Who would you think wrote these words?
There are television sets in every home, every restaurant, every hotel room, and every shopping mall— now they're even small enough to carry in your pocket like electronic rosaries. It is an unquestioned part of everyday life. Kneeling before the cathode-ray god, with our TV Guide concordance in hand, we maintain the illusion of choice by flipping channels (chapters and verses). 1
The writer was the man who founded the most famous public Satanist organization in America (the Church of Satan founded in 1966), Anton LaVey. He is also the author of a number of other books including "The Satanic Bible."
In all seriousness, LaVey continues to promote the religious significance of television, saying that:
... The birth of TV was a magical event foreshadowing its satanic significance. The first commercial broadcast was aired on Walpurgisnacht, April 30th, 1939, at the New York World's Fair. Since then, TV's infiltration has been so gradual, so complete that no one even noticed. People don't need to go to church any more; they get their morality plays on television.2
LaVey compares satellite dishes and antennas to church-top crosses and notes that TV has become, in effect, the major religion of the masses, even calling the television set the Satanic family altar.
In his book entitled The Devil's Notebook, published in 1992, LaVey espouses more of his Satanist philosophy and describes in detail how he sees television as the major mainstream infiltration of the new Satanic religion. He likens the entertainers and newscasters to the clergy of the TV religion, who use their cathode-ray pulpit to spread what he calls the word. He says that the local newscasters are the parish priests who are part of what he calls a church.
Certainly when looking at television today, except for the small amount of Christian programming available, one wonders how we have grown to tolerate such violence, sexual innuendoes, explicit sexual scenes, evolutionary humanism, profanity, and so on. I remember my parents telling me as a child growing up under their care, that I should always ask myself what Christ would think if He were standing beside me. And then we should realize He is with us every moment of every day, knowing every deed and every thought. "0 Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising; thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways.... How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: When I awake, I am still with thee" (Psalm 139:1-3,17,18).
I wonder how many TV sets would be switched off more often if we reminded ourselves of the verses above and then recited Philippians 4:8: "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." Remember this the next time you watch programs or even advertisements that could really be called pornographic!
Anton LaVey sees television as the medium through which Satanism is being promulgated more and more. What then is Satanism? There are certainly different forms, but Satanism for LaVey boils down to the worship of man. It is nothing but evolutionary humanism (man is an animal and man sets the rules) which is the underlying philosophy of most television programming. No wonder LaVey characterizes television the way he does. As we will see, evolution is foundational to his Satanism.
Burton Wolfe, a priest in the Church of Satan, in the introduction to LaVey's Satanic Bible, states: "Satanism's growing popularity has naturally been accompanied by scare stories from religious groups complaining that the Satanic Bible now outsells the Christian Bible on college campuses and is a leading causative factor in youngsters turning away from God."3 Certainly the philosophy of Satanism is alive and growing on college campuses.
Burton Wolfe claims that LaVey maintains that "evil" is "live" spelled backward and should be indulged in." He goes on to say that Satanism is a "blatantly selfish, brutal philosophy. It is based on the belief that human beings are inherently selfish, violent creatures, that life is a Darwinian struggle for survival of the fittest, that only the strong survive and the earth will be ruled by those who fight to win the ceaseless competition that exists in all jungles—including those of urbanized society."4
Clearly then, LaVey's Satanism is the practical application of evolution in our society. Read carefully what LaVey says in his Satanic Bible and The Devil's Notebook, and think about all the young people today who are devouring this material:
Satan represents man as just another animal, sometimes better, more often worse than those that walk on all fours, who, because of his "divine spiritual and intellectual development," has become the most vicious animal of all! 5
Are we not all predatory animals by instinct? If humans ceased wholly from preying upon each other, could they continue to exist?
Is not "lust and carnal desire" a more truthful term to describe "love" when applied to the continuance of the race? Is not the "love" of the fawning scriptures simply a euphemism for sexual activity, or was the "great teacher" a glorifier of eunuchs? 6
What good are friends if they can't do you any good?
The hunter must hunt. The moment he stops he becomes the hunted.
Strive, reach, and take. Then you shall not be taken.7
The above could really be summarized as "eat or be eaten"; survival of the fittest; nature red in tooth and in claw—evolutionism!
USA Today in March 1993 carried a story entitled "Kids' aggression linked to TV." The article stated, "The more television they watch, the more violent and disobedient elementary-school children become, suggests a large study.... Worse problems show up in those who see two hours or more of TV a day ... MTV is linked to disobedient and argumentative behavior. Reality-based programs are tied to aggression—from bullying others to stealing and throwing temper tantrums."
Many other studies give frightening correlations between television programs and behavior. No wonder LaVey said "We can use TV as a potent propaganda machine. The stage is set for the infusion of true satanic philosophy and potent (emotionally inspiring) music to accompany the inverted crosses and pentagrams."8
Now I am not telling everyone to destroy his or her television sets. This tool can be used very effectively for the Lord (e.g., the tremendous range of creation and other Christian videos available). However, the sad fact is that most parents have not recognized how humanistic and destructive most available programs are. They don't train and discipline their children according to Biblical principles that go "Back to Genesis," but let the TV train them instead. They haven't recognized that their children are being indoctrinated in what is, in effect, Satanist philosophy that man has a right to do whatever he wants, because he can decide truth for himself. One of the reasons they don't recognize the error is because even many churches have compromised with evolution and have "watered down" the Scriptures. Genesis has been mythologized and there are no absolutes taught so people can judge between good and evil.
In his Satanic Bible, LaVey quotes someone else as saying: "Times have changed. Religious leaders no longer preach that all our natural actions are sinful. We no longer think sex is dirty--or that taking pride in ourselves is shameful--or that wanting something someone else has is vicious.... If you want proof of this, just look at how liberal the churches have become. Why, they're practicing all the things that you [Satanists] preach." LaVey goes on to say, "Satanists hear these, and similar statements, all the time; and they agree wholeheartedly."9
LaVey's Satanism is an organized system to promote and practice humanism. Of course, evolution is foundational to humanism and all forms of Satanism, because it is essentially based on two major lies of the serpent (the real Satanic being) back in the Garden of Eden. These two lies were: (1) "Yea, hath God said ... ?" (Genesis 3:1). In other words, God's Word is not true; (2) ... ye shall be as gods ... " (Genesis 3:5). These lies are really the same ones that are at the heart of humanist belief--evolution has proved the Bible is not true, and that man can keep on evolving to a god-like state.
These lies of Satan permeate the media, the nation, and even the church. People are acting more and more in accord with the evolutionary foundation they have been taught to accept. The church and this nation desperately need to get "Back to Genesis." If we don't, then, instead of "In God we trust," one day the leaders of this great nation may exclaim the words from LaVey's Satanic Bible, "I am a Satanist! Bow down, for I am the highest embodiment of human life."
References
1 Anton LaVey, The Devil's Notebook (Portland, Oregon, Feral House, 1992), p.84.
2 Ibid. p. 86.
3 Burton Wolfe, Introduction to The Satanic Bible, p. 17.
4 Ibid. p. 19.
5 Anton LaVey, The Satanic Bible (NewYork, Avon Books, 1969), p. 25.
6 Ibid. p. 33.
7 The Devil's Notebook, p. 143.
8 Ibid. p. 85.
9 The Satanic Bible, p. 47
