Participants: Shelley Quinn (Host), Octavian Poenaru
Series Code: IAA
Program Code: IAA000473A
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00:01 If you are at all familiar with the Great Controversy,
00:03 you know that there is a spiritual battle going on 00:07 for control of your mind. 00:09 Do you know what type of effect 00:11 media is having on your spiritual life? 00:14 Join us today as we discuss this very hot topic. 00:50 Hello, I'm Shelley Quinn 00:51 and we welcome you once again to Issues and Answers. 00:54 And we're so glad that you tuned in today, 00:55 because we will be talking about a very important topic 01:00 that is The Effect of Media on Your Spirituality. 01:05 Our guest today is Pastor Octavian Poenaru 01:08 and you are the pastor 01:10 for the Colville Washington Seventh-day Adventist Church 01:14 and another, you have a district, is that correct? 01:16 Right, I have another small church 01:18 which is I owned. 01:19 Okay, well, we're so glad that you're here, Octavian. 01:22 You've been to 3ABN before and we enjoyed you so much 01:25 that we wanted you to come back... 01:27 Thank you very much. And speak to this topic. 01:29 You actually do quite a few seminars 01:31 as you travel with us, don't you? 01:33 I had to... 01:34 Yeah, I do. Yes. 01:35 I'm invited here and there when I have time off 01:38 or when I can take time off from my main responsibility 01:41 as a local pastor. 01:43 Yes. Well, we're very thrilled. 01:45 We're gonna be talking about The Battle for Our Mind. 01:49 Right. 01:50 And I know that we're gonna be doing 01:52 several programs actually. 01:54 This one is "The Effect that Media has 01:56 on Our Spirituality." 01:58 Then we will talk about 02:00 the effect that it has on our family life... 02:02 Family Life, yes. Right. Then our health. 02:05 And finally you're going to give us some solutions... 02:07 Right, right. Wonderful. 02:09 Please just jump in 02:11 and I'm just gonna turn it over to you. 02:14 Well, before I express my concerns about media 02:19 and the relationship with the spiritual life, 02:21 the family life, health and so on. 02:24 I would like to say 02:25 that the media has been given to us 02:28 is a great blessing first of all. 02:30 Then there are a lot of benefits 02:33 when it comes to media and technology, 02:35 and I think that God has given human beings the wisdom 02:38 and the knowledge especially in the last 100 years, 02:41 in my opinion with one purpose only 02:43 to finish the preaching of the gospel 02:45 and the end of, and the end of this world 02:50 as we know it to be to come sooner 02:52 and we see Jesus Christ. 02:54 That's what I believe is the main purpose 02:56 of all the technology we have from cars, iPhones, 02:59 television and so and so forth, 03:01 but as we know the devil takes it and twist it. 03:04 He does this with everything. 03:07 And there are a lot of benefits 03:09 and if I have to mention a beautiful story 03:11 of how media can help the preaching of the gospel 03:14 or changing lives and you know that better than I do, 03:17 because you are in the business of media. 03:20 But on a small scale, 03:22 I remember once I've been invited to speak in California, 03:26 Loma Linda Romanian Church for a week of prayer 03:29 and there I... 03:31 At one, I remember Sabbath morning 03:34 at the worship service, 03:36 in the sermon I mentioned the name of a man 03:39 which I baptized 20 years before, 03:42 to more than 20 years ago in Romania. 03:46 He was a young man at that time, 03:49 you may say from a young culture kind of. 03:52 But he very, very enthusiastically 03:54 embraced the truth, 03:56 and for about two and a half years 03:57 his life was completely changed for the good. 04:00 Unfortunately he drifted back in the same world 04:03 where he came from. 04:05 And now 20 years passing by 04:08 and I don't know anything about him, 04:11 I would ask some friends, 04:13 do you know anything and they didn't know much well. 04:15 I ended up in the United States. 04:17 He ended up in the Island of Malta. 04:20 And one day, I don't know why the only explanation 04:24 is that the Holy Spirit spoke to his mind, 04:26 he googles my name, technology, he googles my name 04:31 and he finds the sermon I am preaching in Loma Linda, 04:35 this is 20 years after. 04:38 He listens to the sermon and in the sermon 04:40 I mentioned his name in a certain context 04:43 and he was so impressed by that, 04:45 that he somehow google and found my address 04:49 and got in touch with me by e-mail. 04:51 We got back studying via Skype technology again. 04:54 Praise God. 04:56 A few months ago, maybe three or four months ago, 04:58 he was baptized. 04:59 And I see him like as you see a flower blooming, 05:04 he is just blooming spiritually, 05:06 embracing the truth for the second time 05:09 in a more mature way and in a wonderful way. 05:12 What I'm saying with this, 05:14 is there are plenty of benefits of media 05:17 and the access to information it's amazing. 05:22 On the same, in the same time, there are plenty of concerns 05:25 and probably I will address this more than the benefits, 05:30 because we all enjoy the benefits 05:31 but I like to address the concerns. 05:33 Yes, and as you said here at 3ABN 05:35 we hear stories daily. 05:38 I mean multiple stories daily, 05:40 people who have seen 3ABN on television, 05:43 or listened on the radio and have... 05:45 or on the internet and are coming into the church, 05:48 you know, ready to be baptized quite often. 05:50 They'll listen for quite some time 05:51 till they know these truths. 05:53 So that it is a powerful tool for good but as you said, 05:58 the devil definitely wants to turn it into something. 06:02 And I'm thinking in today's society 06:04 when, when most of us connect with media 06:09 in a very personal way. 06:12 Friends on media, on Facebook or in e-mails and Skype 06:17 and other means of communication, 06:18 a lot of business is done via internet 06:21 and so and so forth, 06:22 then it's a huge part of a personal life, 06:26 professional life, in the same time again, 06:29 I would like to emphasize what are my concerns 06:32 or what I, from my perspective 06:34 for both the spiritual life in the first session, 06:36 the family life in the second session, 06:38 the health and media 06:40 and then what I believe can we address it as a solution. 06:44 That sounds wonderful. 06:46 I like to begin reading a Bible passage, 06:49 it's in the Book of Revelation. 06:52 And it's in chapter 12:7-9, 06:59 Revelation 12:7-9, 07:01 "And the war broke out in heaven: 07:03 Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, 07:05 and the dragon and his angels fought, 07:07 and they did not prevail, 07:09 nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. 07:12 So the great dragon was cast out, 07:15 that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, 07:18 who deceives the whole world..." 07:21 Please remember "Who deceives the whole world, 07:24 He was cast out to the earth, 07:25 and his angels were cast out with him." 07:28 From the end, from the beginning to the end 07:31 the devil was busy with one single think, 07:34 to deceive day and night, day and night, 07:37 he can use everything possible for one single goal to deceive, 07:41 to take us away from God and to destroy us. 07:44 He is after all the father of lies, Jesus said. 07:46 Yeah. 07:47 I remember that one of my favorite authors 07:50 in a book, the title of the book 07:53 it's Messages to Young People, 07:55 she speaks exclusively to young people in that book 07:58 which I would recommend a book. 08:00 She says, very interesting things, 08:02 she says, Ellen White is her name, 08:06 "As we near the close of time, 08:09 the human mind is more readily affected 08:12 by Satan's devices. 08:14 Satan has ever been ambitious 08:15 to counterfeit the work of Christ 08:17 and establish his own power and claims. 08:20 He does not generally do this openly and boldly." 08:25 That's true. 08:26 "He is artful and knows the most effectual way for him 08:29 to accomplish his work is to come to poor fellowmen 08:33 in the form of an angel of light." 08:36 I think there is, 08:37 there is a very deep concept in this passage 08:39 and that is that devil is a very intelligent creature, 08:46 very, he's very personal 08:48 and he comes to human beings in a very deceiving way, 08:52 in a very artful ways. 08:53 It's insidious. Insidious, yes. 08:56 That's a great word for him, isn't it? 08:57 Yes. 08:59 You know, this is the thing about deceit. 09:01 When she says, it's not just, it, 09:05 it is subtle because often what deceit involves 09:11 is it may be 60 percent, 75 percent truth 09:15 but just put a twist on that truth, 09:17 just turn it to where it's air. 09:20 But people are deceived 09:21 because it is cloaked in something else. 09:25 Yep. 09:26 Well, there is a, there's a quote I came up with 09:28 and I say, there must be a lot of truth in a lie. 09:32 There must be a lot of truth in a lie 09:34 in order to be acceptable. 09:36 That's good. 09:39 When I'm thinking of the strategy 09:41 is to conquer the mind. 09:42 There are a few of them I came up with eight 09:45 which are my, my main concern 09:49 and all of them are related to media, 09:51 one of them is music, movies, 09:54 social media, shows, sports, 09:58 computer games, pornography and gambling. 10:02 All of them, eight of them, 10:03 I consider they are very powerful strategies 10:06 to reach out human mind 10:07 and actually conquer human mind for himself. 10:12 And I think media has, has power, 10:14 there are some statistics which shows 10:18 that it took 30 years to reach 50 million users 10:24 then in the statistics published in 2009 10:28 in social economics. 10:29 It says, "That it took 50 years... 10:32 it took 38 years to reach out 50 million users. 10:35 It took 13 years for television, 10:37 4 years for Internet, 3 years for iPad. 10:41 It took Facebook to add 100 million users 10:44 in less than 9 months. 10:46 That's amazing. 10:47 And then iPhone application hit one billion in 9 months 10:51 and this is an old statistic. 10:53 Then you see a huge progression 10:55 and it seems that it's speeding up. 11:02 Media has a lot of, a lot of power, 11:04 the number of hours per day 11:06 that TV's on in an average US home, 11:09 it's about 6 hours and 47 minutes. 11:15 I believe that some of us relate to media 11:20 or depend on media more than others, 11:22 but I know people, I know homes 11:25 where the TV never, is never off... 11:28 And you see also now it's so amazing, 11:31 in my own family I have seen this 11:33 where you have not at my home 11:36 but in other family members' homes, 11:39 where each child will have a television in the room... 11:43 Right. 11:44 And actually, you know, 11:45 that kind of leads to some unsupervised watching 11:48 but, but it's, it's becoming such a part of their life 11:52 that they leave while they're doing homework 11:54 or they're doing everything, and it can't be healthy. 11:57 I remember once I was leading a depression seminar 12:01 which was a two month seminar once a week, 12:04 and one of the participants, actually this lady, 12:06 she was a health professional. 12:08 And she had to travel one hour to come to this class. 12:11 And she confessed at one point, 12:13 she said, "Octavian, the television, 12:17 the TV is on in my home 24/7." 12:21 And in the same time she was confessing that she said, 12:24 "I'm struggling with sleeping, I sleep two, three hours a day. 12:27 I can't sleep more than that." And we talked about that. 12:32 Media has an amazing power 12:33 and without getting into too many details, 12:36 if you, if you think of some of the most popular people, 12:41 those rich and famous as we call them. 12:44 Most names are coming out in one way or another 12:47 related to media or they have become very famous 12:50 and well known via media. 12:53 I remember even being a child. 12:56 Please remember, I was a child maybe 50 years ago 13:00 and the movies we could watch in communist Romania 13:05 were black and white and very well screened 13:07 by the communist regime and you can't compare. 13:10 You cannot compare or very little 13:13 comparison between what we watched 50 years ago 13:15 or 45 years ago 13:17 and watch what's on the screen or internet today. 13:21 And still I remember being a child, 13:24 the names like John Wayne, 13:26 you know, Sophia Loren, Charles Chaplin 13:30 and other European characters like 13:33 Louis de Funes, he was a big comedian, 13:36 a French comedian. 13:37 Then all these name had a huge power 13:40 on, on my life as a child, 13:42 and I began modeling them in one way or another. 13:45 And media has a tremendous power 13:47 and if you think that in sports people like Michael Jordan, 13:52 very well known and very rich, famous. 13:56 If you think, I was looking on Forbes which is the list 14:00 that publishes some of the very rich people. 14:04 Cristiano Ronaldo, 14:05 who is the number one soccer player. 14:10 On the Forbes it says about him that he has a salary 14:14 of 50 plus million dollars a year. 14:17 That's amazing! And... 14:20 And he's one of the most popular athletes 14:22 with 102 million Facebook followers, 14:27 102 million Facebook followers. 14:30 He's the, He's one of the, 14:31 again 35 million Twitter followers, 14:34 then even the idea that they have followers, 14:36 you know they make disciples. 14:38 It's a very interesting concept. 14:41 Well, and you see especially, you know, the like young pop, 14:47 the rock, the rappers whatever, 14:48 there's people who are either stars 14:52 or they're musicians who lead lives of that 14:58 are somewhat amoral. 15:00 I mean their values are... 15:03 Their standard is very low 15:05 and yet even in Christian homes, 15:09 just because of the influence appears you find teenagers, 15:14 young people, young girls, 15:16 who are idolizing certain young men, 15:19 they idolize certain young women, 15:21 and they try to emulate them 15:23 and that has such an influence and impact on them. 15:27 You're reading my mind 15:28 because I was about to give an example. 15:29 I remember one day, I was talking to a young lady, 15:32 she's probably 15 in my district 15:34 and I mentioned the name. 15:36 Somehow I don't remember exactly 15:37 the context I mentioned the name Justin Bieber. 15:39 Yes. 15:41 And she said, "Oh, I adore him. I adore him." 15:45 And that made me really think because she's in her mind 15:49 Justin Bieber became her God. 15:54 The Bible says, you should not have other gods other than me. 15:58 We shouldn't offer our supreme affections 16:00 and love to anybody else, and my concern... 16:04 This is one of my-concerns 16:05 that the, the Hollywood has become the religion 16:09 for the new generation and the movie stars, 16:12 the sports stars, the show stars, 16:13 they are actually the gods of the new age. 16:17 And while I was thinking of this, one of the days, 16:20 I was looking, I don't know exactly how did I come 16:24 to find this book which was written in 1954 16:27 by a British mathematician and philosopher 16:31 in political activist, 16:32 his name is Bertrand Russell 16:36 and he made at that time a very interesting, 16:39 I think very profound observation 16:41 and he says this in his book, 16:44 The Scientific Outlook in at page 142, 16:47 he says, "The great majority of young people 16:50 in almost all civilized countries 16:54 derive their ideas of love, honor 16:57 of the way to make money 16:59 and of the importance of good clothes 17:00 from the evenings spent 17:02 in seeing what Hollywood things good for them. 17:06 I doubt, whether all the schools 17:08 and churches combined have as much influence 17:11 as the cinema upon the opinions of young, 17:14 of the young in regard to such intimate matters 17:17 as love and marriage and money making. 17:21 The producers of Hollywood 17:23 are the high priests of a new religion." 17:25 That's a frightening statement, how true, 17:28 the producers of Hollywood 17:31 are the high priests of a new religion. 17:33 Certainly if he saw that in 1954, 17:37 what would he think today? Yeah, yeah. 17:39 And I think this, this man I don't know 17:40 if he had a Christian background or not 17:42 but definitely he was very, very smart man. 17:44 We're very well educated and very oriented in life 17:49 and what was happening in the world 17:50 and I think he had this, this vision 17:53 and his understanding 17:55 about what was actually happening with the generation, 17:56 of his generation. 17:58 And as you say this happened 50 years ago, 18:01 what can you speak about the world today. 18:03 And looking at my time, 18:06 I realize that's gonna to be a short session 18:09 but then our four main concerns 18:11 when it comes to spiritual life. 18:13 Number one concern is related to the fact 18:20 that media has a hypnotic effect. 18:23 What I mean by that without getting into details 18:25 is that when we, when we, 18:27 when we sit in front of the screen, 18:29 when we expose ourselves to media influences, 18:32 most of the time you basically act 18:39 as being in a trance in a certain way, 18:41 and I do not have the time now to, to expand on that. 18:46 But you can see watch it, 18:48 watch a child in front of the screen 18:51 and you will see that the child is completely immersed 18:55 in what happens there. 18:56 His attention is completely taken by the screen... 19:00 I, just quickly. Yes. 19:02 A friend has a child who's nearly two years old, 19:04 has never seen television 19:07 and they were someplace recently where we went with him 19:10 and the television was on, 19:12 it was just on kind of in the background. 19:15 And suddenly it caught his attention 19:17 and this child was so alert 19:19 and pays very close attention to his parents, 19:22 but it caught his attention 19:23 and his mother's trying to now get his attention 19:25 putting her hands in front of him 19:27 and he is just mesmerized 19:30 by what he's seeing on television. 19:31 Yeah, and we had the same experience, 19:33 I mean we didn't have a TV for a long time. 19:35 I mean, I grew up with a TV, 19:36 my wife didn't grew up with a TV 19:37 and you can see a difference between us. 19:40 I'll mention that probably more 19:41 when you talk about family life. 19:45 But at one point, at one point 19:47 after the revolution took place in Romania 19:50 and the new kind of a thing came we said, "Well," 19:54 and the color TV came to be and, 19:56 and myself having this, 20:02 I'm sensitive to media influences 20:05 because of my, my upbringing 20:07 and, and I said to my wife I said, "Well, we need a TV, 20:10 we need a TV to get informed, 20:11 the political changes are very often 20:14 and we need to get informed." 20:15 And she said, "Okay" so we bought this color TV 20:18 and I remember our son was about two years old, 20:20 and one day I... 20:22 As you mentioned I saw him just mesmerized there 20:27 in front of the screen and I called him 20:28 and he didn't respond and I said, 20:30 "Well, this doesn't look good, we have to get rid of it." 20:34 And we did, I think for the good. 20:40 It has a hypnotic effect, we do not realize 20:42 that when we are in front of the screen, 20:43 actually somebody else has access to our minds. 20:48 We open our minds to someone else's influence. 20:51 And as a well known scientist, 20:57 a British scientist, her name is Susan Greenfield, 21:01 I'll mention her name in another session more. 21:06 She says that all these exposure to media 21:08 actually changes your mind 21:11 and changes your brain in a very real way. 21:15 There's a concept called brain plasticity 21:17 which brain changes every day depending on the exposure, 21:23 and media has a powerful influence 21:24 in changing our minds. 21:26 Then the first concern I have 21:28 is this what I call the hypnotic effect, 21:30 because again in front of the screen 21:34 we let down most of the time any our guards 21:38 and, and we just download in our brains, 21:43 our minds information of one kind or another. 21:45 And that's more when you're talking 21:47 what I've read only, 21:48 it's more entertainment gives you get. 21:50 For example like if you're watching 21:52 3ABN Christian television, 21:55 where there is a Bible study going on 21:57 where you have to be engaged, 21:58 it's a totally different effect. 21:59 Yes, yes. Yeah. 22:01 Specifically I'm talking about 22:02 these the eight strategies I mentioned, 22:05 a certain kind of music, 22:08 theatrical entertainment or movies, computer games, 22:13 gambling, pornography, shows and sports, 22:17 then I'm talking about certain aspects in media not... 22:21 There are beautiful great programs 22:23 but I'm talking about 22:25 those who have a negative effect on us. 22:28 The second concern is changing in moral values... 22:32 We become what we behold. 22:33 Exactly. 22:36 I actually had done my, in my presentation 22:40 the passage from 2 Corinthians 3:18, 22:43 "But we all, with unveiled face, 22:46 beholding as in the mirror the glory of the Lord, 22:49 are being transformed into the same image 22:53 from glory to glory, 22:54 just as by the spirit of the Lord." 22:57 This change of a human mind, it happens one way or another. 23:02 I believe we either become change 23:06 in the likeness of Christ... 23:07 Absolutely. 23:09 Or even I'm afraid to say, but we become change 23:12 in the likeness of the other one. 23:15 Yeah, I think Roman 6:16 isn't it, 23:17 it says that we become slaves to whom we obey whether... 23:21 Yes. 23:23 If we are obeying the devil, slaves to death, 23:26 or we're obeying Christ slaves to righteousness. 23:29 Then we are changed, the mind changes 23:32 depending on what we behold. 23:33 And as I mentioned in the beginning 23:37 as a child watching those movies really changed me 23:43 and changed my values and my ideals. 23:45 I remember one of my, my idols at that time was Fred Astaire, 23:52 he was a step dancer and in Hollywood 23:55 and seeing him on the screen and dancing, 23:56 they're surrounded by beautiful ladies, I said, 23:59 "Wow, wow, that's a great life, I like to be like that." 24:02 And for a while I was thinking, 24:04 oh, how can I learn this step dancing 24:06 and be there and be in the show. 24:09 It changes the values, it changes your worldview, 24:12 changes your ideals 24:14 and is obviously changes the outcome, 24:16 the way you relate to life. 24:18 And the process goes the other way 24:22 because it takes you away from God. 24:25 You do not appreciate anymore. 24:27 The Bible spiritual things, they are tasteless. 24:30 They're not interesting. 24:32 Well, when you see what Hollywood produces 24:34 which is lewd, crude 24:37 and in my mind a lot socially unacceptable 24:40 but there's, there's the real, there is the drama, 24:43 there's, you know, excitement, there's violence. 24:47 So you become desensitized to things 24:52 and then the Bible to some people 24:54 seems boring after much time, yeah. 24:58 I was looking on a lot of research. 24:59 Again there is not enough time to expand on it. 25:03 There is a quote 25:04 from one of the professors Dr. Raul Houston 25:09 and he wrote an article in journal 25:12 of adolescent health, it's an old article, 25:15 it's in 2007, but I think it's significant 25:18 what he says and he says this, "In this new environment radio, 25:22 television, movies, video, videogames, all cell phones, 25:26 and computer network have assumed central roles 25:30 in our children's daily lives. 25:33 For better or for worse, 25:34 the mass media are having an enormous impact 25:38 on our children values, beliefs and behaviors." 25:42 Then you see these statements done by 25:44 or made by scientists 25:46 and people which are not specifically interested 25:48 in the development of spiritual life, 25:50 but they see a change in moral values of the society 25:54 and we have seen that in the last I think 50 years. 25:59 And you see that I believe you see that, you know, 26:02 in every countries they've made some studies. 26:05 For example they look into the raise of violence 26:08 in countries overtime, 26:10 countries that did not have television 26:13 and they look if the statistics changed 26:16 after ten years having the media. 26:18 I personally believe that the reason 26:21 that our country has accepted the practice of homosexuality 26:27 and marriage among homosexuals so rapidly, 26:32 I mean you saw something 26:33 just where there were so many opposed 26:35 and then within a period of a couple of years, 26:38 it was, it totally reversed itself 26:40 and I think it's because there have been so many movies 26:42 that have been coming out or the television shows 26:45 and showing it all in a very positive light. 26:47 Yes. 26:49 Something that I say and I would just quickly. 26:51 Satan never hands us sin like in a garbage bag. 26:58 What he does is he takes his garbage, 27:01 he wraps it up with satin paper, you know, 27:04 the foil paper, satin bows 27:06 and then he hands us this beautiful package, 27:09 and we don't recognize 27:11 it's nothing more than gift wrapped garbage. 27:13 But that's what's happening here. 27:15 I like to mention, there is a study 27:17 that has been done over 300, 27:22 over more than 300 young people between 9 to 15 years old 27:28 and they have been a surveyed 27:30 in trying to find out what are their values 27:33 and in the study it says, 27:35 "During a sensitive development, 27:37 developmental phase, preteens, 27:40 preteens are the largest users of media 27:45 consuming over seven and a half hours a day, 27:47 seven days a week outside of school." 27:51 It's amazing. 27:52 I just looked up and saw that our time is all gone, 27:55 I cannot believe that. 27:57 We see that there is a definite problem. 27:59 We want you to certainly join us next time 28:03 because we're going to continue talking about 28:05 the impact that media is having on spiritual life, 28:09 family life on your health and we've got some solutions. 28:13 Octavian, thank you so much... 28:15 My pleasure. For joining us today. 28:17 The time flew by. 28:19 We thank you for joining us as well. |
Revised 2016-12-01