subjects would guarantee a rejection, and in the desire to get published, they simply followed the market driven corporate guidelines put forth by the more successful publishers.

    Thus, the "market" began to dictate content - the spiritual equivalent of the cart leading the horse. This was not even a modern version of 'preaching to the choir' - it would more aptly be described as a fulfillment of a prophecy that states how an entire generation would,

"after their own lusts....heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables." (II Timothy 4:3, 4)

    In fact, it is only quite recently that a major polling organization publicly disclosed that more American believers are now following national media ministries than are in fellowship at local churches. At least part of this phenomena is because our media-centric society demands excellence, and the communication skills of national Christian media figures are frequently of a higher caliber than the local minister with all his hometown flaws.

    Think about this for just a minute. Which news broadcast would you rather watch on television - the New York or LA based network feed that is polished and exceedingly professional, or the locally produced program with poor camera work, a grainy picture shot with low budget equipment, and small town reporters that frequently stumble over their poorly written scripts? The simple truth is the media barrage of major budget media has eroded any tolerance of mediocrity - and the religious media is no different than the secular in this regard.

    Significantly, the great "falling away" from the direct personal LORDSHIP of Jesus Christ has occurred on multiple levels. While the historic effectiveness of the local church has been largely neutralized through the leaven of political and fiscal conformity to the social structure of our time (read incorporation, tax deductibility through the federal 501(c)(3) non profit permit, and adherence to local community standards), the actual content that trickles down from the top media producers has subtly shifted as well.

    Millions of dollars and major media figure's careers are now at stake, and the rallying cry of 'protect the institution' always surfaces during the now frequently recurring crisis of integrity. Doctrinal issues follow the broad road of tradition, and pastors and national media ministries are loathe to perform the modern equivalent of turning over the tables in the temple.

    As a case in point, a few short years ago several major Christian recording artists were caught in a series of sexually compromising situations. In one high profile scandal, the record label knew of the artist's predilection for extramarital sexual activity on the road, but because hundreds of thousands of dollars had been invested in a new CD, the affair was covered up. The conventional wisdom is that record sales tend to suffer in the Christian "market" when the public finds out a "Gospel" artist is an adulteress - thus a cover-up is financially expedient.

    In the print arena, when several well known Christian authors were exposed as brazen plagiarists, a similar whitewash ensued. In one high profile case, the "Christian" book publisher pulled a title that had been publicly exposed as having been stolen from another author - only to re-release the title under another brand imprint with a different cover a year or so later.

    This is not a slide into liberalism as much as it is a departure from the love of the truth. It may more accurately be described as a process where "the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in" (Mark 4:19) have choked our spiritual effectiveness. At the same time, the periodic conservative backlash to various liberal incursions tends to mask the overall departure from the truth.

    For example, Oxford University Press is about to release a new annotated study Bible that is colloquially known as the Homosexual Bible. Most Christians are appalled at this, but the resulting backlash actually helps to perpetuate the illusion that mainstream Christianity is still vitally interested in preserving the historic Gospel. The truth is, amid the outrage at Oxford for the audacity to commercially cater to a group that practices such obviously unscriptural behavior, very few people recognize the fact that it was Oxford that originally brought out the Rapture Cult oriented Scofield Reference Bible - one of the most radical departures from the historic Gospel in the history of Christianity.

    However, because we are now over 150 years into that particular apostasy which was largely accomplished through the media of a Bible that was positively overflowing with false doctrine in the form of margin notes espousing the counterfeit theology of dispensationalism, few would even begin to suspect the prophesied great "falling away" (II Thesselonians 2) goes that far back.

    To make matters worse, as the "Christian" media has grown in volume due to the significant numbers of believers that regularly purchase Christian content, the multi-national secular media giants have quietly acquired the majority of the Christian firms - in many cases keeping their management teams intact so the transition is hardly noticeable. Thus, the Christians leaders themselves have sold out in order to service Mammon and to keep their careers intact.

    In conclusion, the media has been demonstrated to be one of the primary vehicles that Satan has effectively utilized to further his endgame agenda. Indeed, I have long predicted that the religious media is destined to be the key facilitator of the Antichrist agenda as it interprets, in a "Christian" context, the terrifying events that are scheduled to occur at the end of the age.

    What is truly incredible about all of this is the obvious connection between the actual word MEDIA and its cognate term, the MEDIATOR. The simple truth is, we have already been instructed that the WORD of the LORD is the only "media" that is to be trusted implicitly.

    The Bible tells us "there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." (I Timothy 2:5). In a mystical sense, the Bible actually blurs the distinction between the divine spoken WORD of God as the only begotten Son of God that manifests the will of God the Father, and the living breathing person that "was made flesh, and dwelt among us" (John 1:14). When Scripture says "and the WORD of the LORD came to...." we are actually seeing that JESUS CHRIST Himself revealed something to the person in question.

    The Gospel of John tells us the "the WORD became flesh." Thus, the Divine, only begotten Son Of God became a man so that He could become the exclusive media of God's magnificent salvation. He is the source of the only true MEDIATION between God and man.

    It is a deep Spiritual truth that Jesus is actually equated with the TRUTH itself. Thus, any media that is apart from the truth of Christ is intrinsically to be defined as Antichrist. Furthermore, when any media departs from the actual TRUTH of any given thing, even though it is represented as being from a Christian perspective, it has become a lie, and there is no doubt that "whosoever loveth and maketh a lie" (Revelation 21:27) shall not enter in to the kingdom of God.

    There are many, many forms of "Christian" media that have been produced by believers seeking to serve two masters. Usually, they involve the classic split between the LORD, and the service of Mammon in the form of a career climb that slowly becomes so leavened that the spiritual output is simply unclean. Those organizations that have been willing to de-emphasize certain aspects of the TRUTH due to commercial considerations are unwitting servants of the Spirit of Antichrist.

    The "Christian" media in America has largely become a lie, and should thus be viewed as a manifestation of the Mystery of Iniquity. The Bible tells us that God "Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son...Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person" (Hebrews 1:3) is the only MEDIATOR between us and God the Father. Although we can utilize man-made media in order to communicate with each other, "we see through a glass darkly" until "this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality...." (I Corinthians 13:12, 15:54).

    JESUS CHRIST has manifested the Father unto us (John 14:21). Satan's spirit has manifested itself through the media that speaks or propagates anything other than the pure truth of God. Every "Christian" book, record, or video that has anything less than the truth is Antichrist. "This is a deceiver and an Antichrist" (II John 1:7).

    The Media Demon is that Spirit of Antichrist that now dominates the world. All media that is sanctioned by the Beast propagates a message that is inhabited by the Spirit of the Antichrist. Conversely, the Bible tells us that Jesus Christ is the image of God. Because Jesus is the mediator between God and man, the image of God is the mediator. The counterfeit to that image is seen in Revelation as the image of the Beast. That image pours forth the Spirit of Antichrist. Therefore, all media that is not truly of Christ is another manifestation of the image of the Beast.

    All media that truly glorifies the Father "shall also bear the image of the heavenly...For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son...Who is the image of the invisible God" (I Corinthians 15:49, Romans 8:29, Colossians 1:15).

    "We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error." (I John 4:6).

June 2, 2003 - James Lloyd

Copyright © 2003 Christian Media Network

See Also

Secret Sixes: Subliminal Imbeds In The Movies

Pitfalls In Christian Print

Criminals In Christian Music

The Spirit Of Antichrist

Shortwave Wars

The Image Of The Beast