Entertainment: The Devil's Anesthesia for the Doomed.
The world population has increased by another billion since this was first written in the 1980’s, and now exceeds seven billion. We cannot imagine that many people. For us a stadium with twenty thousand is a lot – a mere drop in the bucket compared to seven billion. And the worst news is, most of them are lost and headed to perdition, eternal doom. With this comes the staggering death statistic, now calculated to be 1.78 people per second, 107 per minute, 6,390 per hour, and daily 153,000! While you read this hundreds will pass to their destiny. Every hour thousands more pass into eternity, never to return.
Onward marches the grim reaper, respecting no one, employed by Satan in the destruction of Adam’s race. Wars and famines are just some of his special harvesting techniques. False religions and “isms” help placate the doomed with false hopes and vain works until the grim one can reach them with his fatal scythe. They don't read the Bible, and ignore spiritual realities. They avoid Christian gatherings, and pack into nightclubs, discos, racetracks, stadiums, beaches, tailgate parties, cinemas, dancing and drinking, laughing, cheering and staring at the big screen while on their way to hell. Entertainment is the devil’s “anesthesia” for the doomed.
“Then I saw in my dream that when Christian and Faithful had come out of the Wilderness, they immediately saw ahead of them a Town which was named Vanity. Now at this Town, a fair is promoted there that is known as Vanity Fair. It is maintained all the year long and bears the name Vanity Fair because the Town where it is located is regarded as lighter than vanity; and also, because all that is sold there, as well as those who come to buy, is vanity [worthless]. As is the saying of the wise man, “All that this world promotes is vanity.”
"This Fair is not some newly constructed business, but an enterprise going back into antiquity. Let me tell you about its origin. Almost five thousand years ago, even then there were pilgrims walking toward the Celestial City, just as these two honest persons are doing. So Beelzebub, Apollyon, Legion, along with their associates, noticing that the path along which pilgrims traveled toward the City passed through this Town of Vanity, they determined to construct a fair; it was to be a festive market in which there would be sold every sort of vanity, and it would be open all the year long."
Millions upon millions are occupied one way or another without Christ. But, when they reach the final destination, then they'll be unhappy for all eternity. "There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death" (Prov. 14:12). To those who are addicted to entertainment, we direct the words of Christ: "Woe unto you that laugh now! for ye shall mourn and weep" (Luke 6:25). There will be no entertainment in hell. Only eternal remorse, weeping and gnashing of teeth. Disconnect from the world's anesthesia and seek forgiveness and life in Lord Jesus Christ, before it is too late.
"Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment" (Eccles. 11:9).
