“Did you read the article in the Metro (Dutch free newspaper) this morning?”, my mother texted me last Friday. “It’s about the Muppets, apparently mothers are upset about it because it’s too sexual and children watch it.”

It wasn’t just coinsidence that, as I was on the train on my way home that evening, the man sitting in front of me finished reading his Metro and left it on the table between us. I looked up and as I read the headline: “The Muppets too sexy for children”, I thought: wasn’t that a kids show?

Apparently The Muppets’ new owner Disney – that started off making movies for children – wasn’t too excited anymore about dolls entertaining the younger Americans. It was time for The Muppets to grow up and so it became an adult show.

Alcoholic jazz players and maneater pigs
What’s different about the new Muppets that were seen on ABC for the first time last Tuesday?

• Zoot is an alcoholic
• Fozzie Bear uses online hookup apps
• Kermit the frog cheats on his girl
• Miss Piggy makes sexual comments about actor Nathan Fillion
• Fozzie, a bear(!), dates a human being
• And the list goes on…

Truly statements like “A network TV show with frontal nudity” and “They’re all back like you’ve never seen them before”, reveal the sudden change the Muppets have made in their lives.

But what really shocks me and wakes me up is the statement in one of ABC’s trailers, that “they are just like you”.

Is this the condition of today’s world?

But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.  For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark,   And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
Matthew 24:37-39

No limits, no boundaries, no rules
One Million Moms, an organisation that protests against the effects of today’s entertainment on children, writes in a petition against the show: “It appears that no subject is off-limits.”

Limitless and lawlessness. Aren’t we warned that in the very last days those who choose to stand against God, will be under Satan’s full control? There will be no limits.

… but as the restraining Spirit of God shall be withdrawn from men and they shall be under the control of Satan, who hates the divine precepts, there will be strange developments. The heart can be very cruel when God’s fear and love are removed. – The Great Controversy, 608 (1911)

God’s Spirit is still working on our hearts today, but as we willfully watch these provocative shows and willfully push the Spirit away, Satan takes the place of God in our hearts. He replaces Christ’s law with his: Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law; limitlessness.

The grown-up Muppets seem to be all about limitlessenss and are more than happy to express their ideas of what the world should look like to you. Or, I should say, Disney and ABC are more than happy to express these ideas to you.

God’s invitation
If the Muppets are “just like you” doing all these things God hates, it should make us think about two things:

1. We are living in the last days and very soon all those who haven’t chosen God shall be as in the days of Noah
2. We will either watch these shows and become as humankind as in the days of Noah, or will rather pick up our Bible and have a relationship with God that will make us able to stand in the latter days, and if we perish, we perish (Esther 4:16).

I believe that The Muppets is one of those shows that Satan uses to teach mankind about limitlessness day by day, so that we become limitless, hate God’s law of love, but accept Satan’s and eventually stand on the side of the enemy. But the good thing is, we are not limitless yet. If you hear God’s Spirit speaking to you today, won’t you give Him your heart before it’s too late? If you stand for Him, He will stand with you (Hebrews 13:5, 6; Romans 8:31; Psalm 94:16-18).

And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord , choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
Joshua 24:15

Those who would not fall a prey to Satan’s devices must guard well the avenues of the soul; they must avoid reading, seeing, or hearing that which will suggest impure thoughts. The mind should not be left to wander at random upon every subject that the adversary of souls may suggest. “Girding up the loins of your mind,” says the apostle Peter, “Be sober, … not fashioning yourselves according to your former lusts in … your ignorance: but like as He which called you is holy, be ye yourselves also holy in all manner of living.” 1 Peter 1:13-15, R.V. Says Paul, “Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” Philippians 4:8. This will require earnest prayer and unceasing watchfulness. We must be aided by the abiding influence of the Holy Spirit, which will attract the mind upward, and habituate it to dwell on pure and holy things. And we must give diligent study to the word of God. “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to Thy word.” “Thy word,” says the psalmist, “have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against Thee.”
Psalm 119:9, 11 – PP 460.2