How to Resist the Pull of the Crowd

“In Brave New
World, non-stop distractions of the most fascinating nature (the feelies,
orgy-porgy, centrifugal bumble-puppy) are deliberately used as
instruments of policy, for the purpose of preventing people from
paying too much attention to the realities of the social and
political situations.”

[1]
Aldous Huxley, Brave New World Revisited

 

“… in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers
of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers…
without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty,
lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God…. And from such people turn away.”

2 Timothy 3:1-14

---

 

Shadowmancer,
the
so-called “Christian” version of the Harry Potter books, illustrates today’s
lack of discernment and unbounded love for occult thrills. Mystical, evil, and full of “Christian themes,”
it was written by an Anglican pastor, the Reverend G. P. Taylor. So it must be good,  we
are told. Never mind the distorted “truths” and spooky message.  After
all, it’s just fantasy! 

 

With such pragmatism reigning in churches as well as
in culture,
it’s easy to justify other tempting pursuits that titillate our human
nature. And as God’s people become increasingly relational, tolerant ,
and responsive to group opinion,  few dare speak the truths that would expose today’s spreading
corruption. How can we resist the overwhelming social pressure to follow the
crowd rather than our Lord?

 

No leadership has
given us more alarming pictures of the pressure to conform than last
century’s totalitarian regimes. May we never forget the cruel torture of those who refused to compromise and join the politically correct crowd. Yet globalist leaders in
the USA and UK
have used these same mind-bending
tactics as stepping stones for today’s more sophisticated psycho-social
strategies and standards for “mental health.” 

 

The dictators in
George Orwell’s 1984  used fear to force people into conformity.
The rulers in Huxley’s Brave New World used fun. Huxley’s “feelies,” euphoric drugs and seductive lures
would tear down the old beliefs, knowledge, moral boundaries and logical arguments
that the people needed
to resist mental surrender to the ruling elite.

 

Aldous Huxley —
like most utopian socialists in the first half of the 20th century —
believed that mankind would evolve into more noble creatures. But his
idealism was shattered by the deliberate brutality of Nazi Germany.

 

Alarmed by the
reality of such human
depravity, he wrote a far less popular follow-up: Brave New World Revisited. 
While it doesn’t deny the awesome forces he described in his first book, it now warns
of their dangers. Control over the masses was no longer the golden key that
would open the door to a utopian world order. To the contrary. Huxley had glimpsed
the road to worldwide tyranny. The actual agenda for mind control would
devastate the human soul and individual thinking far more effectively than the
Nazi machinery or Soviet purges of the past.

 

Huxley’s warnings
are well worth reading. They apply to
purpose-driven churches as well as to
schools,

corporations, governments and
other systems. Notice the key points in bold letters:

“Only the vigilant can maintain their liberties, and only those who
are constantly and intelligently on the spot can hope to govern themselves
effectively by democratic procedures. A society, most of whose members spend
a great part of their time… in the irrelevant other worlds of sport
and soap opera, of mythology and metaphysical fantasy, will find it hard
to resist the encroachments of those who would manipulate and control it.

“In their propaganda, today’s dictators rely for the most part on
repetition,
pression and rationalization—the repetition of catchwords which
they wish to be accepted as true, the pression of facts which
they wish to be ignored, the arousal and rationalization of passions
which may be used in the interests of the Party or the State. As the art
and science of manipulation come to be better understood, the dictators
of the future will doubtlessly learn to combine these techniques with
the non-stop distractions which, in the West, are now threatening
to drown in a sea of irrelevance the rational propaganda
essential to the maintenance of individual liberty….
 

“Let us see what
Hitler thought of the masses he moved…. Their
behavior is determined, not by knowledge and reason, but by feelings
and unconscious drives. It is in these drives and feelings that
‘the roots of their positive as well as their negative attitudes are
implanted.’ To be successful
a propagandist must learn how to manipulate these instincts and
emotions. ‘The driving force which has brought about the most
tremendous revolutions on this earth has … always [been] a devotion which has
inspired them, and often a kind of hysteria
[passion]
which has urged them into action. Whoever wishes to win over the masses
must know the key that will open the door of their hearts.…
[pinpointed through polls, surveys, and continual assessments….]

“To make them more masslike, more homogeneously subhuman, he assembled
them, by the thousands and the tens of thousands, in vast halls and
arenas, where individuals could lose their personal identity… and be merged with the crowd….

“…a crowd is chaotic, has no purpose of its own….
Assembled in a crowd, people lose their powers of reasoning…. Their suggestibility is increased to the
point where they cease to have any judgment or will of their own. They
become very excitable…
In a
word, a man in a crowd behaves as though he had swallowed a large dose
of some powerful intoxicant. He is a victim of … ‘herd-poisoning.’…

“In an age of accelerating over-population, of accelerating
over-organization and ever more efficient means of mass communication,
how can we preserve the integrity and reassert the value of the human
individual?”[1]

Good question! In the last five decades,
mind control strategies have become increasingly sophisticated. Hiding their
true nature behind organizational labels designed to please targeted groups in every
social arena, today’s change agents have won world-wide converts
to collectivism. Most others have obediently closed their eyes to critics that
expose the manipulation behind today’s rousing slogans and feel-good encounter
groups. Many church leaders seem even more blind to the manipulation than
secular leaders. 

Cozy encounter groups

Back in 1998, I saw an article by the Wiccan author, Margot Adler,
granddaughter of the famed psychoanalyst  Alfred Adler. Her name caught my attention
because I had read her book on witchcraft, “Drawing down the Moon,” as
part of my research for
A Twist of Faith.  In her article, Ms. Adler
describes her experience with small group fellowship back in the sixties. As a Berkeley
student during the Free Speech Movement, she had been studying
Communism and “wondered if the party could be the vehicle” for her “revolutionary
struggles.” Within a short period to time, she received two separate invitations
to experience warm fellowship over dinner. She
accepted both. What impressed her about the two small groups was the friendly atmosphere
and the caring environment.

She soon realized that both invitations shared a common purpose: recruitment
into the Communist party. Since her mother was a Marxist, Ms. Adler was well
aware of the monstrous management system behind the friendly faces in the Communist
cell. What surprised her was “the contrast between the totalitarian party
structure and the warm, loving people inside” the small group. After
the meetings, she wrote her observations. Do they sound familiar?

“The meeting of the Berkeley chapter
of the Communist Party took place in the cozy living room of a private home.
… One member was sick. I listened to a discussion of how she was doing,
and whether people were going over to see her, to bring her soup and groceries.
I was riveted by the sense of caring in the room. I yearned for such a community,
and yet I feared it would strangle me. 

“At the end of the meeting, there
was a section called ‘Good and Welfare.’ Imagine a self-criticism session,
but fuzzy and gentle. People talked of mistakes they had made and sought
advice from the group. There were two other invited guests, and when
their turn came they both said they had decided to join the party. And then
it was my turn….

“I suddenly knew that I couldn’t
join them. I longed to be part of such a caring community, but I knew I
was never going to feel comfortable being told what to do….”

[2]

[3]

[5]

[Eph
4:14-15] 

Ephesians 6:10-18

[Judges 17:6]

2. RIGHTEOUSNESS – The goodness
of God, imparted to His children

We can’t resist compromise unless we
continually see the difference between the world’s most noble views of right
and wrong and what’s right in
God’s eyes. Otherwise, it’s all too easy to confuse God’s mercy and love
with today’s “positive thoughts” about tolerance, unity and collective values.
It’s easy to ask, What would Jesus do?, but we miss the answer every
time if we follow our own idealistic standards and subjective
interpretations of God’s mind and movements. The fact that man’s collective
actions seem to succeed based on human assessments, doesn’t mean that “God
is moving” in step with our pragmatic visions.  

“You thought that I was altogether like
you,” He reminds us. “But I will rebuke you….” [Psalms 50:21]  “‘For My
thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,’ says the Lord.”
[Isaiah 55:8] 
See

Apostasy

Only by His Word and Spirit in us can
we see right and wrong from His perspective. For “no one knows the things
of God except the Spirit of God.”
[1 Corinthians 2:11]
But when we feed on His
Word and rely on His Spirit , He sensitizes
our conscience to His will and imprints His ways on our hearts: “I will put My law in their minds,
and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God,
and they shall be My people.”
Jeremiah 31:33

Those who reject God’s
Truth and Righteousness have a very different standard for right and wrong.
Conformed to cultural values rather than to God’s Word, their consciences
simply endorse man’s corrupted values. Since human nature doesn’t change
with time, this Old Testament warning is still relevant today:

“Were they ashamed when they had
committed abomination?
No! They were not at all ashamed; nor did they
know how to blush.” Jeremiah
6:15

In fact, the world’s ways  and God’s
ways
are totally incompatible. That’s why God’s Word tells us repeatedly to
shun
the world’s counsel even as we demonstrate God’s love:

“The righteous should choose his
friends carefully, for the way of the wicked leads them astray.” Proverbs 12:26

“Do not be unequally yoked together
with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness?
And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ
with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement
has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living
God. As God has said: ‘I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will
be their God, and they shall be My people.’
     “Therefore ‘Come out from among them and be
separate,’ says the Lord. ‘Do not touch what is unclean, and
I will receive you.'” 2
Corinthians 6:14-18

“… in the last days perilous times
will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters,
proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving,
unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good,
traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of
God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people
turn away!
      “…all who desire to
live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. But evil men and
impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. But
you must continue in the things which you have learned…”
2 Timothy 3:1-14

In other words, don’t let the world
distract you from God’s Word and ways. As followers of Jesus, we are “in the
world” as salt and light, but we’re not “of the world” as
participants in its social and moral consensus.
[John 17:11, 14]
This division has kindled the world’s fury through the ages. That’s why
Jesus — knowing His disciples
would face its cruel onslaughts — explained the consequences of
such an uncompromising stand:

“If the world hates you, you
know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world,
the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but
I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you…. If they
persecuted Me, they will also persecute you…. because they do not know
Him who sent Me.” John
15:18-21

Persecution seems both remote and
unreal to Americans unfamiliar with the torture of
God’s faithful ones in Communist, Hindu and Islamic countries today. Too distracted
to learn history or Biblical prophecy, most of us neither look back to the
persecution of the early church nor forward to prepare for the battles
ahead. [See Revelation 13 and 17].

Those who have not been desensitized by
imagined media violence might shudder at the following list, which shows
man’s ingenuity in inflicting pain on others. May it impress on our hearts the surpassing value early Christians put on
the righteousness of Jesus Christ! Pleasing Him was worth more
than life to them! A torturous death was not too high a price for a heavenly
eternity with their Lord. They knew the cruel consequences of discipleship, but compromise was not an option!

• shut up in a sack with snakes
  and thrown into the seas
• tied to huge stones and cast
  into a river
• hanging on the tree (cross),
  they were beaten with rods until their bowels gushed out, while vinegar
  and salt were rubbed into their wounds
• tied to catapults and so wrenched
  limb from limb
• thrown to the beasts; others
  tied to their horns.
• Women stripped, enclosed in
  nets and exposed to the attacks of furious bulls
• tortured with scrapers, claws and pincers
  [then] delivered
  to the mercy of flames
• broken on the wheel or torn
  in pieces by wild horses
• the feet were slowly burned
  away…
• scourged to the bone, then placed
  near a grid-iron that he might witness the roasting of pieces torn from
  his own body
• fixing red-hot plates of brass
  to the most delicate parts of his body… [then] slowly roasted in
  the iron chair.
• ‘melted
  lead, hissing and bubbling, was poured’ [down their backs]
• a few…. escaped with the searing
  out of their eyes, or the tearing off of their legs.”[4]

These faithful men and women could have
won release by simply recanting their faith or affirming the gods of Rome. But
they refused to deny their Lord! To them, the following Scripture was far
more than a nice memory verse: “I consider that 
the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the
glory which shall be revealed in us.”
Romans 8:18 

By God’s wonderful grace, may we, too,
demonstrate to a needy world the surpassing values of knowing and following
our King — in His ministry here on earth as well as in His suffering and death!

“I also count all
things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord,
for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish,
that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness,
which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the
righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the
power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed
to His death….” Philippians 3:7-11

“…having been justified by faith, we
have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ…. And not only that, but we also glory
in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance,
character; and character, hope.”
Romans 5:1-5 

The
“gospel of peace“ to share with others: “Stand therefore, having girded
your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness,
and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace.”
Ephesians 6:14-15

6. The
victory of His peace:  “In the world you will have
tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
John 16:33

For
when they say, ‘Peace and safety!’ then sudden destruction comes upon
them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape.
But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should
overtake you as a thief. ”
1
Thessalonians 5:3-4

[John 20:21]
 He makes us ambassadors for His kingdom, messengers bringing the peace
of His reconciliation through the cross — the only way to peace and unity
in this world.

4. The Shield of FAITH – Confident assurance
that God will do all He has promised!

2 Corinthians 1:8

1 Thessalonians 5:9-12

Colossians 1:9-12

Hope of SALVATION – now and forever.
Resting in the triumphs of Jesus.

“….let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the
breastplate of faith and love, and as
a helmet the hope of salvation.”
([1 Thessalonians
5:8]
These words from the apostle Paul may
not mean much to Christians in the West who have built their hope on
the prosperity and comforts in this world. But it means everything to those
whose treasure is laid up in heaven for all eternity!  Remember, the
ever-present stars in the sky are
hidden by the comfortable light of day, but they shine like jewels in the dark nights of
pain and suffering.

[Hebrews 6:19]

Though countless church leaders in
the West are turning from heavenly hope to earthly purposes,
God’s true hope will never yield to human pressure or to the schemes of
Satan! For “in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved
us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities
nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor
any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which
is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Romans 8:37-39

Romans 15:13