SermonIndex Audio Sermons
SermonIndex - Promoting Revival to this Generation
Give To SermonIndex
Discussion Forum : General Topics : old movies and another era?

Print Thread (PDF)

Goto page ( 1 | 2 Next Page )
PosterThread
MaryJane
Member



Joined: 2006/7/31
Posts: 3057


 old movies and another era?

I have a question for some of the older brothers and sister here on SI. I was talking with my mom(she has been struggling with depression) and she had said that she missed the way things use to be in this country, she said she remembers people being nicer and caring more for one another. She said more people went to church and it was a better place? She said it makes her sad to see how selfish and mean spirited people have become. I was thinking about this because I wonder if times and people really have changed that much or if things were always this way? I was thinking about some of the older movies, for example, "Its a wonderful life" with Jimmy Stewart and how in the end the entire community comes together to help him and his family. I was thinking about the way Hollywood portrayed things in that era. I wonder if things were really as loving and caring for your neighbor as portrayed or if it was more just some illusion that they wanted to believe because it made people feel better? I was thinking that even for my mom she always seems to have this longing for how things use to be, she gets very sad, and depressed thinking about how much things have changed, but I wonder have they really?? Sin is sin and always has been, she believes people had more morals and values back then...but does morals and values really equal conviction about sin, I am not sure that it does?

Anyway I was wondering if there are some who might have some thoughts on this topic and would like to share since I was not around in that era?

God Bless
mj

 2009/11/25 11:12Profile
White_Stone
Member



Joined: 2008/10/25
Posts: 1196
North Central Florida

 Re: old movies and another era?

Quote:
"Its a wonderful life" with Jimmy Stewart and how in the end the entire community comes together to help him and his family



Nothing has changed. Things have a different 'look' but every perversion we have now was always there. Take that movie, yuck, it is all Hollywood script. Where is there Jesus in it? Sure, they love each other, even the evil ones love their own. I have a strong dislike for anything that has 'angels' in it. Especially, something that promotes fantasies about angels getting their wings when you hear a bell ring. Where is that in scripture????

It was the movies that pushed Santa and all the accompaniments that I hate with a Godly passion.

regards,
white stone


_________________
Janice

 2009/11/25 16:22Profile
hmmhmm
Member



Joined: 2006/1/31
Posts: 4994
Sweden

 Re: old movies and another era?

i think she may be both right and wrong, we have a tendency to only remember the good, and forget the bad in some areas :-) , but clearly these days are very evil, people have no time to care for one another, work, computers, mobile phones, tv with 100 channels, got to keep healthy since we have no time to cook our own food so we eat fastfood so we need to go work out, our carriers must be always moving forward, so we need educate for many years, having no time for family or very little. in all of this we take loans and credits and the pressure is on. and we are constantly 24 hours a day bombarded with scary news from media, terrorists, anthrax, swineflu etc, constantly bombarded with temptations to say through tv, celebrities that we dont have enough, we need more and more and more.

And the entertainment is more violent, more sex, more abominations, everything is "normal" the most wicked and abominable thing is nothing more then a video game to the average eight year old kid.

so in one sense she is right these times are not as they used to be.


_________________
CHRISTIAN

 2009/11/25 16:33Profile
ginnyrose
Member



Joined: 2004/7/7
Posts: 7534
Mississippi

 Re:

Ecclesiastes 7:10 would suggest that we may just be getting forgetful. Yet Jesus informs us the end time days will get worse and worse. If it is possible I believe both to be equally true.

The "Andy Griffith" show videos are fun to watch and they portray life as it was back in the '50s. The Beatles' music gave credibility to rebellion and so the young folks gave vent to it and thus the sexual revolution was born in the 60s which popularized immorality, removing its sting and shame. (Would you know when I was a freshman in Home Ec in '61 we were shown a movie about acceptable conduct on a date. We were told to limit a kiss to a good-night one!!!)

MJ, I can sympathize with your mom. People were nicer. On the other hand when we were young we did not share the responsibility of coping with life as we do since we are adults.

But we cannot go back there and hanker for it. If there were pleasant memories, treasure them. But we live now and here so it is up to us to live life to the full each and every day and do not worry about all the nastiness out there. If you have a chance to fix something, do it. If you have the opportunity to spread sunshine, go for it. Let your light shine!

These are my thoughts...

ginnyrose


_________________
Sandra Miller

 2009/11/25 21:21Profile
JoanM
Member



Joined: 2008/4/7
Posts: 797


 Re: old movies and another era?

MaryJane

Surly you have heard and read of "the restraining influence" of the Holy Spirit, of the Body of Christ on a culture, a country. Human nature has remained the same in society. Our sin nature has not changed. The body of Christ in America sure has changed.

Listen to Tozer on this site. He was sensitive to what was occurring in his day, but listen to his concerns when he gives applications. Today many would be grateful if the examples he gave then were all we saw today.

In your lifetime, modesty in dress has certainly changed. Look at advertisements. Look at changes in language restraints. It's summarized for me into: The meaning of freedom has changed.

In my lifetime: One girl in my high school became pregnant. One. She did not continue to attend school. A long shot from being applauded when 8 months pregnant at a graduation ceremony. Changes in what is valued today and [u]valued publicly[/u], is what your mother notices. Not only the boldness of "throwing off all restraint" but how it has settled in and what presses for center-stage. Morality and character have been re-defined and the dictionary is no longer the Word of God, not even close.

Growing up, I lived in a community that was mostly stretched out, house to house, on one long "boulevard"/road on the crest of an east coast foot-hill. As a child, if I got tired or thirsty walking to a friend's house a mile or so away, I stopped at any house for water, whether I knew them or not.

If the required Home Economics classes for girls were still given they would have been updated to teach money management, value purchasing, nutrition, etc.--things that would fit with our increased knowledge of the world but saturated in values.

The number and nature of crimes committed, adjusted for the population, is instructive. The nature of man has not changed. The restraint has. Newspapers have always reported "shocking news", a deviation from the norm. Think it through. I don't think many newspapers even report the frequency of murder.

In the history of revival, when the crime rate is reported as dramatically decreasing, I doubt that reduction was due [u]solely[/u] to revived Christians and converts no longer murdering and stealing. Those [u]not touched in revival[/u] were noticeably restrained. There is a funny report on this site of a man afraid to go outside during a time of revival, walking miles around an area or at odd hours to avoid contact with those meeting God. Restraint and and the awareness of power? Maybe you have experienced this when others around you adjust their behavior.

People immersed in the secular life speak easily on the subject of noticeable changes in their life-time for the worse. I made a copy of an old Time magazine cover "Everyone Lies" as an example of even dead people noticing something about the sin nature of man.Wwhat does this mean that this warranted the cover of Time?

Laws are an example of restraint even though the subject can be very complicated. The increase in divorce may well be supported by changes in the law but the men who changed the laws, those who pushed for changes were less restrained. Here is a terrible example: there is a secondary market in China for aborted fetuses, a supposed health delicacy. So far Americans only push for stem-cell research, despite the presence in every person of their own stem-cells in bone marrow.

When I provided courts with "degree of dangerousness" reports, I found the biblical idea of two kinds of controls (of dangerousness) understandable to juries and Judges alike: internal controls and external controls. Maybe you can see in your life-time a shift in these?

You and your mother might appreciate borrowing from a library the DVD sets documenting films in America. I was surprised by many, for example an anti-abortion silent film "Where are my Children?" out of Hollywood! I think the title is [i]More Treasures from American Film Archives[/i] and it contains a book. The project out of which this came intends to be history (secular) aimed at preserving even scraps of film history which might reduce bias in what was selected for the DVD.

Sorry. Way too long a post. It still comes down to the meaning of freedom being redefined (omitting the freedom of Christ) and dictionaries document this re-definition. If your mother is not yet a believer, you have a wonderful place to begin with her.

 2009/11/26 2:39Profile
davym
Member



Joined: 2007/5/22
Posts: 326


 Re:


It's a Wonderful Life was made the year after the end of Second World War, a period nobody wants to relive, so I think we need to keep things in perspective.

Talking to my grandparents, however, they assure me that there has been a terrible decay in societal standards of morality. Evil, however, was always evident.

Verses that came to mind while reading this thread

[i]Ephesians 6:11-13

11Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

12For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

13Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
[/i]

These verses apply across all generations.


_________________
David

 2009/11/26 5:18Profile
HeartSong
Member



Joined: 2006/9/13
Posts: 3179


 Re:

JoanM wrote:

Quote:
The nature of man has not changed. The restraint has.


"And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him: And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads. And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.

And he said unto me, These sayings are faithful and true: and the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to shew unto his servants the things which must shortly be done. Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.

And I John saw these things, and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which shewed me these things. Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not: for I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God.

And he saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand. He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still. And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.

I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.

I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.

And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen." [i]- Revelation 22[/i]

 2009/11/26 5:32Profile
Compton
Member



Joined: 2005/2/24
Posts: 2732


 Re:

This John Wesley sermon might be of value for some here regarding this topic. He is considering Eccles. 7:10.

[url=http://wesley.nnu.edu/john_wesley/sermons/102.htm] "Of Former Times".[/url]


_________________
Mike Compton

 2009/11/26 9:20Profile
NoWhining
Member



Joined: 2009/1/16
Posts: 67
East Texas

 Re: old movies and another era?

MaryJane, it was a better time. When I was a kid, all of my male school teachers and sunday school teachers were vets of WW 2 or Korea. One of my favorite SS teachers used to start telling us boys stories about Normandy, but he'd stop, with a far away look in his eyes. Most folks had lived through the depression. My mom told me several times how every winter they thought they'd run out of food and starve. That generation had faced terrible hardships, and that factored in their everyday behavior, Christian and sinner alike. Here in southern rural areas with a strong Baptist influence, farming and cattle production it's still good, but it's changing even here.


_________________
Don

 2009/11/26 10:13Profile









 Re: old movies and another era?

I saw “The Road” yesterday with my 14 year old son. I knew I was going to be for a tough time because his mother, who knows the steps of my heart, had warned me about the novel. I couldn’t get through 15 pages of the novel, before I had to toss it.

Ever since I was a young boy, I have “seen” the end times, in dreams, in history, in the Bible, in visions God has given me. When I was 7 I began instruction in my synagogue, Torah, the Five Books of Moses, instructed and taught Hebrew, and at 8, they showed us a film called “Night and Fog”, a 28 minute B/W French documentary on the Shoah, which is what the holocaust is called, the systematic murder of 6 million Jews by the hitlerites. (but us Jews weren’t the only ones to die at the hands of these demons given flesh, millions of Gypsies, tens of million of Russian civilians, hundreds of thousands of American GI’s, the list is long and terrible)….anyway, after I left the classroom, and went to my grandmother’s car, my young mind, my soul was becoming distilled, crystallized, and I was thinking in my child mind” what would I do?” It was a very very powerful PIERCING documentary.

I thought, “I would get a gun and fight these hitlerites until I died or won”. I didn’t know at that time that one of the last things Jesus said to His disciples was to sell your cloak and buy a sword, maybe the Messiah was talking to me, I don’t know, all I knew was that when I became a man, and in control of my life, I would have weaponry and be the best marksmen I could ever be, whether it be rifle or bow. I also knew that I would join the military so as to be one of the defenders of my country, in case these demons ever rose their heads again…….sidebar, as a child I wanted to be a policeman, because the words, “to serve and protect” on the sides of our police cars meant a lot to me, “to serve and protect”…those words are important to this post of mine. I also was very serious about someday “aliyah”ing to Israel. “Aliyah literally translates to “go up”, which means to immigrate to Israel.

At the same time, for some reason, maybe this was the Holy Spirit laying it upon a young boy, but I sought out every survivors account, or book I could find on the nuclear attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Even though I was 8 thru 11 years of age, I could read at early college level, and I read everything I could find starting with John Hershey’s book, “Hiroshima”. This was during the height of the Vietnam war and the Cold war. One of my earliest memories is of Oct 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and listening to my mother cry and beg my father to build us a fall out shelter, he laughed at her. Then and today I never laugh at such things, the hearts of man and leaders and the powers of this world and the “god of this age” are dark and wicked and cruel. God the Holy Ghost has testified to this, and history has testified to this, and wisdom, she has testified to this ugly fact.

Given this fact, I believe we must always be prepared, in two ways, the obvious way, be prepared in a physical sense, not only so you can live in the FLESH, if it is God’s Will, but so that in such terrible times that are coming, you can remain IN Jesus and reflect Jesus, to those who not only need help, physically, but to live the Kingdom of Heaven OUT, even in the midst of days of hell on earth, if they come to pass in my lifetime. Let my heart and soul and mind love God, cleansed by the Blood of the Last Pascal Lamb Jesus, Son of God. Two preparations, one of the physical, and the other to cling to the Hem of Jesus

That’s what I left the theater with, that we have a two choices, and Matthew 25 outlines it, except Jesus refers to “sheeps” and “goats”….another way to refer to it, and they did so at the Essenne community at Qumran, where the Dead Sea Scroll’s were found, one can either be a Son of the Light or a son of the darkness….thats why its called “free will”, and I am not talking about “works”. I am talking about remaining in Jesus and being a Son or Daughter of the Light, Jesus’ Light. Even in a time, where man will eat the flesh of other men, or dash infants upon rocks, or where leaders of this world hurl weapons with the power of the sun at each other. A cruel day, a red day will the Day of the Lord be, and it is coming.

and just testifying to my own heart, I fear no man, no demon, no son of the dark, because the Lord of Hosts is at my right hand, they can take my body, but they cannot have my soul, it belongs to Jesus.

As to the testimony of others, I won’t comment individually except to say this: nothing has changed and everything has changed. There were never any “good old days”, it was an illusion, maybe we in our nostalgia or mere sentimentality, we NEED to rest on this illusion, but the truth is, while these great exhorters and preachers of yore that we venerate, maybe even lift up to saint status, this nation had to actually pass an “anti-lynching” law, so that the sin of murdering hapless black men by lynching them would be a crime, instead of just the foul pastime of the son’s of darkness doing the devils bidding, or soldiers out west in the frontier gave Indians blankets laced with smallpox to clear them out, so they could dig in the ground for their silver.

Long LONG before the devilish “Roe V. Wade” was passed, long before homosexuals started agitating for the right to be married, our country has been stacking national sin upon sin up to the heavens. Disagree with that assessment as is your wont, but I speak the truth in Christ.

The Day of the Lord is coming, ……….THE CHOICE IS OURS, Son of the Light, or son of the darkness.

 2009/11/26 11:22





©2002-2024 SermonIndex.net
Promoting Revival to this Generation.
Privacy Policy