Brethern, and Cistern, today's lesson from the Golden Calf is one of profound importance - never to be forgotten!
w56
6/15 p. 360 - "We
usually believe what we want to believe, and one thing we like to
believe is that we do our own
thinking. Hence it is not too hard for clever propagandists to make
us think their
thoughts are ours.
They
plant the thought and nourish it, but do it so subtly that we think
it is our own.
(2 Cor. 4:4) We
should know the clever tricks of Satan's
propagandists. They are many, but to mention just one, unsavory
labels (like,
'apostate'?) are stuck on
anything that they
oppose.....But
to be pushed around by such social pressure, to be shoved and
maneuvered by a fear of
labels, is to show a
pathetic immaturity, an inability
to think for ourselves,
a lack of intelligent convictions. We should gain accurate knowledge
for ourselves,
“in order that we should no longer be babes, tossed about as by
waves and carried hither and thither by every wind of teaching by
means of the trickery of men. Why be tricked by crafty men into
adopting their
thoughts, especially when those men have themselves
been snared by Satan and pumped full of his poisonous subtleties? Why
allow yourself to be brainwashed by dupes oblivious
to their own
mental bondage?"
2
Corinthians 13:5 - "Keep
testing......keep
proving..."
1
Thessalonians 5:21 - "Make
sure of all
things."
1
John 4:1
"...test
the inspired statements to see whether they originate with God."