Conditioning and Mind-Control In Religion

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

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: 

http://www.facebook.com/ChanWangTak/posts/335157339903664?notif_t=feed_comment_reply

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

*************************************************

Webly Gomes : Friends with Augustine Coelho

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.

Saturday at 1:19am via mobile · Like

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

Saturday at 1:23am · Edited · Like

Webly Gomes · Friends with Augustine Coelho

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...

 For the full posting go here:

http://www.facebook.com/ChanWangTak/posts/335157339903664?notif_t=feed_comment_reply

Of Pastor Kong Hee and His Defenders

Hypocrisy In Christianity

Related Posts:

1. Of Pastor Kong Hee And His Defenders
2. Guilty CHC Six - Jail Sentences
3. Guilty!! Howso The Judge Saith It
4. Hypocrite Churches - Restore The Criminal But Forget The Victim
5. Of Corrupted Churches And The Power Of Mind Control

Kong Hee Being Led Into Court

Some 3 weeks have passed by since the arrest of the above well-known pastor of a 30,000-members church and his team on 26 Jun 2012.  I have waited that long before writing about this case.  Well, more on the fallacious behavior of churches and their leaders against unrighteous acts among their own, and the idol-worshiping followers of that now infamous name.  I have waited that long to see if they would behave the way I had expected them to and sure as the sun rises in the East, they did.

Now, first of all let it be known that the bible has plenty of warnings against the popping up of wolves within the sheepfold.

Act 20:29  For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.

Bible warns that some will bring in false teachings and prophecies.  Others will make merchandise out of the believers ( i.e. make profit out of them). And some will do both, i.e make profit out of gullible believers by teaching falsely to scratch itching ears and superstitious followers by their false prophecies designed to excite and cause fear, so that the fool and his money can be early parted from him.

2Pe 2:1  But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.  2Pe 2:2  And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.

2Pe 2:3  And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.

For this, you only have to look at people like Creflo Dollar ( the name itself is so telling ), Benny Hinn, Joel Osteen, TD Jakes, and the list goes on. Not all people come to church to seek God, but on the pretext of seeking God, they come for all kinds of other worldly things like worldly riches and blessings, girlfriends, business networking, motivational adrenaline flow, etc.  Many worship the leader with charisma and showmanship and obey that leader more than they obey God, for they believe the pastor more than the bible.  That, is the condition of the institutionalized church today.  I always make a distinction between that institution that usurped the name “church” from the body of believers.

Kong Hee’s Gifts and Fruits of the Spirit

Now, Kong Hee does have very good teachings.  I do not fault him on this, for in this he puts Joseph Prince to shame.  But the ability to teach is not all Christians are supposed to look for in a leader, or any other believer.  We are supposed to look for the fruits of the Spirit.  But Christians easily idol-worship any charismatic speaker and especially one with showmanship.  Many come to the church to entertain themselves under the pretext of seeking God and the pulpit is also turned into a comedian stand and a motivational podium.  My former church mate, an Uncle Lim is one of them and not the only one. And Kong Hee has charisma and some level of showmanship to go with his teaching.  And so, he has become ‘god’ to be idolized by many of his followers.

Should a Pastor Live Luxuriously To Be Effective?

And on what he did, or rather been alleged to have done.  Let me first say this.  I have no grudge against a pastor driving a luxurious car or living in a mansion.  He could have inherited it, earned his money in investments before or even during his time as a pastor; or he might even have received it as a gift from his followers.  I only question the necessity of showing off.  I have heard one lady “pastor” by the name of Christina who once told me that a pastor needs to wear expensive clothes in order to be able to impress others and get their attention so that when he preaches the gospel it can be believed.  You go figure what’s right or wrong with this logic.  To me, being well-groomed does not equate to expensive clothings.  And I can preach the gospel as long as I am decently dressed. 

What He Did, And How The Church Responded

Now, back to Kong Hee.  The Singapore authorities took 2 years to complete the investigations and found enough evidence to execute the arrest and to charge the whole bunch in court for Criminal Breach of Trust of S$23million.  And the authorities revealed that there were clear evidence of manipulation to conceal the movement of the money from one account into another, until it reaches the final “Multi-purpose Account”, which then uses the money to fund his wife’s secular career activities. Now, what is the best thing for Christians to to do in the circumstances?  I would say that we wait for the evidence to be presented in court to see if Kong Hee is actually found guilty.  But whether or not he is found guilty, that should not prevent us from making a stand against any criminal act, lying and cheating per se.  But this was not done.  What was done were: -

1)      Immediate chorus of support for the pastor and his team with statements made as if he and his team is not capable of committing those acts.  Do you not think those who cry do not judge has already judged before the court judges? What hypocrisy!  14000 members, it seems got together to do this.

2)      Cries were issued to pray to God that the court will find him innocent.  It does not matter if he is actually guilty, but the prayer should be that God should ( blind the eyes of the judge?) set him free whatever he has done, so that the “honor” of Christianity be upheld.  I would not think my righteous God would do that.  Would yours?

3)      Various Christian leaders from other churches immediately expressed concern over the “talks” circulating around, and urge believers to exercise restrain.  Only one man Dr. Daniel Koh had the balanced wisdom to express along the lines that, “some of the comments are negative and unkind. Yet unkind responses, as well as those that seem to offer blind support of pastors and leaders, are 'unhelpful'”. Others, immediately jump up to urge Christians “not to judge”.  Now, the question is, “Are Christians supposed to judge or not to judge”?

4)      The Regional Pastor of Hope International Ministries Benjamin Lee exhibited the standard hypocrisy of self-righteous non-judging Christian by urging Christians to "watch out for negative and sinful dynamics in our own life" and to "avoid the judgmental spirit and self-righteousness."  What hypocrisy!  Crying out against self-righteousness by practicing self-righteous restraint that is in contravention to bible teachings.

To Judge Or Not To Judge, That Is The Question

For my firm answer to that, I simply quote :

1Co 5:9  I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators: 1Co 5:10  Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world. 1Co 5:11  But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat. 1Co 5:12  For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within? 1Co 5:13  But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.

It is so simple to understand.  I am supposed to keep company with fornicators of the world, with the covetous, idolators of the world.  But I am not supposed not keep company with a “brother”, i.e. a Christian who is covetous or a fornicator or extortioner, a drunkard, etc, etc.  I am not supposed to judge the sinners who are outside of the church, for it is for God to judge them.  But I am supposed to judge those who are within ( the church ), and I am supposed to put away from me that wicked person ( who is a Christian ).

Now, tell me.  Does any church seriously preach the above? NO!! But I have the cults ( surprisingly ) being more serious about this than the regular churches.  In churchy hypocrisy, they tell believers not to be self-righteous by judging others, while they themselves become self-righteous by practicing “self-restraint” in a manner which is against the bible teaching.  Can anyone tell me 1Co 5:9 is to be understood in any other way?

And by the way, what about those pastors on this side of the border with Singapore who connived with them to receive the huge sums of money as "love offering" and then quickly re-transferred the monies into the Multi-purpose Account?  Are they not guilty of collaborating to deceive?  Is any of them owning up?

But The Bible Says Judge Not! ??

Dressed for Evangelism?  To Judge or Not To Judge

The bible does say:

Mat 7:1  Judge not, that ye be not judged.

but if you care to read on further, you will find the clear message that you should not judge without first judging yourself.  If does not say do not judge.  It says judge yourself first and then go on to judge others.  And by what standard should a person judge?  By the standards set in the bible, of course for you are going to be judged by these standards even if you do not judge others.  This is what the pastors and church leaders do not explain.  They just stop at verse 1.  Maybe they don’t understand the bible despite their training.  Maybe they are just being deceitful and hopes that by teaching out of context, their wrongs will not be revealed by their followers.

 

Image of Holiness or Harlotry?

  

The bible teaching on judging others is so clear.  Just this verse:            Joh 7:24  Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment. 

Let’s look at another verse commonly used to scare Christians away from judging:

Rom 2:1  Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things.

False preachers commonly stop expounding at “thou condemnest thyself”. They would not go on to the last limb that says “for thou that judgest doest the same things”.  So the truth is, if we condemn others while we are doing the same things, then we are condemned for we do the same things.  So, am I not allowed to judge if I am not doing the evil they are doing?  See how easily Christians are deceived by incomplete teaching and preaching.

My take is, we are supposed to judge.  I will judge, and I will judge by the standards of the bible. And I shall make sure that I do not the things that the bible condemns, and when I do, I know I have sinned and shall confess to the Lord and ask for forgiveness. 

Naughty Girl Evangelism - City of Sin or City of Sun

The "Cross-over Project"  And finally, about this thing called the “Cross-over Project”.  I suppose the title refers to an intention of the “good” pastor and his hand-picked team to “use” the worldly, material-girl image of the wife to draw in worldly material-life chasing members from within her fan club to cross over into the church. This sounds like a fantabulous idea until you start asking questions.  And one question is “cross over into the church for what purpose”?  To change these people into holy living Christians?  Surely CHC cannot succeed in that when the pastor cannot get his wife to dress more decently on stage.  Another question is "What kind of image does she project upon Christianity with skimpy dressing and abundant exposed flesh on stage, couple with hips jerking forth antics on stage?".  No wonder the Muslims have such a cockeyed view of Christianity as a decadent religion! Maybe his intention is merely to get the fans to cross-over to fill up the membership rolls and collect more money in tithes and offerings?  Numbers attract numbers, and numbers = $$$$!  That would sound like a more plausible motive, but that would be the wrong motive for converting people to Christianity. But the idol speaks, and his handpicked leaders obligingly agree ( probably with due benefits for agreeing ) and connived to use church funds to “sponsor” the pastor’s wife’s career in order to bring in more members.  Is that not a devious method of “evangelism” on behalf of a fully righteous God? But though we call a collection of sheep a flock, they actually behave like a herd.  Their eyes being blurred by the charisma of the leader, they become incapable of making the right judgment.  Even when the matter is exposed, they continue to blindly cry for him and to support him, and even pray to a holy God to help get him off the hook, whether he is guilty or not.  One lady supporter of his even remarked "Why are you people outside of CHC complaining about the money when we who are inside are not?" This kind of blind support is pathetic.  They fail to look beyond at the damage to the public's impression of Christianity caused by the allegations against a Christian leader's criminal behavior, and the half-naked evangelism.   I am inclined to think that maybe they are acting out of need to defend their hurt pride, for they cannot admit that they have had wool pulled over their eyes.  Kind of reminds me of Joseph Prince’s supporters and the way they defend him even when Joseph Prince is caught outright teaching wrongly.

Will I pray for Kong Hee?   I will pray, for I have prayed for Kong Hee that God’s will be done, and that if he is truly guilty but found not guilty by the court for any reason whatsoever, God’s grace be upon him to come before Him to confess and repent, and that the Lord will forgive him.  For in the end, it is not the court of man that condemns us in eternity, but the righteousness of God.

 Jesus said "Joh 8:32  And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. "  but many would not know the truth.