Be Aware of Brainwashing
By Olin Williams
September 4, 2024
1 Corinthian 2:14 – “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”
Every human being is brainwashed to some degree by one philosophy or another. Depravity itself holds the human to satanically inspired humanism. This is in direct opposition to God’s truth. Brainwashing is not meant to mean the systematic alteration of personal convictions, beliefs, habits, and attitudes by means of intensive, coercive indoctrination.
And yet, there is a sense in which everybody’s beliefs, habits and attitudes are influenced by some form of “indoctrination” (voluntary or involuntary). In whatever station of life, a person operates according to his doctrine (teaching). This is why a person must be born again from above so his mind can begin to be deprogrammed from sinful nature and programmed with the Word of Truth.
The natural mind must be changed by repentance, actively renewed, and controlled by God’s word. Sometimes, God’s people are content with salvation only and become passively satisfied with saying, “I’m saved,” and cruise along.
Paul wrote to Timothy in II Timothy 4:2,3, “Preach the Word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itchy ears.”
The time has come for the local church to be “indoctrinated “in the Word of Truth.
Many of God’s people have joined the health food and diet fad. They are rightly concerned about what enters and occupies their bodies.
However, the real concern should be what enters and occupies the mind. Galatians 6:7 says, “whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” No believer can ever be successful before God apart from the meditation and observance of the Word of God.
Today, the emphasis is on “how to be successful.” There are secular and religious books written to fill the mind on how to be successful. There are motivational speakers and conventions to promote this type of thinking. The church of God can adopt this way of thinking and wants motivational preachers and motivational services only. Perhaps that is the reason why the modern church seems to appear more theatrical.
God’s way of success is written in Joshua 1:8. “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein, day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.”