Brain Washed!

The older I get, the more aware I seem to be about the damage inflicted on mankind by Adam and Eve. We were made aware as children of the obvious and painful things like work, death, illness and disease. Later we found out about more personal problems like flesh, the world system, demons, principalities, and darkness. Birth defects, sexual dis-orientations, false philosophies, religions of men, political powers and the like all come to mind as we mature. Now, in my mindset, I want to focus on one more kind of damage inflicted on us: brain washing. Brain washing, in its most extreme form, can actually cause someone to believe that they are someone other than who they really are. A kind of identity theft has occured.

The Original Identity Thief

Lucifer had in mind that he would steal God’s identity when he -- a beautiful, created being -- aspired to be like God. However, God would have none of it, and booted him out of heaven to the earth. There he aspired to kidnap the human race, change our identities, and cause God’s children to search for the rest of their lives to reclaim their identity. Unfortunately, once the damage was done, few even knew what happened.

After Nebudchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem and captured the sons of Judah -- young men in whom there was no blemish, good-looking, gifted and intelligent (see Daniel chapter 1) -- he was brazen in his attempt to brain wash them. He simply changed their names. Daniel’s name was changed to Belteshazzar. Hananiah became Shadrach; Mishael became Meshach; and Azariah was renamed Abed-nego: all names honoring various Babylonian gods. As a child I referred to these new names without thinking about the implications of " identity change." Today, I see the treachery of it all. Their new Chaldean names were designed to cause them to forget who they truly were: children of Israel. God’s people.

Kidnaping

People, especially impressionable young people, can be influenced by kidnapers. Recently a young teen, Shannon ELizabeth, was kidnaped from a strong Mormon family by a couple who were crazed polygamists. It was not long before they had her convinced that her parents were not searching for her, so they must not love her. She was told that God had chosen her to be a wife for the shiftless, homeless drifter who had kidnaped her.

At all times during this ordeal, she was the child of her parents. Yet, this fact didn’t make a difference in her life because she believed a lie. A police officer walked up to her to verify who she was. She didn’t walk up to him. He had to make the first move.

Why? Why was she so powerless to help herself? Because she believed a lie.

Stories like this abound about children who, for example, are kidnaped by divorced parents who wanted sole custody, but couldn’t get it in the courts. The children are told that their custodial parents didn’t want them anymore, or had asked the kidnaping parents to take them. The children are brainwashed to think that if their parents loved them, they would come after them; certainly they would search for them. Isolated from the news and the truth, the children begin to believe the lies.

The method

The technique of stealing and recreating one’s perception of their identity is to distort a person’s true history and origin. Then tell him lies about his real parent and those who love him. Proceed to change his name, and isolate him from anyone who might tell him the truth. This is the tactic in vogue today, and it was the strategy of the evil one when he kidnaped us in the Garden. He told us lies about God; made sure that our temporary identities, based on law and flesh, were deeply ingrained; changed our beliefs about our origin (evolution); and gave us many false ideas about how to please our Father.

The theft continues

Unfortunately there are those who still lie to us concerning our identities. Ironically, those who perpetuate this misinformation are mainly confused people of God. They want us to compromise our recovered identities. They encourage us to base our identities on our behavior rather than on who we are in Christ Jesus. These false identities sound reasonable to us, but they are incorrect. They sound something like this: "Don’t call yourself a saint…… that has to be earned by years of hard labor and certain confirming miracles. Rather call yourself a forgiven sinner, or a sinner saved by grace. That is much more humble." And, "Don’t call yourself the righteous. That might get confused with self-righteousness, and we don’t want to get proud." And, "Don’t claim that you have the received the free gift of God’s righteousness (perfection, or Christ Himself - Romans 5:17)." And above all, "Never quote Hebrews 10:14 ('For by one offering He hath perfected forever those who are sanctified.'), because we shouldn’t use the word 'perfection.' Rather, say that you are becoming a better and better Christian as you try hard with God’s help over an 80 - year life span." Thus we confuse maturity with identity.

If we believe the lies, my friends, then we might as well act as though we are still kidnaped, and try to establish a new identity through our own efforts at becoming a better and better Christian. In that case, I would suggest some kind of self - improvement course that works on self-esteem issues. And then we can remain discouraged at the powerlessness of Christianity until Jesus comes back, when we will really become new creations at last, where old things pass away and all things will finally become new!

But, it doesn’t have to be that way! We can see ourselves as God sees us in Christ. We can stop reinforcing self-defeating mantras and perceptions which doom us to failure and powerlessness. We can, by faith, trust God that we are who He says we are. When we do that, the brainwashing is reversed and healing begins.