THE CRITICAL THINKER

   On my bulletin “An Artist’s Role” I’ve discuss the important responsibilities of an artist. As an agent of change and possible indoctrination, artists play a very crucial role in society. Therefore, allow me to follow the discussion with what a person should do to protect his family and even ones self from possible intrusion of personal views. . The sad truth is “Most people have bought so much disinformation during their lifetime, perhaps it’s unrealistic to expect them to purge out all the junk they’ve accepted. Just as people in the world need to toss out their worldly thinking,”

The general public had accepted into their bloodstream the idea “Art for arts sake” and sadly if we take a closer investigation, that simple line had inter-woven itself from our personal choices to our idea of beauty, to our acceptance of personality and criteria for judgment and even to our education system. We accepted everything offer under the name “Art” and never realized the dangerous application into our daily activities. We thought art was too remote to be influence by the clever scheme of Satan. The government installs some measure to protect the public thru censorship and ratings but sadly the effort seems futile simply because they themselves were victims of the idea “Art for arts sake.” While the church innocently permits artistic freedom to proliferate, either they were not aware or the Holy Scripture had not touched the matter, or was it?

In the future I shall point out Biblical verses that some of you might have overlooked but were actually clear warnings from God about Artistic Expression and even how to be a God-fearing artist that create work of arts for the glory of God. In fact the second commandment directly instructs artist of what He doesn’t like to be crafted “Thou shall not make unto thee graven images…”

So, do we literally obey Jesus advice “if thine eyes offended thee, pluck it out; it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell.” Mark 9:47. Well, if you can then go, but if not then be a Realizationist -- There are many intelligent people in the world, but very few are actually CRITICAL THINKERS. My colleague during my college days have heard me share to them the infant concept of Gospel Art have help me shaped the lifetime vocation and thru the years with much research and prayers came to be Realizationism Art.

Now, some of you may have idolized these Masters or their Obra Maestra; and may even have displayed one on your wall or having daily doses of television shows that inject ungodly values then How do we deal with them? That will be on our discussion… 

     When Vermeer and the early masters painted Satan during the middle-ages with horn and bat-like wings with variation as having dark or flaming red skin it was received without much resistance even from theologian. In the same way as we accept common depiction of angelic beings. Or when artist presents saintly icon having “halo” over their head but  when archeologist finally step in and explain that those circle over their head was actually an Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics adaptation of a sun-disk as a pagan symbol of sun-worship. In fact to Bible reader, there is no indication at all that Satan was scary or ugly, the truth is he is extremely beautiful as his original Hebrew name implies “the shining one” that also means Lucifer. (No angelic beings or even the arch-angel Michael can match the description of the majesty given to him by God.)

    Clearly, the way we picture heaven and its beings were mainly based on painted representation or misrepresentation of artisan who themselves are ignorant of the word of God or historical fact. Sometimes these artists have personal beliefs that they pass on to us. When Rome was Christianized they carried with them their pagan religion thru their arts. The clever scheme of Satan (or Saturnalia, the sun God) easily mingle with Christian beliefs such as worship on Sunday or the day of the Sun. Hebrew meaning of Satan (shaitan)   is the deceiver, and thus he still enjoy worship even among them who profess to be Christian. Another, movement therefore acted and called us to go back to Sabbath for the Lord, and said the worship should be return to the seventh day which is Saturday. But again, they still fall on the same peril as the term Saturday is also called the day of Saturn. So you see how deep this chaos had been injected in our mind set? Probably, I’ll just talk later regarding the true Sabbath according to the Bible and which the early Apostle follows, since it is a separate topic. As I’ve said I’ll be focusing on artistic influence, but shared to you the background only to show most of our religious rituals are actually satanic practices.

    Awareness is the key to escape these deceptions, “See to it that no one takes you captive thru philosophy and empty deception, according to the elementary principle of the world, according to the tradition of men, but rather according to Christ.” Colossians 2:8 (NIV)

   The advice was not an easy task but an active awareness and careful discernment of everything the world presents. The Multi-media such as televisions & films had become the established authority where the innocent audience was victimized due to ignorance to The Word of God. So how do we protect ourselves from moral deterioration by the constant bombardment done in the form of entertainment and visual art?

    These are the words of God to Joshua before they enter the promise land “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth;  but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou may observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt have good success.” Joshua 1:8 (KJV)