Controlling the Narrative
"Now receive one who is weak in faith, but not for disputes over opinions. ...So then, let us follow after things which make for peace, and things by which we may build one another up" (Romans 14:1 & 19). "Now I beg you, brothers, look out for those who are causing the divisions and occasions of stumbling, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and turn away from them" (Romans 16:17). "Now I beg you, brothers, through the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfected together in the same mind and in the same judgment" (1 Corinthians 1:10).
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
As we see from these Scriptures, we as Christians should avoid saying things, listening to people, or watching "news" that seeks to sow division and conflict. "The issue is never the issue, the issue is always the revolution," said Saul Alinsky, one of the leading theoreticians of Cultural Marxism. Let me be clear: the murder of George Floyd was a horrible crime and the killer should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. In 2019, however, over 6,000 blacks were shot dead by other blacks and over 360,000 black babies were aborted. So "Black Lives Matter" isn't really what the rioters and anarchists are concerned about (have you seen any golden caskets for the black policemen killed in the current rioting or the black babies killed by abortion?): their real aim is to sow discord and conflict that will break down the social bonds of peace, trust and acceptance of people with different opinions and people of different socioeconomic and ethnic groups.
Expressions like "systemic racism" and "white privilege" are not the real issues, they are just righteous-sounding buzzwords to get you to buy into their agenda of changing the system. Of course, for the rioters "change the system" means to tear it down, to destroy our traditional Judeo-Christian culture. Statues of historical figures - regardless of whether they were on the right side of their eras’ civil rights battles or not - have been torn down or defaced. When you begin to use those buzzwords, you tacitly buy into that narrative. Rather than buying into their narrative, we should not use these expressions that subtly change their surface meaning into that of destruction and revolution. Why?
Because "Blck Lives Matter" is a loose federation of chapters headed mainly by BLM Global Network Foundation which is led by two professed Marxist women. This network in turn receives most of its funding from Thousand Currents. The "vice chairwoman of the board of directors for Thousand Currents is Susan Rosenberg, a convicted felon who participated in bombing [federal] buildings in the Northeast and Washington, D.C. ...Rosenberg was part of M19, short for May 19th Communist Organization. Her memoir, 'An American Radical,' details her 16 years in federal prison." This is what you're actually buying into when you repeat the expressions "systemic racism" and "white privilege".
We need to be clear about what is actually taking place, how the MSM (mainstream media) and tech companies are manipulating the information we consume in order to control the way we think and act. Here's a video of a Harvard Ph.D. describing the "Search Engine Manipulation Effect" in his testimony before a U.S. Senate committee. And check out this audio and written interview "The Roots of America’s ‘New Anarchy,’ According to a College Professor" with Dr. Carol Swain, professor of Political Science. The MSM edit out the news they don't want you to see or hear, such as "Media Ignores Death Threats and Racial Slurs Sent to Black Pro-Life Senator Tim Scott" because it doesn't fit their narrative, then they feed you a heavy diet of the news they want you to see and hear.
How much of this information manipulation have I personally experienced? My Hosken-News Blog on Google's Blogger website has seen a sharp drop in visits starting in October 2018: visits that had been in the 200s and 300s fell to the 30s, 40s, and 50s. Also, email messages from conservative political sources have increasingly been put into my Gmail "Spam" folder: see my June 15, June 21, and June 24: between 2/3 and 3/4 of messages flagged as "spam" are conservative political messages that Google doesn't want me to see. This has continued up to July 3 as I write this: 26 out of 37 emails - over three-fourths - in my Gmail "spam" folder were actually conservative political messages.
Consider deeply these words from Psalm 119:29-31 & 37 - "Keep me from the way of deceit. Grant me Your law graciously! I have chosen the way of truth. I have set my heart on Your law. I cling to Your statutes, O Lord. Do not let me be disappointed. ...Turn my eyes away from looking at worthless things. Revive me in Your ways." Instead of filling our minds with deceitful slogans and distorted, worthless "news," we need to meditate on the written Word of God and grasp how it points us to the living Word of God incarnate, Jesus Christ.
The old deceiver, Satan, succeeded in getting Eve to yield to temptation by saying - "Has God said?" - in other words, doubting the Word of God. "You will not surely die; rather, you will gain the knowledge of good and evil!" - Satan said, luring her into abandoning God's revelation. Satan is the spiritual force behind the current secular-materialist worldview which tries to convince people that God does not exist, so the quest for knowledge that relativizes good and evil becomes all-important. We are taught to worship "Science" that is supposedly morally and idologically neutral. But nature abhors a vacuum, so by removing God, the positive spiritual force, we are left with only Satan, the negative spiritual force.
One of the first steps to defuse the current explosive atmosphere is for "Left" and "Right" to learn how to talk to each other without exploding in anger, slinging slogans and flimsy accusations. We need to respond calmly, not react explosively: take a few hours or overnight to calm down and think before you fire off a scathing email or social media post. A national organization that does precisely this is Better Angels: please take a look! Consider subscribing to their mail list.
A Christian viewpoint on how to respond calmly to this situation is expressed in the blog article "Of Wrath and Righteousness" that states -
"Christ and the society in which He lived were by no means strangers to injustice and persecution and unrighteousness. The Israelites under the Roman occupation were a subjugated and humiliated people, routinely exploited and without the rights of Roman citizens, and Christ Himself as well as most of His followers were brutally and unjustly murdered by the authorities acting with complete impunity. Everyone — even the disciples — expected Christ to do something about it, to cast off the hated oppressors, to 'at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel.'
"Yet what did Christ actually do? He taught us that when we are beaten we are to turn the other cheek, when we are extorted we are to give more than is demanded, when we are exploited we are to do more than we are told. He told us to bless those who curse us, to love those who hate us, to pray for those who persecute us and abuse us. And He told us, in the midst of all of these things, to rejoice."
For my univerity major in "Central and East European Studies," I researched each and every attempted and successful Marxist revolution from the mid-1800s through the 1960s. What is taking place now in the U.S. bears all the hallmarks of an attempt at revolution. Things are about to get very ugly: Rod Dreher, author of The Benedict Option, posted on Twitter July 1 - "Man told me today his Czech tenant tells him it feels like Czechoslovakia 1946 now (two years before the communist putsch). Another man told me just now his Romania-born in-laws are terrified, for the same reason. People who grew up under communism know something bad is coming." Huge protests are planned all over the U.S. by LGBTQ, BLM, Antifa, and other Leftist/Marxist groups starting on July 4 evening:
https://www.washingtonblade.com/2020/06/26/july-4th-is-big-protest-day/
https://www.ajc.com/news/local/atlanta-naacp-plans-large-july-protest-stone-mountain/BATm8OCFcwywIJwjBe1hEI/
https://twitchy.com/gregp-3534/2020/07/02/thousands-gather-to-protest-in-los-angeles-as-the-state-bans-large-gatherings-for-july-4th-celebrations/
https://rallylist.com/
This could very likely precede more violence leading up to the U.S. elections in November. What did the Lord Jesus Christ teach about violence? "Blessed are the peacemakers, For they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who have been persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are you when people reproach you, persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely, for My sake. Rejoice, and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven. For that is how they persecuted the prophets who were before you" (Matthew 5:9-12). Then comes the clincher -
"You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.' But I tell you, don't resist him who is evil; but whoever strikes you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also. If anyone sues you to take away your coat, let him have your cloak also. Whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to him who asks you, and don't turn away him who desires to borrow from you. You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor, and hate your enemy.' But I tell you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who mistreat you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For He makes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust" (Matthew 5:38-45).
Our fallen, sinful human nature urges us to react in kind, to return violence with violence. It's hard not to react this way, it's a struggle to take the way of peace - "Enter in by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter in by it. How narrow is the gate, and restricted is the way that leads to life! Few are those who find it" (Matthew 7:13-14). It may be hard but it's the only way into eternal life, the Kingdom of Heaven. The alternative is death and destruction.
Then there's that puzzling passage - "From the days of John the Baptizer until now, the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force" (Matthew 11:12). It seems to endorse violence... at least in many English translations. But it would be better translated thusly - "Indeed, from the days of John the Baptizer until now, the Kingdom of Heaven is being taken by great effort, and those who exert effort claim it for themselves eagerly." Other languages such as Russian and German put it like this, and it's more in keeping with turning your cheek, taking the narrow gate and the difficult way that leads to life. Remember how Jacob wrestled with an Angel in Genesis 32:28-29? That is how he became Israel, the head of God's chosen people.
Another puzzling passage is when Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane and said - "'When I sent you out without purse, and wallet, and shoes, did you lack anything?' They said, 'Nothing.' Then He said to them, 'But now, whoever has a purse, let him take it, and likewise a wallet. Whoever has none, let him sell his cloak, and buy a sword. For I tell you that this which is written must still be fulfilled in Me: "He was counted with the lawless." For that which concerns Me has an end.' They said, 'Lord, behold, here are two swords.' He said to them, 'That is enough'" (Luke 22: 35-38). This is sometimes quoted to justify using weapons for self-defense. But what happened next?
The soldiers came to arrest Jesus, and - "Behold, one [Peter] of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand, and drew his sword, and struck the servant of the high priest, and struck off his ear. Then Jesus said to him, 'Put your sword back into its place, for all those who take the sword will die by the sword'" (Matthew 26:51-52). Violence just begets more violence, as we have seen in the previous passages.
The Apostle Paul wrote - "Repay no one evil for evil. Respect what is honorable in the sight of all men. If it is possible, as much as it is up to you, be at peace with all men. Don't seek revenge for yourselves, beloved, but give place to God's wrath. For it is written, 'Vengeance belongs to Me; I will repay, says the Lord'" (Romans 12:17-19). And he also wrote - "Strive for peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no man will see the Lord" (Hebrews 12:14). Struggle for peace - it takes a great effort to overcome the desire to return evil for evil. Clearly, though, the Gospel is a message of peace. Let's change the narrative back to peace!
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Christ is among us! He is and ever shall be!
Keep our websites free! Support Agape Restoration Society: click the "DONATE" button there.
Also, please Share Our Vision with your family & friends.
And bookmark our Amazon Smile link to shop at Amazon!
In Ephesians 4:16-17, the Apostle Paul writes - "Instead, speaking the truth in love, we may grow up in all things into Him, who is the head, Christ; from Whom all the body, being fitted and knit together through that which every joint supplies, according to the working in measure of each individual part, makes the body increase to the building up of itself in love."