Upright Downtime

Making Wise Choices

About Entertainment

Brian Hand

BOB JONES

UNIVERSITY PRESS

Greenville, South Carolina

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Hand, Brian R., 1975–

Upright downtime: making wise choices about entertainment / Brian Hand.

p. cm.

Summary: “A study on what the Bible says about entertainment in the Christian life”—Provided by publisher.

ISBN 978-1-59166-856-5 (perfect bound pbk. : alk. paper)

1. Amusements—Religious aspects—Christianity. 2. Amusements Biblical teaching. 3. Christianity and culture. 4. Pleasure—Religious aspects—Christianity. I. Title.

BV4597.H28 2008

241’.65—dc22

2008024701

The fact that materials produced by other publishers may be referred to in this volume does not constitute an endorsement of the content or theological position of materials produced by such publishers.

All Scripture is quoted from the Authorized King James Version unless otherwise noted.

NASB: Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

NIV: Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

Upright Downtime: Making Wise Choices

About Entertainment

Brian Hand

Design by Rita Golden

Page layout by Michael Boone

© 2008 BJU Press

Greenville, South Carolina 29614

Bob Jones University Press is a division of BJU Press

All rights reserved

ISBN 978-1-59166-856-5

To my children,

Grace and Daniel,

who provide for me daily

the best entertainment

Contents

Preface

1 A Background to Entertainment

2 Discerning the Right Application of Entertainment Today

3 A Biblical Guide to Entertainment

4 Wrong Philosophies of Entertainment

5 Test Cases for Entertainment

Conclusion

Preface

Faithful Christians in every generation hunger for Biblical Discernment for Difficult Issues, the title of this book series authored by the faculty of Bob Jones University Seminary. The true disciple thirsts for a life that reflects Christ’s love for others while striving to maintain loyalty to God’s revealed Truth, the Scriptures. But as every mature Christian soon learns, demonstrating both God’s compassion and God’s holiness in this life is a balance that is never easy to strike.

Our propensity to wander from the right path is enough to alarm any honest follower of Christ. How quickly in our pursuit of holiness we do race into the darkness of a harsh, unforgiving condemnation of others who somehow lack the light we enjoy. And how tragically inclined we all are to slip, while on the narrow way, from the firm ground of genuine compassion into the mire of an unbiblical naiveté or an unwise sentimentality. Only by God’s grace can the believer combine that loving compassion and that pursuit of a rigorous holiness into one life to bring the true “light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the ...