I think I've been spending way too much of my time at some other x-JW DB's. This place is rockin'. Where on earth do you guys dredge up all this muck and mire? I love this place!
Are YOU Being Brainwashed ? Public Talk MP3
by AlphaOmega 31 Replies latest watchtower bible
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Stealth453
Holy Crap
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Tatiana
I think I've been spending way too much of my time at some other x-JW DB's. This place is rockin'. Where on earth do you guys dredge up all this muck and mire? I love this place!
DITTO! Where else can I find all this great stuff?
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poppers
Boy does that name ring a bell - I wonder if this is the Brian Steinblock that was my neighbor. His parents still live two houses down from me. He is about 35 or 36 years old and has been at Bethel for quite a few years. I'll have to make a point of asking his parents if he is the author of the article. How many Brian Steinblocks could there possible be at that place?
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heathen
LEAN DIET = Not studying, not reading whole Watchtower magazine
We can see from the size of most j-dubs that they don't miss many meals at the table . I agree there is no way that most religions use the brainwashing near as much as the j-dubs and that sumation is very deluded .
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poppers
I went to that site but I don't see an actual file to download. Can someone help me out?
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JamesThomas
Poppers, down at the bottom left of the page is a gold colored DOWNLOAD button.
edited to add: However it takes 20 seconds before it appears.
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poppers
Thanks for responding JamesThomas, but nothing like that is showing on my page. Maybe it's something to do with my Mac/Safari combination.
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pseudoxristos
Here is the first 15 minutes of the talk. Please excuse any spelling errors (to be corrected later). More to come later (tomorrow maybe):
pseudo
Are you being brainwashed?
Have you ever found yourself sitting at home or maybe riding in the car or what have you, just looking out the window just meditating I wonder what type of trials or persecution I may have to experience before the end of this wicked system of things? Have you ever found yourself thinking about that? You think about scriptures such as John 15:20 were Jesus said if they persecuted me they will persecute you also, and we recognize because Jesus said that we just may have to go through some type of persecution, before the end of this system and we say, I wonder what my persecution is going to be? And we think about all of the trials that could happen to us and difficult they may be and we say no matter what I'm going to prove my integrety to Jehovah. When that big test comes on me, Jehovah I'm there for you and I'm going to prove my faithfullness to you. And we even think of bible characters perhaps, who had to undergo big tests of their faith. Maybe bible characters like Daniel. Now who here can tell me what big test Daniel had to face? A test of his integrity, what is he known for, what big test of his integrity? Okay, let's get my sister right here to shout it out loud.
sister: Daniel and the lions den.
Yes, we all remember that, Daniel and the lions den. Would you say that was a big test of his integrity? And he proved faithful. What about shadrack, meshack and abadnigo, what big test did they face of their integrity to Jehovah. Who can tell me? Okay, my sister right here.
sister: They experienced the fiery furnace and they didn't...
That's right. And did they prove faithful? Yes they did. They faced that big test and they proved faithful to Jehovah. And we think about maybe our brothers and sisters in more modern times. For instance the Nazi concentration camps. Oh what tests they went through of their faith to Jehovah. And we say to ourselves, if that was me, if I had to go through those things, I'd prove faithful too, just like my brothers did in bible times, just like my brothers did in the Nazi concentration camps. And you know what, we might face a big test like that before the end of this system, we might. But have you ever thought about the fact that we might live right down to the end of this wicked system of things never have to face one big test of our integrity. You know many of our brothers and sisters have died faithful and they didn't have to face one big test. But whether or not we face one big test. Everyone of us sitting here today have a daily struggle to remain faithful to Jehovah. You know that daily struggle is explained in Ephesians 6, please turn there. Ephesians the 6th chapter, and notice verse 11. See if you can pick out why we have a daily test. It says put on the complete suit of armor from God, that you may be able to stand firm against the machinations of the Devil. Machinations of the Devil. Well this helps us see why it's a daily test. That word machinations literally means crafty acts, devices, evil tricks. So it gives the conotation that it may not be always easy to detect what Satan is doing against us it's trickery, it's crafty. Now one of Satan's favorite targets has always been the mind. You know why we know that? Because it's the very first target he ever tried to go for, the mind. Open your bibles to Genesis chapter 3. And this is a very familar account, but we learn something quite fascinating from this account. Genesis chapter 3. And really pay attention to how Satan goes after his first victim, as we read the first 5 verses.
Now the serpant proved to be the most cautious of all the wild beasts of the field that Jehovah God had made. So it began to say to the woman; "Is it really so that God said that you must not eat from every tree of the garden?" With this, the woman said to the serpant; "Of the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat, but as for eating of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, God has said that you must not eat from it. No you must not touch it that you do not die." At this the serpant said to the woman; "You positively will not die. God knows in the very day of your eating from it your eyes are bond to be opened. Your are bond to be like God, knowing good and bad."
Here is Satans first victim. Broke integrity to Jehovah. And did you notice how he did it? Did you notice in those verses how he put a thumb screw on Eve and started cranking down it and saying your going to eat the fruit. Eat it, eat it. And crank down on the thumb screw. No. Did you notice in there where Satan had a knife to Eves throat? Youre going to eat it or I'm going to slit your throat. No. Did you notice he had a gun to her husbands head, and said if you don't eat it I'm going to shoot your family? No. Well what did he do? He asked a question. He planted a doubt. That's it. Is it really so? And that's all it took for Eve and soon after her husband Adam to break their integrity to God. Now, let me ask you this question. Do you on their own, after being created by God and put in the middle of this beautiful garden all around them, that Adam and Eve ever would have questioned God's right to rule? Would they have ever questioned the fact that Jehovah God, the almighty soverign of the universe, had the right to set guidelines and boundries, and tell them what they could or could not do? Would they have ever thought of that on their own? Not likely. And yet all it took was for Satan the devil to plant one little doubt, asking one little question. And all of the sudden they were questioning the soverignty of the almighty God of the universe. Whoa, that's powerful isn't it?
Now, if it worked the very first time he used it, do you think that he will try using that trick again? You had better believe it. In fact the apostle Paul recognized that he was very much using that trick again, even in the first century. Notice how he appealed to his brothers in 2nd Corinthians chapter 11. 2nd Corinthians chapter 11. Notice verse 3. And as we read this, think about the fact that this congregation in the city of Corinth is in the middle of a very decadent society. There was immorality just rampant. Idol worship. Materialism was at a high, and all of these factors were starting to infiltrate into the congregation and starting to affect the brothers and sisters in the congregation. And notice how Paul appeals to them in verse 3. And you can almost sense the appeal from Paul as he says;
"But I am afraid that somehow, as the serpant seduced Eve by its cunning, your minds might be corrupted away from the sincerity and the chastity that are due the Christ." And Paul thought back to what happened in the garden of Eden. And he looked at his dear brothers in the congregations and he said; "Brothers, don't you see what's happening? The same thing that happened in the garden of Eden is happening right here in the Christian congregation Dear brothers, Satan is pulling you away from the truth, away from Jehovah God by that same cunning spirit. Attacking your mind. Planting doubts. Getting you to draw away from Jehovah God by these influences around you. Please brothers don't let this happen to you."
He saw Satan in action. And he was afraid for his brothers and sisters.
Do you think he's using it today? Very much so. Satan knows that he used it in the very beginning. He attacked using the mind in the first century, and he is attacking using our minds today. And what is interesting is that even humans have recognized the potential of breaking integrity through the mind. We're going to examine for a few moments the brainwashing process that was used by the Korean Communist during the war to turn American super patriots into traitors. And it's a very simple technigue, but oh so powerful. And, as we talk about this, think about how this might relate to how Satan is tring brainwash us even today. This techinque begins with isolation. That's the first step of this brainwashing process. We can call it isolation, because the captors would try to isolate the individuals from everyone around them. They put them in a little cell all by themselves. Nobody around, they couldn't talk to anyone else, just themself, in this little cell. And after after awhile, it started to affect the individual. Then the second step of this process was putting them on a lean diet. Now, they didn't starve them completely, because they would die off, and they didn't want them to die right away, they first wanted them to turn traitors. Then if they died, that was fine. But they wanted the satisfaction first of getting them to turn against their country and become traitors. So they put them on a lean diet, they under-nurished them enough to affect their thinking. Now do you know why we know how being under nourished or a lean diet affects our thinking? Well, how many of us here have ever been on a diet? Don't raise your hand. But you know what I'm talking about. You put yourself on this diet and you start saying no to everything in front of you. No to the chocolate cake. No to the cheesecake. No to the filet-minion. All of these things, and you feel like you can only eat these few simple things. As one person said "They could only eat sticks and twigs, it seemed like on their diet." And you do this for a few days or a few weeks and you think that your absolutely going to starve and you are grumpier than all get out. Why, because you feel under-nurished on this lean diet. And then you are upset because you weigh yourself and you lost 2 ounces through it all. And your really upset now. But, isn't it true that when we feel hungry, were not getting enough food, it affects us doesn't it? Our thinking and our ablity to reason, and our ablity to deal with people. That, then was followed by the third step in this brain washing process and that was to confuse the thinking of the captive individual, by planting doubts, communist propoganda. You see, they would barage the captive individual with questions, day in and day out. Questions such as; "Do you think you are ever going to get out of here?" Questions such as; "You know while you are here dying in this little isolated cell. There are individuals working for your government who are sitting behind a desk somewhere with their feet up and they are making money because you are here. Do you really think they care about you? Whether you live or die?" Questions such as; "Why have you given so much to your country, when they just send you here to die?" And they ask them these questions, day in and day out. Sometimes verbally. Sometimes in writting. And they would hand it to them. And they would have to write answers to those questions and give it back to the captors. And they were only allowed to read communist propoganda, nothing else. And you see what started to happen after awhile, is that they would give the answers to those questions that they thought the captors wanted to hear. The problem was after awhile, they started to believe it. That's it. That was the whole brain-washing process right there. No stocks, no firing squads, no beheading, just this simple three step process.
Now, how did the captors know whether the process was working? Well there were three stages of the process, so they could kind of monitor how far along the captive individual was in being brainwashed. Whether it was actually working or not.
The first stage of this process we could call the equivalence stage. This is the stage where un-important things became highly important. What do we mean by that? Well, the individual that was isolated in this cell, got to know their cell quite well. That's all they had, day in, day out. They got to memorize the lines in the bricks and the stones and the cracks. They just had everything memorized. They knew it like the back of their hand. And everything each day was keep, kind of the same. That was the goal, like when they would bring them their little meager meal for the day. Perhaps they brought it on a tray and maybe had a little bowl with some broth of some kind and maybe a stale piece of bread that would be up on one corner of the tray and the spoon for the broth would be on the right hand side and every day they would bring it to them this way.
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poppers
Thanks, pseudo, it's much appreciated.