vrijdag 28 juni 2013

Adonai!

Adonai!  It is the Hebrew word meaning ‘Master, Owner, Lord’.  Abram, who had a progressive revelation of God, used it first when asking God for an heir (Gen. 15:2) .  Moses used it but then angered God by His reluctance to obey (Ex. 4:10-14).  Joshua used it when he fell on His face before the Captain of the Host (Joshua 5:14).  And Jesus used the equivalent word (translated as the Greek ‘kurios’)  when He said ‘But why do you call me Lord, Lord, and not do the things that I say?’ (Luke 6:46).  He wasn’t talking to unbelievers, He was addressing His disciples, those who call Him ‘Lord’.
The earliest Christians understood completely what it meant to call Jesus Lord because doing so could easily cost them their lives. Lord was a title used for divinity and therefore reserved for Caesar alone. To name Jesus Christ as Lord was to challenge the authority of Rome.*
There is no gentle way of putting this:  Christ’s Lordship is absolute.  He owns us.  He paid full price for us and has the right of possession over us.    Modern Christianity has become focused on a non-Biblical form of grace devoid of accountability in which Christ’s Lordship is often all but ignored. Those who take His Lordship over their lives seriously are ridiculed as  ‘fanatical’, ‘super spiritual’ or ‘uptight’. The truth is that Jesus Christchooses to exercise His Lordship through grace, but that choice does not nullify His sovereignty.
Adonai!  It means ‘sovereign power, supreme authority, absolute ownership’.   It is sobering to consider that Jesus is referred to as Lord (kurios) in the New Testament 700 times.  Just to put that into perspective, He is referred to as Saviour (sotos) 20 times.  When the two words are used together, Lord is placed first without exception. 
What is it that we are assured every tongue will confess?  It is that Jesus Christ is Lord!   He who is God, the full and perfect essence of God theCreator, humbled Himself to become the full and perfect essence of man, the created.  As man, He took the attitude of a loyal bondservant, obedient even to the point of death (Phil 2:5-13).  We are to ‘work out’ our salvation within the framework of a holy fear towards Christ’s Lordship.  This does not mean a return to the Old Covenant law, nor does it mean living continually under condemnation and fear of punishment.  Put in the simplest terms, it means respect.  It means not taking advantage of God’s grace to achieve our own selfish goals.  If Christ as a man chose the role of bondservant to God, how much more should we?    
We speak in terms of God having ‘given’ us those things we believe we own…. our lifestyle, our houses, our vehicles, our jobs, our possessions, even our spouses and children.    A good master provides for His servants well, but all things belong to God, who is Possessor of Heaven and Earth (Gen. 14:19).   We make our plans as though we are masters of our own futures and then ask God to place His blessing upon them.  We ignore the fact that we have been purchased and are not our own. We live our lives independently, then pay God lip service by asking Him to ‘be with us’, (1 Cor. 6:19,20).   Listen, it is not up to Him to be with us, it is up to us to be with Him.  God is working within us to will and to do of His good pleasure, not our own.   And sometimes being with Him means being somewhere we would not choose for ourselves.  Sometimes it is not going to be immediately evident why something is God’s good pleasure when it is definitely not ours.   Lordship means He doesn’t have to justify Himself to us. 
A bondservant was not a hired servant, which was a lesser position.  A bondservant was a highly valued possession of his or her master.  The bondservant owned nothing at all because all he needed was provided by the master.  The highest role of a trusted bondservant was stewardship (Luke 12:42). In the Kingdom God is owner and we are stewards.  But we have been deceived by the world into preferring ownership over stewardship.  We have been tricked into believing that we own things, when the reality is that things own us.  That which we begin to call “mine” assumes a power over us that robs us of our freedom to obey our Lord and Master, and we eventually become its slave.   And if He should require it from our hands, what a tug of war we enter into to surrender it to Him, its rightful owner.  Why?  Because we use possessions to define ourselves in our own eyes.  This is what Jesus meant when He said those who try to save (keep) their life will lose it, but those willing to lose their life will save it (Luke 17:33).  Whatever has been entrusted to our keeping must be held loosely before Him.
 ‘Lord’ is not a pet title intended to make us feel warm and fuzzy.  It’s time to stop calling Jesus Lord unless we are meaning what we say and saying what we mean.  To call Christ ‘Lord’  is an acknowledgment before Heaven and earth that He possesses us and that all we have, including every breath we take, is His.   To call Him ‘Lord’ is to agree with Him that He, not us, has absolute authority over our lives.   Those who are choosing to yield hour by hour to God’s ownership, learning through His grace what it means to be bondservants, have the right to call Him Lord.  Those who continue to bask in His grace but deny His Lordship do not.
“But why do you call me Adonai and not do the things that I say?”  Why indeed? 
But now you have been set free from sin and are the slaves of God.
  Romans 6:22
*”The Greek word for Lord is kurios, the word used by citizens of the Roman empire to acknowledge the divinity of Caesar. This title was never used of the emperors until they were thought to be deified through a religious ceremony; therefore, it was used as a divine title. Within the empire there was a test phrase used to check the loyalty of the people. It was Kyrios Kaiser, and it meant “Caesar is Lord.” Christians who would not say these words were later singled out from pagans and executed. In those days when a Christian insisted that Jesus is Lord he meant that Jesus, not Caesar, is divine.”( Boice, J. M.. Philippians : An Expositional Commentary. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Books)

Deceived by the Dialectic Process

From Twisting Truth through Group Consensus: "Tension, created by diversity, is essential to the dialectic process. It energizes members and -- when manipulated by well-trained facilitators -- produces synergy. You can't guide people toward synthesis (compromise) unless there are opposing views -- both "thesis and antithesis.




" That's why the consensus process must include all these elements:
  • a diverse group
  • dialoguing to consensus
  • over a social issue
  • led by a trained facilitator
  • toward a pre-planned outcome.
The true dialectic group never reaches a final consensus, for "continual change" is an ongoing process: one step today, another tomorrow. To permanently change the way we think and relate to each other, our leaders must set the stage for conflict and compromise week after week, year after year. Dialectical thinking and group consensus must become as normal as eating. Eventually, people learn to discard their old mental anchors and boundaries -- all the facts and certainties that built firm convictions. They become like boats adrift, always ready to shift with the changing winds and currents.   

From Small Groups and the Dialectic Process: Today's facilitated small groups or teams are not like the old Bible studies many of us attended years ago. Back then, we discussed the Bible and its wonderful truths; now people dialogue until they reach an emotional form of unity based on "empathy" for diverse views and values. Dr. Robert Klench describes the process:
"Total Quality Management [TQM] is based upon the Hegelian dialectic, invented by Georg Wilhelm Freidrich Hegel, a transformational Marxist social psychologist. Briefly, the Hegelian dialectic process works like this: a diverse group of people (in the church, this is a mixture of believers (thesis) and unbelievers (antithesis), gather in a facilitated meeting (with a trained facilitator/teacher/group leader/change agent), using group dynamics (peer pressure), to discuss a social issue (or dialogue the Word of God), and reach a pre-determined outcome (consensus, compromise, or synthesis). 
"When the Word of God is dialogued (as opposed to being taught didactically) between believers and unbelievers... and consensus is reached – agreement that all are comfortable with – then the message of God's Word has been watered down... and the participants have been conditioned to accept (and even celebrate) their compromise (synthesis).  The new synthesis becomes the starting point (thesis) for the next meeting, and the process of continual change (innovation) continues. 
"The fear of alienation from the group is the pressure that prevents an individual from standing firm for the truth of the Word of God, and such a one usually remains silent (self-editing).  The fear of man (rejection) overrides the fear of God. The end result is a 'paradigm shift' in how one processes factual information."

Background information:
●  Georg Hegel (1770 – 1831), an occultist, laid the foundation for Communist brainwashing. Today, his compromising philosophy and transformational process are changing churches as well as politics, education, business and communities.
●  Karl Marx (1818 – 1883) adapted Hegel's philosophy to his vision of a Communist/socialist world system. (See From Marx to Lenin, Gramsci & Alinsky)
●  Like Marx, Lenin and Stalin saw Hegelian dialectic process as an essential tool for managing the masses. Through their hierarchical system of soviets (groups led by trained facilitators who led the group dialogue toward a prescribed and evolving consensus). Everyone had to trade individual thinking for collective thinking and communal values. The vision of "common good" was simply the carrot that justified total and cruel control. (See When Iron Gates Yield).
●  The United Nations (1995) has promoted the dialectic process around the world. Like the mythical Phoenix rising out of its ashes, the UN emerged from the fiery devastation of World War II as a beacon of light to utopian humanists and their hopeful followers. Within two years after Communist leader Alger Hiss presided over its birth, some of its most powerful agencies had been established.
●  UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) would be led by Julian Huxley -- brother of Aldous and a Fabian Socialist. He made the dialectic process the heart of UNESCO's global education plan. In his 1947 book, UNESCO: Its purpose and Its Philosophy, he wrote:
"The task before UNESCO... is to help the emergence of a single world culture. ....at the moment, two opposing philosophies of life confront each other from the West and from the East....  You may categorize the two philosophies as two super-nationalisms, or as individualism versus collectivism.... or as capitalism versus communism, or as Christianity versus Marxism.  Can these opposites be reconciled, this antithesis be resolved in a higher synthesis? ...through the inexorable dialectic of evolution, it must happen....

"In pursuing this aim, we must eschew [shun] dogma - whether it be theological dogma or Marxist dogma.... East and West will not agree on a basis of the future if they merely hurl at each other the fixed ideas of the past. For that is what dogma's are -- the crystallizations of some dominant system of thought .... If we are to achieve progress, we must learn to uncrystalize our dogmas."
●  WHO (The World Health Organization) was led by Canadian psychiatrist Brock Chisholm. He summarized his socialist philosophy at a 1946 US conference on mental health. His message was published by the (now prestigious) magazine Psychiatry, and by his Communist friend, Alger Hiss in the socialist magazine, International Conciliation. Notice the obstacles to "mental health":

"Can we identify the reasons why we fight wars...? Many of them are easy to list -- prejudice, isolationism, the ability to emotionally and uncritically to believe unreasonable things....
"The only psychological force capable of producing these perversions is morality, the concept of right and wrong.... For many generations we have bowed our necks to the yoke of the conviction of sin. We have swallowed all manner of poisonous certainties fed us by our parents, our Sunday and day school teachers....
"Individuals who have emotional disabilities of their own -- guilts, fears, inferiorities -- are certain to project their hates on to others... Whatever the cost, we must learn to live in friendliness and peace with... all the people in the world...."
Those "poisonous certainties" include all the unchanging truths and values that can't be compromised. That's why Biblical Christianity was -- and continues to be -- incompatible with the world's standards for "mental health." Many who refuse to conform to the evolving guidelines for tolerance, inclusiveness, group dialogue and adaptability to the UN plan for "continual change" are facing severe consequences.5 [See "Ban truth, reap tyranny"]
Like Karl Marx, today's globalist leaders seek ways to undermine Biblical truth. They know that the main obstacle to global solidarity, is God's uncompromising Word. They cannot build "a single world culture" without first undermining absolute Truth. After all, that's why Christians were persecuted in the Soviet Union and other Communist countries! 
●  ASCD (the curriculum arm of the NEA), published a 1970 book with a chapter by Dr. Raymond Houghton, who envisions a world managed through the subtle but manipulative collective "dialogue." His warning should be a wake-up call for all who love truth and factual integrity:
"...absolute behavior control is imminent.... The critical point of behavior control, in effect, is sneaking up on mankind without his self-conscious realization that a crisis is at hand. Man will... never self-consciously know that it has happened."[1]
●  UNESCO published a 1995 book titled Our Creative Diversity. It tells us that--
"The challenge to humanity is to adopt new ways of thinking, new ways of acting, new ways of organizing itself in society, in short, new ways of living."[2] (See Reinventing the World)
●  Marc Tucker, the master-mind behind today's global school-to-work system.
"[Our objectivewill require a change in the prevailing culture -- the attitudes, values, norms and accepted ways of doing things."[3]
In other words, the old Christian ways and values are out! The new, subjective postmodern ways are in. Already trained to follow feelings rather than facts (and peer culture rather than parental counsel) today's youth are marching happily toward an amoral, permissive (at least for the moment) collective society. Many have already internalized the ground rules for the dialectic process:
  1. Seek "common ground" in the midst of today's diversity
  2. Show respect, tolerance and appreciation for all beliefs and values (unless they reflect Biblical truth).
  3. Train everyone to share their feelings, listen empathetically, and identify with opposing views, then blissfully flow with the group consensus.
It works! This process transforms individual thinkers into group thinkers. Since the sense of belonging feels good, the threat of group disapproval inhibits members from voicing "offensive" views.

Webster's dictionary defines the word dialectic as "(Hegelian philosophy) a logical subjective development in thought, from a THESIS through an ANTITHESIS to a SYNTHESIS, or ... a continuous unification of opposites."
In the dialectic process, there must be two or more sides to everything. Nothing is absolute; everything is changing in a preplanned direction. As Ismail Serageldin, former vice president of The World Bank, said at the 1996 UN Conference on Human Settlements in Istanbul (Habitat II), "Let's just make sure that social change and transformation are going in the right direction."

From Legalizing Mind Control: "Would the American people allow government control and collectivism to replace freedom and individualism? You bet! So would the rest of the world. This social transformation is well under way, and the masses simply flow with the change. Planned over a century ago, the framework for managing and monitoring this worldwide revolution was in place by 1945.


From Justifying Mind Control: "Chisholm's friend, Alger Hiss, agreed. In 1948, the infamous Soviet spy published Chisholm's message on mental health in his socialist journal, International Conciliation. Hiss, then president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, added his own Preface which showed the involvement of the Rockefeller Foundation in the mental health movement.
Earlier, another loyal friend had launched a new journal called Psychiatry,  which would gain immense prestige by the end of the century. Its owner, US psychiatrist Harry Stack Sullivan, also published Chisholm's message.
Dr. Sullivan and Dr. Chisholm had been working closely with the British Brigadier-General John Rawlings Rees. Dr. Rees had helped found the Tavistock Institute of Medical Psychology, the birthplace of the infamous Tavistock Institute for Human Relations....
Dr. Rees had envisioned a global NGO (non-governmental organization) that would network with political and civic leaders around the world. His leadership led to the birth of the World Federation for Mental Health in 1948. It would "enjoy consultative relationship with several UN agencies and... national groups" but remain free from government oversight.....
Dr. Chisholm, Margaret Mead (the federation’s second president) and other social scientists from ten countries wrote its founding document, "Mental Health and World Citizenship." Notice their attitude toward traditional values:
"Social institutions such as family and school impose their imprint early.... It is the men and women in whom these patterns of attitude and behaviour have been incorporated who present the immediate resistance to social, economic and political changes. Thus, prejudice, hostility or excessive nationalism may become deeply embedded in the developing personality... often at great human cost....
       "...change will be strongly resisted unless an attitude of acceptance has first been engendered."
Today, more than half a century later, that "attitude of acceptance" has been built. Nations around the world are fast conforming to the pattern set in the 1940s. The global network of "mental health" partners is working to prevent anything that would hinder "positive" collective thinking in the rising global village....
Mass immigration (planned back in the 1940s) and multicultural conflicts have added to the urgency, and the intentional crisis has helped promote pre-planned solutions. Today, strategies for social change such as group thinking, conflict resolution, consensus building and continual compromise are becoming the norm. All are based on the dialectic process used in the former Soviet Union to conform minds to Soviet ideology...

Anything but the Truth: Islam may not match the UN model for a global spirituality, but its spreading influence makes it a useful tool in the hands of change agents....
Remember the Hegelian dialectic (consensus) process. The class discusses a provocative story or experience. The students share their thoughts, feelings and ideas in the group. Everyone must seek "common ground" and empathize with contrary ideas. Factual rebuttals that might offend a group member are forbidden. Throughout the dialogue, a trained facilitator guides the group back on track if it deviates from its course toward the prescribed consensus or group conclusion.
When feel-good Islamic suggestions become part of this mix, they help shift the consensus a little further away from any Christian position.  How many 7th graders are strong enough in their faith to disagree with a group conclusion that Allah and God are the same? Who dares to express the uniqueness of Christ, when even Prince Charles, first in line to the British throne, says, "We share as Muslims and Christians a powerful core of spiritual belief - in one divine God"?
This tactic -- used years ago to indoctrinate Soviet children with Communist ideology -- now pressures children from Christian homes to "open their minds" to new religious blends. Islam becomes a stepping stone, not an end. It broadens the options. As part of a classroom program, it subjects a child's personal faith to a psycho-social group process that pressures students to compromise: to trade personal convictions for a pre-planned "common ground."
And that is the key. We live in a world where -- as educators, politicians and business managers like to remind us -- "the only constant is change." The main objective is to disconnect children from their old spiritual anchors so that their minds can flow with today's managed change and group solutions.  

Key to social transformation is "praxis" -- a vital part of Soviet brainwashing. It meant that dialectic groups must continually apply new information about Communist theory and socialist values. As today's educators tell us, "learning" must be practical and experiential: no need to memorize unnecessary facts about history or science that might conflict with the new vision. Continual practice makes the new way of thinking as natural as walking. Turning a deaf ear to "enemies" who resist this process becomes as habitual as locking your door.

From UNESCO: Its purpose and Its Philosophy by Julian Huxley, first Director-General of UNESCO:
"The task before UNESCO... is to help the emergence of a single world culture with its own philosophy and background of ideas and with its own broad purpose. This is opportune, since this the first time in history that the scaffolding and the mechanisms for world unification have become available.... And it is necessary, for at the moment, two opposing philosophies of life confront each other from the West and from the East....
"You may categorize the two philosophies as two super-nationalisms, or as individualism versus collectivism; or as the American versus the Russian way of life, or as capitalism versus communism, or as Christianity versus Marxism.  Can these opposites be reconciled, this antithesis be resolved in a higher synthesis? I believe not only that this can happen, but that, through the inexorable dialectic of evolution, it must happen....
"In pursuing this aim, we must eschew [shun] dogma - whether it be theological dogma or Marxist dogma.... East and West will not agree on a basis of the future if they merely hurl at each other the fixed ideas of the past. For that is what dogma's are -- the crystallizations of some dominant system of thought of a particular epoch. A dogma may of course crystallize tried and valid experience; but if it be dogma, it does so in a way which is rigid, uncompromising and intolerant.... If we are to achieve progress, we must learn to uncrystalize our dogmas."

From A More Adaptable Bible: "Groups or teams must be trained to disapprove if any member fails to demonstrate respect, appreciation and tolerance for all beliefs and positions that clash with his own. In other words, intolerance must be used to intimidate dissenters into compliance with the ground rules. There is no freedom to share 'divisive' facts or truth. Instead, each person must listen with empathy, seek to identify with diverse feelings, and join the quest for 'common ground.'
"The issues may change from week to week, but with each group meeting, this dialectic process becomes increasingly habitual and 'normal.' If a person has a particular belief (thesis) concerning a current issue, he listens and identifies with an opposite or conflicting notion (antithesis). Led by a trained facilitator, the dialogue moves toward a new synthesis, a blend of the two opposites. Week after week, the former synthesis becomes the new thesis. It, in turn, blends with other new views (antithesis) and a new synthesis is found. This process goes on and on.... Change becomes the norm and opposites such as black and white come closer and closer to a perfect and mutual gray.
"In their mandatory quest for common ground, students learn that there must be two or more sides to everything. All group members must present their personal views, receive group feedback, and seek an evolving consensus. Thesis + antithesis = synthesis (which becomes the new thesis) + new antithesis = new synthesis.... The main objective is learning dialectic reasoning and group thinking, not the content. Whatever the latter brings could be changed tomorrow.
"As a result of migration into every American community, a high school class as well as a team of employee is likely to include members who favor Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, witchcraft and the various versions of 'Christianity.' In this multicultural setting, each person will be challenged to yield his or her certainties and willingly embrace the ever-changing group synthesis."

Example: "It reminds me of the little old lady who prayed, 'Lord, forgive me. I do so many things I used to call sin.'..." Liberal, Evangelical, or Fundamentalist?

From Reinventing the World Part 2: The Mind-Changing Process: ...the Hegelian Dialectic has become the cornerstone not only of the global education system, but of 'Quality' management [TQM] in all kinds of governmental, corporate and private organization around the world. Meanwhile, the training programs, assessment technology and data tracking systems that complement and monitor this psycho-social process are growing increasingly sophisticated and intrusive....
Today’s postmodern America shows the effects of that revolutionary ideology. So it should not surprise us that a fifth-grade teacher in the Seattle area would use intimidation to twist a student's absolute truth into a personal opinion. She had told her class to complete the sentence, "If I could wish for three things, I would wish for..."
A Christian student, Matt Piecora, wrote "infinitely more wishes, to meet God, and for all my friends to be Christians." Since each student's wishes would be posted on a wall for "open house," they had to be just right. Matt's didn't pass. The teacher told him that his last wish could hurt people who didn't share his beliefs. Matt didn't want to hurt anyone, so he agreed to add "if they want to be."

He had to complete another sentence which began, "If I could meet anyone, I would like to meet..." Matt wrote: "God because he is the one who made us!" The teacher told him to add "in my opinion."

When Matt's parents visited the school, they noticed the corrections. "Why did you add this?" his mother asked.
"The teacher didn't want me to hurt other people's feelings."
"But these are just your wishes...."
"I thought so." Matt looked confused. Later, the teacher explained to Matt's parents that she wanted "diversity" in her class and was looking out for her other students. But why couldn't Matt share his views?
"I try to instill God's truths in my son," said Matt's father, "but it seems like the school wants to remove them."
He is right. Both absolute truth and contrary facts clash with the mind-set needed for the global management systems. The planned oneness demands "new thinking, new strategies, new behavior, and new beliefs" that turn God's Word and values upside-down. Facilitated group discussion is key to the transformation, and UNESCO's plan for "lifelong learning" calls for universal participation. Young and old everywhere must be trained to think and work collectively.
Professor Benjamin Bloom, called the "Father of Outcome-based Education," summarized it well:
"The purpose of education and the schools is to change the thoughts, feelings and actions of students."  "....a large part of what we call 'good teaching' is the teacher's ability to attain affective objectives through challenging the students' fixed beliefs and getting them to discuss issues."
Since Matt's last comment exposed his "fixed beliefs," the teacher challenged it. Absolute truths such as "God made us" can't be modified or synthesized to please the group. Those who take a firm position on truth or facts will resist compromise and offend the group.
This mind-changing (Hegelian dialectic) process required students in Communist nations to "confess" their thoughts and feelings in their respective groups. Trained facilitator-teachers would then guide the group dialogue toward a pre-planned consensus. The original thesis and antithesis -- opposing views such as Christianity versus Marxism -- would be merged or synthesized into ever-evolving higher "truths." 
This revolutionary program was officially incorporated into American education in 1985, when President Reagan and Soviet President Gorbachev signed the U.S.-USSR Education Exchange Agreement. It put American technology into the hands of Communist strategists and sanctioned our use of their psycho-social strategies, including the mass media. As Julian Huxley suggested back in 1947,
"the techniques of persuasion and information and true propaganda" must be "deliberately" used "as Lenin envisaged - to 'overcome the resistance of millions' to desirable change."
Today, a more sophisticated version of this brainwashing process drives the social transformation. ...it helps root out individualism and the "intolerant" attitudes that could bring conflict and division. When bonded to the group and trained in the new relational rules, few dare offend the majority by take a contrary stand.
"We have moved into a new era," said Dr. Shirley McCune, keynote speaker at the 1989 Governor's Conference on Education.  "What we are facing is total restructuring of society.... We no longer are teaching facts to children." ...
The masses must learn to feel that traditional values are an intolerable threat to peace, and Christians must be willing to trade their God-given absolutes for Huxley's view of evolving truths and collective thinking.
But God says, “do not be conformed to this world.” Therefore, we make it our aim to “obey God rather than men.” Though the world demands consensus, we take our stand on the unchanging, eternal Word of God. [Romans 12:2; Acts 5:29]

From Brave New Schools, Chapter 3: A New Way of Thinking: A set of guidelines on group discussion was given to students at Homestead High School in Cupertino, California, along with a recent version of the infamous and much-used "Nuclear Shelter Assignment."  Ponder these guidelines in the light of the assignment which follows..  
Group discussion
Group discussion is a way of thinking together. It is a method of pooling your ideas and information with that of others to come to some general conclusions. A leader generally guides the process of the group, but each person must have the responsibility of contributing his share.
The purposes of group discussion
  • To gain information, facts and ideas.
  • To solve problems of interest.     
  • To learn to participate in discussion of  social or public affairs.
  • To learn principles of good leadership and social cooperation.
  • To become open-minded and to respect the ideas of others.     
  •  To make each feel he is taking an active part in the democratic way of life by expressing his own ideas. 
It sounds good, doesn't it?  However, "pooling your ideas" refers to the process of synthesis, which means the group must come to some kind of consensus. ... For example, when a boy saw a friend steal a book, should he be honest and tell the truth, or should he be loyal to his friend and tell a lie? The students reach consensus together.
Thesis: a child's belief in the Great Spirit  +  Antithesis: another child's belief in God  
Synthesis: new joint belief in many gods      
Here is how the process might work: if one person believes in God (thesis 1), another in Buddha (thesis 2), and another in the Great Spirit (thesis 3), they may agree that "there are many gods" or that "every path leads to the same ultimate reality."  This new thesis, of course, would not be considered absolute or final truth. It would merely be a higher step in the ongoing evolution toward ever greater understanding and perfection. 
  • How does this process fit the old Judeo/Christian world view?
  • How does the above conclusion fit the old Judeo/Christian world view?
  • How do both fit the new paradigm?
  • As you may expect, Christian children often feel anything but free to "express" their beliefs and ideas in this kind of group. That's part of the plan.

Transforming the World by Subverting the Church: ...to "control the remaining 90 per cent" who act and think on an individual basis, former Communist leaders assigned all their subjects -- workers, managers, prisoners and students -- to local "soviets" (groups or councils) where they had to--
  • "Share" thoughts and notions. [Now cheered as "authenticity"]

  • "Confess" contrary attitudes. [Brainwashing and "Education Reform"]

  • Write "self-criticisms" for group evaluation. [When Iron Gates Yield]

  • "Celebrate" Communist ideals and heroes

  • "Commit" themselves to follow the group consensus.

  • Practice what the group (led by the facilitator) decides. [PRAXIS]
This process was described in our article "Small Groups and the Dialectic Process," which summarizes the strategies taught in Leading Congregational Change (LCC). "This is a book you ought to read before you change anything," wrote Rick Warren in his hearty endorsement on the back cover....
If you want to guard your child's mind, look at this checklist. The complete chart includes a column with corresponding Scriptures.
  • Know biblical truth--the only source of genuine wisdom (Proverbs 2:6)

  • Learn the facts needed to defend what they know and believe

  • Recognize the difference between logic and speculation

  • Ground personal plans in reality, not fantasy

  • Trust genuine science  based on facts and logic, not pseudo-science or social philosophy

  • Learn the lessons found in a factual study of history

  • Base actions in objective thinking, not subjective feelings.
God said, "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it." (Proverbs 6:22)
See How to Resist the Pull of the Crowd and Charts: Consensus vs. Biblical thinking and Brainwashing & How to Resist It

1. Raymond Houghton, To Nurture Humaneness: Commitment for the '70's (The Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development of the NEA, 1970), pages 46-47.
2. Our Creative Diversity, UNESCO, 1995, p.11.
3.  Marc Tucker, "How We Plan to Do It," Proposal to the New American School Development Corporation: National Center for Education and the Economy, July 9, 1992.

http://www.crossroad.to/Quotes/brainwashing/dialectic.htm

woensdag 26 juni 2013

“Who ARE You, Lord?”

As he journeyed he came near Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven.
Then he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?”
And he said, “Who are You, Lord?” Then the Lord said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads.”(Acts 9:3-5 [NKJV])
What was it that changed Paul from being a self-righteous, judgemental, law and death wielding Pharisee into one who lived by the law of God’s love and had compassion for the saints of God? Wasn’t it a divine and personal encounter with the living Christ? This same man that was highly educated by the best available schools of Judaism after His divine encounter, counted it all dung except for his knowledge of the LIVING Jesus Christ. It was then that he said, “If any man thinks he knows something, let him know this… he knows nothing as he really ought to know.” There is knowledge and then there is an intimate knowing of the ONE who knows all things. When we truly KNOW HIM, we can never again settle for mere scholastic knowledge… The Tree of Life vs. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil is the choice we must face. Choose LIFE!

Mission Impossible? Delivering Bibles to North Korea’s Growing Prison Population

According to recent reports, North Korea’s prison population has exploded in recent years, being filled with those caught fleeing the country under a crackdown on defections by young leader Kim Jong Un. Soon after the new president Kim Jong Un succeeded his father as North Korean leader, Kim is said to have tightened security on the country’s borders with China and used the nuclear dialogue to pressure China to repatriate anyone caught on the opposite side of the Tumen River.
According to interviews with the Associated Press and accounts collected by human rights groups, North Koreans who have managed to leave the country say those who are caught are sent to brutal facilities where they now number in the thousands.
They are tightening the noose around the necks of the defectors to set an example to other North Koreans who might try to leave.
Forced repatriation from China is a pathway to pain, suffering, and violence,” says veteran human rights researcher and author David Hawk. “Detention, torture, and forced labor are inflicted upon many repatriated North Koreans.”
North Korea considers those who leave the country to be guilty of treason. Back to Jerusalem has worked with many refugees from North Korea who come to China to find money, food, and clothing to take back to North Korea. Many North Korean’s don’t have much of a choice. People are dying of starvation on a regular basis in North Korea and are forced to look for alternative ways to survive.
When North Koreans are captured in China and repatriated back to North Korea, they are often sent to one of five labor camps that have been modeled on the Soviet Gulag system. The labor camps are chosen for their natural barriers, such as mountains and rivers, their remoteness, and their access to natural resources like wood and coal. One camp, Yodok, has a special section for those repatriated from China.
Currently, the estimated number of people in prison camps is about 200,000; about five percent of those are repatriated North Koreans. 70,000 of the 200,000 are thought to be in prison camp because they have been accused of being Christians.
However, Insung Kim of the Database Center for North Korean Human Rights cites a “five-fold rise” in the number of defectors over the last 10 years. When people are caught, a car comes to their house in the middle of the night and takes them away and they are never seen or heard from again.
Back to Jerusalem representatives were just in Tumen, a town on the border of North Korea in China. Tumen is a growing town. A new coffee shop and restaurant have been built on the river between China and North Korea where tourists can take boat trips and eat extravagant meals all within sight of the North Korean guards. There aren’t any fences or barriers other than the river. Chinese tourists are able to walk along the river or take leisure boat rides down the river while North Koreans can witness the economic growth from the other side. As a result, North Korea has had to increase their propaganda and the number of guards on patrol in these areas to prevent defection.
The northern border areas of North Korea have also started to use the Chinese currency, Renminbi, which is contributing to the ease of movement between North Korean and China.
Currently Back to Jerusalem missionaries are working together with Christians inside of North Korea and helping to provide food to the most needy people.
We are seeing so many people inside of North Korea come to Christ. It is amazing,” said one Back to Jerusalem partner working in North Korea. “Things are getting tighter. We are not able to get as many Bibles as we were in the past, but this year we have designed a new audio Bible that has been an amazing tool. It is not as noticeable as the one before. This year we plan to take in about a thousand Bibles. That is more than we were able to last year.”
Peter (not his real name) has been working with Back to Jerusalem for years and helping Back to Jerusalem missionaries get in contact with North Koreans so that they can preach the Gospel to them. “We are getting young women from North Korea coming to us that have been forced to have abortions. They are damaged and wounded souls. We have been sharing with them, loving them, and introducing them to the Gospel. They are turning their lives around and it is exciting!”
Jung Gwang-il, who fled North Korea in 2004 after spending three years at Yodok prison camp, said prisoners were forced to grow corn, peppers, and barley, and those who didn’t work hard enough had their rations cut. Hunger was so intense that prisoners ate undigested seeds from the feces of other inmates, he reported. In April they would collect the corpses of those who died during the winter, because it was not possible to bury them when the ground was frozen.
Back to Jerusalem missionaries have mapped out the locations of the labor camps and have made it their goal to get food and Bibles into those prison camps. Currently this goal seems impossible, but there are ways that God is making available.  Back to Jerusalem missionaries are dreaming the impossible.  There is no way to do this without the prayers of the saints.  Please continue to pray for Back to Jerusalem missionaries as they attempt to bring the light of the Gospel into these black holes where life doesn’t currently exist. Pray for both the prisoners and the guards. Pray that the freedom of Jesus Christ rings throughout the darkest corners of the prison camps.
Bibles for North Korea are desperately needed. To make a donation to put a Bible in the hands of North Koreans, please go to: http://backtojerusalem.com/v3/support/

Modern Gulags: China forced labor camps

Does the word ‘Gulag’ bring to mind black-and-white photographs of barbed-wire fences and guard towers from Stalinist-era Russia? How about those ghastly images of gaunt and starving Jews in striped uniforms during the Holocaust? Now, how about the senseless torture of innocent common citizens in twenty-first century “modern” China? For hundreds of thousands of Chinese citizens, especially persecuted believers, the Chinese Gulag is a modern-day reality they must face every day.
Just like in the Soviet Union, the Chinese government uses laojiao (the common term for China’s “re-education through labor” system) to hold for years without trial those deemed troublesome to the regime, all the while profiting from their forced labor in these camps. Similar to China’s secret system of “black jails,” these labor camps are a convenient place for security forces to silence everyone from petty criminals to political dissidents without the need for a trial that might attract too much media attention or public disapproval. Anyone who consistently petitions the government about a personal grievance to the point of attracting attention to themselves usually ends up in one of the many laojiao scattered across ChinaSupposedly a system designed to make inmates learn to “obey law, respect public virtue, love their country, love hard work, and possess certain standards of education and productive skills for the building of socialism,” these camps are mainly a quick and easy way to suppress dissent without the need for due process.
CNN’s David McKenzie recently interviewed a typical laojiao survivor. Liu Xiuzhi spent more than a year in one of these forced labor camps, including an extended time in solitary confinement until she finally broke and “confessed” to trumped-up charges, because she had been too vocal about the government’s neglect of her grievances. In the past, Liu had won a civil case, only to be beaten by thugs sent by the losing party. To make matters worse, the police first ignored her when she reported the incident, then beat her themselves after she persisted in complaining about the injustice. At that point she started making official petitions to higher powers, which ultimately resulted in her imprisonment on false charges of “hooliganism, prostitution, theft, and fraud.” Now released, Liu still vows to fight for justice but no longer has much hope that the system will change. New President Xi, despite making numerous reforms, has given no indication of dealing with this issue.
Publicized in recent years through the activism of Falun Gong, a religious sect harshly oppressed by the Chinese government that has many vocal advocates abroad, these forced labor camps have also been home to thousands of Christians as well over the past decadesIn fact, for the older generation of Chinese House Church leaders, doing time in laojiao and another system of prisons and labor camps known as laogai became somewhat of a rite of passage in ministry. Today these forced labor camps still contain countless Christians whose only crime is loving their Savior. Pray for their physical and spiritual health as they suffer for the sake of the gospel.
Keep your eyes peeled for updates in the weeks ahead as we provide more information about our upcoming biography of a brave woman who endured not only China’s unjust prison system, but even internment in North Korea for fearlessly preaching the gospel there. Her amazing testimony of enduring many perils and hardships while ministering to North Koreans in both China and North Korea is not something you’ll want to miss!
Brother Zhu


China's Secret Jails

Last month, well known Pastor Dennis Balcombe was arrested and detained in China. He was never taken to jail or processed in the legal manner as required by Chinese law. Instead, he was detained in a hotel room and questioned by the local authorities.
Several years earlier, Back to Jerusalem’s Brother Ren was arrested and detained while speaking at an underground meeting in China. He was not taken to a jail or processed in the legal manner as required by Chinese law.
The even more well known case of Chen Guangcheng who exposed human rights abuses in China’s ‘One-Child’ policy was not put in prison. Instead he was detained in his own home by the local authorities.
Political prisoners can make problems for China’s statistics that are kept by outside governments and international observers, so an elaborate system of underground prisons and detention centers have been formed in what is now being referred to as China’s Black Jails.
Black Jails is a term that refers to a series of secret network of detention centers located throughout China. Because of the secrecy and local control over these Black Jails, no one is completely sure how many prisoners are being detained. However, to give an indication, in December of 2012, the new leader of the ruling Communist Party, Xi Jinping, made a speech on the anniversary of China’s Constitution. After his speech, it was reported that more than 70,000 people were released from Black Jails throughout China.
Does that mean that China’s Black Jail system has been shut down? Well, not exactly.
Just this week, on the morning of May 13, while visiting a black jail in Ziyang, Sichuan Province, seven rights lawyers from Beijing and Chengdu were intercepted, beaten and kidnapped by unidentified men suspected of being officers of China’s Black Jail.
According to China Aid, there were four more lawyers who went to investigate the disappearance of their colleagues, when they too were detained.
On Tuesday morning, two of the detained lawyers, Jiang Tianyong and Tang Tianhao were released. Jiang had injuries on his legs from rocks during his detention and Tang was bleeding from his head.
The Black Jails are used to secretly detain, interrogate, and torture people that are considered to be a threat to the Communist Party. If a Christian pastor or evangelist is arrested and taken to jail, then there are records to destroy, prison witnesses, etc. However, if they are sent to a Black Jail, then they can merely disappear without a trace. Family does not have to be notified, records do not have to be kept, and in the case of foreigners, embassies do not have to be called.
According to recent reports, the Black Jails do have an official name when needed. They are often labeled as “Rule of Law Education Centers” or (法制教育中心). Some people have been reportedly detained for periods of five or six years, tortured, and in some cases killed. They are centers where torture is routinely used to extract information and punish behavior that is considered to be bad.
Back to Jerusalem has learned that Black Jails are very common in China. They are so common that you might have even stayed at one during your most recent trip to China. According to a November 14, 2012 CNN report, 52 years old Xie Jinghua and her 56 year old husband were on a trip to Beijing to protest being forced out of their home by the Communist Party to make way for new construction. They claim that they were not properly compensated and the Party stole their home and kept the money. Xie said that her and her husband were detained by plain clothes officers, taken by car back to Shanghai and held at the Holiday Inn Express in Nanhuizui on the outskirts of Shanghai.
Xie was held in custody for a week. When she tried to escape, she was thrown on to the bed and confined so that she could not get up. When CNN contacted The Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG) that owns the Holiday Inn Express brand, a spokeswoman reported that a group of rooms were indeed booked by a government official from Pudong district of Shanghai on the days in question, but there was no indication that the rooms had been used to incarcerate Chinese citizens.
However, when a worker was asked about the days in question, they reported that the rooms were blocked off and they were guarded by people standing outside the door 24/7.
This incident has presented a problem for Holiday Inn, because the Black Jails are quickly becoming a cottage industry in China. Apartment complexes, old abandoned living quarters, and even hotels that have low occupancy rates can now make money by facilitating illegal detainments by the government of China. Holiday Inn’s parent organization reported, “IHG is committed to operating our company with integrity and we have a Human Rights Policy applicable across the business. We have signed the UN Global Compact, aligning our operations and strategies with the ten universal principles that include human rights and labor standards.”
A Youtube clip of Black Jails in China where prisoners being held inside can be heard screaming can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsN4-A1G5zc
Beijing refuses to acknowledge that Black Jails exist or that they are being used to persecute Christians, but in a rare court case in Beijing in February 2013, 10 men were sentence to prison for illegally detaining citizens in Henan Province where the underground house church is the most prominent.

zondag 23 juni 2013

Nick Vujicic Fully Living for Jesus Christ



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REFLECT THE FACE OF JESUS


Dear Friend,
reflect1My friends warned me long before my son was born. “Nick, once you look your little boy in the eyes,” they said, “you will never be the same.” Profoundly true! In February, when my wife and I met Kiyoshi for the first time, our lives were immediately transformed. Changed forever. No matter where my travels take me, my heart is forever linked to his. I can smell his sweet skin, feel his warmth against my chest, and yes, I can picture his eyes looking into mine.
reflect2When our ministry team visited several orphanages in Cambodia last week, my heart was literally broken as I felt the eager stares of children who will never know their mom or dad. Forgotten children. Disabled children. Kids who, from birth, inherited the HIV virus.
As I rolled past boys and girls in their cribs, I could feel their eyes following my path. I could almost read their minds … Who is that weird guy? But when our eyes met, there was an instant connection. This homesick dad could hardly take it. I was fighting back the tears. Rather than let them see my sadness, my shame, my grief, I asked God to help me reflect the face of Jesus.
reflect3And so I played with the children. We laughed. We sang. Our team brought a bright light of love and compassion into an otherwise dark and depressing space. I thought, “In you, [my God], the orphan finds mercy.” (Hosea 14:3)
Our mission in Asia is to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with boldness, and we have already spoken to stadiums filled to capacity. Thousands of people have decided to follow Jesus. In addition to our ministry of evangelism, Life Without Limbs also reaches out to the “least of these” (Matthew 25:40) who cannot attend our public events.
reflect4Jesus said, “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” (John 14:18) This was His promise to provide the Holy Spirit to those who believe in Him. In the same manner, we need to become the hands and feet of Jesus and pursue those who don’t know their Heavenly Father. We cannot wait upon the orphan to find us. We need to find the orphans. An orphan, of course, is anyone who does not know his or her Heavenly Father!
reflect5My heart is spilling over with countless stories of God’s grace during this 2013 World Outreach. I invite you to check out the incredible pictures and stories posted on my blog. You will be encouraged. But, please, in addition to having your heart filled with joy by reading the encouraging stories, do something tangible when God stirs your heart!
Raise your hand and say, “Yes, Nick, I am willing to help you reach men and women, boys and girls, who have yet to meet their Heavenly Father!” James 1:27 says, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after the widows and orphans in their distress.”
Thank you for reading my letter and hearing my heart. Together, let’s introduce a waiting world to our Heavenly Father. Once they look into the eyes of Jesus … they will never be the same.
In Him, Through Him, For Him,

Nick Vujicic



P.S. Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” (Matthew 25:40) Would you help us reach out to men and women all across the world who need to see the love of Jesus in our eyes?