Propaganda versus Truth

For I heard the defaming of many, fear on every side. Report, say they, and we will report it. All my familiars watched for my halting, saying, Peradventure he will be enticed, and we shall prevail against him, and we shall take our revenge on him. (Jeremiah 20:10)

As someone who trained in a media school and worked in a media house, I can conclusively say that propaganda is a very key element of any warfare. More wars are won through propaganda than through the actual battle, only that it is in the interests of the ‘winner’ to downscale the part it played.

Most people who are old enough can remember the gulf war. I was then in the media and followed the news from all international media houses and was conversant with what was happening then.

The first thing is that Saddam tricked the allies as to the locations of his strategic positions. They therefore ended up bombing enough decoys (imagine bombing carton after carton thinking they are bunkers and army positions and armories!) until they almost gave up when the truth came out. Of course technology then was not as advanced as it is today.

But they came on top when they played a worse game on him. They exaggerated their preparedness and strategy for their grand approach to the point that Saddam believed and posted the best of his army to defend that position when they were planning their attack on a completely different front. They therefore invaded a front that was undefended as the focus had been shifted elsewhere through propaganda (mainly media). No wonder they won the battle so quickly.

What am I saying? The Bible calls us an army, an army whose captain is the Lord Jesus Christ.

This means that we have an enemy who stands against everything our captain represents.

Our victory or defeat is thus subject to our connectedness to our captain because as the King of kings He can never be defeated. We can’t therefore claim poor leadership on His side as He already won those battles on the cross for us.

The key plank for our defeat is listening to the enemy’s propaganda instead of our Lord’s command. This is because the devil knows us enough to know that our allegiance to the voice of our King is inversely proportional to the propaganda we hear from his side. We can shout all we can about our seriousness with our Lord when we spend our waking hours listening to the enemy.

What do I mean? We spend more time on propaganda then on the truth. And I know you are wondering what I mean.

Well, how much actual time do you spend with heaven in your day? Most will spend a few minutes in prayer so that God can cover our day with the blood (which is the first propaganda item we have swallowed completely) then we will pick a few favorite verses to lift our hearts (to make us feel nice is more like it), then we will start our day convinced that the Lord is on our side. (I have addressed the issue of the blood in an earlier post ‘Blood Abuse’. You can search the blog for it)

We will then switch on the radio or TV and swallow enough poison from mammon to completely obliterate even the little of God we deceived ourselves to have gotten. And I am not only talking about secular media as I do not see much difference when I go to the ‘Christian’ media because the rules are the same. Many are selling this or the other and others have gone into real estate. It is only that they play ‘Christian’ songs, some which are blasphemous or a plain display of spiritual illiteracy.

Of course we must follow the news which is the prime propaganda item from hell. We will pick the radio and TV news and then spend so much time digesting the newspapers for comprehensive analyses of the same.

Is it any wonder then that our prayers are more defensive than offensive? Does it surprise us when our fellowships dwell on what the devil is doing and how we must and can bind him? Does it amaze us that we have become the opposite of what Christ meant in Matthew 16:18?

We listen to propaganda from hell more than we listen to our captain, if at all we listen to Him. This means that he is the one placing us wherever he wills to accomplish whatever victory he desires. He has started even playing his game from our pulpits as I mentioned in the post ‘Of Gates and Offense’. It is sad that he even teaches us to fight him.

Do we know the voice of our Captain? Can we distinguish it from any other voice? Do we hear it when He is issuing orders or are we more responsive to releases from the other side? Do we know what heaven is planning or are we clearer about what scheme of the evil one has been released? Are we doing heaven’s bidding or hitting back at hell’s activity?

Let me mention one thing in passing. There is this burning issue of the corruption of the Bible. Have you ever suspected it to be propaganda from hell to stop God’s people from reading the Bible? Yet page after page is printed and broadcast after broadcast is made for the single purpose of proving that this or the other passage has been removed or added to the Bible.

Is God that weak? If for many people across history it took only one verse, or even a portion of a verse to turn the direction of their life, why do we suppose that removing or doctoring this or the other verse would remove the potency of the Bible? If God does use the Quran which was written to destroy Christianity as it pushes doctrines totally opposed to the faith we believe to lead a Muslim to faith in Christ, what makes us think that removing begotten from John 3:16 makes the Bible something else? If many people came to faith in Christ after picking a shred of a tract with only one legible verse, what makes us think that removing 10 000 verses from the Bible stops it from being the word of God.

Now do not for one moment suppose that I support adulterating the word of God. I am more militant than most about the same. But it is propaganda to suppose that adulterating the word is equivalent to emasculating the one who released it. I know enough about God and His word to openly confess that a person who faithfully reads the Jehovah’s Witness Bible is infinitely better than the one who does not read the Bible for fear of consuming corruption.

Warning people against whichever Bible also places us at a very dangerous position. We become the voice of God. We become gatekeepers to His abode. Is our faith so small that we fear that God will run away from someone holding a corrupted Bible?

But it is even worse. We actually make ourselves the Holy Spirit who guides to all truth. And we will not even feel guilty. Can the Holy Spirit not lead the person seeking God to the truth? Again it is something I have seen. Someone growing in the knowledge of God is lead from a version with issues by God as they continue in their search for truth as opposed to looking for or fleeing from error.

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: (John 10:27)

Is it in order when our voice becomes more prominent than the voice of the shepherd?

How do we get to know when God speaks? How do we distinguish His voice from other voices? What do we use to verify that it is His voice and not propaganda from wherever?

Do we hear when God speaks? How convinced are we that He has spoken when an imposter (many times called pastor of prophet) says so? What test o you have to establish the validity of the imposter or his message? Does God have to use intermediaries to speak to you? If that is so can it be accurate for you to be called His sheep?

Why do we become comfortable as sheep when our shepherd only speaks to us through proxies? How sure are we that those proxies are not being funded by and for the other side?

I am not trashing God using people and means to speak to us. Probably even as you read this He is speaking to you. He many times speaks to me through people. It is interesting that He has even used mad people to speak to me and this experience is not limited to me. He does and can use anybody and anything to accomplish His purpose or pass His message.

But we are deceived if we do not have a means of establishing the validity of those sources because we can very easily pick a spurious message or one directed to some other person and think that it is ours to our detriment. We might receive an order from the throne that is packaged by that broker and completely miss its direction.

That is why the Bible is replete with test this, test that, because God knows that we might completely miss His communication. But the worst part is that we could very easily pick propaganda from the other side. And we know that the other side is sending information incessantly to deceive.

Our faith depends on accurate communication with our source and headquarters. We can’t be praying properly when we are looking at the enemy when we are praying to God. We can’t be hearing right when we depend on other earthen vessels to hear.

One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple. (Psalm 27:4)

We are supposed to revel at the glory of our King as opposed to groaning as we look at the propaganda we are receiving from His enemy. We should get kicks out of feeding on that presence and glory that everything else fades. It is as we are enjoying that fellowship that we will hear very clearly when He speaks. Compare that with Isaiah 6. Isaiah saw, was cleansed, and then heard. I d not think there is a short cut to that.

How authentic is your hearing experience?