by Nathan Battey
When Facebook first began I was a college student and only students with a college e-mail address were allowed to have an account. At that point, Facebook was a great way to keep in touch with classmates and stay on top of school assignments. However, this controlled environment changed within two years as Facebook opened up to the public and anyone over the age of 13 was allowed to have an account. Today, there are over 1 billion members waiting to become your friend.
There are pros and cons to facebook, though I must admit at times it seems the cons are beginning to win out. It is great to stay in touch with Church friends all across the country and share in their joys and sorrows on a daily basis. If that were the only use of facebook, we could all embrace it and benefit from its blessings. However, the blessings are only half the picture - if that.
The news is constantly warning parents of the dangers their children are exposed to through facebook such as sexual predators and identity thief’s. Warnings are constantly being issued for parents to become involved in their children’s facebook world because of lurking danger. Unfortunately many parents do not heed such warnings and the children become the ultimate losers as a result.
The reason I write this article is to urge parents to monitor closely what their children are exposed to through social media networks. Not only should parents be concerned about the physical and mental well being of their children as it relates to facebook, but they should also be concerned about their children’s spiritual well being. Facebook is quickly becoming the preferred modus operandi for spiritual predators as they hunt for the weak and innocent of the Lord’s people.
Spiritual predators love facebook because they are able to prey upon thousands of unsuspecting souls from a position where they feel they cannot be touched. If they were to show up at your church and teach the things they espouse, they would not be tolerated for a moment. Yet on face book they are allowed to teach whatever they wish and no one is able to bridle them. Though you block their friend request, yet are you not removed from their influence. These wicked imposters invade your news feed by spreading their heresy on your friend’s wall. They are ever lurking and waiting for opportunities to spread their evil doctrine.
Remember the words of Peter in 1 Peter 5:8,“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”
These are indeed sober days. The battle is raging through our computers and into the presence of our children. Men must be marked and avoided (Romans 16:17), and this includes avoidance through social networks.
Warnings:
Beware of men who will teach privately what they will not teach publicly (John 18:20).
Beware of men who make it their aim to cast doubt (Prov. 14:7). Beware of men who think they have found what no one else could (Prov. 26:12).
Beware of men who look at the Church as a project that needs fixing rather than a pearl of great price (Matt. 13:45).
Beware of men who tout wisdom without using Scripture (1 Peter 4:11).
Beware of men who think the Bible is out of date and cannot fully equip the Christian (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
Beware of men who defile the temple of God -the Church- by building onto it with wood, hay, and straw (1 Cor. 3:9-17).
Beware of men such as Nicholas Trahan who are teaching Calvinism and trying to destroy the Lord’s Church (Matt. 16:18).
Beware of men such as Steve Ramsey and Bryan Harris who are advocating Open Fellowship (2 John 9-11), Unity in Diversity (John 17:20-21), that doctrine does not matter (Gal. 1:6-10/ 2 John 9-11), and that we can’t understand the Bible (Eph. 5:17).
Paul told Titus regarding such men, “For there are many insubordinate, both idle talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole households, teaching things which they ought not, for the sake of dishonest gain.” (Titus 1:10-11).
Parents: Your children need protection against such men. You must stop the mouths of such idle men. Your children’s future depends on it.