Can Christians Play GTA 6?

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Salvation in Christ Alone and the Reality of Divine Judgment

The message of Christianity is that salvation is found in Christ alone, and any who reject Christ therefore forfeit any hope of salvation, any hope of heaven.

The issue is that humanity is in sin, and the wrath of almighty God is hanging over our heads.

They will hear his words, they will not act upon them, and when the floods of divine judgment, when the fires of wrath come, they will be consumed and they will perish. God wrapped himself in flesh, condescended and became a man, died on the cross for sin, was resurrected on the third day, has ascended to the right hand of the Father, where he sits now to make intercession for us.

Jesus is saying there is a group of people who will hear his words, they will act upon them, and when the floods of divine judgment come in that final day, their house will stand.

Introducing the Question of GTA 6

Welcome to Bible Bash, where we aim to equip the saints for the works of ministry by answering the questions you're not allowed to ask. We're your hosts Harrison Kerrig and Pastor Tim Mullett, and today we'll answer the age old question, can Christians play GTA 6?

Now Tim, I'm sure that you saw, I mean it was all over Twitter, Rockstar, I mean everyone knew Rockstar is a game developer, a really, a really popular game developer for the GTA franchise that they've been putting out for, I don't know, I mean it's got to be at least, what, 20 years at this point?

I don't know when the first one came out, that was kind of before my time, I never was really allowed to play something like Grand Theft Auto as a kid, but they recently released their first trailer for the game, essentially officially announcing that the game was in development, and that it would come out sometime in 2025, which is still a ways off, especially when you consider the fact that I think the last time they put a GTA game out, it'll essentially have been 10 years by the time GTA 6 comes out, so this was a huge deal across the internet, everyone was looking forward, everyone meaning not Christians necessarily, but just people in general were looking forward to the announcement of this game, and now it is finally here, everyone's talking about it, but then the question, Tim, for us as Christians is to look at, when we're looking at entertainment stuff in general, we need to be asking ourselves, is this something that is good for me as a Christian to do?

Is it wrong to consume this entertainment product? So that's why we're asking the question today, so Tim, when we're looking at GTA 6, and when you look back on the franchise as a whole, what is your response as a Christian to that franchise?

We obviously weren't allowed to play these games either, and it's just one of those things where it's just like, hey, it really doesn't take a whole lot of Christian sensibility to understand that if you have a game that's centered around stealing stuff, then that probably isn't the kind of thing that most Christians should even be participating in in general, right?

So meaning, I don't think that a whole, I don't think that you need complex theological arguments from the Bible to come up with the idea that Christians in general shouldn't be encouraged to role play sin.

That's just, that's something that, I know that this is a difficult concept for some people to grasp or whatever, but then this is kind of foundational to a Christian worldview, is that there's more components to a moral action than just the act itself, okay?

So meaning, when you think about the way the Ten Commandments actually work, you have covetousness being the Tenth Commandment, and in the command not to covet, you shouldn't even desire what belongs to your neighbor.

So you shouldn't desire your neighbor's wife, his house, his property, his oxes, whatever else. Meaning that there's this whole category in the Bible of you can train your desires to love evil, right?

Or you can train your desires to love good. And so then the whole idea of having a category of a game that's centered around you committing a vice, for the Christian, what you should understand, what's actually happening there is you're just training your desires to enjoy doing this thing that you're told not only not to do, but not to like to do.

Does that make sense? Yeah. So, I mean, you have that component to it, and that's just kind of an obvious right on the page kind of thing that's related to the topic in general. But then, I mean, this, you know, one of the reasons that Christians reacted to it when it first came out was the premise of the game is basically just like you can go out and you can roleplay whatever kind of evil you want.

And a lot of it centers around killing cops, shooting cops, that kind of stuff, stealing stuff, being an underground street thug, essentially. And so you're glorifying certain pathological cultures that really Christians should want to fundamentally distance themselves from anyways.

And your role is just to kind of be a street thug going out, perpetrating evil,.

Basically just roleplaying. Yeah, doing drugs, getting drunk.

So you have the drugs, you have the sex, you have the killing of cops, you know, running people over. So, I mean, basically it's just a game that's centered around giving you the freedom to fantasize about sin.

Yeah. And then, you know, you have the audacity to pretend like that's like a morally neutral thing, right? So like somehow it's like morally neutral for you as a Christian just because it's not real.

Like it's not real, then therefore it doesn't count. But it's like, I mean, I've played roleplaying games before, and there's something in me that doesn't really want to be the bad character in the roleplaying games.

Yeah. I know it's not real, but just because it's not real doesn't mean I want to train my desires in such a way that you just like kill random people for no reason. You know, you just stand there and pull out your sniper rifle or whatever, blow their head off, and then laugh about it.

It's like there's something a little bit sadistic about that. That's not, I mean, you're not training your character in a good way. You're training your character in an evil way. And so people, they do need to be able to make basic distinctions along those lines.

I mean, if you think about like a typical war game that you're going to play, and this, people can't make, what happens is people can't make these basic distinctions. But I mean, if you're playing some sort of war game where you're the good guy in the story who is trying to fight evil, that's a very different thing than training yourself to be the bad guy in the story, right?

Role-playing all the vices. And then, you know, so like violence, like the idea of violence is almost, I mean, you can have a whole discussion about like the place of violence in a video game in general.

So like if you're playing Halo or something and you're role-playing like shooting the aliens who have come to kill you, like there's not like a, like you're taking on this role of trying to defend, you know, the world from a threat, right?

But what you're not doing in that moment is training yourself to take on like a role of, man, I'm going to just harm people, steal from them, murder them, you know, and then visit prostitutes and whatever else.

Like that's like a totally different kind of moral thing that's happening there, right? Yeah.

The Moral Appeal of Role-Playing Sin

Well, I think, you know, I think one thing, and I remember having to think through this for myself when I was trying to wrestle with all of these ideas that we're addressing here in this episode. But, you know, one thing you have to ask yourself is, hey, why is it that you're willing to do?

When you look at a game like GTA, for example, where, you know, sometimes the most fun people have in that game is when they just run around and blow up every single person they can find, right? And just like trying to find the most creative ways to kill as many people as possible.

And so at some point you have to ask yourself, hey, what is so fun about this to me? And take it a step further than that. Hey, why am I doing this in the video game? Well, because I know that there's not any real consequences for it, right?

There's no consequences for me doing any of this stuff. But then I think you do have to ask yourself, well, hey, what if there wasn't any consequences for it in real life? Would you treat it the same way?

I mean, would you be doing the same thing? And I don't think you can just immediately brush that off and say no. Because there's no, I mean, what proof do you have? What proof do you have? I mean, you don't have any.

You have proof that you would do the opposite, actually. And I get maybe some people think that there's an argument for, well, hey, I can make the distinction that these aren't real people, right? This is just a video game.

And I can make the distinction between video game and real life. But then, I mean, I guess my question at that point would just be, well, yeah, but for how long?

Yeah, I mean, I asked, we asked a poll about GTA on that, and then I asked another one about, you know, what if the pagans were to make a video game about a southern, you know, white plantation owner who basically owns his slaves, you know?

So, like, just imagine the Grand Theft Auto premise being applied to the southern white plantation owner.

Dude, I can differentiate between real life and a video game.

But, I mean, imagine, yeah, imagine, like, the premise at that point would be that you just go up and randomly stab your slaves if you want to, or beat them. You know, you have, like, you just beat them whenever you want to, and then, you know, like, you have the whole sexual themes applied to all that, and it's just like all the stereotypical stuff in the abolitionist literature.

It's just like this is just an, this is a moment for you to take out all of your sinful inclinations on these pretend slave people or something like that. It's like, I think everyone at that point, I mean, most normal people who would have some sort of moral self-awareness to say, yeah, that probably isn't very good, you know?

Like, I don't think you're necessarily training your heart in a way that would be honoring the Lord in that moment. Like, I mean, that sounds kind of racist-y, you know?

Like, meaning, like, do you... Like, you might be a little bloodthirsty, man.

Do you just hate black people? Is that why you're wanting to... Like, why would you even... What part of this is enjoyable to you, right? Just going up and, like, randomly shooting a slave, beating a slave, whipping a slave.

What is enjoyable about that to you? Like, what about you is drawn to that? Like, do you have some animosity in your heart towards black people? Is that what you're doing? I mean, we have this kind of moral intuition in other areas, but then if that's the premise related to cops, is that good, you know?

Or just random citizens that are standing there, right? Like, if that's, like, the whole premise... Yeah, innocent people. Yeah, just, like, you're kind of training yourself to be sadistic and bloodthirsty and...

Like, the Bible tells you you need to love good and hate evil, and what you're doing is you're taking these evil desires in your heart and then you're giving them expression in, like, a fantasy world.

But, I mean, that's, like... Essentially, that's the problem of lust, right? Yeah. Like, I mean, that's the thing, right? So, I mean, like, you don't even have to get... You don't even have to talk about the prostitution elements and everything else.

I mean, those should be a lot more clear, even though they aren't to a certain kind of person. I mean, just... Yeah, you're going to role-play visit a prostitute and then you're going to say, hey, it's fine because it's just she's not real or something.

It's like, well, I don't think you're doing anything good for your heart there. And, like, I think you're just training your heart in lust. And so, in the same way, like, there is a whole category in the Bible of being bloodthirsty.

And, you know, being filled with violence and, you know, evil and iniquity and everything else. And so, are you that... Like, what do you think you're doing here? You're training yourself in revenge. You're training yourself in bloodthirsty kind of habits and practices.

And you're taking your anger out on inanimate objects. And, you know, I mean, maybe even worse than that, like, if you're not mad when you're doing it, if you find it funny, like, there's something really wrong with you that you would think that that would be funny, just to harm people, right?

Yeah. Like, just go up to people and shoot them and harm them. I mean, you're doing violence to your heart and to your conscience in these moments. And so, you know, I just, I don't think... I mean, can you imagine Jesus sitting down and saying, oh, yeah, let's play the slave owner game.

You know, that'd be fun.

The slave owner game. Well, I think people would have a pretty visceral reaction to anyone who publicly claimed that they, you know, if there was, like, a hypothetical slave-owning GTA, version of GTA 6 or something, I think most people would have a pretty visceral reaction to someone who said they enjoyed playing that game because it allowed them to, you know, beat their slaves and they thought that was funny, right?

Yeah, but the only way you could imagine that anyone, like, would maybe justify it is if it were, like, you know, the Nazi hunter game or something, right? Uh-huh, yeah. To where, like, the premise is to go and take out the Nazis or whatever, but then at least in that kind of worldview, and I'm not saying that the same kind of thing couldn't happen there, but in the Nazi sandbox kind of game or whatever else, at least, like, there would be some kind of sense in which you're stopping evil.

You're not the evil person yourself, right? Uh-huh, yeah. Like, in that way. So, like, who wants to role-play, like, being the kind of person that the Bible says no murderer has eternal life abiding in them outside of the dogs, the murderers, you know, and all that?

Like, why do you want to role-play that? Like, what good is that doing you at all? Right. And I can't really think of anything that's good about it. Like, to the extent to which you're finding some sort of enjoyment out of it, it is just, like, a massive indictment on you as a person, right?

So, I mean, part of it's that, and then, I mean, part of it's just, like, you take, like, the Bible says whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is good, if there's anything excellent, if there's anything praiseworthy, you think about these things.

And what you're doing is you're taking, like, the worst elements of society, and you're putting them on display. And, I mean, you know, I wouldn't even encourage people to watch the trailer to this.

Oh, yeah. It's bad. It's bad.

I wouldn't encourage anyone to watch that. I mean, it's just, like, any more than I would encourage them to watch a rap video. I mean, it's just, like, degeneracy on display. It's just, like, if you want to teach a society how to self-destruct, then this is how you teach a society how to self-destruct.

So, I mean, it's, like, yeah, I think there's an element where it's just, like, glorifying violence. It's glorifying anarchy. It's glorifying vices. You know, and now the reaction people have to it is, like, hey, you know, it's not glorifying these things.

This is a self-aware, you know, satire of these things to where, like, it's actually poking, like, it's caricature of, like, these subcultures or whatever else that are destructive in these ways. Like, ghetto culture is, like, a caricature of these things, and it's meant to poke fun, and it's meant to be, like, making fun of the people who would play this game, and it's, like, a self-aware satire and all that.

And it's, like, no, I don't think so. I mean, I don't see what the caricature is. Just watch a rap video. Like, rap videos are worse than this, you know? So, I don't know what is, like, I don't even know that it's possible to caricature, like, ghetto culture.

You know what I mean? Like, just, like, look at a rap video and you'll see that this is not, like, far off from that. Like, this is reality here that we're portraying. And I just, yeah, I just think, do you want, what are you trying to accomplish?

Like, and what about you is drawn to role-playing this kind of thing? And so, I don't understand why, like, a person who has the Spirit of God in them wouldn't just be utterly repelled by, like, the thought of just randomly going around and shooting people and running people over and, you know, killing cops and whatever else and visit prostitutes.

I mean, it's just like, come on, just do something better with your time.

Red Dead Redemption, Storytelling, and the Difference Between Games and Novels

Now, I do want to ask you about this as well because there's another franchise that Rockstar is now really famous for creating, and that's the Red Dead Redemption series. I don't know if you're any familiar with that series.

But it's essentially, in terms of the way the game works, it's essentially the same as the GTA games have been, or at least the more recent ones. But the difference is, you know, the setting's obviously different, so you're playing as, like, a cowboy right before the turn of the century, I think, or maybe right after.

It's, you know, like, right around the end of the 1800s. And in both games, like I said, you're playing a cowboy who's essentially an outlaw. He's evil. He's doing evil things. They're robbing trains, robbing banks, robbing people, killing people, all this stuff.

But then both games are essentially presented in, like, a, I mean, it's Red Dead Redemption, right? So they're presenting these characters as, they're sort of conflicted characters who, over the course of the game, sort of realize what's going on is wrong, right?

And the things that they're doing is wrong and is self-destructive. But for the majority of the game, they are still participating in all those things, right? And so you're still robbing the trains, you're still robbing the banks, murdering people, lying to people, all of this stuff.

But then typically, assuming, I mean, you can kind of make some choices. There's, like, a morality system where you can either be, like, an evil guy who just goes all in, or you can be, like, the good guy who does, who does isolated good deeds along the way.

And if you've done enough of them, then you get a different good ending, right? And in the good endings, or at least in the second game, at least, in the good ending, you're sort of this guy who realizes, hey, all this stuff ever got me was a bunch of, a bunch of destruction.

You know, like, my life is ruined. I'm gonna, you know, I'm gonna die now. All my friends have betrayed me, or they've left me, or I've killed them, or gotten them killed. And he sort of realizes, hey, I was in the wrong.

You know, and you're kind of like, there's another character you're kind of pushing to be, to say, hey, like, hey, turn from this life. There's a better life out there. Go pursue that. So made by the same developer, you're doing evil things the majority of the game.

I would say probably, you know, somewhere between 75 and 85 of the game is you do, at least the main game, is you doing evil things. Would you view, but then at the end of it, your character's sort of realizing, hey, this isn't right, right?

So it's a redemption in that way. In your mind, is that, and I would, and I'll also add, there's not nearly, I mean, there's not nearly as much sexual stuff in the game at all. There's honestly, I don't, I don't know if there is any, actually, now that I'm thinking about it.

But with all that being said, in your mind, is that different, or is that the same because you're still participating in all of those evil things? It's just not being glorified to the same degree.

Yeah, but I think you have problems with role-playing games that are different kinds of problems than are problems with stories in general. Meaning with the idea of a role-playing game is that you're self-identifying with the character in a certain sense.

And you're performing the actions. It's like if you were to read a novel along those lines about the guy who is committing all these evils, there is a distance from the person in that you're not like, you're not.

You're just hearing the story. Right, right. So there's some sort of, even if it's written first person or whatever like that, you're not the one who is executing the acts yourself, you know, in that way.

And so, I mean, that's kind of a feature of role-playing games. It's a little bit different than as a genre with other games in general. Because we're parents and we have young kids, I mean, this is one of the problems that we have with stupid shows like Daniel Tiger or something like that.

Is that you have a cartoon where the whole entire time you have a bunch of fussy, whiny kids who they spend the whole episode fussing and then in the last two minutes of the show there's some kind of lesson from that.

And it's like, well, do you really want your kids to watch that? Do you really want them to spend 28 minutes listening to kids misbehave in the worst possible way? And do you really expect them to grasp the message at the end of it?

Like the two-minute message of, oh, well, like, you know. Now, that's something with kids. I mean, obviously kids are not adults and everything else, but what is the net result of that kind of encounter, right?

Well, the net result of that kind of encounter is you're just training your kids to watch people fuss and complain and whine or whatever for the vast majority of the show and hope they get that little thing at the end, that little nugget at the end or something.

So, I mean, that's true there, but then I think that, you know, so, I mean, I think there's some sense in which, like, as Christians, you need to think, look, how much, like, do you really want to take a bath in filth for some kind of redemptive moment at the end?

Like, how much filth do you really want to wade in? And, you know, I don't know enough about the game to even comment on, like, what kind of filth you're wading into and everything else with all that.

Yeah, but then, like, do you really just need to take a bath in depravity? Is that, like, the best thing to do for you? And I think a lot of God's standards on these areas are a lot higher than what we probably think, you know?

And the Bible says, like, making the best use of the time because the days are evil. And so, how much of, like, your life do you really want to devote to, you know, role-playing evil? Because maybe there's a positive message at the end of it.

It's like, well, I think you could probably get that message in a lot of different ways. And did that really do for you what you think it, like, was that the best way to get that little message at the end?

Did it redeem it all, you know? Did it redeem me in that way? So, you know, I don't know enough, probably, about that one to comment other than just to say that I think, in general, the more that Christians, when they are interacting with role-playing games, and, like, you do have to realize that, like, particularly the kind of games that give you significant freedom to do a bunch of evil stuff, like, the Bible is calling you to a different kind of standard.

And I don't know how much you really want to train your heart to, like, be carrying out these sinful acts and then say, hey, like, I'm going to distance myself from it because it's not, like, real or something like that.

So, I mean, I think that there's a lot of things that you can do in the context of, like, video games in general to where, that don't involve any sin on your part, right? Or even acting out sin or role-playing sin or whatever else.

Like, there's, you know, I mean, just think about all of your classic games, like, you know, Mario or whatever else. I mean, like, you have some sort of noble purpose. You're fighting some sort of evil.

So, the whole plot isn't centering around you sinning, you know, with impudence and committing evil. Like, you know, there's some sort of fantasy story that's set up in some sort of way, but then you're supposed to be, like, the good guy in the equation.

You're not just, like, the evil guy that's just harming people, kicking people. And I think, you know, you just, like, if you want, you train yourself that way and, you know, don't be surprised if, like, you're running contrary to the sanctification that God's trying to work in you, for sure.

Closing Exhortation on Entertainment and Christian Discernment

Well, fair enough. I think that's a good place.

For us to wrap up the conversation. And I do think it's obviously good to think about the entertainment that we're interacting with in general, right? Just because our society's constantly pushing entertainment down our throats.

And, you know, we're probably consuming way more than we are ever supposed to or meant to consume as individuals, just because it's so prevalent. It's worshipped. It's esteemed so highly in our culture.

And so we definitely have to be really intentional with what we're actually consuming, considering the fact that we understand this life is more than just meant to satisfy our desires, our material desires, right?

We're meant to glorify God in everything we do with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. We're meant to worship the Lord, right? And so that means looking at the things that you're watching, the things that you're reading, the games that you're playing, whatever it is, and asking yourself, am I honoring the Lord by interacting with this?

So that's definitely something we as Christians need to think through. With all that being said, we appreciate you guys for listening to us week in and week out, interacting with us online. If you want to follow us on our social media platforms, you can do that.

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Now, go boldly and obey the truth in the midst of a biblically illiterate world who will be perpetually offended by your every move.