Blog

by Charlie Wolcott

Last week, I wrote about words: what they are, what they do, and how they are used. You may have noticed I made several comments about how words can be used to brainwash people. It is one of the most effective and powerful weapons used throughout the history of the world. Sun-Tzu said in The Art of War that: “The height of skill is not to win 100 battles. To subdue your enemy without fighting is.” Brainwashing is very good at not just subduing an enemy without cost to you; it also can turn an enemy into an ally.

Stockholm Syndrome is a case of brainwashing. The term comes from a hostage situation held in Stockholm, Sweden, when the hostages turned in favor of their hostage taker and supported them. This is seen in many abusive situations. The victim gets the opportunity to escape and instead of getting out of a bad situation, they speak in defense of their own abuser. But often, that is done out of fear of the unknown and wanting to stay with what they know. The particular cases I’m addressing here are where the victim actually thinks their abuser truly loves them and cares for them. It’s not that they hope they will, but they think they actually do.

Brainwashing is a psychological process of removing any intellectual checks you have against a person, belief, or group and replacing them with something else. It is never through actual logic, reasoning, or facts. It is usually done through playing with words, through emotional abuse/manipulation, or through indoctrination. In fact, you can almost use the terms “brainwashing” and “indoctrination” interchangeably. The cliché goes, “Tell a lie enough times until it becomes true.” That’s brainwashing, and it is found in every area of life today, especially in politics and academia, but also in the church. Brainwashing has been so effective that when a voice who has realized the truth speaks it out, those who have been brainwashed will lash out in rage if for no other reason than their delusion is shattered.

Now, I’m not merely talking about a conspiracy to deceive, other than on the part of the devil. There is a reason why brainwashing is so effective on the masses: because they welcome it. They want it. Think of Cipher from The Matrix. He had learned the truth, he didn’t like it, and so he met with Agent Smith and betrayed Morpheus and Neo so that he could go back into the Matrix and not remember anything. He wanted to be brainwashed. It’s like King Ahab of Israel. He was bad enough as it was, following the idols of Jeroboam and doing wicked deeds. But God called him out on the fact that he married Jezebel while he was at it. Jezebel was constantly there to undo any call to come back to God and prevent Ahab from hearing it.

2 Timothy 4:3-4 addresses the same idea. There will come a time where people will not tolerate sound doctrine but instead search out teachers who will “tickle their ears” and teach them what they want to hear. These people WANT to be brainwashed. They want to not hear the truth. They want to be “inoculated” from being exposed to the truth and having to respond to it. And I’ve watched some of them talk. It’s like they will literally throw away their reading comprehension skills to avoid acknowledging what Scripture explicitly states. They literally make themselves stupid to keep from hearing it in my opinion. They’ve been brainwashed, and they aren’t mere victims of it, but they are willful participants in it.

Now, that is not a blanket statement. There are MANY who have been brainwashed and didn’t want it or realize it happened. When they are exposed to the truth and receive it, it’s like the light turns on, or the fog that came over their head is lifted. When I listen to people who had been brainwashed into evolutionary thinking and that fog that prevented them from seeing the truth is lifted, there are two reactions: awe of the power of God, and betrayal from those who deceived them. They realize they had been deceived, and a righteous anger comes upon them against that which corrupted them. On the other side, those who were raised in the church and then left it tend to talk in terms of education or enlightenment. It’s actually brainwashing. Some were overcome by it, and some welcomed it.

How does it work? Brainwashing is a literal re-programming of the brain to think in certain paths and certain directions. It’s been scientifically shown that watching pornography literally re-wires the brain. (Pornography is another form of brainwashing in regard to sexuality. The primary method is through words and images, usually images attached to those words.) Through excessive repetition of the same things and prevention of hearing any alternative, the facilitator either through the media, books, authors, scientists, teachers, and yes, preachers, keeps working the message through until the audience has received it. Cult leaders depend upon this to keep their followers.

Richard Wurmbrand understands what brainwashing is. He spent 14 years in prison in Communist Romania and he took numerous beatings that were often just for spite. When he spoke in the U.S., he would not wear shoes because of the tortures that had been done to his feet. And of all that, he said the worst torture he endured was the brainwashing. In prison, it was being forced to endure 17 hours nonstop of pure propaganda that one minute of it would drive you insane. But he also made this statement about us in the U.S.: “The only reason why we drink Coca-Cola is because we’ve been brainwashed to drink it. There is no actual reason to drink it. You don’t see advertisements just to drink water” (though bottled water now does). But that’s brainwashing, according to Wurmbrand. Look at so many of the products we get. Do we need them, or just want them, and why? Often, it’s brainwashing through advertisements. Sometimes it’s lust or envy or peer pressure.

I want to make this absolutely clear: NO ONE is immune from brainwashing. I am a staunch defender of the truth, but I’m not perfect and there are times where I realize I have been brainwashed. There are things I’ve fallen for, and frankly there are things I will still fall for. There is a reason God spends so much time warning against false teachings and false teachers. One such reason is because of the effects of brainwashing. Jesus warned about a coming Great Deception that would be so powerful that even the elect can be deceived. Brainwashing is the only tool capable of getting such a deception to take root even in the believer. I personally believe that evolution is the origins model for said Great Deception or at least the precursor to it, because in my studies of church history, I’ve never seen so many people fall from the truth who claim to be Christians. I’m also going to make this statement: in my opinion, evolution could NEVER be passed on to another person without brainwashing. There’s no scientific experiment that shows it, nor any actual logic that makes the tiny observations we do see make sense with such extrapolations.

Next week, I’m going to show how science has truly been hijacked into paganism via brainwashing over the cause of Evolution and Deep Time. Then in two weeks, I’m going to address how pastors have been brainwashed against the truth and their congregations along with them. And in three weeks, I’ll give the solution: how to be able to withstand such brainwashing by relying upon the Words of Truth.

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