19. How did second- and third-century Christian writers feel about (a) the ‘shamelessness of the theater and the savagery of the arena’? (b) the viewing of “a man put to death”? (c) that which can ‘inflame one with passion or lust’? (d) How can one learn to do wrong things?

¹⁹ How did those early Christians feel about the gladiatorial games and the theater, which were the “going thing” in the way of entertainment? Notice these comments of some professed Christian writers who lived during the second and third centuries:

“We [Christians] have nothing to do, in speech, sight or hearing, with the madness of the circus, the shamelessness of the theatre, the savagery of the arena . . . Why should we offend you, if we assume the existence of other pleasures?”​—Tertullian.

“The corrupting influence of the stage is still more contaminating. For the subject of comedies are the dishonouring of virgins, or the loves of harlots; . . . What can young men or virgins do, when they see that these things are practised without shame, and willingly beheld by all? They are plainly admonished of what they can do, and are inflamed with lust, which is especially excited by seeing.”​—Lactantius. [Italics ours]

“What does a faithful Christian do among these things, since he may not even think upon wickedness? Why does he find pleasure in the representations of lust . . . ? He is learning to do, while he is becoming accustomed to see. . . . We quickly get accustomed to what we hear and what we see.”​—Cyprian.

20. (a) Why did the early Christians avoid abased entertainment? (b) Why was their conduct noticeably different?

²⁰ Though these men lived some years after the first-century Christians, we can see how they understood the position of a Christian in these matters. They shunned such debased amusements. They could see the inconsistency for those who had been elevated out of darkness, who had removed obscene talk, violence and immorality from their lives, deliberately to sit and watch such things as entertainment. For the most part those Christians heeded Paul’s counsel to “quit sharing with them in the unfruitful works that belong to darkness, but, rather, even be reproving them.” Their daily lives of purity in the midst of a debased world were a constant ‘reproof’ to the people of the nations. No wonder these were labeled by the ungodly world as “enemies of mankind.” Those disciples gladly showed that they were under a better influence than their carnal-minded neighbors. They demonstrated that they had been “made new in the force actuating [their] mind.” And what a different “force” it was!