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Understanding Psychological ManipulationWhat is psychological manipulation? Why even discuss it you may ask. There are many forms of psychological manipulation used daily in society from television adds, shows and news, to politics and even in religious circles. We are going to be discussing the religious kind. Namely so called Christians religions that are cults. We will look into the psychology and the abuses. We will also look how the fear of psychological manipulation has been used as a form of reverse psychological manipulation. Most cults use a false sense of security, an empty depthless love, fear, manipulation and punishment to keep many deceived in their churches, congregations, etc… Their idea of salvation is hard work and complete obedience to the church, organization, and society through as many hours of dedication that you can sacrifice. They claim to be, "The Only True Church" claiming that true Christianity has been extinct since the apostles, most of these churches have an innate anti-supernatural bias. They use many exaggerations, fabrications and inflammatory statements making themselves sound good and all their enemies’ evil. They use such exaggerations as: that signs such as a burning bosom prove there Church is the true Church instead of using the word of God and following scripture. This kind of subjectivity is faith destroying, and manipulative at the least it lacks scriptural wisdom and discernment. Signs and wonders should be in the church according to scripture but that does not prove whether a church is of God or not they will be true and false miracles according to scripture. Therefore, what must we do? We must learn how to use spiritual discernment to test the spirits and see if it lines up with scripture. No new movement or organization that claims to be what God is doing will ever contradict scripture or historic Christianity. To most cults, high paying jobs are a sin and healthy living is a sin. You must be paid barely enough to live on. They use the tactics of showing a possible convert how hopeless they are, how bad society is and that they end of the world coming, the day of Judgment of. Most cultists get the prospective convert to see how insecure they are and how unprepared and unorganized their life is to meet the doom of the world to come Armageddon. They get the person feeling hopelessness and guilty. Then they offer hope and order informing the perspective converts that they are the only ones that truly understand the mystery of God, Godhood, His divine Name or attributes, and that they are the only true way. Thus, convincing the wayward hopeless guilt filled soul to start a bible study to try out the faith and see if it makes sense. This is a highly effective method used most efficiently by JW’s, Mormons, and Church of Christ. Church of Christ will set prospective believers in a room tell them how sinful and evil they are and that if they do not repent and follow them they will be punished by God in the end. Let take for example Jehovah’s Witnesses are a hard-line dogmatic cult who believe they are the only true church and the only true prophet only through whom God speaks today. They claim this even in the face of the fact that all their prophecies have failed to come to pass. JWs are very slick and well programmed and they don’t know it, in most cases. They all are taught out of the same books and given the same phrases and stuff to study. They seem really nice and dress really sharp. You would think they are a real and upstanding people but if you only knew how far from the truth their doctrine and practice are from the word of God. JWs go from door to door and to bus stops leaving their literature. They always start talking about how bad society is, Telling you that Jehovah’s Day of Judgment is to come on this world, they offer you the hope of a paradise earth, and ask if you would like to partake in a free home bible study. They do not share salvation in Jesus, redemption the preach judgment, bibles studies and the JWs way without offer the tormented soul with hope except for saying they can go to a paradise earth. They do not tell this tormented soul how they can get to the paradise earth. JWs are effective at rationally psychologically manipulating a possible convert into revelation of there sin without offering Jesus by power of the Holy Spirit as the healer, regenerator, or meander of their soul.. JWs are efficient at causing a possible convert to feel the need for hope and they give hope a paradise earth and then offer a free bible study. However they do not offer true biblical salvation, conversion, hope or relationship with Jesus. a person except by obeying the JWs regulations, through bibles studies, witnessing, and baptism. Jehovah’s Witnesses are highly effective a Psychological manipulation techniques and use them with devastating accuracy. JWs have no personal relationship with Jesus, no heavenly hope, no salvation experience, and no true judgment of Sin. If turning to dirt is all we had to look forward to for our sin and earth as our hope we would not have any reason to stop sinning we would just continue to sin. This view leaves no justice, nor any reward for our choice to deny God and separate ourselves from Gods presence. JWs Appear to be a loving people. JWs Do not allow and can be dis-fellowshipped for the following; Participating in sports, Getting involved in Christmas, Thanksgiving or any such cultural activities such as Birthdays and even fellowshipping with non-Jehovah's Witnesses. WBTS is a dead Formalistic Religion that denies the power of God. JWs claim to be the only true church and only true way to salvation. They are strong in faith and practice and preach "The great day of Jehovah’s wrath," and judgment. They give the prospective convert no redemption for the soul, salvation experience, release or relief for the torment of their souls. JW salvation is not biblical salvation of repentance and faith in Jesus precious atonement only but rather read JW books, have bibles studies, follow WBTS orders without questions, learn doctrines, and witness. They have no personnel experience with or relationship with Jesus. They never come to repentance and acceptance of Jesus atonement. JWs are highly effective at psychological manipulation through "Peer pressure," "Exploitation of expectations," and "The power suggestion." Here is an example of How a JW would use psychological manipulation techniques to win a possible convert. i.e. JW speaking "Hi my name is Johnny. I am a Jehovah’s Witness and we were out here just sharing the good news. Have you noticed on the news lately that the world seems to be in allot of trouble?" Possible Convert speaking "Yeah! My husbands overseas and might have to fight in a war." JW "I know what you talking about. The bible talks of a time when there will be no more wars anymore. Doesn’t that sound good to you?" P.C. "Yeah. I wish my husband were home right now!" (Christians note but what does the bible say I must do to get there, Ephesians 2:8-10. Here a Christian would want to offer Jesus as the hope but JWs well lets go on.) JW "Do you know that the bible tells us that we can live on a paradise earth. Doesn’t that sound wonderful?" (Christians note heaven sounds a lot better to me) P.C. "Yeah, what can I do to have that." JW "Would you like to start a free in home bible study." P.C. "Sure." JW suggest the future hope of peace, and then offer a bible study without relieving the persons need for a savior to come satisfy, heal, and deliver the persons soul. The JW will suggest a hope of a paradise earth were there will no longer be troubles and then they use peer pressure to exploit the possible converts expectations by offering a free personal in home bible study to give an solution to the problem. However the biblical solution is simple; repent and receive Jesus as your personal Master, Lord and Savior and live for Him and He will give you the seal of the Holy Spirit and you shall go to heaven. JWs give a false hope and no redemption except in theory, Jesus died for us but there is no personal encounter with a living Jesus. (Acts 2:38,39; 3:19; 4:12; Rom 10:9-10). JW Salvation is by works whether you must go door to door, have a bible study, attend church, You must live sacrificially, also you must obeying all the society says even when it contradicts scripture. JW bible doctrine is allegorical teaching, everything becomes figurative if it is not in their doctrine. They do allot of Eisogesis, trying to use a cross-section approach to biblical interpretation out of context. i.e. JWs will use "John 3:16 + Rev 7:9 + Luke 12:32 + Rev 14:1,3=" to say only 144,000 can go to heaven. Which none of those scripture say that only 144,000 can go to heaven inspite of John 1:12,18; 3:3-18: 2 Pet 3:9; Rev 7:9-10; 19:1. They will also try to mis-interpret Isa 9:6 + Eph 6:12 + John 1:1 + 1 Thes 4:16 = to say that Jesus is Michael the Archangel. That makes no sense, no were in anyone of those text does it say Jesus is an angel fof any sort. The voice of an archangel does not make one and archangel. If I speak like "Tweedy Bird" that does not make me "Tweedy Bird." They say this inspite of the fact that Isa 9:6/10:22; Rev 1:5-8/Zech 12:10; Heb 1:3,5,6,8,10; 13:8; John 1:18; 8:58; 10:30-33,38; 14:6-9; 20:28-31; Matt 28:19; 2 Cor 13:14; Jer 23:5-6 call Jesus God. Some how they miss scripture all together and come up with there own interpretation. JWs preach judgment with no redemption of the soul, and no hope of going to heaven. Causing ones soul to feel despaired and do not give them Jesus the savior but the WBTS as the only way out. The people do works because they have to and have no rest for their souls. JWs claim that the 144,000 were not Jews but rather the people Rutherford preached to and that they were sealed in 1935. Leaving the rest of us with no heavenly hope we can either become dust or live on a paradise earth. No one gets to go to heaven now we get to live on the earth. There is no punishment for sin. There is no real reason to follow them except to escape Gods judgment. There is no hope preached except paradise earth. They have no assurance of salvation. They do not receive the Holy Spirit at a seal for their salvation. The Holy Spirit is not a person but an active force and is only received through receiving their doctrine. The only way to go to a paradise earth is to either be a good person or obey JW society. JWs use fear of disfellowshipping from what they call "Gods only true church" to control people. How are so many people today deceived about what psychological manipulation is and who really is using it? Today in church to many people, oppose God because they do not like the way God is doing something, so they spreading there word not the word of the Lord saying it is not scriptural. Religion does not want to let go of it man made traditions to allow God to reign in His own Church. Fighting tooth and nail all the while giving no scripture text to prove it is not. They use arguments like it is "Mass Hypnosis," "Psychological Manipulation," "Altered states of Consciousness," "Exploitation of expectations," "The power suggestion," "Esoteric Imaginations" etc… The use extra biblical Gnostic words, ideologies, and other psychological terms to prove an anti-Christian, anti-Pnuema, anti-supernatural proneness of man, a concept developed by the world to used to deny the reality of God. Explaining religion away as a "The Opium of the people," or more clearly just simply thoughts of man made up in their mind to give them a hope to their existence. And they try to say they are Christians rather they are a white washed grave empty inside a form of religion without power. They Explain all religious experience that rubs there flesh wrong as "Psychological manipulation," "Altered states of consciousness," and "suggestion." I have as of yet to hear one say that the Holy Spirit showed them were was a false spirit and cast it out. We spend too much time speculating instead of acting upon there ideas or actually finding out whether it is really demonic, the flesh, or God. If there really are demons in church confront them and get them out. This is war not talk trash time, Stop talking and act, If its God let Him do what He wants and bless what He is doing. They try to disprove God through there own reasoning (Gnosticism/Humanism = Mans knowledge is sufficient to judge religious experience without the help of human knowledge), as a figment of our imagination. The sad thing is that in recent years there has been a growing trend in the body of Christ to except these methods of disproving religion to explain away revival. If you look at what they are saying they are using words and arguments originally intended to disprove God and religion to disprove separate revival movements that are used to disprove Christianity. Using this method, you could disprove any belief or experience. In the worlds view Christianity is another cult. To the world religion is a bunch of "Mass Hypnosis," "Psychological Manipulation," causing "Altered states of Consciousness," by people "Exploitation of expectations," through "The power suggestion," creating "Esoteric Imaginations" etc…. Many in our time frame they set their opinion as fact without a shred of scriptural evidence, using the worlds beliefs to disprove this ensuing move of God. In the worlds view if you take a basic class in psychology, or reasoning, you will see that they will equate prayer, religious conversion, and speaking in tongues as an altered state of consciousness. They believe these are just another level of you own mind not an actual experience with God. They think that Christians are co-dependent, and in need of some people group to satisfy our need for associations for our weak emotional state. They say it is just another counseling group to help our needs and we are no better than Buddhist, Hindus, etc… The church adopting this method of judging doctrine is lethal to the church and religious experience. In this method you can explain, salvation as 'Psychological manipulation," "Peer pressure," "suggestion" and "Altered states of consciousness," does this make that wrong? No! So should we stop doing it? No! If you try to persuade someone of you personal beliefs, or scriptural beliefs this is manipulation whether we acknowledge it or not, it is. When someone cries out to God that is considered a "Altered states of consciousness," "Psychological manipulation," "The Power of Suggestion," and "Peer Pressure." The world would love to use these same arguments to stop Christian evangelism, and proselytizing at all cost. Christians using these arguments "Peer pressure" and "Psychological Manipulation" is misleading and deceitful. These same churches, and all churches are involved in "Psychological manipulation," "Peer pressure," "The power of suggestion," and are experiencing "Altered states of consciousness" if they preach Jesus, give invitations to receive Christ, worship, and pray to God. This is an errant deceiving method of convincing of an opposing belief through manipulation and control to say and use such methods as a means such as using the above technical terms. Which when used are not taught in their original meaning and context they are not explained as what they truly mean and are intended for. Using these words and terms repetitively is used as a form of "Psychological manipulation" "Peer pressure’ "Programming," and "Suggestion." They do this praying upon ones fears, paranoia’s, and misgivings to get someone to believe the same as the teacher, pastor, or author, without allowing for the persons own exegetical/contextual study of scripture on the given subject. This is done in a manipulating way by an author to bring one to the conclusion of his or her point without giving and object, unbiased report from both sides not allowing one to make their own opinion. This is done in a way as to influence the reader or listener implanting a desired hypothesis in the memory of the listener or reader of the material. The material is presented in such a way that the reader or listener will not pause to reflect or see a distinction, but will except what is said as fact without question. Accepting an errant shot and miss theory that is extra-biblical in it’s terms, and doctrinal stance. This is "psychological manipulation" and "Brain washing" whether or not one will readily admit it or not. If there opinion is allowed the will say they have to study it on their own free time, which I suggest you do anyway. Including reading this material that I have written on this subject or any other subject. . This is usually done through repeatedly using these phrases, attacking catchy phrases with no scriptural support, and the use of acronyms to persuade, manipulate and cause one to memorize and believe one’s experiential errant extra-biblical point of view. The power of suggestion, and manipulation is such an easy thing to do. We must make sure that we do not do it ourselves in defense of our own opinions. The truth is Gods, no one Christian denomination has a corner on the truth. Only God and His word are our only true source of all truth and practice. What are we to do then, if: preaching, worshiping, praying, and evangelism is manipulative? We are to continue doing what God has called us to do and not allow the skeptics to have a corner on the truth. We all need to seek truth for ourselves, and not rely on any one man or denomination to bring a solution to our problems. We all have the same spirit of God if we have received Jesus as our Lord and savior we need to act like it. We need to stand up for truth in love in all things. We can not stop doing biblical practices such as prayer, worship, witnessing, bible study, and preaching just because it is manipulative and we may experience God’s spirit. Whether it is an actual altered state or not. I know that when I pray I am in my right mind. I think and reason as I normally do. It is not another level of thinking rather it is the same, the only reason there maybe a change is the fact that the spirit of God came down and touched my mind. These anti-revivalists cannot be allowed to hold their prophetic revelation of God above scripture 2 Pet 1:19-21. What do I mean by their prophetic revelation of God? I mean a modern, cultural, or personal interpretation of scripture, not being and implicit doctrine of scripture. This extra-biblical revelation is a biased anti-Pentecostal/Charismatic/Supernatural dogma. This is an outright attack at the spirit of God in servants of God, incarnational ministry. They are attributing the work of God to the work of the devil. These brothers are a cause for slander and back biting they must watch there step what they say and do, because the bible says there will be false prophet in the end time given to envy, lust, back-biting slander and such on and on..… We must correct this pharisaical religion that by their doctrines deny the power of God. On the other hand we must welcome and encourage noble Berean's who receive the word of God with all readiness and search the scriptures to find out the truth. (Matt 22:29; Mark 12:24; Col 2:23; 1 Tim 4:1-5; 2 Tim 3:5,7,16; Acts 17:10; 2 Pet 1:19-21). Neither person who says that manifestation are implicit in scripture or are not implicit are right, because there is no scripture for or against outward physical discernable manifestations of the spirit of God. We can not allow these errant teachings to continue in the church without correcting them. We must unite as a body and find a way to solve our disputes. Still maintaining the right to disagree on how we experience the same God Jesus: In our own ways on our own level without inhibitions, if it is implicitly scriptural or scriptural accepted. Of course in all services we must teat the spirits and judge prophecy and hold on to that which is truth which lines up with the bible and the spirit of God. We are under-grace not the law. We need to get united in love on the fundamentals we believe, and allow for diversity in the body of Christ. Let us take this as an issue to the entire Christian Body. Those who believes the fundamental creeds of the church, Jesus fleshly initial coming, virgin birth, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, appearance before the disciples, His Godhood, His imminent second coming, salvation by grace through faith, regeneration, sanctification, One God: Father/Son/Holy Ghost, atonement. Let us call a cross-denominational tribunal taking scripture "Sola Scriptura." Realizing that no now, or new prophetic word will not contradict scripture, or the mission of the fulfillment of the gospel, to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ in deed and demonstration. Let us take scripture as our judge, being if there is no implicit commandment forbidding. Let us not divide over doctrinal differences but allow one another to work out our salvation with fear and trembling Eph 4:4-13; Col 3:15.12-17,1-11; Rom 14:1,4,12,22;l 1 Cor 12-26; 1 Cor 13; as being our guide. Eph 4:13 should be our goal of unity in the proclamation of the gospel of our One and Only LORD Jesus Christ Tim 3:15-17; 2 Pet 1:19-21. The chief aim of the proclamation of the gospel to all peoples and the ushering in of the millennial reign Matt 24:14; Matt 28:19; Luke 24:49; Mark 16:15-20; Acts 1:8,11. Of course we must test experience according to the word of God does it line up with the main and plain things of scripture. Jesus told us to test the fruit (Matt 7:15-20), John said if it exalts Jesus, and His bodily resurrection (1 John 3-5), and Paul and Peter said does it line up with scripture (2 Tim 3:16; 2 Pet 1:19-21). It is time we look at the word of God as a mandate not the world. If God said pray for these sick, lay you hands on them because I will give them the good gift of the Holy Spirit even as you evil people will give you own children what they ask for Luke 11:13. What real cult psychological manipulation looks like? Discerning Manifestations of the Holy Spirit The Biblical Doctrine of Deliverance Types Of Spiritual Strongholds
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