Author	Thread: The Christian Celebrity System: Part Two
Admin	The Christian Celebrity System: Part Two Posted : 27 Dec, 2010 06:49 AM The Christian Celebrity System: Part Two There are a large number of Christian celebrities of our time, most of whom are still living. Some include Billy Graham, Oral Roberts, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Kenneth Copeland, Tim LaHaye, Grant Jeffrey, John Hagee, Rick Warren, Robert Schuller, Jimmy Swaggart, and Hal Lindsey. Almost all of these Christian celebrities teach the pre-tribulation rapture theory, that God has two distinct peoples, the Jews and the Church, that Christians cannot be Israel and that the Jews, saved or unsaved, remain the chosen of God. Although Rick Warren is or was a member of the Southern Baptist denomination, I am not sure that he teaches the doctrines of dispensationalism. Robert Schuller has taught other forms of false doctrines and might not be classified as a dispensationalist. So the Christian celebrity system is to a great extent responsible for the present day widespread popularity in the Churches of the doctrines of the pre-tribulation rapture, the radical separation of Church and Jews, and that the Jews remain God's chosen people. And - there are a few well known Christian teachers who do not fit in with the celebrities listed above. For example, Francis Schaeffer (1912-1984) and especially the Dutch missionary Corrie Ten Boom (1892-1983) are famous but should not be classified as celebrities because they apparently did not try to cultivate their images. Both wrote a great many Christian books. Schaeffer is interesting because he belonged to the Reformed pre-millenialist camp, but was not into dispensationalism, though he did not systematically criticize it. Corrie emphasized forgiveness, which is not stressed in the contemporary Churches. Schaeffer's smaller Calvinist group believed that following the tribulation, Christ would appear the second time, and after that he would bring in his thousand year reign on earth. They did not believe in the pre-trib rapture or that God has two different peoples. The larger number of Calvinists follow amillennialism, which makes the thousand year reign into a big sweeping allegory of all Christians from all ages, following Augustine and the Catholic Church. Corrie Ten Boom in her later years opposed dispensationalism, and pointed out that the doctrine of the pre-trib rapture left the Christian Church ill-prepared in times of great persecution, such as in China under Mao. Celebrities are the most successful people in the image culture of television, movies, radio, magazines and newspapers. Many people who are not celebrities imitate celebrities in presenting surface appearances of attractiveness and success. Almost everyone takes part in the celebrity system - including Church Christians - by allowing celebrities on TV, in movies, on the radio and in other media to influence them in what they think and in the way they act. Celebrities not only entertain Americans and those in most other parts of the world, but they also tell us what to believe and how to behave. National political celebrities are able to lead people to the extent that the politicians can sell people on the basis of their images. In our age of deception, it is the celebrities of entertainment, politics and religion who do much of the deceiving; and they are able to deceive people because the people are impressed by their surface appearances. It is very important for believers to understand the celebrity system - both secular and Christian - because many Christian celebrities deceive Church Christians into accepting false theologies which they promote. Preachers also tend to follow Christian celebrities and themselves often try to present good images in order to better influence their congregations. Before the secular celebrity system spread to politics, sports, the arts, the military, education, business and to Christianity, it was confined to Hollywood film stars. Richard Schickel in his book, Intimate Strangers: The Culture of Celebrity, 1985, says the celebrity system began in the period of 1895 to 1920 with early Hollywood movie stars. Some of these early celebrities of film were Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks and William S. Hart. Like Narcissus, the Hollywood celebrity fell in love with his or her own image. In Greek, narke, or narcotic, means stupor, a state of not being very sharp cognitively. In The Christian Celebrity System Part One I briefly described how very frequent jump cutting and poor story construction on network TV can cause not only a momentary type of stupor or suspension of cognitive clarity, but may lead to long term cognitive deficiencies. The presentation of a glamourous image by Hollywood celebrities produces narke, a magic spell, a bewitchment and enchantment. People who are put into a state of some stupor by a celebrity - and this includes Christian celebrities - are made more gullible to whatever message the celebrity is teaching because their critical discernment has been shut down to some degree. In presenting their nonverbal appearances, celebrities have learned to simplify their personality presentation. In the image culture the perception of another's personality is reduced down to his or her surface appearance. Celebrities pick out one or two verbal expressions to emphasize to others as "themselves." Farrah Fawcett's wind-blown hair look, big smile, and in the late sixties and seventies the bra-less image made up a large part of her appearance. Fidel Castro, though not an entertainer celebrity, presented a simplified image with is beard, carefully pressed military fatigues, and cigar. Many people tend to be disturbed by other people who show too many different appearances and a complex personality. Most people use only a very few dimensions to picture in their minds the the personalities of others. This may be why celebrities try to simplify their images. People are not disturbed when they are able to make sense out of the behavior of another by use of a very small number of dimensions. By dimensions I mean bi-polar opposites like conventional-unconventional, successful-unsuccessful, strong-weak, or good-bad. Post Reply
View Profile History	The Christian Celebrity System: Part Two Posted : 27 Dec, 2010 06:50 AM Celebrities sometimes pay a price for their over-simplification of their images to fit this tendency of people to become confused or disturbed by complexity of personality presentation. Richard Schickel says that "Forced to live within some early role, stars become restive, even self-destructive, as a result of living up to the lie off screen." But if a celebrities were to project complex personality images to their audiences, most in the audiences would not be able to form an impression of them, and would not like them. Social psychology says that when a person is complex, others have difficulty in forming accurate impressions of him or her; some may assume the other is like themselves, while other perceivers may think the other is the opposite of themselves. I published a report on an experiment dealing with these topics in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology in 1965, called "Accuracy of Interpersonal Perception As A Function of Consistency of Information." Church Christians tend to be influenced by the teachings of Christian celebrities and may even copy the verbal expressions of the celebrities. George Comstock, a TV effects researcher, says that "It is pretty well established that film models can be as effective as live behavior models...One impressive study is that of Bandura and Ritter in which film models were successful in the desensitization of phobias over snakes." Christian celebrities acting as role models for other Christians may not often appear in Hollywood movies, but they do appear on television, on the radio, in books and now on the Internet. A celebrity role model can teach Church Christians sound doctrine from Scripture, and such a celebrity role model can teach man made theologies which do not agree with Scripture. In the image culture, it is the image of the writer, or broadcaster in audio or on TV, which determines, to a great extent, whether his audience will think he has spoken the truth or not. When a person using one of the media says something which is unfamiliar to the audience, they rarely investigate to see if that statement is true. Rather, they more often look to the person's image - his or her image of attractiveness and success. If he or she has a good image and is considered a celebrity, his or her statement is more likely to be accepted as the truth than such an unfamiliar statement coming from someone not considered to have a good image. Daniel J. Boorstein in The Image: Guide to Pseudo-Events in America, 1965, says we now live in a world "...where the image has more dignity than its original...We have become eager accessories to the great hoaxes of the age." In the image culture of movies, TV, newspapers, magazines and the Internet, the image is more real that what it is supposed to represent. The mass media, and its celebrities, create our illusions that we live by. Boorstein writes about the "thicket of unreality" in the American image culture. The dispensationalists appear to have been caught up to some extent in Boorstein's thicket of unreality and the image culture with its Christian celebrities - and as Isaiah 28: 15 predicts "...when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves." The overflowing scourge can be the tribulation, which the dispensationalists believe they will not have to go through because they will be raptured before it begins. On the radio, dispensationalist fundamentalists had been able to buy their own time and now tend to almost dominate Christian radio programming. The dispensationalist celebrities also have programs on their own TV networks. Yet dispensationalist fundamentalists do not dominate Christian book publishing. But popularized and sensationalist interpretations of end time prophecy by dispensationalists have become best sellers, such as Hal Lindsey's The Late Great Planet Earth or Tim LaHaye's Left Behind. When I was interested in Christian book publishing from about 1985 to 1995 many Christian publishers did not put out books by dispensationalists. The few Christian book houses that did publish books by dispensationalists, other than the big celebrities like Hal Lindsey, did not also publish alternative points of view to that of dispensationalism. It became almost as though the dispensatioanlists believe that there are no Christians who do not follow the doctrine of the pre-trip rapture, the two house theory of Church and Jews and Jewish supremacy. At that time Christian book editors appeared to follow certain formulas which they thought would lead to the books they accepted becoming best sellers and making a lot of money. One of the formulas for success was prosperity doctrines. And at about this time a new formula was introduced into Christian book publishing, the promotion of the self psychology of Carl Rogers and A.H. Maslow. These ideas on self-esteem, self love and self-actualization undermined the Biblical doctrines saying we should not have pride and that we should dislike our sin and repent from it. In 1970 Zondervan published what was perhaps the first in a long series of Christianized self psychology books, Love Is Now, by Peter E. Gillquist. A number of other Christian book houses put out books on Christian self psychology, including Harvest House, Eerdmans, InterVarsity, and by 1982 Word, Inc of Waco, Texas got into the Christian self love act by publishing Self-Esteem: The New Reformation, by Robert Schuller, certainly a Christian celebrity. Post Reply
View Profile History	The Christian Celebrity System: Part Two Posted : 27 Dec, 2010 06:53 AM Bringing in self love, self-esteem and self-actualization into Christianity amounted to introducing a new more blatant form of pride and worship of the flesh. But the Christian buyers of books had itching ears and wanted to read this kind of stuff. It was very hard to get the Christian editors to publish on new topics then, and this rigidity is probably just as bad today. But fewer Church Christians read books in 2011, compared to 1985 to 1995. I wrote a manuscript on the counterculture in 1984-1985, and in a few letters I exchanged then with Francis Schaeffer, we discussed this manuscript. I remember in about 1984 I sent a version of the manuscript to one of the Christian book houses that tended to publish more conservative books. The editor did write a response back to me. saying the Church was not concerned with the counterculture. At that time the counterculture was not a topic included in the formula for success in Christian book publishing. But even then the counterculture was spreading into the broader American middle class culture with its Hippie and drug movement anti-Christian messages, which soon led to some drop in church membership among college educated young people and perhaps to further departure from the Gospel of Christ by the Churches. Authorial image is what sells books, Christian book editors believe. And so they will accept very few books by writers who do not - for the editors - have good images of success and attractiveness. And the editors also followed their lists of formula topics for success in publishing. For example, the editors of the more conservative houses went in for sensationalist and comic book versions of dispensationalist end time prophecy, because millions and millions of Church Christians believed in the prte-trib rapture theory and would buy books making this theory part of the "thicket of unreality" in interesting ways. Over the years the Christian book publishers have helped to teach Church Christians that image is all important in Christian leaders. This is a development which helps prevent them from discerning truth from false doctrines. Being led by Christian celebrities who cultivate their images does not teach Church Christians to love the truth, as II Thessalonians 2: 10-11 says, "And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:" The Christian book houses have helped to teach Church Christians that good image - image of success and attractiveness of one's person - is somehow truth, and that what a Christian celebrity says on TV, on the radio or in writing can never be false doctrine coming from man's own version of the Gospel of Christ. This is the central danger of the Christian Celebrity system - and by 2011 we are seeing the fruits of that system more fully manifested. The false prophets that Christ warned would appear in the end times are found in the ranks of the Christian Celebrities, because they can get their messages out in the secular and Christian media. The image culture makes it possible for them to deceive Church Christians into believing their messages. "And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many." (Matthew 24: 11). False prophets can more easily deceive Christians in an age of deception. "That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the LORD: 10. Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits:" Isaiah 30: 9-10 "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears" II Timothy 4: 3 In II Peter 2: 14 the false prophets or false prophet Christian celebrities belonging to the Second Beast of Revelation 13:11-18 are described as "...having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin." Many of the false prophet celebrities are carnal, and love money and sex. Paul writes "Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience." Ephesians 5:6. "Vain words" are empty words, words that sound good and are well delivered by attractive men - and sometimes by attractive women preachers - but which are futile because the words are not true to Scripture. Titus 1: 10 says "For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision:" Unruly and vain talkers and deceivers is from anupotaktoi mataiologoi kai phrenapatai, or lawless and empty mind deceivers. The deceiving false prophet Christian celebrities use impressive sounding words, but which are really empty of spiritual meaning. And they promote a mingling of the Gospel of Christ with man's religion, a false copy of the true Gospel. This mingling arrives at number eight of the six, seven, eight cycle. Number six is man, since man was created on the sixth day. God sanctified the seventh day. Number seven is to be in God, in his rest. Number eight is going out of number seven, in God, to a mingling of God's rest with man's religion. False man-made theologies move Church Christians out of number seven to number eight. Post Reply
View Profile History	The Christian Celebrity System: Part Two Posted : 27 Dec, 2010 08:34 AM @ Halfback: Jerry Falwell is not in this life anymore. Born Jerry Lamon Falwell August 11, 1933(1933-08-11) Lynchburg, Virginia, United States Died May 15, 2007(2007-05-15) (aged 73) Lynchburg, Virginia, United States Occupation Pastor, televangelist, commentator Years active 1956�2007 Post Reply
View Profile History	The Christian Celebrity System: Part Two Posted : 27 Dec, 2010 08:37 AM And Heres Oral Roberts: Died December 15, 2009(2009-12-15) (aged 91) in Newport Beach, California, U.S. Church Pentecostal Congregations served Pentecostal Holiness Church; United Methodist Church Offices held Founder and President, Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association; Co-founder, President, and Chancellor, Oral Roberts University Spouse Evelyn Lutman Roberts; married 1938�2005 (her death) Children Ronald Roberts (deceased) Richard Roberts Rebecca Nash (deceased) Roberta Potts Parents Ellis Melvin Roberts Claudius Priscilla Roberts[1] (nee Irwin) Post Reply
View Profile History	The Christian Celebrity System: Part Two Posted : 27 Dec, 2010 09:29 AM You beat me to it trucker. I was about to post that Oral Roberts was gone too. The simple gospel that Billy Graham preaches is what led me to Christ. I accepted Him and was born again at one of Mr. Graham's altar calls. That's about as far as I got in reading this topic 'cause I don't consider Billy Graham a celebrity--------- just a wise winner of souls; a man who loves God, and because of him my name was written in the Lamb's Book of Life. chevy Post Reply
View Profile History	The Christian Celebrity System: Part Two Posted : 27 Dec, 2010 11:45 AM @ chevy: It is because of Yeshua that your name is written in the Lambs book of life. Billly might have been an instrument in YHWH's hand,Yet Yeshua is the Great Pysician.. Post Reply
View Profile History	The Christian Celebrity System: Part Two Posted : 27 Dec, 2010 12:05 PM Of course, I understand that----- Maybe I should have worded it differently or went into great detail; but hopefully everyone understood what I meant.:bow: chevy Post Reply
View Profile History	The Christian Celebrity System: Part Two Posted : 27 Dec, 2010 12:20 PM Paul was very clear about following men, people that do, do not follow scripture and the Holy Spirit. It seems the protestants took their humanity with them when they left the catholic church. Post Reply
View Profile History	The Christian Celebrity System: Part Two Posted : 27 Dec, 2010 01:06 PM Chevy,I understood. I hope you don't mind some clarity for those that might be young in Yeshua. Post Reply
View Profile History	The Christian Celebrity System: Part Two Posted : 27 Dec, 2010 01:59 PM I don't mind trucker. Thank you for sharing that. chevy Post Reply

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