A Person is Smart, People Are Stupid

As a Christian psychotherapist I have always been fascinated by the way people will react differently in a group, then when given information on a personal level.  Although the quote, "A person is smart, people are stupid" is from the fictitious, Agent K, nothing is more true.  People behave differently when they want to fit in or conform to the group.  This is called the Social Identity Theory in the study of Group Dynamics, a sub-study in psychology.  However thousands of years before Freud or Kurt Lewin was the teachings of Jesus Christ.  Is it any wonder that Jesus calls Himself the Good Shepherd and we are His sheep, after all sheep are followers and react as a herd or group.  Anyone in His times hearing this would have been insulted by the implications of being sheep, a dumb, can't think for itself out of the herd, sheep.  It is these teachings of Jesus and the way people react like sheep that have sparked my research over the years.
The question that is posed time after time is, how did a highly educated, moral country such as Germany fall under the rule of the Nazi Party?  The simple answer is group dynamics.  As listed above, Kurt Lewin is considered the Father of  Modern Group Dynamics, a survivor of the Holocaust, that killed his mother, he wanted to know.
Groups are formed for a common interest, a knitting, sports, etc. . . in this case it was the social decline and poverty facing the nation after their loss in World War I.  The people of Deutschland (Germany) were in despair, looking for a way back to the Homeland of the past, before the war.  The people found that common interest in the return of their past glory in the National Socialist German Worker's Party.  The people heard what they wanted to hear, prosperity, world leadership, the way back to the top.  This lead to an acception and support of the party, after all they think and act just like us, without any real research of the truth.  This is when the Frog in Boiling Water effect comes to play; the premise is, that if a frog is placed in boiling water, it will jump out, but if placed in cold water that is slowly heated, it will not perceive the danger and will be cooked to death.
The Scripture have something to say about hearing what you want to hear;

Preach the Word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.  For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. 2 Timothy 4:2-4

Many Church leaders at that time embraced the NAZI party, calling it a group based in Christianity.  This was far from the truth, the party was based in the occult and the mythology of the Norseman.  You see both had started to seep into the culture of Germany as being part of Christianity.  The Church was not stedfast in the reading and studying of the Word.
One of the Christian leaders at this time was Dietrich Bonhoeffer who took a stand against Adolf Hitler and the the NAZI party.  His views were rejected by the people of Germany as being liberal and not in line with what they believed.  He took his preaching to the black churchs of Harlem, USA, because a large numbers of white churchs here in the states did not see the danger of the NAZIs.  But Bonhoeffer longed to preach the truth to his own people and returned.  The action ultimately cost him, his life in a concentration camp.
Because Bonhoeffer preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ, he became an outcast from the group.  His rejection by people did not overshadowed his love of Jesus and the need for them to hear the truth.

Like the people of Deutschland, we too today are at a crossroads of truth.  We are a country with a war debt, in economic distress, unemployment, gas prices increasing everyday and people without food.  Under these circumstances it is very easy to be taken in with propaganda.  For many Christians have turned to Fox News as their only source of information.  I have heard "they are the only people telling the truth".  When we start to think of media as being truth, that is when we start turning up the heat under the pot (going back to the frog).  The Fox News Network has become and is well funded "right hand of the Mormon Church".
I first started to take note of the rise of Glenn Beck in the early 2000's.  Beck who calls himself the voice of conservative America, started to turn up the heat by presenting himself the clean cut, happily married, good father, doesn't drink, doesn't smoke, and church going man.  However the church he is a priest in, is the the Church of Latter Day Saints, the Church of Mormon.  Beck said the things that Christians wanted to hear, all the external and leaglistic trappings that have nothing to do with salvation.  He has over the past decade slowly gotten Christians to believe that the Church of LDS is just another form of Christianity, why because we took his word for it.  The Scriptures also go on to address this as well;

For such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ.  And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.  It is not surprising then, if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness.  Their end will be what their actions deserve.
2 Corinthians 11:13-15 


Lets start with the first day at work for Glenn Beck on Fox News, shortly after the 2008 Presidential election.
On Beck's first apperance on the Fox News Network he stated "We are at the place where the Constitution hangs in the balance," He told Bill O'Reilly on November 14, 2008, "I feel the Constitution is hanging in the balance right now, hanging by a thread unless the good Americans wake up, The Constitution is hanging by a thread."
Anyone outside the LDS, Beck's remarks would be regarded as just another way the democrates have a liberal interetation of the Constitution.  However for Mormons it way code using the words of Joseph Smith to state that the begining of the White Horse Prophecy is here.  The "White Horse Prophecy" given by Smith, the founder of the Mormon Church in 1840, deals with the USA and the Constitution which is believe to be a sacred scripture (how Christians view the Bible).  In this prophecy, Smith, sees the Constitution hanging by a thread.  It is the signal for the elders and/or priest to steep in and save the USA from itself.  To read more about this view of the prophecy, use the link below to Mormon Research Ministry, which ministers to the people in and coming out of the the Mormon faith.
http://www.mrm.org/white-horse-prophecy

This maybe frighting in itself but the heresy of the Church of Latter Day Saints, the Mormons, is the true abomination.  Mormons will tell you that they believe in Jesus and that He is the Son of God, which makes them Christians.  But who is this Jesus that the Mormons do believe in?  
The Mormon Jesus:

• Jesus is a created being, elder brother of Lucifer.
• Jesus is common, one of many, many gods and one of the three gods looking over the Earth. (Jesus is only of minor importance as there are other god throughout the larger Mormon Cosmology.)  
• Jesus was conceived not through a true virgin birth, but by the physical sex act of god the father with Mary.
• Jesus was sinful and imperfect. 
• Jesus had to earn his own salvatiom or godhood, just like any other man. 
• Jesus was a polygamist

For more about who the Jesus of Mormonism is, use the link below:
http://www.mrm.org/jesus-of-mormonism

As Christians we need to be grounded in the truth of the Gospels and the Word of God.  In a past blog, I posted the Apostle's Creed, Christians believe:

• There is only one God, creator of the universe.
• Jesus is His only Son, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born to a virgin, Mary.
• Jesus suffered, died and was buried.
• Three days after His death, Jesus rose from the dead.
• Later Jesus ascended bodily into Heaven.
• Jesus now sits on the right side of his father with the Spirit, three in One.
• Christian believe that Jesus paid the price through his death on the cross and it by accepting this truth that we receive grace.  It is this grace alone that saves us, not by works.

If you would like to read more about the Church of LDS, the Mormons I have attached other sites and ministries.
http://www.mrm.org/
http://carm.org/is-mormonism-christian
http://www.faithdefenders.com/articles/cults/sacredbooks.html

Please faithful followers of the TRUE Jesus, don't be part of the herd who lets the trapping of the Church of LDS turn your hearts with their lies about their own church and beliefs. Turn off Fox News, turn off any news show that commentates and does not report news.  Read the Word, read the news from around the world, watch the BBC news, read the Word and read somemore.  Don't let talking heads tell you lies and only show one side, their side.  Take back the truth and don't let media tell you what to think.  Be able to go against the herd, Republicans are not Christians and not all Christians are Republicans.  Dialog with other Christian who may have a different view point.  But most of all don't give into legalism, we all will fall short of the Glory of God and there is nothing in our own power that can do to save us, such as wearing dresses or not drinking, that makes us better.  There is no place in the Bible that tells us to do the things man has placed on people to be saved, such as your dress, hair, drinking, dancing, etc.  I pray that you do not fall into the lies and deceit of the angel of light.  Remember the angel of light will win the hearts of faithful in his actions and lies.