The Internet makes pornography available at the click of a button. Instant gratification has always been a powerful persuasion in tempting man.
FACTS
- The Associated Press reported that Internet pornography "is a hidden public health hazard exploding, in part, because very few are recognizing it as such or taking it seriously."
- "Nearly 100 million people are currently online, and the number of people using the Internet is doubling every year. If something exists in the world. it exists on the Internet" (Lifeway On Line).
- Playboy's Internet site is the second most visited site by teenage boys.
- Internet pornography is a problem among religious people. Promise Keepers conducted a survey of their men, which revealed the fact that 67 percent of these religious men stated they struggle with pornography. Focus on the Family presently reports that one out of every five calls requesting counseling are due to Internet pornography or sinful relationships through chat rooms.
- Businesses that track their employees' usage of Internet pornography have found as high as one half viewing pornography from their workplace, even when it was clearly a violation of proper conduct listed in the employee handbook.
WHY IS IT SO TEMPTING?
The Internet can be a productive tool, but too often it becomes a snare of Satan. Nudity, drug usage, pornography, offensive language, gambling, racism, violence and crime are available online. There are virtually no laws and no restriction of its content. "Cyberspace remains virtually free of content regulation. The Communications Decency Act, the first attempt to ban the publication and transmission of 'adult' Internet content, was overturned by the Supreme Court in June 1997" (USA Today, May 4, 1999). Producers of pornography have never before in the United States pushed their filth into our homes in such an open manner, yet there has been no prosecution of obscenity during the present administration.
If Internet access is available in a home, work or school that has not followed steps to safeguard the viewer from such sites, users can be in a spiritual hazard. But why is the Internet a 'new" addictive power? Admittedly, lust is not new, but the snare of such sites is new. Many fall into this snare because Internet pornography seems anonymous, affordable and accessible.
Anonymous - Viewers of Internet pornography believe that no one will ever know their sin. A few years ago the mailman knew which of his neighbors were addicted to pornography. This is no longer the case. A viewer of Internet pornography does not have to talk to anyone on the telephone, no mail person has to deliver products, no store clerk is confronted, and his car is not parked in front of an adult bookstore. He can participate daily without anyone else on earth knowing his sin. There are no videotapes, magazines, products or packaging to leave behind as tangible evidence. Many sites are free, therefore no receipts or paper trails remain to reveal sin. One of the dangerous appeals of this sin is the belief that no one else will ever know.
Affordable - For a few dollars a month one can subscribe to the Internet, which offers thousands of pornographic sites. Magazines, movies and 900 calls are expensive. Satan has been clever in offering pornography through the Internet. He offers a tremendous variety of pornography for only a few dollars each month. The viewer can even hide this expense by using the Internet for e-mail, research or other good usages. One can become entangled in this sin without spending one dollar more than he is already spending.
Accessible - Internet pornography is available at the click of a button. Instant gratification has always been a powerful persuasion in tempting man. The Internet can offer the viewer more sinful pictures, videos, words and instructions than one has ever had available in an instant. Seventeen and one half million people visited pornographic sites from the convenience of their homes in the month of January 2000. According to Nielsen NetRatings, this was a 40 percent increase from just four months earlier.
Access by Accident. Often pornography is even introduced by accident. Family PC Magazine reported that 69 percent of teens said they have accidentally come across sites with inappropriate material. Surfing the net for "dolls" or "cats" could easily lead to thousands of images from Satan. The problem is growing. One hundred million people are presently online, and the number of users has been doubling every year. As demand increases, so does the supply of pornography. Another 300 pornographic sites are added every day to the 200,000 that already exist.
Access Ingrained: This access is defiling the minds of adults and youth. The average age of a child seeing their first pornography pre-Internet technology was 11 years old. Presently, the cyberspace culture age has dropped that age to 5 years old. Recently, a Nashville newspaper, The Tennessean, reported in the local section, "13-year-old charged with rape after viewing porn sites on Web." The boy had viewed porn sites on his father's computer and tried to perform the acts on a 6-year-old boy and 7-year-old girl. When the investigators questioned the boy as to how he knew where to find the sites, he responded, "That stuffs in the news all the time." Children and adults have no problem accessing this sin.
Access Anytime, Almost Anywhere. The store is always open. In other words, the Internet never closes. Early morning, late at night or throughout the day, a viewer has access. A laptop can be easily carried almost anywhere, making access convenient.
Access in Your Public Library: The American Library Association has fought to preserve their right to offer Internet service uncensored to anyone regardless of age. The ALA demands that a child should be allowed to view pornography in the library. Thousands of cases have been reported of children viewing pornography and of men exposing themselves, and even taking their actions further, in public libraries. The days of the library being a safe environment to drop your child off are gone. Society is losing its way morally, and our tax dollars are funding it. We must guard ourselves and our children, or we may find ourselves desensitized to such perversion.
WHAT DOES GOD SAY?
"For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man" (Mark 7:21-23 NASB).
God tells us something that man often does not want to hear. Man is tempted to point a sharp finger at Internet pornography and say, "See, it is destroying our homes. Fathers, mothers and even our children often suffer from this sin. How true the statement is on one hand. But the reality is that sometimes Internet pornography is simply revealing the hearts of its viewers. Viewers with defiled hearts surf these [sites]. When viewers' hearts are settled into evil thoughts, fornication, wickedness, sensuality and foolishness, they will naturally search the net for sites that fuel their lust. This is not a question of which came first, the chicken or the egg. God tells us which came first. The downward spiral of sin is described in Romans 1:21-23. Here we see a story of people who knew God but stopped glorifying Him as God, and eventually their "foolish heart was darkened." Therefore, lust became the directive in their lives.
The problem is not simply the usage of Internet pornography. The problem is that hearts are impure. The usage of pornography reveals the desire of the heart. We buy a lie when we think that it is pornography that defiles the heart. Sacrificing a pure heart dedicated to the Lord in order to indulge in such sin is the birth of such actions.
According to the Scriptures, the heart can be reached by all five senses. Therefore, we must be careful what we see, hear, touch, taste and smell. For example, Jesus spoke in Matthew 5:28-30 about the dangers of allowing the heart to lust after a woman. He said that if your eye causes stumbling, it would be better to pluck the eye out than to lust. In verse 30, He explained that if your hand causes the heart to lust, it would be better to dismember your body.
Notice the five senses fueling lust, fornication and adultery:
- Matthew 5:29 - Sight
- Matthew 5:30 - Touch
- Proverbs 5:3 - Taste
- Proverbs 7:17 - Smell
- Proverbs 7:21 - Hearing
Men are stimulated more quickly by sight. The Internet offers millions of pictures to fuel lust. Women are stimulated more quickly by affection. Generally, we link this with touch, but Internet chat rooms offer women a place to reveal their heart, which fulfills a kind of affection that usually accomplishes similar results. Counselors are reporting that the number of women building inappropriate relationships and becoming addicted to pornography has risen substantially since the Internet has become prevalent. "Online sex addiction is a growing epidemic that is tearing partners apart and creating a dangerous new compulsion ... the Internet's anonymous and instant gratification is surprisingly appealing to women, who prefer the interaction in sex chat rooms to leering at pornographic pictures, experts said during a seminar on cybersex at a conference of the National Council on Sexual Addiction and Compulsivity" (Associated Press, May 8, 2000).
Lust is fueled, and the Lord calls it adultery. This type of mental adultery is what fuels the temptation to commit physical fornication. Often someone describes his or her sinful act by saying, "It just happened. Neither of us was looking for a lover; it just happened." The Lord says, "No, it didn't just happen." Probably for weeks, months or years the two were defiling their hearts with evil thoughts. Perhaps they were even looking at pornography or each other in ways to feed their lust. Eventually, the heart's desires were fulfilled. It didn't just happen. The heart had been waiting for a long time, and when the time was right, its passion was fulfilled. Oh, be careful little eyes what you see.
No wonder the Lord condemns lust as strongly as He does fornication. We must see the seriousness of lust and stop running the red lights. How long could one drive ignoring all traffic signals? Danger and even death would finally result in such stupidity. And so it is when people fail to take precautions to guard their hearts from lust. Some ask, "But if I take these precautions, am I not hiding from my problem?" These words are often to protect their hearts' sinful desire. Instead, "Flee immorality" (1 Corinthians 6:18) should be the desire of Christians, and actions that prove that desire should follow.
CREATE A PURE HEART
"Create in me a clean heart, 0 God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me" (Psalm 51:10). Hugo McCord interestingly writes, "In this prayer David asked God to do something that He never does." Neither God nor prayer creates a pure heart. God forgives the guilt of our past sin, but individuals decide what their hearts will dwell upon. We must think on things that are pure (Philippians 4:8). "Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on the earth" (Colossians 3:2). Or hear Jesus say to Peter, "Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God's interests, but man's" (Matthew 16:23). Internet pornography wastes so much time perverting the mind while this same time could be used to grow spiritually. How many fathers spend an hour a day on Internet pornography and no time with their children? How many mothers visit with an emotional lover for an hour or two each night instead of spending time with their children or spouse?
Lust in the heart is not a new sin, but Satan has cleverly used a new method. We must safeguard our hearts and those of our families and churches.This item originally appeared in Gospel Advocate (November 2000)
