This is blasphemy. This is the world we live in.

I’ve come to expect popular media to go out of its way to offend Christians or to openly mock God. I don’t like it, but I expect it.

When Fox debuted a series called “Lucifer,” glorifying the Fallen One as a dark, handsome, anti-hero figure, I saw it as dangerous, because the media does more to shape the hearts and minds of people – especially our youth – than just about anything or anybody else, these days. Were there an active effort in the home, with solid role models to give our young a firm base to build a lasting and unshakeable worldview upon, I’d be less worried. While some families are really trying to do things right, they are becoming the exception and not the rule.

And frankly, they’re fighting an uphill battle. Not only do they battle against corrupted media, which always finds a way into our homes, but for every one family that is doing it right, there are probably nine others doing it completely wrong, and those kids are the peers of that one family’s children.

Influence.

With that in mind, I turn your attention to the utter garbage being passed off by AMC on Monday nights, by the title, “Preacher.”

“Preacher” is a series based on a comic book by the same name, featuring a smoking, heavy drinking, cussing, fighting, fornicating man-of-the-cloth, named Jessie Custer.

And it just goes downhill, from there.

In the first season, Custer finds himself possessed by a heavenly entity called “Genesis,” that gives him the power to speak, and others are compelled to do exactly as he says.

If you want to get a really good feel for the heart of “Preacher,” it’s a pet project, produced by comedian Seth Rogen.

In a recent episode, Rogen and the writers of this bit of garbage decided that simply a depiction of a corrupted “preacher” wasn’t pushing the boundaries enough.

From Fox News:

The first seven minutes of the episode, titled “Dirty Little Secret,” depicts Jesus and a woman having sex, speaking graphically about various acts and showing the two’s various positions in silhouette. Later, he tells her to keep it a secret before saying that he’s got to go off to do something for his father. It later becomes clear that this is the night that Jesus would be eventually crucified.

The woman was married, by the way, and she becomes pregnant from the encounter.

Life News adds:

After spending its first several minutes on the flashback sex scene with Jesus, the episode moves on to further graphic blasphemy, ushered in with the Custer character asking the pope and the archbishop of Canterbury if they know where God is.

According to AMC’s episode recap, the pope’s response is that God gave up on man and created a new species, and the pope really doesn’t know. But he advises Custer that “the boy,” subsequently identified as “the Messiah,” knows.

Kneeling later before “the Messiah,” the Custer character asks if he’s on the right path in finding God, and “the Messiah” promptly urinates on him. “The Messiah” is then revealed to be a mentally handicapped man named Humperdoo, resulting from inbreeding conducted to keep Jesus’ bloodline pure in preparation for the end of the world.

If AMC and Rogen wanted to be really edgy, they’d produce a show called “Imam” and give the same treatment to Mohammed, but we know that’s not going to happen.

Christians and their faith are an easy target. People like Rogen like to talk about “oppressive” Christianity, but they can’t really give more than vague examples, nor are they so frightened of it that they steer clear from attacking it.

Rogen went on to celebrate the outrage the episode caused.

If this isn't a good endorsement of #Preacher, I don't know what is https://t.co/A4Gs1QQDfZ

— Seth Rogen (@Sethrogen) August 23, 2017

And yes. He has those who celebrate with him, and that is tragic, on so many levels.

Sadly, none of this should come as a surprise. It’s just a sign of the age we’re in. It was foretold from the beginning, and it’s just another symptom of a greater decay of our moral foundation.

2 Peter 3:3-4 NLT – “Most importantly, I want to remind you that in the last days scoffers will come, mocking the truth and following their own desires. ⁴ They will say, “What happened to the promise that Jesus is coming again? From before the times of our ancestors, everything has remained the same since the world was first created.”

2 Timothy 3:1-5 AMP – “But understand this, that in the last days dangerous times [of great stress and trouble] will come [difficult days that will be hard to bear]. ² For people will be lovers of self [narcissistic, self-focused], lovers of money [impelled by greed], boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy and profane, ³ [and they will be] unloving [devoid of natural human affection, calloused and inhumane], irreconcilable, malicious gossips, devoid of self-control [intemperate, immoral], brutal, haters of good, ⁴ traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of [sensual] pleasure rather than lovers of God, ⁵ holding to a form of [outward] godliness (religion), although they have denied its power [for their conduct nullifies their claim of faith]. Avoid such people and keep far away from them.”

So what should the Christian response to these affronts be? Should we speak out? Petition against the network? Rage openly at Seth Rogen? The actors on the program?

I want to do every one of those things. At times, I’ve done every one of those things.

Sure, you can contact the network. You can express your displeasure, and you wouldn’t be wrong to do it.

Just be sure that your reaction reflects your faith.

We are in a battle, but not a battle where we are defenseless. We already know the outcome. Knowing the end should give you the courage to fight on, without succumbing to the wounds inflicted in the course of battle.

2 Corinthians 10:3-4 KJV – “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: 4(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)”