Here is the first 25 minutes of this talk.
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Are you being brainwashed?
Brother Steinblock
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 difficulty that may be and we say no matter what I'm going to prove my integrity to Jehovah. When that big test comes on me, Jehovah I'm there for you and I'm going to prove my faithfulness 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 Abendigo, 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. Every one 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 connotation 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 familiar 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 serpent 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 serpent; "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 serpent 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 Satan’s 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? You’re 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 sovereign of the universe, had the right to set guidelines and boundaries, 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 sovereignty 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 serpent 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 technique, but oh so powerful. And, as we talk about this, think about how this might relate to how Satan is tiring brainwash us even today. This technique 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 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-nourished 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-nourished 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 ability to reason, and our ability 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 propaganda. You see, they would barrage 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 writing. 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 propaganda, 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.
But when they started to think that maybe this process was starting work, being brainwashed, they'd mix it up a little bit. So this time they would deliver the tray to them, but the bread would be on the other side and the spoon would be switched and now it's on the left. And that would irritate them. They would get highly irritated by that. Now think about this for a second. That individual, the captive individual, did not know whether they were going to even going to live another day. They didn't know if their family knew where they were, or what was happening to them, whether they would be loyal to their country. You would think those would be the important issues to them at this moment, wouldn't you? But no, what was important is that you moved my spoon. That's the equivalent stage. Unimportant things became highly important. Now that, if the process continued to work would eventually lead into what you could call the paradoxical stage. And that's the stage where they didn't think normal, but the ironic part is they knew it. They knew that they weren't thinking normal, or thinking right. It was kind of the stage where they recognized when that tray came in, and they were all upset about the spoon being moved. See at first they didn't recognize what they were doing. Now they are in the stage where they know that thinking was crazy. They knew that those things shouldn't bother them, yet they continued to act that way. That's the paradoxical stage. They knew all of the important things that really should be mattering to them, but it just took on a whole different level in their life. It just was kind of pushed to the background and all of these little things now became important, and they knew that wasn't the right way to think, but they keep doing it anyway. Eventually if that brainwashing process continued, it would lead to the third and final stage of the process, which we could call the ultra-paradoxical stage. And that's the stage where the individual did a complete flip-flop. Their loved ones became their enemies; their enemies became their loved ones. They would do anything their captures wanted against their former loved ones. When a person reached that stage, they never came back. At one time being a super patriot ready to die for their country. And now by means of this simple three step brainwashing process, they became a traitor, an enemy of what they once loved.
Pretty powerful, isn't it? But, the question is, does that relate to you and me? Does that affect us in our life? Well, remember when we read 2nd Corinthians 11:3, where the apostle Paul was concerned for his brothers, because why? He knew Satan was trying to brainwash them basically the same way they did Eve, and the same way that he is doing today.
In fact Satan really is using that same process that the Korean Communists used against the American super-patriots. It really is much the same way, the same principles. Let's see how. Who can remind me of what the first step was in the brainwashing process? What was the first thing that they did to try and affect the thinking of their minds. Let's take that hand way in the back there... yeah. Isolation, does Satan try to isolate you and me? He sure does. From where, well from each other. He tries to isolate us from association with our brothers and sisters at the meetings and field service. And opportunities for wholesome association together. How does he do that? How does he try to isolate us from our brothers?
Let's go back to that scenario of the big test of our faith. Let's just suppose that you walked outside the doors of the kingdom hall after this talk was over. You were getting ready to go home, or go for dinner, or what have you, and you walk over by your car, and someone comes out of the bushes just a little bit and says "ssspt, come here, come here" and you're kind of looking around, not knowing what's going on. And you just take a step closer and they step out a little bit closer to you and they say; "I have a proposition for you. Come here, I've got to make you an offer. I know that you have a meeting tomorrow here at the Kingdom Hall. And I will give you $10,000 right now if you stay home from your meeting tomorrow." How many of you would take him up on the offer? Don't raise your hands. We have absolute confidence that no one sitting here would take them up on the offer. Why? Because, instantly a flag goes up in our head. Doesn't it? Test, a test from Satan. Satan is trying to get me to stay home from the meeting. And I'm faithful, I didn't do it. And now we go home very proud of ourselves. We with stood that test from Satan, and we live on for weeks on end how proud we are that we stood up against that test of Satan the Devil. And we may even say to ourselves; "You just can't put a price on the meetings. That's why I didn't take him up on it. You can't put a value on the meetings." But dear brothers, some of us sell cheap when you think about it, don't we? Some of us stay home from meetings because of a little overtime at work. Where we may make a hundred or two hundred dollars. Whatever it is, we sell cheap when we stay home from meetings to catch up on things around the house, or because we are a little over-tired. We sell cheap.
And it didn't take one big test for Satan to accomplish his purpose. He was able to do it with little things. Little things, day in day out. That we don't immediately recognize as a test from Satan. But it all accomplishes the same thing. It isolates us from our brothers. You know we are reminded many, many times when we come to the Kingdom Hall and we read the magazines and we go to the conventions about the importance of meeting attendance, and not missing the meetings and sometimes, some of us think in the back of our minds well I hope brother so-and-so is listening because, he misses a lot of meetings. And who do we not think about? Honestly. Yeah, isn't true, we don't think about ourselves.
There was a congregation, this is recorded in the Watchtower of March 15, 2000. There was a congregation that decided to test themselves to see how they were doing on there meeting attendance. And so the publishers made up a little calendar for like a month or so. And they tracked on the calendar, every time they missed a meeting and why. And you know the brothers and sisters that did that little test of themselves at the end of the one month trial period, said they were shocked at how many meetings that they missed. They never realized they missed so many meetings before. And the little reasons that came up that caused them to miss them. Do you think that isolation from our brothers will affect us?
Notice what it tells us in Proverbs chapter 18 in verse 1 about this affect on us. Proverbs 18 verse 1. It says: "The one isolating himself." Notice that? "will seek his own selfish longing. Against all practical wisdom, he will break forth." Well, do we catch the point? When we isolate ourselves from our brothers and sisters when we stay home from the meetings, it says we seek our own selfish longing. Who's longing do we think about when we are not at the meeting. Our bothers and sisters and the things they're going through and the spiritual food being digest by our friends at the Kingdom Hall and spiritual goals and problems and trial of our brothers that we can reach out and help them with. No, not likely. Most of the time, who are we thinking about? Me, of course. Me and my needs and my situation. With our own selfish longing. And it says eventually what will happen; "against all practical wisdom we will break forth." See it starts to affect our thinking. Ahhh, that sounds familiar now doesn't it? It affects our thinking. It affects practical wisdom, we break forth against practical wisdom. We start to make decisions that do not show wisdom from above. We make decisions that no longer reflect a spiritual point of view or spiritual perspective but a fleshly point of view. Satan knows what he's doing, doesn't he? That's the first step in being spiritually brainwashed, isolation.
