Every false Cult is a distinct group with a personality of its own. There is a wide diversity among these groups. Yet it is possible to discern many points of similarity among them. A knowledge of these basic characteristics can help one to recognize a Cult quickly.

It must be noted that not all Cults have all these characteristics, and that also not in the same proportion. For example the morally degenerate Cult known as the Children of God taught salvation by grace through faith aggressively. This is contrary to the practice of most Cults, yet the Children of God happens to be not more than a Cult because of other characteristics.

Thus no group should hastily be labelled as a Cult because of a single Cultistic characteristic. Similarly, no Cult should hastily be pronounced as harmless because it has a few similarities with evangelical Christianity. Many small evangelical groups exhibit Cultistic characteristics, and many shrewd Cults exhibit characteristics of evangelical groups. Thus only careful evaluation of these groups would reveal their true identity.

Believers should definitely be weary of evangelical groups that manifest one or more Cultistic characteristic. At the same time, they should be very cautious about Cults that camouflage their true identity by adapting some characteristics of evangelical churches. The totality of the symptoms should be taken into consideration before a group is identified as a Cult or as Cultistic. The following are some of the major characteristics of False Cults.

1 Mixture of Truth And Error: Since most Cults multiply by catching people from outside, they need to hide their false teachings somehow lest people be alarmed before falling into their clutches. They do so by teaching a mixture of error with known truth.

When a Cultist approaches a victim for winning him, a direct presentation of peculiar and erroneous doctrines would immediately alarm or even repel the prospective prey. Thus they always begin with Scriptural truths, and this veneer of truth continues as long as is needed to trap the prospective candidate. The erroneous doctrines usually surface only after this person is enslaved to a reasonable level.

Though the Cults disguise and hide error behind truth, discerning believers can detect this adulteration with some effort. Since the Cults publish a wide variety of literature, even their confidential publications can often be procured by the diligent student. An analysis of this material would soon reveal the presence of error hidden under the cover of truth. Thus, rather than appreciating a Cult for the minimal Scriptural truths that it holds, believers need to be alarmed by the falsehoods and errors concealed beneath the surface.

2 Extra Biblical Source of Authority: For a Bible believing Christian there is only one final source of authority, and that is the Bible. This attitude is expressed through the statement: Sola Scriptura, the Bible alone. However, every false Cult rejects this principle and embrace other sources that are either equal to or greater than the Bible in ultimate authority.

The extra biblical source of authority might be books, present day revelations, cult leaders and their teachings, or even their traditions. Thus these groups feel free to devalue or even totally set aside Biblical statements when there is a conflict between the Bible and the Cult’s extra biblical authority. The Roman Catholic Church places traditions on par with the Bible. The Toronto Movement places their (obviously) satanic revelations above the Scriptures. Every false Cult has one or more extra biblical authority, and no Cult can maintain its growth, uniqueness, and identity without such an authority.

All such extra biblical authority is ultimately perverted, blasphemous, and even satanic in origin and content. Many of them are even the "doctrines of demons". Consequently, the Cults show great boldness and audacity in making both additions to as well as subtraction from the Holy Scriptures. The net effect is a total negation of the fundamental tenets of the Bible. This is very sophisticated type of blasphemy.

3 Rejection Of Justification By Grace: Justification by grace is that great doctrine that sets aside Biblical Christianity from all other world religions, Cults, and philosophies. It was the rediscovery and renewed teaching of this most fundamental doctrine that freed millions of Christian believers from Roman Catholic slavery. This is the Doctrine that resulted in the glorious and God honouring Protestant Reformation. Yet all Cults reject this doctrine, or at least deny and suppress it.

Justification by faith implies that a sinner is declared "not guilty" solely on the basis of his "faith" in Christ, and not on any kind of work or merit. Justification is totally a divine provision, based solely in God’s grace and mercy. Cults and erroneous movements reject or suppress this doctrine because it takes away their ability to control and manipulate people. Once they reject or suppress this doctrine, they can convince their sheep that keeping the commandments of the Cults, and remaining in slavish obedience to its dictatorial leadership, is essential for justification.

Almost all false Cults are multi national spiritual slave makers. They can do so only by suppressing the biblical message of freedom. Thus almost all Cults reject justification by faith alone, or Sola Fide.

4 Devaluation of Christ: Jesus Christ is not only the central focus of the Christian faith, but also the ultimate authority in all matters of faith and conduct. Further, He being God man, is the only one person of this kind in the Universe. He demands total submission and obedience by virtue of His position and work. Cultists cannot run their heretical movements as long as Lord Jesus is acknowledged for what He is. They need to dethrone Him or devalue Him in some way or the other before Cult leaders can elevate themselves and their teachings above that of Christ.

All Cults talk about Jesus, even if they are totally non Christian Cults. Yet this is a devalued or dethroned Jesus. Some do it by denying His deity, others by denying His true humanity. Still others deny even His personhood. The net result is the denial of the Jesus of Bible, who is substituted by a Jesus or Christ who is less than what the Bible portrays Him to be.

Some Cult leaders are so brazen in their attitude that they claim to be giving advises to the Lord Jesus about how to conduct world affairs.

5 Exclusive Claim To Truth: In spite of the claim that salvation can be obtained only through Christ, true Christians recognize that this salvation is available to anyone and anywhere who is willing to accept Christ. Though a born again person is expected to join a group of believers, this is only a post salvation activity. Joining a group is not essential for salvation. The Cults deny this great truth.

For their survival and growth it is necessary for the Cults to portray themselves as the exclusive custodians of truth. This automatically leads to the claim that salvation is possible only and only through membership in this group. While true Christians believe that a Hindu, Muslim, or even an atheist can be saved by accepting Christ (say, by hearing a radio message) even before personally meeting any Christian, the Cults deny it. Many of them deny the possibility of salvation even for Christians if they are outside their Cult. Eventually this leads to exclusivism and pride. They begin to claim that only they have the truth, only they are the children of God, and that they are a spiritual elite.

The claim to exclusiveness leads to bizarre spiritual behaviour. For example the CPM(TPM) and Exclusive Brethren usually do not participate in Lord’s Table with other believers. Also, usually they do not allow other believers to participate in Lord’s table in their churches. Though CPM (TPM) claims to be a Pentecostal church, these people rebaptize even Pentecostal believers before they accept them into the CPM fold.

6 A Central Role in Eschatology: Eschatology is an inseparable part of theology, and no Bible believing group can neglect it. Biblically speaking, Christ is the center of eschatology. He is the author and finisher of history, and He does not need the help of humans to fulfill His plans. Nor can any human interfere with His eschatological chronology or time table. Most Cults deny this central truth of the Bible.

The false Cults need to project themselves as important, and this requires them to suppress the Christ centered eschatology of Bible. Further, if the group can somehow connect their achievements with the end time events, this would infuse great expectations and group loyalty among their people. Consequently many Cults project themselves as "the" group around which worldwide eschatological events unfold. This takes many forms.

Many Cults present their leaders as the returned Christ. Others claim that with the initiation of their Cult, the millennium is here. Some of them stealthily appropriate the 144,000 mentioned in revelation for their own group and deny this presumed privilege to all outsiders. In some of the worst cases the Cult leaders even claim that they are God’s replacement for Christ because Jesus failed in His mission. All in all, these false claim reinforces the Cult’s vice like hold upon its members.

7 A God Like Human Leader: Every Christian knows that only God is God, and no human can, or should, ever attain that position. Even the Cultists know this. In spite of this, all cults glorify certain individuals to such levels, and give them such absolute allegiance and control over members, that eventually these individuals rise even above God in the esteem of the followers.

While few cultists would directly equate these human leaders with God, yet the way in which they treat these leaders is something that ought to be reserved only for God. Thus in many cults the followers indulge in important activities only and only after the leader’s approval. This includes permission for taking up a job, marriage, other major decisions, and even the schooling of children. Some cults even required all brides to spend their first night with the leader.

Though cults are quite careful not to directly equate their leader with God, the God like respect given to the leader amounts to deifying them.

The more dynamic, charismatic, or even demon possessed that the leader is, the greater seems to be the God like respect and reverence commanded by him. Some of these people even succeed in eliciting the title "God" from their followers. An interesting variation of the same theme is to claim that God resides in each human irrespective of his religious affiliation. Eventually this claim is interpreted to imply that each person is God. This blasphemy has its origins in the New Age movement and Eastern philosophies, yet these claims are now being heard from Christian pulpits also.

Most notably, radical Christians, Christians, self help gurus, and some of the extreme faith healers have readily fallen into this trap. whatever the precise form, any movement that elevates a human and places him on par with the divine is a false cult.

8 Missionary Zeal : Since the time that Jesus gave his Great commission, the children of God have been characterized by their missionary activity. Thus there is a possibility of misunderstanding when missionary zeal is mentioned as a characteristic of cults too.

Though both groups show zeal, their goals are not identical and a recognition of this fact can clear much confusion.

An evangelical Christian exhibits zeal because of his love and obedience to Christ. On the other hand, the cultist exhibits this zeal because of his commitment to the cult, and also for the sake of his own ultimate work based salvation.

The evangelical Christian shows missionary zeal basically to bring people to salvation. On the other hand, the cultist shows similar zeal basically to strengthen the cult, to solidify his standing with the hierarchy, and also to fulfill a compulsory quota imposed upon him.

A close examination of their methods and motives will reveal that the Cultistic missionary zeal is there because of non biblical reasons. Thus one should not count them as evangelical Christians merely because of their missionary zeal.

9 Suppression of Freedom: Freedom to know and think is the greatest enemy of all dictators. Consequently all such people deprive others of knowledge and their right to independent thinking. The Roman Catholics forbade reading the Bible and killed tens of thousands for the crime of possessing Bibles. The Children of God do not allow their recruits to ever have free and unsupervised time. The CPM uses peer pressure to force people to speak in "tongues" and also not to use medicine.

Many Cults allow people to interpret the Bible only according to the dictates of the superiors. Others use powerful brainwashing techniques. Still others use peer pressure and unending supervision. The sum total result is the suppression of individuality and a zombie like behaviour.

Conclusion:

Cults are experts in camouflaging their identity, and this is essential for their survival. Yet in this information rich world none can hide themselves totally. A careful examination would reveal most of the points mentioned above, and many more. All of them take people away from true Christian faith. We must be discerning. We should identify them fast and counter them so that Cultistic leaven does not spread among us.

Many sincere Christians are surprised and even shocked at the high rate at which False Cults are proliferating and growing everywhere. These believers feel that it is Bible believing Churches that should grow so fast seeing that it is these Churches that teach and preach the Scriptures faithfully. However, numerical growth does not result automatically.

People are not automatically attracted to the group or movement that teaches truth. Rather, Evangelical Christians ought to go out and draw people’s attention to divine truths. Unfortunately most of us are very lax in this matter while most of the Cults consider this as the area that needs the greatest attention. Thus while most of the custodians and stewards of Truth continue in a state of coldness, the peddlers of error keep trapping people through their strategies. Many of these Cult strategies are unethical and unacceptable to Bible believing people and we cannot use them. At the same time, plenty of acceptable strategies are still left.

An investigation into the growth strategies of the Cults would help us not only to become better witnesses of Truth, but would also help us to avoid the pitfalls in our Churches that are exploited by the Cultists.

1 They Exploit Spiritual Vacuum: Every Church passes consecutively through periods of revival and lethargy. During the latter stage the Church is not in a position to serve hope and joy to the struggling masses.

As population increases, the number of people looking for joy and peace also increases. But when the Church fails to rise to the occasion, False Cults exploit this vacuum. What they offer is often worse than what these lonely people have been facing, but the Cults package their message so attractively that these victims are unable to realize it till it is too late.

Mental, Spiritual, and social vacuums exist in all societies at all times. Cults have a mastery in detecting these needs, and soon they tailor their message to suit the prevailing need of their audience. Using this strategy, they have been able to steal people even from Bible believing Churches and families.

A greater sensitivity to the needs of people around us and a willingness to pay the cost to help these people would surely help us in arresting Cultistic advances. Further, it is us the Evangelical Christians who ought to be identifying the spiritual and mental vacuum is society for offering Christ as the ultimate solution.

2 They Offer Friendship And Fellowship: People struggling for answers need help not only orally but also practically. The Cults know this very well and they offer a good deal of personal attention to prospective members and also to the new converts. By the time these converts mature, they would change from care receivers to care givers, maintaining a continuity of personal relationship. Almost all False Cults exhibit this close knit family relationship, making them very attractive.

Personal attention given by Cultists can take many forms, including individual friendship, family friendship, peer support, prayer groups and home Bible classes . The forms might vary but what makes them effective is the personal relationship which makes the clients feel wanted, loved, and important. All this gives them a sense of belonging.

This feature of the False Cults is to be highly appreciated. In fact this is a behaviour that is a must for Bible believing people. Yet many of us often become so self satisfied with our "secure" life in Christ that we hesitate to pay the cost that is involved in caring for people. Unless we translate our theoretical answers into practical demonstration, False Cults will continue to trap people looking for family and social relationships.

3  They Are Sensitive To Needs: Every person has needs, and more so when he is passing through the "struggle" stage of life. Further, the range and intensity of such needs have become great today because of the changing society and breaking families. Cults are quite sensitive to these needs of people and offer many kinds of helps.

Most Christians become quite sensitive to the needs of others when these Christians themselves pass through periods of needs. Some of them might even become socially active during this stage of their lives. Yet once they settle in life, most Christians have a tendency to totally forget their period of struggle. With that forgetfulness goes away another opportunity to minister in the lives of those who are struggling.

On the other hand, most Cults know that pains and problems are a definite entry point deep into people’s lives. There are always drug addicts, frustrated and lonely people, runaways, students, the sick, and the heartbroken. There are people struggling with family problems, loneliness, fears. The problems are as numerous as people themselves, yet certain universal needs and many common strands among the struggling mankind can definitely be identified. The Cults not only make such identifications, but also develop strategies to meet these needs and solve the problems.

Psychological/Sociological and medical help provide the Cults the universal tools needed to face these universal problems. They might offer such help through pastoral, institutional, or print media counselling. They might also help through relief and medical ministries. Ultimately they are able to minister to most common needs, pains, and aspirations of people, and this helps them to consolidate their hold upon their converts.

Individual believers involved in helping others on their own might eventually become insensitive to the needs of others, as most lamps eventually fade out. On the other hand, an organized Cult based ministry can always keep the fire burning. The spirit of the organization and the sensitivity to the needs of people can be kept alive through training and also through recruiting new manpower. This way the Cults are able to be sensitive to the needs and pains of others, and are also able to win plenty of converts through this legitimate concern.

4 Every Member Is A Missionary: Almost all Bible believing Churches stress the need for believers to share the gospel with others. This motivates many new believers to win others for Christ, but eventually most believers drop out of such practices. However, Cults ensure that all their members remain missionaries till the end of their lives.

All Evangelical Churches preach the gospel of grace where the "works" of a person do not contribute to his salvation. In these churches many post salvation activities are expected from believers, but since salvation does not depend upon these activities, these activities are son viewed by believers as "optional". The Cults, however, proclaim many of these activities as a "must" for salvation, and this ensures life long compliance from their sheep.

Most Cults emphasize that working as a missionary is an essential and compulsory part of the individual Cultist’s salvation. Thus once a person is trapped by a Cult, for the sake of his own salvation he is forced to trap others for the Cult all his life. This strategy turns almost the entire population of the Cult into missionaries, a manpower which none can match. Eventually this manpower takes the Cult to a point from where it starts enjoying sudden and very large (geometrical) growth. This is one way in which many Cults are growing very rapidly today.

Hiding the gospel of Grace and substituting the gospel of grace with a system of work based salvation is deplorable and even heretical. No Evangelical Christian can endorse this strategy. At the same time, the missionary commitment (out of compulsion) of Cults should motivate each one of us to renew our own missionary commitment (out of concern for lost souls, and based upon Grace).

5 Sacrificial Giving Is Mandatory: While almost all Bible believing groups encourage giving, very few of them have made it mandatory. Even in those Evangelical groups where systematic collection of gifts takes place, most of the moneys thus collected are spent only for the needs of the collecting local Church. Thus no central pool with large resources is built up. Cults have just the opposite practice.

First of all, they connect sacrificial giving with the eventual salvation of the giver. Second, they have effective setups both for motivating and also for collecting money. Over the years this coercive mechanism builds up huge financial reserves. This vast central pool is then strategically invested for the Cult’s growth and welfare.

While Evangelical churches perpetually struggle to raise money even for day to day operations, the centralized money pool built by using inducement and coercive tactics give the Cults a lot of economic, social, and even political power to attain the desired growth. What’s more many discerning Cults have invested substantial capital (billions of rupees) into successful business corporations that help them in turn to further support their goals. For example the Roman Catholic Church is the largest Multi National business corporation today, having business wealth that goes into trillions of rupees.

Imposing compulsive tithing and a developing a massive centralized pool of money is neither easy for Bible believing Churches, nor is this practice Biblical. Thus Evangelical churches cannot compete with Cults in this matter. However, the minimum that we can do is to learn to give more sacrificially for the Lord, which should in turn be used more faithfully.

6 They Have A Massive Literature Ministry: We all talk much about literature as an important component of Christian ministry, but it is the Cults who exploit this tool to maximum benefit.

The ultimate method to control a person is to control his mind. Grown up human minds can be controlled only by employing much persuasion, manipulation, and constant pressurization. While all of this can be done orally, through audiovisuals, and through social interaction, none of these devices is convenient or economical for capturing the masses. On the other hand, books and magazines can help attain all these goals    and much more    economically, silently, and conveniently. Further, the approach is very efficient because even today people have a special awe and reverence for anything that they see in print. Thus any false message circulated in print can have great impact upon people.

Cults exploit these psychological and economical facts to their advantage by investing billions in producing the most attractive, illustrated, and cheaply priced literature. These materials, written by the most outstanding professionals, deal with all conceivable subjects. Thus even the least interested person gets some material that is attractive to him.

Cultist literature includes books, magazines, textbooks, Bible study books and even encyclopedias. Often the subject is non religious, and their doctrinal errors are hidden deep inside such material. Once such publications reach a person, he reads them often for the non spiritual content like political analysis, but the spiritual leaven inherent in all these seemingly technical articles eventually poisons his mind.

While most Evangelical churches produce literature without sufficient planning or mutual coordination, the Cults do it in a systematic and centralized manner. Their large pool of money often goes to subsidize the final cost of this material.

Once the Cultistic literature enters a house , it wins their hearts silently, gradually, and stealthily. Consequently, Christians should be taught to refuse all such literature, even if these are given free of cost. Else, a little fascination today can turn into a deep slavery tomorrow.

7 The Strategic Correspondence Courses: As mentioned in a previous point, to control a person it is necessary to control his mind first. Books, magazines and other publications are very effective for mind control, but correspondence courses have many advantages over them.

Once a person enrolls in a course, he is forced to study the content in a systematic manner from beginning to end. Thus an expert Cultist can design the course in such a subtle way that the student’s mental resistance is broken down gradually and in an imperceptible way. By the time the student reaches the last stages of the course (10 to 50 lessons later), mentally most of them are totally in the clutches of the Cult.

As mentioned before, most Cults have a centralized pool of money and experts. This combination is very effective for developing courses for mind control. Thus correspondence courses offered by Cults are far more destructive than what anyone can imagine. What’s more, most courses pretended to be something other than doctrinal material, throwing the students off guard.

For example, a common strategy is to offer courses on health, personality development, or any other seemingly non religious subject. Once the student begins to enjoy the course, and once his mental defenses are down to minimum, their perverted doctrine is sneaked in. By that time the student is totally in their clutches, and he is not able to discern the leaven polluting his mind.

Though Evangelical Christians also offer correspondence courses, the lack of coordination and planning makes most of them very shabby in comparison to what the Cults offer. The only solution is to make our courses better, and also from discouraging Evangelical Christians from enrolling in Cultistic courses.

8 They Effectively Use Mass Media: Though Mass Media can never take the place of personal contact, it can create a vast pool of faithful listeners: This in turn provides a very large number of people ready for personal contact and eventual absorption into the Cult. Thus almost all False Cults exploit Mass Media to the maximum.

Mass Media requires substantial resources. The centralized pool of money, experts, and management of the Cults makes it relatively easy for them to make a permanent presence on the best of Mass Media. It also helps them to hire the most experienced hands, establish the most professional studios, and produce the most attractive programmes.

In comparison to the above, Evangelical Christians face a tough task even to make their presence felt in media. However, due to the increasing threat from Cults they must try to do the best that is possible. Also we all must discourage our people from getting exposed to Cultistic media and propaganda.

9 They Have Numerous Institutions: Academic and social service institutions offer great opportunities for Cults to grow and multiply. Both of the above types of establishments can help them to brainwash people, and also to offer jobs to converts.

The centralized administration ensures the availability of resources, technical guidance, and all needed legal help. Thus Cult based educational and social service institutions tend to offer the best and most professional service, attracting hosts of people to the Cult.

Further almost all Cult run institutions pay only a below normal salary, all the while extracting an above average service (in the name of God). Thus the Cults are able to build up vast institutional empires using this totally willing and committed slave labour. Obviously it is impossible for Evangelical Christians to match all this, yet we can definitely do a better job in this field than what we have been doing so far.

At the same time, we should repeatedly caution believers against the ways in which students and others coming in contact with these institutions can be brainwashed. Many people thoughtless send their children to study in these institutions. It is better to avoid indoctrination rather than trying to repair after damage takes place by studying in these institutions.

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All contrived propaganda is war — a battle to control and manipulate minds. One comes under its attack whether or not one wants to participate. This means that every person living in the modern society must necessarily take precautionary steps if he has to win his share of the imposed battle.

A mere awareness about the existence or circulation of propaganda is not enough preparation to come out as a winner in this war of wits. Rather, for achieving an unambiguous victory one should be in a position to analyze propaganda. One a person analyzes it, he knows what is what and can escape from falling into the verbal/emotional trap.

The best thing to do in such a case is to ask appropriate leading questions. A leading question is one that leads the discussion in a definite direction in an unambiguous way. The purpose is to distill the exact meaning of what has been said by the propagandist or, for that matter, by anyone.

The following are some important leading questions. With time and experience you will be able to develop more such questions so as to meet the needs that might arise in future.

1. Who is the propagandist ?

2. Whom is he serving ? Or, in other words, to whom is his loyalty ? To you, to himself, or to his bread-givers ?

3. What’s his aim for indulging in this propaganda. Is it to benefit you or someone else ?

4. To what human interests, desires emotions, or fears is he appealing ?

5. What techniques of propaganda does he use,

6. Are these techniques ethical or unethical. If unethical, is he a person of integrity ?

7. Is the propagandist objective, and does he present the whole truth ? If not, why is he subjective and what motivates him to hide or suppress part of the truth ?

8. Are you, or are you not, going to permit yourself to be influenced, manipulated, and exploited by the tactics of the propagandist.

As you consciously apply these questions to propaganda, minor and major,  a frame of reference will be created in your conscious and it will gradually imprint itself into your subconscious and unconscious mind. This will then automatically come into play whenever your are voluntarily or involuntarily exposed to propaganda. The more you do this analysis consciously, the more will it imprint itself on your unconscious mind, helping you to protect from propaganda even without being consciously aware of it.

Antidotes To Mind Manipulation
Through Repeated Exposure To Propaganda

Unfortunately most people do not realize the awesome power of repeated exposure either for good or for bad. This is one reason why many parents ignore family prayers and related home-based instruction in scriptural truths. This then works as a vicious circle. The lack of instruction makes them prone to indulge in evil, and this indulgence creates an aversion towards all spiritual instruction. Clearly, the most important parented activity in this field is to give repeated exposure to spiritual matters from the earliest possible age. This will definitely serve to build a wall of resistance in their souls that will not crumble easily or quickly under exposure to evil. But at the same time you should take preventive steps also.

Your children should know the difference between good and evil, and also where to place the boundaries. They should also be taught the necessity to feel even from the appearance of evil.

Television, Video and Cinema are powerful tools for inducing people to sin. So is a good amount of modern music that glorifies immorality and violence. Repeated exposure to these first desensitizes people towards perversion and the way sin is glamorized creates a strong attraction towards it.

Everyone should develop a set of leading questions to analyze this kind of conditioning. These questions should constantly be refined so as to make the analysis accurate and penetrating.

Here are a few leading, questions to help you, but do not restrict yourself to these alone. Try to develop more questions of your own that are more suited for your situation.

1–Do the TV or video programs I watch, the music I hear, and the books/magazines that I read contain passages that can not be narrated when I sit with my family?

2–What kind of a passage is that? Description of sex, sexual passions, or any kind of perverted activity?

3–Books on medicine contain some intimate details of human body, while books dealing with law and crime contain description of crime. Neither of these can be read in front of a family, but still they are not wrong because their purpose is education.  Do the passages under scrutiny in question to have a similar justification, or are they there just to arouse passions?

4–What kind of passions come up in your hear when you are exposed to these audio/video/printed stories and descriptions.

5–Do they help you to become a better, cleaner, and more mature person.

The above guidelines are for those people who have not yet come under the influence of manipulation by repeated exposure. If a person is already under such an influence, a different strategy has to be adopted.

A blind and harsh negation from indulgence may not work on that person now that he has already tasted the forbidden fruit. More so if the indulgent person is a rebellious young person.

Since the forbidden fruit is very tasty (stolen waters are tasty according to proverbs), a blind and harsh negation might even provide the "thrill" that is necessary to continue his/her indulgence in the abnormal.

The best prevention would be loving negation before a person gets involved in these things. But should you be called to handle the situation too late, even in that situation the best course will be an informed or admonition-based negation.

Conclusion !!

The way in which propaganda techniques influence humans is summarized in the outline below:

Human Desires And Aspirations –>  Desire For Joy, Fear Of Pain –>  Desire For Security, Fear Due To Insecurity –>  Propaganda That Promises Joy And Security  –>  Promise Of  Alleviation Of Pain And Insecurity –>  Falling Into The Trap Of The Propagandist !!

All humans have certain common desires and aspirations. They all desire joy and security while they all fear pain and insecurity. There is nothing unusual in these things till the propagandist enters.

The propagandist exaggerates the possible joys and securities, and at the same time he highlights probable pain and insecurity. Once the audience is captivated, they promise joy and security coupled with alleviation of pain and insecurity.

The web of deception is so powerful that most people fall easily into the trap. Worse, the techniques are used liberally by motivated people to attack the Bible and the Christian faith.

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The simple techniques mentioned in the previous chapter can be combined with each other and also with some other methods to result in things highly harmful for the recipient. It would be good to look at some of them.

Propaganda Combined With Mind
Manipulation (Seduction) Techniques

Our mind is the ultimate source of all our behavior. Here we will not go into an analysis of soul, spirit, the old sin nature, etc. Nor will we try to examine their precise nature. Rather, we will use the word "Mind" to represent the center of human thinking.

Further, we will remember that the human mind is not a simple entity isolated from other factors. Rather, the mind is a complex entity that is inseparably linked with human soul and spirit. The sin nature constantly interacts with it. Also, memory, intelligence, curiosity, and many other factors are so intimately interwoven with it that what affect one factor affects them all.

This means that if anyone can break into the human mind, he can successfully manipulate the whole person. Since all mental faculties are closely interwoven, one can break into human minds through anyone of them. Thus it is clearly a battle of wits.

The secular world has very clearly recognized that they need to control minds in order to control people, and they have invented and perfected many techniques. Many of these techniques are subtle because people do not recognize them as mind-altering forces, and powerful because they have not been seen to fail. One of these is mind-alteration by repeated exposure. The other is emotional manipulation by bypassing reason.

1. Mind Manipulation By Repeated Exposure To Propaganda:   The human mind has a built-in resistance (or, at least a built-in hesitation) in doing things that are generally shocking or repulsive.

In fact human brain has an inhibition-center that inhibits people from indulgence in shameful activities. Alcohol and many other chemicals can suppress the activity of this center, and this is the reason why an otherwise self-controlled person becomes wild after taking in a certain dosage of these chemicals. Once the restraint is gone, he becomes abusive, foul and even vulgar. But far more powerful are mind-alteration techniques because they have long lasting effects. Once the human liver burns up alcohol, the person returns back to normal. But there is no corresponding recovery of the human mind after it falls into degenerate activities. This is because once the mind degenerates, it effectively blocks the spiritual processes that could restore that person.

One way of defeating the built-in mental resistance and abhorrence to wrong activities is through repeated exposure. Repeated exposure alters human mind somewhat as follows:

First exposure —> Shock and recoil

Repeated exposure —> Reduction of shock –>  Permitting further exposure —-> Desensitization –>  Complete elimination of shock —-> Tolerance (because shock is gone) —> Condoning —> Endorsing —> Desiring —> Longing –> Doing it !!

It is a long chain, but once the first two or three steps are taken, the rest of the process automatically hastens up. The old sin nature gets an opportunity to raise its ugly head, and once it gets an upper hand the degeneration is fast.

Repeated exposure is one way in which advertisements invade minds, new and sinful behavior patterns popularized, sins made desirable, and the abnormal accepted as normal. This is a chain reaction, so that once it is set in motion it becomes almost irreversible and ever increasing in its deadly and destructive power.

Once a person is occupied with, and derives pleasure from, the abnormal and the sinful, the initial thrill and charm gradually decreases. This person then needs ever more increasing levels of deviation to satisfy his lust for the deviant behavior. This is one reason why the depiction of crime and sex keep increasing in their intensity in TV, Cinema, and the other media. This is how a sane society eventually starts endorsing things insane.

2. Mind Manipulation By Bypassing Reason:   Whenever a person is given a piece of information, he analyzes it before taking any action. This the way things should go.

Information —> Reason —> Analysis —> Action

Here ‘action’ implies the action of acceptance or rejection.

But in real-life decisions another factor also enters the picture, and it is called emotion. Emotions have a legitimate function, but they can be manipulated in such a way that they take over reason.

The way emotions have been designed, they are supposed to play a supportive role to reason. They heighten joy in good situations, bring out sympathy on seeing others in pain, and intensify anger, hatred, excitement, and patriotism, etc.,, as the situation needs. In these matters the emotions function as a great accessory to reason. Just as proper tools make tasks easy, properly controlled emotions make life exciting by providing variation.

All is well as long as emotions remain subordinate to reason, both reason as well as emotions play their roles properly, adding to stability in life. However, if the emotions ever get out of control then neither they nor their reason is able to function properly and the result is utter chaos as seen in the life of emotional wrecks. Unfortunately the reason/emotion roles can be manipulated and reversed even in normal persons. That is exactly what we see in most reason-bypassing advertisements.

Using the techniques of propaganda mentioned in another place it is possible to bypass reason and touch emotions. In fact emotion-manipulation and propaganda techniques are so inseparably inter-linked with each other that one can not be understood without the other. Such techniques work somewhat as show in the line diagram:

Contrived Information –> Emotion-dominated Reasoning –> Emotion-dominated Analysis –> Emotion-controlled Action

Objective and emotion-free reason is bypassed and eventually insulated, but emotion is manipulated. This is achieved by using tricky and loaded words that bypass reason and directly manipulate emotions. Most propaganda related to population-control comes under this category. Using the fear of the unknown, they paint a horrifying picture of humans wiggling all over the globe like worms in future. Many other catchwords and phrases "why bring them to the earth if you can not give them security", "the more the children the more the interference with your career or ambitions" also belong to this category.

Once emotion is successfully manipulated directly, reason is eclipsed. There is near total mental black out on that particular issue, and that person will obediently follow the propagandist.

Men, women, teenagers and children all have specific areas of emotional vulnerability. These areas are well understood by psychologists. Propagandists always seek this information out while the average person remains in ignorant bliss about it all.

Some of the areas of vulnerability are as follows: Most men are worried and harbor secret fears about their looks, abilities, achievements, authority and the respect they command at home and abroad. Married men are closely watched by their mates, many of whom are quick to express their disapproval at the slightest and the stupidest issue. Consequently a good number of them are worried to death at their personal performance — performance ranging from their sexual life to their social status. Thus many propagandists touch this nerve directly and get the job done, you can pick up any common social magazine and discover dozens of ads that play upon this theme. For example, a magazine that I picked up randomly describes men as "caring, loving, thoughtful, envied by others, in style, and in a class by themselves, etc.". And what exactly elevates them to this status? The answer is very simple (and stupid): these men owned the products advertised by these companies!

Women are vulnerable in areas of beauty, looks, things owned, the opinion of others about their household, cooking, and current fashions/trends. Since none of these things have permanence, it’s a battle all life for women to maintain these things. Things is why ads aimed at women manipulate them in these matters. A popular hair-oil claims its users have "a look so smart, so new, your confidence comes shining through". It does not explain that looks, confidence, etc., depend upon numerous external as well as plenty of INTERNAL factors that no hair-oil, dress, perfume, or gadget can supply. Another ad says about using a lipstick that by it " I enchanted my man, for ever". Now, which woman does not want to enchant her man – and that also, for ever. However, the ad fails to tell that enchanting is a never-ending process on which she will have to work all her life. Further, it fails to l that if this company’s lipstick is so enchanting then any other women using the same product also stands the chance of enchanting him ! Not a very pleasant prospect for any woman!

Young men and women have their own special areas of susceptibility and fear. Since they have not yet reached the mental or emotional stability of their parents, it is very easy to manipulate them. As I write this, an arbitrarily picked up social magazine is lying in front of me. One manipulate writing aimed at young men uses words like macho, toughies, ruggedness, sensuous, suave, bold, etc. The same magazine has plenty of ads directed at young women. These use words like beauty, splendor, pretty woman, style, enticing, etc.". Another one, meant for the young house-wife, says about their spices that this is "what keeps great families together". All the above ads touch the most tender human emotions, but all of them hide the fact that handsomeness or beauty is never on sale. They do not reveal that these desirable characteristics need a lot of nurturing.

Finally if, as the last ad quoted above says, spices could keep families together then human society would have been in a much better shape today.

The Bad-name Techniques
(Additional Comments On Emotional Manipulation
Using This Nasty Technique)

Loaded words are used in many ways to create the bad-name effect. One method is to pick up something that is really bad or offensive and, using a little bit of free association, turn it to implicate something else. Galileo Galilee was forced to recant his views, primarily because of his political activities. This was mainly a sociological phenomena but since Church was the agent which executed it all, they are quick to use the free association technique: Galileo –> questioned by the Church –> sciences –> opposition by Church. Finally: "Church is always against science". A careful investigation will expose the baseless connection between the original event and the implications publicized these days.

Another method is to manipulate and redefine language in a way that makes good and desirable things look offensive. Words like discipline, self-control, temperance, abstinence etc. have undergone this process. Each of these words has been clubbed with certain carefully selected, offensive, incidents or word pictures to assign a bad taste to these words — a meaning which is not actually there in the actual usage. After this, whenever this word is used by a clever person, the implied bad meaning automatically comes to the listeners’ mind.

Censorship is another method. It is an act of suppression carried out from a position of power, sometimes for the common good (such as in a case that involves national security), but often out of fear of exposure to other ideas or plain self interest.

A censor who is acting merely to defend his viewpoint suppresses all information that is favorable to the other side. At the same time, he encourages the spread of all that information that brings a bad name or disadvantage to the other side.

There is no scarcity of people who would like to use Archeology, Physics, Chemistry, Social sciences or the evolution model to attack the Christian faith. They pile up evidence after evidence that seems to refute the Christian faith, but fail consistently to present the other side. As a consequence, the reader sees only that side of the picture that has nothing that is desirable and  therefore he avoids getting associated with that subject or person.

Recently when I was lecturing on Bible and Science, some of my listeners pointed out this kind censoring. Their Zoology textbook attacks the reliability of the Bible by saying that according to Moses (Leviticus 11:4-6 and Deuteronomy 14:7) rabbits chew the cud, but that this false. The aim of this statement is to show that the Bible is unreliable in matters related to Zoology. Once this bad name is there, very few people would venture to associate their name with Bible.

Most people do not know that Christian Scientists have thoroughly researched this reference. They have identified the animal, and have pointed out that the confusion is due to a faulty translation. This information is widely available in Bible dictionaries and handbooks, but none of the attackers seems to be interested in acknowledging this information.

Further, there are hundreds of instances where the information given in the Bible is 100% percent accurate, and was recorded thousands of years before scientists actually discovered these things. Secular books (that would like to attack the Bible) find it only convenient to omit this information. Clearly these people are not interested in presenting the other side even though it is significant to get the whole picture about the Bible. This is censorship, and the result is a bad name for Bible.

Propaganda Techniques And The
Theological Radicals

The rise of the so-called liberals among Christians is a living testimony to the power of propaganda. The name "liberal" itself is an advertisement trick. Actually a liberal is a person who tolerates all points of view. But, on the contrary, these people who label themselves as "liberal" Christians are not willing to listen to, or tolerate, any other viewpoint. Such people should properly be labeled "radicals". But since this name immediately betrays their identity, and since it clearly reveals their theological non-accommodation and narrow mindedness, they propagate the nice-sounding word "liberal" for themselves. This is the power of propaganda.

The radicals have been able to gain foothold in a wide range of churches and institutions by using propaganda techniques. If you count the magazines and other mass-media outlets among Christians, you will discover that a good proportion of them are controlled by radicals. They know the power of propaganda and they exploit all the available communication channels to spread their viewpoints.

The more aspiring students of apologetics are encouraged to pick up and critically read any radical magazine or writer. They will observe that many of them use nothing except propaganda techniques to attack the Bible. Their writings have no solid evidence or logic to back their claims.

Two notable examples come to my mind. The first is a "Christian" journal now titled "Verdict". It started as an almost fundamentalist (conservative evangelical) publication but eventually turned into a heretical publication. Any article picked up from this periodical illustrates the above contention.

Another example is the great writer/teacher Bernard Ramm. He started as an evangelical scholar but ended up, in the last decades of his life, a near heretic. His supposedly evangelical book "The Christian view of science and scripture" demonstrates powerful usage of propaganda techniques to attack Bible believing Christians. His latter books openly deviated from the word of God, and any of them would illustrate the contention that propaganda methods are used by radicals to turn people away from their faith in Bible.

Both the journal as well as the books mentioned above use some very nasty words, phrases, and implications against God’s people, yet these enjoy wide distribution.

What more demonstration does anyone need to understand  the power of propaganda to attack the Christian faith.

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An Introduction To Their Techniques

Practically hundreds of methods are used to propagate ideas and control minds, but ultimately all of them can be classified roughly into a few overlapping categories. "Roughly" because it is difficult in humanities to classify subjects in a water-tight manner, and "overlapping" because in real-life setup more than one category tends to be used at the same time, producing some form or other of overlap.  Here are these techniques:

1. Fear Of Bad Name (Insecurity, Fear):   Everyone is afraid of getting a bad name, and this feeling is reflected in the oriental saying that "Even the worst evil is better than a bad name".

Propagandists manipulate this fear by using disagreeable words to arouse fear, hate or disapproval. This is always done without producing actual evidence to support the assertion. Since all humans shrink away from bad names, people try to abandon the thing hinted at in the propaganda.

Words frequently used for this trick are: backward, outdated, obscurantist, reactionary, uneducated, primitive, narrow-minded, and raw, etc. Nobody would like to get labeled with these words.

Several journals have recently reported how this technique has powerfully been used to attack moral standards. Researchers recently surveyed students in two American Universities that are known for permissiveness. Obviously, a lot of people there have been engaging in extramarital sex, and people have just been assuming that they do it because they want to. The survey revealed just the opposite.

Almost two thirds of the boys and girls who had such relations said that they did not enter it out of choice. Rather, they said they did it because of their fear that otherwise they will be considered abnormal, incompetent, or narrow minded. Since they needed social approval, they tried to avoid getting bad names by violating their conscience.

The same techniques are used to induce young men for smoking and young women to get involved in loose living.

The fear of bad name is a very powerful technique, and the society has been employing it successfully to attack every good thing including the Christian faith.

2. Appeal Of Good Name (Security, Allurement):  Appeal of good names is just the opposite of the fear of bad names. Everyone desires to get a good name, honor, respect, fame and status. Propagandists exploit these emotions by using highly subjective and well-tried words.

With the help of pleasant sounding words, a halo of desirable associations is built around a person, product or movement to such an extant that the reader is trapped into desiring an association. This desire sometimes turns into such a yearning that people even lose their stability and balance when the desire is not fulfilled.

The person under the influence of the good-name propaganda is convinced that by identifying himself with that person, product, or movement, he will get the benefit of the good name. But if any of these matters are related to spiritual life, the person will have to sacrifice his commitment to certain essentials of the Christian faith.

This is one reason why many born-again people hesitate to leave dead and radical churches. They feel that the name of the church gives them a certain measure of respectability and therefore they should not break up even if requires a bit of "accommodation" in their personal faith and commitment. Most of them realize only too late that all that glitters is not gold, but by this time their commitment to spirituals is weakened to such levels that recovery is almost impossible. Whenever true good is compromised for the sake of apparent good (which is nothing but evil at the core), the invariable result is destruction of spiritual life. No exception has been recorded either in the scriptures or in church history.

Some of the words used to create a good appeal include: progressive, broad-minded, cultured, scholarly, sophisticated etc. The word "liberal" used for certain Christians also comes in that category. This is a nice sounding word because a liberal is a person who tolerates and accommodates everyone. Obviously this is a propaganda trick because these so called liberals are actually "radicals" who do not tolerate or accommodate any other viewpoint.

Appeal of good names has been used to cover up and justify a multitude of sins. For example immorality is now termed as "sexual activity" and an immoral person is therefore just "sexually active". Bribe is now described pleasantly as tip, fees, or even service-charge. Neglect of duty is called a "shortcoming". Adultery has become "sexual involvement". Sin has become a "weakness", and lust has become just an "attraction".

The use of pleasant words covers up sins and takes away the sharpness of sin describing words. Moreover, the good-sounding words even create an aura of respectability and desirability for sinful, unethical and carnal activities.

3. Appeal To Human Authority (Transfer):   In this technique, the propagandist induces people to transfer their respect, admiration, reverence, or faith from a person to something (claimed to be) related to that person. It is common to see sports and cinema stars endorsing a particular commercial product. Masses who hold these persons in respect transfer the same respect and awe to the product endorsed by them. The same technique is used to attack Christianity also.

People who spread deviant techniques, doctrines, and viewpoints often appeal to the opinion of one scholar or another. People who motivate others to indulge in questionable activity often point to well-respected persons who are already indulging in that activity, and this breaks down all resistance.

The Bible itself reminds that the example of people held in esteem motivates less mature believers to indulge in what they otherwise consider as sin. (I Corinthians. 8:9-13).

4. Appeal To Persuasion By Individuals (Testimonials):   This method is similar to the technique mentioned in the previous point, but with notable differences. In the previous method, the respect towards a person of fame is transferred to a product, belief, or movement. That is why it was called "Transfer" or appeal to human authority.

In the present technique, however, appeal is made to testimonials of people from all walks of life — people with whom everyone among the masses can identify. In their testimonials different persons tell convincingly how they discovered a solution to a presumed problem. The awed listener immediately identifies himself with that person and accepts his testimony as true for him also.

This is the techniques used by advertisers who sell common product like soaps, shampoos, and other household items by appealing to the testimony of housewives. But same is the technique used by emotion-dominant groups. The exaggerated teachings about tongues and healings spreads in this way – not by appeal to the scriptures, but by appeal to human experience. False cults also used this technique successfully. This is why one sees a lot of importance given to, and stress placed upon, in these movements upon human experience.

5. Appeal  To Tricky Implications  (Half Truths & White Lies):  In this technique, true and authentic statements are coupled with false implications. The true statement is usually so appealing, authentic or striking that most persons get buried and lost under their weight. They do not realize that the publicized implication does not usually follow from the original statement.

For example, those who would like to portray the Bible as an error-prone book use this technique with great success. They start with the authentic and innocent-sounding statement that "the main purpose of the Bible is to illuminate and guide men in matters of spiritual truth". None could disagree with that ! Then very soon they add another statement, "obviously, the main purpose of the Bible is not to illuminate man about scientific truths". Once again, none would disagree with that. But these authentic statements are then exploited to bring forth some very tricky and deceptive implications.

The implication comes out when they claim that due to its spiritual nature, the geographical, historical, and other such details need not be accurate. Then they go one step further and start talking about the presumed errors in the Bible, starting with a right statement they lead people through tricky implications into gross error. This has been a well-tried and standard tool not only in the hands of radicals but also in the hands of deviant evangelicals.

True, the primary aim of the Bible is to communicate spiritual truths, but this does not automatically imply that God inspired the Bible with different levels of reliability in different parts. Further, though the primary purpose is to communicate spiritual truths, the spiritual material, and the historical truths in are so inseparably linked with each other that the integrity of each aspect is necessary for the integrity of other aspects. They are so interlinked with each other that the spiritual and the material aspects can not be separated from each other. Consequently, the implication mentioned above is not valid. It is only a propagandists’ trap.

Tricky implications can be used in many ways to deceive God’s children. About the Bible it has been used in two ways. One, to undermine its reliability as mentioned above, second, this trick has been used to imply that certain passages in it contain endorsement for error, cruelty, evil, or immorality.

The same technique was used by the serpent in the garden of eden, by the false-cult known as the children of God, and by many others to justify error.

6. The Bandwagon/Mob-mentality Trick (Everybody’s Doing It):   Here again is a very powerful technique for exerting pressure on people by appealing to "everyone else" who is enthusiastic about it.

People have a tendency to follow what everyone else is doing. This tendency is reinforced due to the inherent insecurity that almost everyone has. This insecurity makes them afraid to be different from others.

We all know how pioneers in many fields suffered terribly at the hands of people. Many of them were mocked, humiliated and even tortured to death. The European medical doctor who introduced the practice of washing of hands before examining patients became mad and committed suicide due to the same reason. Nobody else practiced it before him and therefore people harassed him even though he was able to show outstanding results due to such washing.

The band-wagon technique is used to induce people into buying things they do not need, talking about  things that are not appropriate, and doing things that are questionable. The same technique is being used successfully to attack Christian morality and ethics. It is not unusual to hear that "educated people everywhere are abandoning the outdated morality of the Bible". This is an inducement and an invitation to jump on to the band-wagon of immorality! Very few people are able to resist such pressure. Even if they do not jump into outright immorality, only few of them will defend their stand with any conviction or confidence.

"Everyone else is doing it/buying it" is a powerful deception, and one should be beware of this trap.

7. Card-stacking (Outright Deception):  Card-stacking is a well-known art for cheating the ignorant or deceiving one’s gullible opponent. All the while the opponent thinks that the game is under his control, but the opposite is true.

Card-stacking is such a powerful method for propagating error that even a person familiar with the methods of propaganda can be tricked a good number of times.

The person who wants to lure a Christian into drinking, using drugs, gambling, or any other kinds of questionable activity will usually reveal only one aspect of the game. Usually this short-lived aspect promises some kind of direct or indirect pleasure for a moment, but the hidden cost paid is tremendous. Usually no one talks about these costs, but only of the thrill, and so the naive victim is able to see only the immediate pleasure but not the long-term cost.

The same kind of arguments are used by errant movements and deviant groups to induce students to give up their studies or hard work, to convert energetic Christians into lazy bums, or to steal the fruits of chastity from young and godly, but naive men and women.

Almost all statistics that tell you that people in this country now condone immorality, crime, euthanasia, and other vices, are false. Most people do not favour such things, but then people who want to stack the cards do not go to the masses. Rather they invite people of their own inclination to respond to the survey. The few thousand perverts who respond are then considered to represent the whole country, and the statistics is imposed upon the whole nation. Consider a survey conducted by a pornographic magazine among its readers. If eighty percent of the people who respond say that they regularly indulge in extra-marital sex, they immediately claim, "a recent survey has shown that eighty percent of all married men in our country indulge in extra-marital sex". This  is card stacking.

The survey only shows that eighty percent of the respondents among this pornographic magazine indulge in extra-marital sex. This has no connection with the national average, because the readers of pornographic magazines do not represent the average citizen of any nation. They are only an abnormal minority. Further, as our hypothetical but typical figure shows, even within this pornography-loving minority some people refuse to indulge in bodily immorality. This is the important outcome of the survey !

So next time you read a survey and feel that it puts you among the minority, check the statistics once again. Most people hide the true story, but if you can somehow get to the original figures you will be horrified to discover how they are able to portray majority as minority and vice versa.

8. Titillation And Teasing (Fantasy Manipulation):   This method has been well-tried for decades in many developed nations, and it traps people quite successfully. The spread of international TV through dish antenna and cables has now taken it even to the remotest countries where it is reaping a plentiful harvest.

Everyone has a fantasy-creating mind. Some of these fantasies relate to the man-woman relationship because humans have been created as sexual beings. Sex within God-ordained boundaries is not only proper, but also quite satisfying, thrilling, and even necessary for stability — barring the exceptional people with the spiritual gift of celibacy. However, just as any human emotion or feelings or emotions can be manipulated, the sexual desires can also be played with. This is the heart of propaganda by titillation and teasing.

Further, of all the emotions that people have, sexual feelings produce the greatest impact upon the body and the spirit. The fantasy in which a music lover indulges about music, or book lovers about books, or people about security produces only a certain limited measure of emotions, but fantasies in sexual matter produce explosive emotions. People lose common sense and the theme of sexual gratification dominate their thinking till they find some sort of relief. This is why fantasy is a powerful tool in the hands of the subtle propagandist.

Pick up any magazine or TV advertisement you will notice that they have more women models than men, even if the product advertised belongs to the male domain. Further, you will notice that most of the times the models chosen are very sweet and homely or very cute and sexy. They pose either in a homely or in a sex-arousing and inviting manner. The purpose is obvious — it is done to titillate your heart and trigger your fantasies. [Note: The word "homely"  has different meanings in different countries. Here it means a woman desirable to establish a home with].

Recent Psychological Researches have shown that fantasy might be powerful beyond imagination due to an added reason. It has been found that an average person speaks at the rate of 100 words per minute. The same person thinks at the rate of about 250 words per minute. But when he indulges in fantasizing, it becomes equivalent to about 1800 words per minute. Obviously, our minds will surrender and yield under such an onslaught of ideas flashing in such quick succession. When the power of animated TV pictures is added to it, the power to manipulate becomes incredible.

Let me quote an interesting advertisement that uses titillation. This pamphlet was given to me in a clothes shop, and an attractive girl posing in a seductive manner says in a bold and eye-catching print :

"John and I will get married only next month,
but we have already done it twice in secret  …   !!"

What have they already done twice in secret ? In my seminars I frequently show this ad to  mature (single as well as married) persons and ask what this girl was hinting at ! What exactly did they DO in secret ?? Without exception they all replied, "they had sex, of course !". That is titillation and motivation for fantasy. As the ad goes on it became clear that the girl was actually referring to two secret visits to the exclusive "clothes shop !" Yet they use a statement with direct sexual overtone to catch the attention (and manipulate the subconscious of the reader).

Teasing works in the same way. When a person is teased for the first time with sexual overtones he/she might be embarrassed or even horrified. But when such teasing continues for some time, his/her fantasies turn on. Gradually it breaks down resistance and the person finds himself/herself lured to sin. This is the reason why young people should flee from the company of profane people who talk about sexual fantasies or who use sexual overtones in their teasing.

Fantasy is a powerful propaganda tool. It not only captures the attention, but also motivates people to lust and dirty their minds.

Summary:   The eight techniques above look very simple, deceptively simple in fact. However, the fact that advertisement companies spend thousands of millions every year on them, and also the fact that monopolistic nations also spend thousands of millions every year to integrate the same into their overseas propaganda shows that their simplicity is only deceptive and and an outward facade for the lethal power they hide in themselves.

Communists, atheists, humanists, the so-called rationalists, theological radicals, and almost everyone who delights in attacking the Christian faith, but who do not have substance to fight against God’s word, use these techniques liberally. Their books, monographs, publications, and even conversations are loaded with Propaganda Techniques. Thus every Christian needs to be acquainted with these techniques and also the methods to counter them.

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Propaganda As A Tool Against
Rational Thinking And The Christian Faith

Different societies repeatedly go through periods of hatred towards Christianity. Propaganda plays a two-fold role during such periods. First, clever propaganda hastens the onset of such attitude against the Christian faith. Such change of attitudes then adds to the spread of propaganda. In this way a vicious circle of anti-Biblical feelings and teachings is set up.

Mere wishful thinking will never help the situation. The vicious circle can be broken only if a significant number of persons in such a generation understand the role and methods of propaganda.

Propaganda is the art and act of spreading information to a large number of people. The information might be true or false depending upon the nature of propaganda, but our interest here is in the false variety of it. Further, it is to be understood that in the absence of such propaganda, that information would not go too far. Information lacks locomotion till it meets publicity.

Further, in this writing, we will be using the words propaganda and advertisement interchangeably. This is because all advertisements ultimately depend upon propaganda techniques for success. Also, we will be using "attack against the Bible" and "attack against the Christian faith" interchangeably. This is because either of these automatically leads to the other.

TYPES OF PROPAGANDA: All propaganda can be classified into two groups — spontaneous and contrived. The spontaneous variety is found everywhere where people talk about their achievements and successes. They do not have to contrive a speech (long or short) to pass this information to others. Rather, when a person graduates, wins lottery-prize, or gets a special honor, he automatically and enthusiastically informs others. This is spontaneous advertising, and is a harmless mode of communication when not indulged in excess.

Contrived propaganda, on the other hand, is carefully planned and executed. It is again of two types: informative and manipulative. The informative propaganda aims at bringing facts to people expecting them to respond favorably. An element of persuasion is also sometimes present.

Manipulative propaganda on the other hand aims at controlling people’s behavior in a specific manner. This prompts them to buy a certain product, think, act and dress in a certain manner, and even to associate themselves with certain movements.

The classified advertisements seen in newspapers is an example of educative propaganda. Usually their aim is to inform people about products, services, sales, and educational opportunities. Larger ads dealing with traffic, home safety, energy conservation, etc., also can be considered as educational/informational propaganda.

On the other hand, advertisements that induce people to smoke, drink, buy a product that is not all that necessary, and that compel people to develop brand loyalties come under the category of mind altering publicity. The same techniques are used by political parties, lobbying groups, exotic cults and different strange movements.

The above classification is to be used as an objective guideline, but one should be cautious when analyzing propaganda and advertisements. Most of these will fall clearly into one of these categories, but a few will contain elements of both. Some educational propaganda use mind-alteration techniques while some manipulative propaganda will contain educational or factual matter. What’s important for the recipient is his ability to shift and separate facts from fiction.

MANIPULATIVE PROPAGANDA: Propagandists belonging to this group employ a wide variety of tried and proven techniques. These techniques depend upon the endless variety of human needs, desires, problems and aspirations, most of which have a deep emotional content. Since there is no end to the variety of human emotions, it is impossible to give an exhaustive list. However, the majority of methods can be classified into about a dozen or so many categories. We will list eight of them here with the confidence that this will give you sufficient insight into the subject to help you spot other techniques and logically analyze them.

At first these techniques might not strike to you as anything special, but by the time you finish you will surely be alarmed by the way propaganda techniques can be used to manipulate people. In fact, these techniques have been successfully used to change the thinking and behavior pattern of entire generations and even nations. In the next chapter we will read about the major techniques, followed by chapters on how these techniques have been used to attack the Christian faith, and also how to counter it. 

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The book talks of Christian, an inquirer of spiritual truth, who finally found peace at the cross of Christ. From there he walks a difficult and challenging path to reach heaven, his destination. He meets many types of people, various temptations, and many choices some of which lead him astray on an occasion. Once he reaches his destination, his wife and children trace the same path.

The Pilgrim’s progress is an absorbing allegory, and one cannot put it down once one starts to read it. The English is antiquated, but numerous simplified and modern editions are available. Download a copy by clicking on the picture.

Aesop’s Fables have given moral instruction to countless people worldwide, and that is why the book is alive even today in numerous editions and numerous languages. Christians would find it a useful book to give to their children.

Download the fully illustrated ebook by clicking on the picture. You will get a 6.5 MB zip filed. Unzip it and click on the index file to browse the book.

Aesop: A 2000 Year Old Depiction, Creative Commons

As the return of the Lord Jesus Christ is nearing and the age is also closing in on the schemes of satan – he is working fast around the human clock to spread his deceptions and heresies.

While it is evidently quite difficult for Satan to lure believers into heinous sinful activities – he’s found other means of getting to them right from their pulpits. He is using the means of heresies and even heretic preachers to divert Christians from their primary mission – God.

The Word of Faith Movement has been at the very front of promoting doctrines or teachings that are nowhere taught in Scripture. These men and women distort many passages of the Bible to propagate their own ideas rather than the clearly revealed Word of God. 

Click on the picture to download your free 60-page PDF Ebook!

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Human sin nature has so distorted that people would welcome anything except the truth. No wonder they cried for the release of Barabbas the murderer and the crucifixion of Jesus the benevolent Saviour.

To the same category belongs what is strangely called the "Jesus Seminar". This is not the Jesus of the Bible, and they are not Christian believers. Yet they continue to deceive many. Rick Williams, a student of Trinity School, has authored an analytical Ebook on this subject which lays bare all this deception in the name of "Jesus". Download it today itself and distribute it to all those whom you know.

Click on the picture to download your PDF Copy!!

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