HOW MINDS ARE BLINDED AND CONTROLLED
The Evil of Religious Control Vs The Freedom Of Worship in Spirit and In Truth
It appears that being deceived can often be a conscious choice. One deceived person can accidentally admit that he is deceived, and then go on to ignore his own admission, even deny it. This article is meant to illustrate the degree of “spiritual blindness” that afflict those who are brainwashed by religious men and religiosity. Spiritual blindness happens whether you are in a cult or whether you are in a evangelical and charismatic denomination. The problem arises due to several factors, which I in my limited literary ability can explain as follows:
1) Religious leaders ( both cults and mainstream ) need to maintain control over their believers by controlling their thinking and God-given reasoning ability.
2) They do so by first putting fear of their religious authority into the believers, claiming to have special knowledge of scriptures, authority on interpretation and the likelihood of a curse or fall if believers challenge the leader.
3) Then they also put doubt and uncertainty into the minds of the believers to make them believe that they by themselves cannot discern bible scriptures, i.e. an ordinary believer can never understand the scriptures apart from leaders and their publications. They must depend on the leaders in order to understand. In this way, they control their reasoning and thinking ability.
The average “religiosity-bound” believer who hopes to please God and gain the blessings of God would therefore never challenge their leaders, for fear of offending God; for are the leaders not His appointed representatives over them on earth?
But the truth-seeking believer who seeks God for who He is, His wisdom and guidance is led by the Spirit to worship God in spirit and in truth ( see John 4:24) , and does not fear leaders for the position they hold. The truth-seeker looks to the leader for guidance and teachings, and checks all he learns against the written word of God. The truth-seeker believes the bible when it says “Test all things and hold on to that which is good” (1Th 5:21). And when a person does that, he is set free to understand the teachings by the Holy Spirit, and become free of the control of man over his mind. Now, that is not what most religious leaders like.
An Interesting Encounter With A Roman Catholic On Facebook
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| Is the blessed Mary honored with a pagan title? |
I just had a very interesting exchange with one Webly Gomes of the Roman Catholic denomination from India. It all started when a Facebook friend invited me to join their group called “We are Catholics”; and I did not know that by clicking on the link I automatically “joined” them. And so, began some interesting exchanges with some members of the group in which I posed various challenges to their beliefs and asked them to check historical facts and bible references. They were not able to respond satisfactorily, being ordinary lay believers. And then in comes Webly Gomes, the group facilitator with a message that “invites” me to leave their group. I did, and then made a posting mentioning the fact that I was asked to leave when they cannot answer questions. See here:
And as expected Webly Gomes came on trying to defend his action, citing rules and started referring me to this site and that site for answers to my queries. I don’t need sites to tell me one-way pre-programmed propaganda. I needed to know if Roman Catholics can defend their beliefs in a two-way discussion. At first Gomes prodded me send him my questions which I had already posted on his Facebook page. So I simply refused to do so and told him to go check his own page for the questions. Then he challenged me to start a new discussion, which I ignored. Finally he decided to check his own page, and came back on with his reply to two of my questions, and that is:
“1. How can giving the pagan title of Queen of Heaven, which is rebuked in the Book of Jeremiah to Mary be an honor to her?” and
2. “How can there be 2 mediators when 1Tim 5:2 clearly states that there is ONLY ONE mediator between God and man, and that is Jesus Christ.”
His first response can be summarized as this:
1) He admits that the Queen of Heaven in the book of Jeremiah is a false god. But he says that doesn’t mean they cannot give that same title to Mary because she is the real Queen of Heaven.
2) He admits that they pray to Mary and the saints, and tries to justify the action by quoting the examples in the bible of Moses, Abraham and Job praying for others.
Webly Gomes’ Boo-boo
You see, all Roman Catholic believers are conditioned to provide what I call “canned answers” to a pre-determined list of issues. The Roman Catholic authorities know they do not have proper answers for many questions against what they teach. The “canned answers” are the best they can provide to their own people to give to everybody who raise the issue with them. These canned answers are drilled into them over and over again and students are not encouraged to question these answers, simply because they cannot be explained satisfactorily. This is the mind-conditioning that I am talking about. It is brain-washing, and it is done in very subtle ways.
Let’s see how Gomes boo-booed himself with the canned answers.
1) He simply is unable to fathom that you cannot claim to honor a person by giving to him a name or title that is despised. E.g. Can I honor him by calling him by the title “Devil”? Of course not. I wouldn’t do that to him. The title “Queen of Heaven” appears only in the book of Jeremiah as the pagan goddess that certain Israelites were worshipping, and these Israelites were condemned by God for doing so. What an (dis)honor to Mary, the blessed!
2) Gomes regurgitated the spoon-fed canned answers by quoting the Abraham, Moses and Job examples to the challenge of using other mediators with God apart from Jesus. Since he was not allowed to think that he can ever understand scriptures on his own, he never came to realize that Abraham, Moses and Job were all alive and kicking when they prayed for other people. Roman Catholic saints, including Mary are all dead people. Dead people cannot pray for the living. And he admit that RC's pray to Mary and does that not make a god out of Mary? No, he says, He only pray to Mary as a saint and not as a god. The bible calls all living believer saints. Does he pray to living people? He has been brainwashed and conditioned so heavily that he could not see it and he can still deny that they do not consider Mary as god. See the blindness? Wow! Worshiping anything in addition to God is forbidden.
Then, when I pointed out the above to Webly Gomes, what was his reaction? He shut down and shut off, and immediately declared that it is worthless talking to me, me and declared “no more talking”. He wasn’t interested in checking out whether what I said was true. For if it is true, he would have to question his leaders and face the condemnation of his leaders. He would lose all fellowship with them and years of social support. Doesn’t matter they are wrong. Better to go along with them and please them rather than please God and offend them. So, in typical cultist fashion, he ran away and shut off all discussions.
Well, did not Jessus say “Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free” John 8:32
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In 1 Timothy it says that Jesus is our sole mediator, yet we pray to Mary and the Saints. Is that going against the Bible? 1 Tim 2:5 reads as follows: "For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus..." "You see," we Catholics are told, "there is only one mediator between God and men, Jesus Christ. Therefore, praying to the saints goes against the Bible because you are making them mediators between God and man, you are diminishing Jesus' role as the sole mediator!" Is that an appropriate interpretation of that passage? No, it's not and let's see why not. In the O.T. we see that Moses, Abraham, and Job interceded on behalf of others... that's mediating between God and man. We know that it is okay to ask others here on earth to pray and intercede for us.... that's mediating between God and man. So, I think, once again, we have a situation where a passage of the Bible is being misinterpreted and misunderstood. There is only one mediator between God and man, the man Jesus Christ, but as members of the Body of Christ, He allows us to share in His mediation. Also, Scripture tells us that we have only one foundation, Jesus Christ (1 Cor 3:11); but, Scripture tells us that there is more than one foundation (Eph 2:19-20). Scripture tells us that we have only Lord, Jesus Christ (Eph 4:4-5); but, Scripture tells us there is more than one lord (Rev 19:16). Scripture tells us that we have only one Judge, Jesus Christ (James 4:12); but, Scripture tells us there is more than one judge (1 Cor 6:2). Contradictions in Scripture? No! Not when these passages are all properly understood in context. Jesus is the only foundation; Jesus is the only Lord; and Jesus is the only Judge. But, we are members of Jesus' Body. Therefore, we are able, according to the graces given by Christ, to share in Jesus' role as foundation, as lord, and as judge, and in otherz aspects of Christ, as well. Another example, as a father I share in God's role as Father, by His grace. And, so also, we, and the saints in Heaven, and the angels in Heaven, can share in Christ's role as Mediator.
Chan Wang Tak: It's 1:30 am here. goodnite. will respond more on monday. In the meanwhile, are you saying that you have called Mary a mediatrix and but she does not mediate for you? What is she doing on your behalf when your pray to her? Are you supposed to praying to anyone or anything besides God. Are you not admitting that you pray to more than God alone? Have you not admitted that you pray to more than one god, except that you call them by the name of saints instead? Answers are in order. See you on Monday
It's not worth arguing with you. You will not understand the truth..... never.... We can go no further with our debate, when you are not able to understand the 'Authority' as was given to his desciples by Jesus. Questioning that, cancels our whole debate and will not be fruitful.
I'm happy to be a Catholic(universal).... you can follows your own thoughts... bye.... no more talks...
I'm happy to be a Catholic(universal).... you can follows your own thoughts... bye.... no more talks...
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