Brainwashed?

[SillySeth]

I started writing these blogs for one reason: to pinpoint and solve my problems and downfalls in my relationship with Jesus Christ. After writing such "blogs" and thinking deeply on them, I feel I have indeed grown closer to God. Yet, I've come to find out that I have one major issue and problem. (By problem, I'm simply implying the one thing that has distorted my view of Christianity and what is truly means to be Christian. So, in other words, it inot so much a problem as it is a relization that leads to change.)

Over the last year, i have come a long way in my walk with Jesus Christ. I can honestly say that I am a completely different person, spiritually, than I was a year ago. The path I've been walking has been a very maturing and eye-opening experience.

This one problem or relization is that I have been brainwashed. Yes, I said it: brainwashed. I feel like the American Dream has brainwashed me through materialism, and self. America has caused my thinking to be centered around prosperity, money, and self. This way of thinking has distorted the way I think and the way I live my life. Materialism and Self have become something normal, almost as if they are righteous things to pursue.

I have slowly, ever so slowly, been discovering that the bible and the message of Jesus Christ are in direct conflict of this way of thinking. I been living my life in conflict with the essential message of the Gospel and the plan of the message of Jesus Christ.

These are ONLY a few areas where I am finding my thinking outside the realm and reality of Jesus Christ. I pursue SELF. Jesus pursues OTHERS. I pursue MONEY. Jesus had NO MONEY and that he did receive, he gave to the poor. I pursue REVENGE. Jesus pursues LOVE (loving your enemies as yourself!!) Church has become something that I do, instead of something that I am.

I honestly feel like I have become so brainwashed by my culture that it is hard to see the truth in my ways of living. I think our society has taken the sacred truth and tried to sell it, manufacture it, and use it for personal gain. So I'm finding that the authenticity of Jesus Christ is hard to find and discover.

All my blogs seem as little pieces to t his puzzle that needs to change my life. I have grown to think that Jesus Christ was a white, middle-class, republican- just like me! How wrong i have become! Instead of becoming more like Christ, I have slowly been brainwashed that Jesus Christ is like me!!! Without realizing it, my culture and my selfishness have brainwashed me from the truth of the Jesus that lived 2000 years ago.

So, as you can see, I feel like Christ is slowly moving me down a road of drastic change. To summarize I will quote two lines from "The Irresistible Revolution: living as an ordinary radical" by Shane Claiborne. It goes like this:

"The time has come for a new kind of converstation, a new kind of Christianity, a new kind of revolution."

As I begin to open my eyes and see clearly through the brainwashing attempts of society, I pray that you do also.

 

[Jonesie]

Let me offer you a different voice. I too fall into the same socio-economic background that you do, but I can't say that I or you have been brainwashed. This is something called "immersion" rather than brainwashing. Yes, you and I live in a society where the dream is to become a billionaire and to have everything go our way all the time. Joel Osteen preaches about it every Sunday to thousands of viewers world wide. Now you might be thinking that brainwashing and immersion are the same thing, but they are different. I don't know your salvation story, but if you are like many American Christians you went to church when you were a kid and you most likely accepted Christ in your childhood. Were you brainwashed by going to church as a kid? Did you know any different or have any reason to reject what was being taught to you? Maybe, but I'd rather call it immersion. Now that you are an adult, you have chosen to stay faithful to Christ. God doesn't necessarily call us to poverty. He calls us to no longer depend on ourselves and to depend only on Him. He calls us not to worship idols and money, but to be prepared at a moments notice to give everything to Him. God blessed and prospered many people in the Bible. Some financially and others in different ways. Just make sure that you are always prepared to do what God calls you to.

 

[jebiv]

You may choose to use a word other than "brainwashed" but the fact is that we middle class white Americans have indeed grown up in a culture that has many misplaced values, making it really easy to believe those values are right.

Jonesie, you say that "God doesn't necessarily call us into poverty." It used to be I would agree with you, but more and more I'm starting to wonder - maybe God does call us into what many in this world would call poverty. I do believe that God provides enough and more than enough for all our needs. But the idea of Jubilee, of a persistent and relentless tearing down of economic inequities and redistribution of the wealth that God has given us is throughout scripture, and is a major part of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and the dominant American form of Christianity, mirroring the dominant Western culture, makes it easy for us to believe that it is not so.

Something that I realized recently is that all the time I've been around Christianity, most of what people have told me is that the gospel is about me. Jesus died for my sins, God wants to have a relationship with me. And of course all of that is true. But recently a group of friends and I studied Luke 4 where Jesus is rejected at Nazareth. It's the first time Jesus talks about what his mission might be, and the passage he chooses to read (he could have chosen anything out of the prophets) is this from Isaiah: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." So the gospel, the good news, of Jesus Christ, who is it primarily about? For whom is the news good?

 

[Notrash]

Church has become something that I do, instead of something that I am.

I apreciate your comments and would encourage you on your journey. Some of American churchianity has been brainwashed or I say 'indoctrinated'. Christianity has become a 'religion', rather than a 'way' of freedom of life and a walk of fellowship with the Creator.

Part of the problem of protestant denominations is that It is still tied to the protest-ant movement which had both it's good and bad points. By still being a 'protestant' we remain focusly opposed to the things of the Catholic church rather than seeking the truths of the original teachings and intentions of Christ and the organic church.

However, the good parts of the reformation need to be considered. Self-study with like-hearted people; refutations of the fatherhood and authority of the pope and preists and other similar man made doctrines. Reliance on the decisions of the pope as being God's will for the church... etc..etc..

Some of the groups that broke off of the Catholic church during and after the reformation have their own systems of authoritarian hierarchy which can sometimes go against new covenant teachings. Even 'bible' churches can depend on the teachings of the Pastor and neglect to see if "these things are true". In doing so, the parishiners obtain a false righteousness through knowledge, rather than a righteousness through faith.

Since you've posted in the 'bible college' section, I'd offer another belief. The 'degree' that is stressed for and needed to be obtained for employment in "christian' businesses sometimes called 'ministries' is very similar to the emphasis of the superiority of the Papal or Preistly authority. An appeal is made to 2Tim 2:15 to 'study to show yourself approved'. But when read in context, this is similar to the idea of giving diligence to and neglecting not the gift of salvation once delivered to the saints (you).

Jesus did not say to go get a degree from Gamaliel. He said come, learn from Him, for his yoke is easy and his burden light. And recall that the disciples disobeyed the organized leadership and that that leadership took note that they had been with (learned from) Jesus. We are told to make disciples (of Jesus) and refer people to Him directly and give basic information about the plan of Salvation, not to indoctrinate into a religion.

If satan (or other organizations) could infiltrate bible colleges and seminaries with doctrines and practices to undermine the true spirit of the orgainic church, he would do so.

I believe that is what has happened with dispensational theology and futurist eschatology. Some teachings of this push off the kingdom of God into a future millenium while attempting to seal themselves and others out. This teaching was relatively unknown before 1800 although their are ties to chilaist jewish influence and fables. The bible college movement is a direct result of prophecy conferences that were held in Niagara Falls, and other areas around the turn of the century. These promoted and discussed dispensationalism and other subjects. When the conferences had divisions, in order to teach others their system, Scofield, Moody and others expanded their bible study and hermeneitic system into bible institutes which became bible colleges.

So very complex is their supposed system, that they need their own bible (Scofield reference) and colleges to bring people into it's teaching rather than allow Jesus and the Holy Spirit to teach the truths.

Sorry to rant about this issue, but it is one of the reasons that the church is powerless and weakened down and that our society and culture has spiraled downhill.

Continue your small group studies for where two or more are gathered in HIS NAME, there He will be in the midst.

Your quoted statement above "Church has become something that I do, instead of something that I am" can be reversed.

If you or others are interested in more info about dispensationalism.
http://www.graceonlinelibrary.org/articles/subcats.asp?ID=9|21
http://www.endtimesmadness.com/home.html

 

[Wade Smith]

I started writing these blogs for one reason: to pinpoint and solve my problems and downfalls in my relationship with Jesus Christ. After writing such "blogs" and thinking deeply on them, I feel I have indeed grown closer to God. Yet, I've come to find out that I have one major issue and problem. (By problem, I'm simply implying the one thing that has distorted my view of Christianity and what is truly means to be Christian. So, in other words, it inot so much a problem as it is a relization that leads to change.)

Over the last year, i have come a long way in my walk with Jesus Christ. I can honestly say that I am a completely different person, spiritually, than I was a year ago. The path I've been walking has been a very maturing and eye-opening experience.

This one problem or relization is that I have been brainwashed. Yes, I said it: brainwashed. I feel like the American Dream has brainwashed me through materialism, and self. America has caused my thinking to be centered around prosperity, money, and self. This way of thinking has distorted the way I think and the way I live my life. Materialism and Self have become something normal, almost as if they are righteous things to pursue.

Well, as Jesus would say, "Thou art not far from the Kingdom of God."

America indeed has gone down the totally wrong direction, friend.

The democratic party is into multiculturalism, which is basicly satanic.

They believe "any religion is as good as another" and are even holding an "interreligious" convention with islam, buddhism, and "so called" christians all meeting. All contrary to the Bible, since the Bible tells christians to have nothing to do with other religions.

America thinks Pride is a virtue! Seriously, we've all seen the Bumper sticker "Power of Pride", as though it were a good thing. Pride is never seen as a good thing in the Bible.

The typical American church looks nothing like the Book of Acts Church:
There are few healings or miracles
There is little or no preaching from the Scriptures

There is no focus on righteousness or holiness, in fact, those things are hardly mentioned at all, or even denied in much of the modern church.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ can be summed up in a single statement:

"Jesus Christ and Him Crucified"


"For God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whoseover believes on Him shall not perish but have everlasting life."

"Take up the cross and follow Me(Jesus) Daily"

And so on.

But this is rarely preached on any television program, and in fact, much of what you see on television ministries is questionable, and in many cases is not Biblical at all.


But you are also right, we all have been "brainwashed", both by our own sin nature, as well as the "world system".

The Bible calls this "Sin, the Flesh, and the Devil" along with "the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life".

the world system is literally controlled by demonic activity, and it sole purpose is to destroy as many human souls as possible, that's it.

the Bible tells us that Satan is transfromed into an Angel of Light. That is, the Devil destroys through deciet and tiny little half-truths, using "good" baits.

Example:

The World says, "You have your God, I have mine, can't wel all 'love' one another? can't we all get along?"

The Bible says, "No! Jesus is THE way, THE truth, and THE life...Jesus is THE Door and all who come up by any other way are thieves and robbers."


So when we see politicians and news anchors use staments like " A muslim brother", or "buddhist brother", etc, or refer to all religions as being the same, that is a lie from the devil.

You see, Jesus loved the sinner and had mercy on them, but he never once "excused" sin, false doctrine, or false religions. As a matter of fact, he rebuked them more vehemently than most any preacher you or I have probably ever heard in modern times.

Jesus first recorded words in the Bible AFTER his baptism and temptation in the wilderness is "Repent".

He didn't call for a "P.E.A.C.E." plan, nor a 12 step plan. He called for a 1 step plan, "Repent and believe the Gospel."

That is what America and the church itself needs to do: Get saved by the grace of God through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ and his shed blood.