Dealing with Deceit

​"Then I saw an angel coming down from Heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the devil and satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and he cast him into the bottomless pit and shut him up and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more…" Revelation 20:1-3
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God is Truth. God's Word is Truth. Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life.

"And war broke out in Heaven… that serpent of old, called the devil and satan who deceives the whole world…" Revelation 12:7
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Deceiving the Nations
Satan is deceiving the nations. Education teaches you how to think. Indoctrination teaches you what to think. The ability to think critically is becoming less and less common. We are being subjected to the greatest flood of misinformation and disinformation in the history of mankind.

Misinformation
Misinformation is error, either as a result of sincere mistakes or typographical errors. Frequently trusting in unreliable sources results in misunderstanding the facts of a matter.

Disinformation
Disinformation is the intentional distortion of events or issues. Communist governments establish departments of disinformation to manufacture deceit and confuse the issues. While misinformation is unintentional, disinformation is intentional.

The Duty to Stand for the Truth
Under the Duties Required in the Ninth Commandment, the Westminster Larger Catechism lists: The Duty of preserving and promoting truth. The duty to stand for the truth and to do so from the heart. The duty to speak the truth and only the truth in matters of judgment and justice. The duty to speak the truth at all times. The duty to study and practice everything true, noble, lovely and of good report.

Enemies of Truth
Under the Sins Forbidden in the Ninth Commandment, the Westminster Standards includes: The sin of giving false evidence. The sin of lying. The sin of concealing the truth. The sin of misconstruing intentions. The sin of exaggerating minor faults. The sin of perverting the truth to a wrong meaning.

World Opinion
The Scripture teaches us that satan is deceiving the nations. If we find ourselves in full agreement with the United Nations, we need to stop and carefully consider where we have been deceived. Global warming! Sexism! Racism! Black Economic Empowerment. Affirmative Action. Alternative Lifestyles. Evolution. Atheism. Socialism. If you agree with the world on these issues then satan has deceived you.

Pervasive Propaganda
Propaganda, the calculated manipulation of public opinion to serve political and ideological interests is pervasive. Propaganda aims to do other peoples thinking for them. Propaganda today has moved into Prop-Agenda, not only controlling what we think, but how we think, and what we think about.

Privileges for Perverts
If you don't support gay rights (privileges for perverts), then you are a homophobic, narrow-minded, hateful bigot!

Repeat this Mantra
Islam is a peaceful and tolerant religion! If you dare to suggest that Islam is violent and intolerant then you are a mean, intolerant, Islamaphobe! (and you may receive death threats or worse.)

Science Fiction
If you don't accept the politically correct fairy tale for grown ups: Evolution, then you are unscientific. A whole lot of time and a whole lot of nothing made everything. From goo, to the Zoo, to you. From mud, to monkeys, to man. If you demand evidence of these unproven assertions, or advocate Intelligent Design, then you are an ignorant, unscientific fool and you are too dangerous to allow as a teacher or lecturer in government schools and colleges.

Pro-Abortion Propaganda
If you oppose abortion, then you are against women's rights! If you insist on calling it the killing of a baby, we will try to have you prosecuted for hate speech. It is a Product of Conception (POC) and we need to refer to Termination of Pregnancy (TOP) not aborting the baby! If you insist on equal rights for unborn babies, then you are anti-choice and should expect to never be promoted or appointed to any senior position in a government hospital.

Revolutionary Truth
"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act." George Orwell.

Politically Correct Euphemisms
Secular humanist indoctrination requires that you use the politically correct euphemisms: Racial discrimination is now called Black Economic Empowerment and Affirmative Action. Sexual perversion is to be called Alternative Lifestyles. Looting of farms and murder of farmers is to be called Land Reform. Killing of babies is to be called Removal of the Product of Conception or Termination of Pregnancy. Killing old or sick people is to be called Euthanasia. Censorship is to be called the Information Bill.

Newspeak
George Orwell in his book 1984, described it as: Newspeak and Thought Control.

The Manufacture of Consent
As American journalist Walter Lippmann, wrote: The art of democracy requires the manufacture of consent. 

Rewriting History
Karl Marx declared: The first battlefield is the rewriting of history. 

Propaganda and Agitation
Vladimir Lenin, in his book: What Is To Be Done, required the Communist Party to use propaganda to indoctrinate the educated and intelligent masses, and agitation - the use of slogans, stories and selected half-truths to exploit the grievances of the uneducated and ignorant masses.

Justifying Deceit
Every unit in the Communist Party is to have an Agit-Prop section. As Vladimir Lenin taught: Deceit in propaganda is justified, because the end justifies the means. As Vladimir Lenin famously noted: Treaties are like piecrusts, made to be broken. To tell the truth is a petty bourgeois habit, but to lie and to lie convincingly is a sign of superior intelligence. ​

​Regimenting the Public Mind
As Walter Lippmann wrote in Public Opinion: The simple minded and sheep-like people need to be led by a specialised class of enlightened elites. The goal is: the making of one general will out of multitude of general wishes. As Edward Bernays of the Committee of Public Information (CPI) declared: The public must be regimented. 
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A Bodyguard of Lies
Sir Winston Churchill, the British Prime Minister during World War II declared: In wartime, truth is so precious, that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies. 

Manipulation of Minds
George Creel, who coordinated the Committee on Public Information in the United States, defined their goals as: To manipulate attitudes, beliefs and actions. 

Daily Deception
On almost any given day you will be confronted with deception. Certainly through the news media and the entertainment industry. Deceit is their stock and trade. As has been observed, you can always tell when a politician is lying, his lips move. An even when he dies, he lies still.

Identifying Propaganda
There are numerous tell tail signs that you can look for to identify deception in propaganda. Propaganda can be subtle, but it is aimed at your emotions. Over simplification, emotionalisation and sentimentality are all dead giveaways of deceit. Propagandists tend to reuse short, catchy slogans to communicate their agenda. Its repetivity begins to sound something like a mantra.

Alternative Opinions Forbidden
When you come across forcefulness and authoritarian implied condemnation of any alternative viewpoint then you are ensured that you are dealing with indoctrination, not education.

Ignoring the Wider Context
Propaganda commonly ignores the historical context, uses selective stories and a narrow source of experts, those who tow the party line. Propaganda demonises the enemy and uses such a narrow focus that you could describe it as using the zoom lens rather than the wide-angle lens of context.

One Sided Generalisations
The always, or never type of extremism also frequently rears its head in propaganda. There is only one side of the story when it comes to classic propaganda.

Stampeding the Herd
Propaganda often intimidates readers, listeners, or viewers into joining the herd by using prejudicial and harsh labels for anyone who disagrees with the party line. This stampede into rubberstamping the prescribed agenda is a hallmark of all propaganda: All right thinking people agree! No one in their right mind would deny! Scientists have confirmed! Those who care for the poor agree… All freedom loving people want to see… 

Criminalising Dissent
Lies, omissions and distortions are a hallmark of propaganda. There are frequently logical fallacies and inconsistencies if one looks for them. When laws need to be passed criminalizing those who disagree with any given piece of indoctrination, then you know that it must be a lie. The truth does not need to bully people into chanting a mantra of agreement.

Animal Farm
George Orwell's books: 1984 and Animal Farm, are most insightful in exposing the inconsistencies and falsehood inherent in propaganda. In Animal Farm, the chant of the faithful sheep: Four legs good! Two legs bad! The rewriting of the laws of their revolution on the barn wall:

1. All animals are equal, later becomes: All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.
2. To: No animal shall kill another animal, is later added without cause.
3. The: No animals shall sleep in a bed, is later changed to No Animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets.

The pigs, who represent the Communist Party officials, violate and change every rule of their own Revolution. George Orwell didn't dream all this up, he was merely using a parable to communicate exactly what had happened in the Soviet Union.

Hypocrites
Those who claim to stand for freedom became the most oppressive regime in history. Those who claimed to want to uplift the poor, actually oppressed the poor worse than any other state in history. Those who claimed to champion world peace, caused more war, more bloodshed and more massacres of civilians than any other movement in history. Though they talk of freedom, they themselves are slaves of corruption (2 Peter 2:19).

Thought Crimes
In 1984, George Orwell wrote of Thought Crimes. Today one is getting to the stage where if you disagree with, for example, perversion, you can be accused of a hate crime!

Deceptive Language
Jargon is also used to obscure the truth. Civilian casualties are referred to as: collateral damage. Murder is frequently: liquidation. Terror bombing of cities is called: Saturation Bombing or Strategic Bombing Campaign. Starvation of civilian populations is called: an economic blockade, or sanctions.

Labels
Scientology speak about those people who have gone through their programmes as: clear. Those who have not are labelled: toxic!

Foolishness
Frequently we are encouraged: If it feels good, do it!, or to follow your heart!
Yet the Book of Proverbs warns us that those who trust in their own heart are fools! 

True Freedom

Jesus Christ said: "You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free." John 8:32

It is absolutely essential that we know the truth of history to recognise the lies of propaganda and indoctrination. We need to study God's Word in the Bible so that we can be freed from the deceptions of the world, the flesh and the devil.

Dr. Peter Hammond

Frontline Fellowship
P.O. Box 74 Newlands 7725
Cape Town South Africa
Tel: 021-689-4480
Fax: 021-685-5884
Email:  [email protected]

See also related lectures:
How Propaganda Changes Perceptions and People
Making Idols of Modern Men and Myths