Social Media and Spiritual Warfare: Part 1
Social media has allowed us to keep in touch with friends and family across the globe, discover new information and meet people with similar interests. But at what price? Let us safeguard our souls while navigating this virtual world.
Social media has unquestionably transformed the way we behave. While some of these changes have been for the better, many have been for the worse. As Tim Challies poignantly writes in The Next Story:
Today, in our digital world, we spend much of our lives beyond Gibraltar, beyond accountability through visibility, able to say and do and look at and enjoy whatever our hearts desire. Yet for all the freedom it brings us, it can also bring us captivity. [1]
Recognising that we are in the midst of active spiritual warfare, Christians ought to be particularly aware of the dangers that social media poses to our souls.
Here are three key realities Christians ought to consider when using social media:
1. Social Media: The Gateway to Pornography
Pornography used to be something you had to intentionally go out to find. Whether it was enduring the humiliation of purchasing a magazine from the newsagency, or the shame of renting an X-rated movie from the video store, porn was not accessible by today’s standards.
But things have drastically changed. Pornography is now something you must intentionally go out of your way to avoid. As the Daily Mail recently reported, TikTok’s algorithms actively promote sexual content, drugs, and alcohol to users. Similarly, a large proportion of videos distributed via Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram’s newsfeeds contain soft pornography.
Social media has become an acceptable alternative to access pornography.
If this rings true for you, consider Jesus’ words in Mark 9:46:
If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off.
It is better for you to enter life crippled
than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire.
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Dissent, Response, & Concurrences in Speck v. Missouri Presbytery
15 of the 24 men on the SJC have now, to some extent, gone on official record to express concern over TE Johnson’s views. This development contradicts claims that TE Johnson’s views were exonerated by the SJC in Speck v. Missouri Presbytery. In the case, the SJC decision represented an adjudication regarding a particular presbytery’s process by evaluating the investigative process of Missouri Presbytery. This case was chiefly about Missouri Presbytery and not about TE Johnson or his views. The case was about evaluating Missouri Presbytery’s investigation of TE Johnson. At the very least, the SJC has not vindicated TE Johnson (as Johnson claims), and this case has not made the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) into a Side-B denomination….
Earlier this week, byFaith Online published an article entitled SJC Answers Dissent in Greg Johnson Case. This comes several months after the majority made a ruling on a complaint against Missouri Presbytery that sided with Missouri Presbytery over how the Presbytery conducted an investigation of one of its members, TE Greg Johnson. On October 21, 2021, the majority concluded, “based on the Record, there was no reversible error in the decisions reached by Missouri Presbytery regarding the four allegations. It was not unreasonable for Presbytery to judge that TE Johnson’s ‘explanations’ on the four allegations were ‘satisfactory’.”[1] The Standing Judicial Commission (SJC) believes that the investigation led by Missouri Presbytery was done in a reasonable and procedurally sound fashion. The SJC vote was 16-7-0 (with one member unable to attend the meeting).
On October 31, 2021, the seven dissenters submitted their dissent in writing. The dissent concludes:
The SJC overlooked the clear deficiencies of Presbytery’s investigation, which is proven by re-opening the record and admitting additional information that sought the “present” positions of TE Johnson, extending consideration of facts well beyond the events complained against. Moreover, it was incumbent on the SJC to deal with the matters raised by the Complainant as issues of Constitutional interpretation instead of deferring to the lower court in this case.[2]
In other words, they believe the SJC erred by submitting new questions for TE Johnson to answer regarding his views on sexuality. To the minority, this is proof that Missouri Presbytery failed to conduct a proper investigation of TE Johnson concerning his views and statements on sexuality.
This week, it was revealed that the SJC chose to reconvene on February 1, 2022 in order to adopt a response to the dissenting opinion. In this response, the majority commends the dissenters “zeal for truth, and their evident desire to promote the peace and purity of the Church,”[3] but also claim that the dissenters do “not accurately reflect either the Record in this Case or the ruling and opinion of the SJC.”[4] The SJC chose to adopt a response to the dissent due to the majority’s belief that the dissenters misrepresented the case in their dissent.
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[1] Standing Judicial Commission, “Decision on the Complaint of TE Ryan Speck v. Missouri Presbytery,” 2021, 28.
[2] Steve Dowling et al., “Dissenting Opinion on the Complain of TR Ryan Speck v. Missouri Presbytery,” 2021, 8.
[3] Standing Judicial Commission, “SJC Answer to the Dissenting Opinion of RE Steve Dowling et Al.,” 2022, 13.
[4] Ibid. -
Finding Assurance
In the face of stubbornness, the sinner must resolve to be comforted by the Lord. There is an awful pride that feigns distress that one’s sins are too great and too numerous to confess. Hooker attacks this bogus belief: “You think you speak against yourself now: no, no, you speak against the Lord. And know, this is one of the greatest sins thou committest, to say thy sins cannot be forgiven.”13 What is at the heart of the matter? How can a poor, doubting Christian come to Christ? By believing in the finished work of Jesus Christ.
In his magisterial history of New England, Magnalia Christi Americana, Cotton Mather notes that, after finishing his time with Mrs. Drake, Thomas Hooker “in a little time . . . grew famous for his ministerial abilities, but especially for his notable faculty at the wise and fit management of wounded spirits.”1 The Puritan divine who would grow in stature both in England and America started out as a young college graduate called to a seemingly hopeless situation. As would soon become evident, his love for others and his skill in handling the Scriptures aided him in ministering to a woman teetering on the verge of heaven and hell.
The Troubled Mrs. Drake
About fifteen miles from London, the small parish of St. George’s in Esher, Surrey, called young Thomas Hooker (1586–1647) to serve as rector. Due to the congregation’s size, the wealthy Francis Drake, relative of the renowned English explorer Sir Francis Drake, served as Hooker’s patron and invited him to live in his home. However, Hooker’s presence would also serve another end.
Francis Drake’s wife, Joanna, struggled with severe spiritual and emotional affliction. Deemed to be “an invalid and hypochondriac,”2 she was known to have suicidal tendencies. On one occasion, Mrs. Drake woke up, screaming that “shee was undone, undone, undone, shee was damned, and a cast away, and so of necessity must need goe to Hell!”3 Gripped with constant terror, she feared that she had committed the unpardonable sin and was thereby consigned to eternal punishment. Two capable ministers were called upon for help, Rev. John Dod (1549–1645) and Dr. James Usher (1581–1656), but both would eventually step aside, frustrated in their efforts. However, Dod had heard of a young Cambridge lecturer named Thomas Hooker and recommended him for the task.
“New Answering Methode”
Upon moving into the Drakes’ home in 1618, Hooker began to minister immediately to the aged woman. Where the previous ministers failed, Hooker seemed to have great success. “For Mr. Hooker being newly come from the University had a new answering method . . . wherewith shee was marvellously delighted.”4 What exactly was his “new” method? One biographer attributes his success to his Cambridge training in “the new Ramist logic and rhetoric.”5 The scholastic hypothesis is that since he was trained in the art of logic, he would better be able to give Mrs. Drake well-reasoned answers to her objections to divine truth. However, this underestimates the inherent power of the Word of God applied to the heart of the believer.Related Posts:
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The Silent Problem in Our Pews
The church is uniquely positioned to serve those who have a mental illness. If we look at the roles of those in the church as listed in 1 Corinthians 12:28, we read that three are “healing, helping, and guiding.” This is what those with mental illness need most from the church. They need fellow Christians to walk alongside them to guide them and help them through the healing process.
The church generally does not like to talk about mental illness. As a result, a stigma surrounds those who struggle with mental illness. Those with mental illness often prefer to suffer in silence rather than discuss it. Additionally, as I suspect, most people in our pews are simply unaware of the scope and depth of the problem of mental illness. Regardless of the reason for failure to minister to those with mental illness, the fact remains that the church has, for the most part, failed miserably in this area. After all, when was the last time your church brought up mental illness in the pastoral prayer?
One in five people in the United States has a mental illness. Depression alone accounts for half of that. Statistically, in a church of one hundred people, twenty will have a diagnosed mental illness, and fifteen more, such as friends and family, will be personally impacted by it. Depression and bipolar disorder are among the top ten most debilitating illnesses globally. Bipolar disorder and depressive diseases influence the lives of millions of people. They affect those diagnosed and their families, friends, coworkers, and people with whom they interact. Mental illness is not kind to those who suffer from it, nor to those who must live with those who have it. One-third of your church’s members are affected by mental illness.
We cannot imagine someone with cancer or heart disease going five to ten years without treatment, yet it happens all the time to those with mental illness. These folks suffer in our schools, workplaces, homes, and churches. Two-thirds of those with bipolar disorder remain untreated! The sad fact is that without adequate treatment, mental illnesses often worsen. Right now, people in our pews are suffering, many silently, from mental illness. If we, as the body of Christ, do not help them, we fail in Jesus’s command to love our neighbors as ourselves.
The church has a poor track record when it comes to mental illness. We advise those who are depressed to “just be happy” or “just trust in Jesus.” Worse yet, are those churches that encourage their members to stop taking their psychotropic medications and ask God to heal them. And yet, those same churches would never tell someone with cancer to stop undergoing chemotherapy and just ask God to heal them. They would not tell someone with a broken leg to stop seeking medical treatment and “just walk on it.” And yet, this is what happens. Says Susan Gregg-Schroeder, coordinator of Mental Health Ministries, “I’ve gone to funerals of people who were told to just pray to Jesus and stop taking their medications.”
Mental illnesses bring various dangers to the individual, including personal problems such as unemployment, financial struggles, homelessness, and broken relationships. People with mental illnesses also have a considerably higher risk of substance abuse. While 13 percent of Americans struggle with alcohol addiction and another 10 percent struggle with drug addiction, 60 percent of those with depression or bipolar disorder struggle with some form of substance abuse. If your church has five individuals with bipolar disorder, three of those people struggle with alcohol or drug addiction. We do not like to consider this when we look around our churches on Sunday morning and see our fellow believers. By far, however, the most severe danger they face is suicide.
Those with mental illness also have a considerably higher rate of suicide than the general population and are more likely to commit suicide than individuals in any other psychiatric or medical risk group. Twenty to twenty-five percent of those diagnosed and treated for bipolar disorder will die by suicide. The suicide rate is even higher for those who remain untreated. Seventy percent of all suicides are related to depression. According to Dr. Frederick Goodwin and Dr. Kay Jamison, the presence of depression and bipolar disorder is the most critical risk factor for completed suicide. I cannot overemphasize enough the lethal nature of these illnesses. Bipolar disorder and depression are the deadliest forms of mental illness. Says Dr. Jamison, “Suicide, for many who suffer from untreated manic-depressive illness, is as much “wired” into the disease as myocardial infarction is for those who have occluded coronary arteries.”
The good news is that bipolar disorder and depression are highly treatable. The most effective treatment is both medication and counseling. Utilizing only one of these may benefit those struggling with mental illness; however, combined therapy is preferential. Kay Jamison states, “Counseling alone, without medication, is considered to be malpractice.” Treatment of bipolar disorder and depression with a combination of medicine and counseling results in significantly better outcomes. This runs contrary to the beliefs of many in the church that all individuals with bipolar disorder and depression should be treated with counseling alone. Medications serve to treat genetic and biological factors. Counseling helps to treat lifestyle and spiritual elements. Therefore, counseling is a critical component in treating bipolar disorder and depression. This is where the church can enter the picture.
Why should we minister to those with mental illness? Studies show that those with mental illnesses fare considerably better if they are part of a religious community. According to a Duke University Medical Center study that examined one thousand patients who suffered from depression, those with a “strong, intrinsic, religious belief … do better.” A study by Lynda Powell showed that those involved in a religious community tend to live longer than those not. These facts alone should encourage those in the church to reach out to the mentally ill.
The church is uniquely positioned to serve those who have a mental illness. If we look at the roles of those in the church as listed in 1 Corinthians 12:28, we read that three are “healing, helping, and guiding.” This is what those with mental illness need most from the church. They need fellow Christians to walk alongside them to guide them and help them through the healing process. Jesus commands us to do this in Matthew 25:40, when He tells his disciples: “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.” Serving our brothers and sisters with mental illness is the same as serving Jesus Christ. It is not optional; it is what Jesus commanded us to do.
Timothy Mulder serves in Southside Community Church (PCA) in Corpus Christi, TX. This article is used with permission. For a more in-depth look at ministering to those with mental illness, check out his book, Suffering in Silence.
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