THE SCRIPTURALNESS OF AUDIO-VISUAL AIDS—By Leonard Mullens

THE SCRIPTURALNESS OF AUDIO-VISUAL AIDS---By Leonard Mullens PANEL DISCUSSIONS: “The Use of Audio-Visual Aids”
THE SCRIPTURALNESS OF AUDIO-VISUAL AIDS
Leonard Mullens

Words are powerful. Words make it possible for us to communicate with one another. Words are signs or symbols for those things that can be known only through experience. Words stand for something beyond themselves. By the use of the spoken and the written word, we are able to understand others. Words are vehicles of thought. Words are the packages in which we wrap up our ideas.

If we do not understand the words of others, there can be no communication of ideas. There must be a common ground of understanding between those who would impart or exchange ideas. Language is the great tool of the teacher, but the pupil must understand the words that the teacher uses. When the hearer does not have the words spoken or written tied up with his own experiences, they lose their meaning. We have words for the many things about us; we have words for feelings, emotions, and actions also. But if the hearer has never experienced the idea behind the word, or does not understand the word used, no communication is possible.

Visual education is the use of pictures, signs, and symbols to help the student learn through seeing. When we join the seeing with the hearing, we have an audio-visual method of teaching. It has been said that “one picture is worth a thousand words.” Truly the use of the eye along with the ear will make learning faster and more effective.

Now the question arises: “Is it sinful, evil, and wrong to make use of audio-visual aids in teaching?” Certainly it is not evil. If it were, we should all have great difficulty in teaching anything, for even a gesture or a bodily motion that emphasizes the spoken word can be classified as an audio-visual aid. To say that it is wrong to use audio-visual aids would do away with all blackboard sermons, the use of charts, maps, and other such materials. In the Old Testament audio-visual aids were com-monly employed for the teaching of God’s will. Joshua had twelve stones from the bed of the Jordan River set up as a memorial of the safe crossing of the Israelites. He said, “This may be a sign among you, that when your children ask their fathers in time to come saying, What mean ye by these stones? Then shall ye answer them, That the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord; when it passed over Jordan, the waters of Jordan were cut off: and these stones shall be for a memorial unto the children of Israel forever” (Joshua 4). Then there was Jeremiah who was told by the Lord to “Go and get a potter’s earthen bottle,” and take it to the valley of Hinnom by the east gate. The prophet was instructed to break the bottle in the sight of the people and then say, “Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaketh a potter’s vessel, that cannot be made whole again” (Jeremiah 19). This is a good example of audio-visual education! Our Lord used visual aids in his teaching. The New Testament makes this very clear. In his sermon on the mount Jesus said, “Behold the fowls of the air; for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns: yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?” (Matthew 6:26). Here is a splendid example of audio-visual education! Again Christ said, “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin. And yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these” (Matthew 6:28-29). Jesus taught the great lesson of humility by placing a little child before his disciples, and saying, “Except ye turn, and become as little children, ye shall in no wise enter the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3-4). Once more the Lord went out by the temple in Jerusalem, and his disciples came to show him the buildings of the temple. Christ asked, “See ye not all these things?” Then he declared, “There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down” (Matthew 24:1-2). Also there is the example of the fig tree in Matthew’s gospel record. Jesus was staying in Bethany and going during the day into Jerusalem. One morning as he returned to the city he was hungry. Seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he came to it and found nothing but leaves. Jesus said, “Let there be no fruit from thee henceforward for ever.” Immediately the tree withered away. This was amazing to the disciples and Jesus used this event to teach a lesson to them. He said, “If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do what is done to the fig tree, but even if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou taken up and cast into the sea, it shall be done” (Matthew 21). Such a list of the Master's use of the audiovisual method of teaching could be extended, but this is enough. How can it be wrong to teach as Jesus did? In the use of audio-visual aids we are trying to place the abstract into the concrete. This was the purpose of the Lord in his use of audio-visual aids. Certainly it is scriptural to make a general truth applicable to our life situations by the use of an audiovisual aid as long as we do not violate the principles of truth in doing so.

Now most objections to the use of audio-visual aids will come from the use of pictures or filmstrips. Some people will oppose a picture on a screen because of its connection with the theater—the “movies.” But not all pictures are evil. Some books are evil, but not all books are evil. Many pictures are sinful, but this does not mean that all of them are harmful to us. It is not the use of visual aids that determines the good or the evil of them. This is determined by the aids you use. Certainly none of us would ever desire to use anything in teaching that would lead the pupils astray or undermine their faith in God and his word. We are talking of the use of aids in teaching the truth; not about that which will aid in teaching an untruth! We must keep in mind that our purpose is not to entertain but to teach the Word of God. Some-times those who think they are opposed to visual aids in the teaching* of the Bible will use them in their teaching. A sermon outline on a blackboard or a diagram on a chart is audio-visual education. What is the difference in drawing such helpful material on a board or a chart and in projecting such material with a projector? Actually the latter method will be more effective usually. Surely we must be careful of jthe pictures we use in our teaching, but every preacher in the church must be careful about the material he* puts in a sermon, whether he uses a blackboard or not!

We should always exercise caution and discrimination in the selection of any pictures used. The pictures used should be true in their presentation of any characters or events. Weak, misleading, and distorted pictures of Bible characters can be harmful and hinder the teaching of the truth. We cannot know how Moses looked, for example; but we can have a picture or a drawing that stands for Moses that will be true to the character of Moses as he is presented in the Bible. Jesus looked like a man for he was in the flesh of man. God sent “His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh” (Romans 8:3). Paul says in Php_2:7 that Christ was “made in the likeness of men.” In verse 8 of the same chapter the apostle says that he was “found in fashion as a man.” Surely it is not wrong to portray the Lord as a man, because he was a man and lived as men do! Naturally we have no photographs of Jesus or of any other Bible characters, but whenever they are pictured as men, what violence has been done to the Scripture? The teachers of all classes can make it plain that we do not know how any of these men or women actually looked, but the point remains that they were men and women. By the exercise of the right kind of care, there will be no violation of the Word of God. By a study of the times and the conditions in which these various characters lived such portrayals can aid us a great deal in making the events and the characters of the Bible come alive before us. We can be made to see that the events and the characters of the Bible are as real as the concrete matters of life about us today.

Truly care must be exercised. We can misuse some of the very fine mediums of teaching that are now available for us, but that is no reason to bury our heads in the sand and ignore them entirely. Let us approach the use of audio-visual education with an open heart. Let us reject the evil while we use the good to the glory of God and to the better understanding of the truths of God’s Word. .