Propaganda or provision and protection

If, as we (and Jesus) claim, the Bible is true, then much of what the World is telling us is not true. But the problems is that so much of it feels right. As always the Bible is aware of these things. In Proverbs 16:25, we read “There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.” Actually the very same proverb with the exact same wording occurs twice, here and in Proverbs 14:12. When something is repeated in the Bible is it there to emphasize its importance. A thing may seem right or feel right, but feels and seems right, is not the same as is right, and when it is not, it always has negative consequences, it produces (spiritual) death rather than (abundant) life

We might resist admitting that, and we seem to have this capacity to far too easily fool ourselves. Verse 13 of Proverbs 14 in the Message continues the thought of the previous verse “Sure, those people appear to be having a good time, but all that laughter will end in heartbreak.” The NIV renders this “Even in laughter the heart may ache, and joy may end in grief.” I know in the process of coming to the Lord, this verse described me exactly. I wore a mask of happiness, but I was dying inside. Many of us have to learn the hard way that God's ways are best, I know I did. But I also know that it was the heartache that lead me to reconsider my way of life, that and that His Spirit was wooing me.

And when we are in the midst of it all, in denial and rationalization, we are often desperate to justify ourselves. So much so, that in our justification we want others not only to agree with us, but we want to drag them into our erroneous ways. The Bible knows us here too, as it tells that those who do such rebellious things know deep down that they are deserving of God's judgement, nevertheless they approve of others who do them (Romans 1:32).

There are three influences the Scriptures tell us that lead us away from truth and righteousness and hence from the abundant life. They are the World the flesh (sinful nature) and the Devil (Ephesians 2:2-3a). Under these influences good and evil are turned on their head. Three thousand years ago the Lord warned Israel “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil” (Isaiah 5:20), so none of this is new. Nor is the militancy with which these things are preached. And let's make no mistake about it, “preached” is the operative word. The tyranny of political correctness disallows any and all dissent from the teaching of the "new" morality. Those who disagree are called hatemongers, but one has to wonder exactly who is hating who? Two thousand years ago Jesus made it clear that the World would hate those who live for Him (John 17:14; 3:19).

And the evidence of what I am saying is all around us. We see it in the systematic, powerful, well funded and well organized lobby intent on tearing down the values and beliefs of our Judeo-Christain culture. David Kupelian in his book “The marketing of evil”, documents some of the human resources that have been deliberately committed to this agenda. If we define evil as anything that is opposed to life and wholeness, then we can understand one reviewer of Kupelian's book who wrote “From pitching promiscuity as 'freedom' to promoting abortion as 'choice', the marketers of evil are always selling you something destructive – with catastrophic results. Kupelian shines light on it all”.



In particular Kupelian exposes the Harvard marketing strategy behind some of the propaganda that has turned our morals upside down in North America over the past several decades. The three strategies are desensitization, jamming and conversion. Hitler knew if you kept telling even the biggest lie over and over and over, people would sooner or later start to believe it. This is desensitization, flooding the “market” with the lie, until people accept it. We see it over and over in the media as people of faith are almost always depicted as narrow minded hypocrites. Jamming has to do with disallowing or shouting down any view that is contrary to the one you wish to espouse. Try saying something on open line programs that is not considered to be politically correct, and you will see what I mean. The lag time on these “live performances” allow you to be cut off on the air before you even utter the first word. Conversion has to do exactly with what Isaiah was talking about above reversing good and bad, truth and error. In particular what was formerly thought to be evil is now promoted as good and wholesome and normal, and as throwing off the so called chains of Biblical morality. But what we are being sold is not wholesome and good and normal, it is destructive. We are only starting to reap what we have sown in these “choices” that we are making, and we may need to go a lot further down the road to decline before we are willing to re-examine where we are going.

And decline is where we are going. The “inconvenient truths” we need to lean from the school of hard knocks are inconvenient indeed. Into all of this God speaks his “no's,” And He does it in love, for He says these things for our provision and for our protection. More to come!