Deception Made Easy!

Chapter 4

By Dene McGriff

It has been acknowledged over the centuries (from the Greeks onward) that it is easy to deceive the multitude and manipulate the masses.  Hitler was a master at manipulating the masses.  People would go to his rallies to protest and leave as slavish followers.  "Hitler responds to the vibration of the human heart with the delicacy of a seismagraph... enabling him, with a certainty with which no conscious gift could endow him, to act as a loudspeaker proclaiming the most secret desires, the least permissible instincts, the sufferings and personal revolts of a whole nation."

It is simple to perpetuate lies.  We are told that housing prices and the stock market always goes up.  We can spend and consume our way to prosperity.  The President assured us that Iraq had WMDs and there would be mushroom clouds in our future if we don’t stop Saddam.  Most believed him.  Every day, we are deceived.  After all, they are the experts.  They are our leaders.  They wouldn’t lie to us.  They know better than we do.  People are trusting and problems are so multifaceted, the more complex, the easier it is to be misled.

It used to be that one’s life was concentrated in a small area, hunting in the woods or tilling the same ground for your whole life.  Existence revolved around family and the village.  The greatest concern was the weather and possibly marauding bands of bad people trying to steal.  There were no books (people were illiterate anyway), TV or radio.  The only news they got from the outside world came from the “town crier” who passed on the little he heard from others.  A tradesman or a farmer knew his skill, but in terms of all the rest – he only knew what he was told.  His opinions came from others.  As for tribes, we share with every nearly every animal in the world the instinct to form tribes, arranged in a hierarchy, with a leader. We are group animals that need a leader.

The world has changed, but people haven’t.  We understand that small part of the world we interact with daily.  The more complex the world, the harder to comprehend and the more we crave simple explanations.   The great communicators of our time like Ronald Reagan had the uncanny ability to take the most complex topic and distill it to simple terms the average person could understand.  “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”  There was no big explanation, no debate of which system was better.  One simple statement and the wall came tumbling down.  We like short imperatives, “Don’t drink, don’t murder, don’t lie, and don’t steal.” 

We are flooded by TV chatter, newspaper headlines, office gossip, opinions of friends, and relatives.  But that information is filtered by simplistic slogans or interpreted and distilled by the experts in terms we understand.  We tend to trust the experts and our leaders.  For example, most Americans believed there were WMDs in Iraq and that Al-Qaeda was behind 9/11.  The lie was told often and loud enough.  Who were we to question?

The Presidential campaign has begun.  People say they don’t like negative campaigning, but it works.  Plant an idea (e.g. John Kerry was a coward rather than a war hero) and the suggestion takes root.  Remember how the Willie Horton killed Michael Dukakis run for President?   

People are easily deceived.  Hitler convinced the German people (and for that part, most of the other Europeans) that the Jews were the enemy and the root cause of all their problems and the people acted accordingly.  Fear mongering works and we’ve heard plenty of it the past seven years.  Propaganda works.  “Propaganda works by appealing to our most base, animalistic instincts. It does not appeal to our better nature, although one of the purposes of it is to convince us it does. It pretends to appeal to our reason, when in fact it appeals to our most primitive emotions. There is good reason for this: perception travels through the emotional brain first, to the rational brain last…Specifically, propaganda works by appealing to three things: emotionalism, tribalism and narcissism.”

Group Think

 

Our prejudices and beliefs are formed by a small group of people and passed on through family, schools, church, etc.  In less advanced societies, survival meant that the group needed cohesion and consensus in order to survive the fight against nature and competing groups.  Communities grew to distrust the religion, politics and culture of other groups that were different than his.  One had to be willing to die for the survival of family and community.  There was no greater sacrifice that resulted in such honor.  Even to this day, no one dares to speak ill of our soldiers, even though they may be dying for fat cat political and corporate interests.

 

The cultural ideals and values permeate community life. Commonly held beliefs are the source of “group think” - the powerful collective mind which today is powered by prevailing thought, education and omnipresent media.  That fact is our opinions about things are formed less by facts and proofs in our brain but prejudices we have gathered from the world around us.  As the song in South Pacific says, “you’ve got to be taught to hate and fear…to hate all the people our relatives hate…we’ve got to be carefully taught.”  There is nothing more powerful than our cultural identity and the pressure of the group to think like they do.  In times of war or trouble, this is even more pronounced because the very survival of society is at stake. 

Leaders rally the people by creating enemies bent on their destruction.  “The "war on terror" has created a culture of fear in America. The Bush administration's elevation of these three words into a national mantra since the horrific events of 9/11 has had a pernicious impact on American democracy, on America's psyche and on U.S. standing in the world. Using this phrase has actually undermined our ability to effectively confront the real challenges we face from fanatics who may use terrorism against us… Constant reference to a "war on terror" did accomplish one major objective: It stimulated the emergence of a culture of fear. Fear obscures reason, intensifies emotions and makes it easier for demagogic politicians to mobilize the public on behalf of the policies they want to pursue.”

Leaders command respect, not necessarily because they are smarter or better.  Studies show that CEOs, professionals and politicians who have overconfident, incorrect opinions are more likely to be believed than the competent expert who shows some doubt or tries to explain issues.  In other words, we don’t really want to be confused by the facts!  We do not always really want the truth.  When your wife asks, “how do I look tonight, honey?”  You don’t respond, “Absolutely awful!” but, “Honey, you look just fine.”  And as we see now during the election, we love the politician who says, “No problem, let’s give ‘em lots of cash to stimulate the economy.”  We hate the truth teller who would say, “It is best to let recession run its course to stabilize the excesses of the past six years; the last thing we need is more debt.”  Americans love to hear the candidate strongly assert that America should never back down to the Muslim extremists, rather than the one who says that our aggression may only make it worse.  It seems easier to invade a whole nation than surgically track down the perpetrators.

Deception Works!

Deception works best when the person deceiving believes his own humbug.  One can’t doubt the current President’s sincerity.  He believes his own lies.  Our president has told us that “terrorism threatens our very way of life” and I’m sure believes it.   Yet, the number of people that die from terrorism in this country is far exceeded by those who die from an allergic reaction to peanuts or bees!  It is about as likely that we will be carried out by a tidal wave.  Terrorism is an imaginary threat but people rush out to buy duct tape the minute the threat level is raised.  A few would-be terrorists in London couldn’t even figure out how to blow up their bombs.  Contrast that with the bombing of London every night month after month by the Germans during WWII.  It got to where the Londoners forgot about crowding into bomb shelters.  Instead they would go out to dinner and the theater even when the sirens were screaming with the sound of bombs all around.  I guess it is what you are used to.  The aim of terrorists is to create panic.  Rather than quietly track down the terrorists as the Israeli’s did after the slaughter of their Olympic team in Munich, we passed the Patriot Act, declared war on the Constitution and American privacy and proceeded to invade Afghanistan and later Iraq at the cost of nearly two trillion dollars!  To declare war on “terror” is like declaring war on “anger” or spit wads – an illusory non-enemy.  Rather than eliminating the causes of terrorism, we helped it by confirming their worst fears – Americans are at war with Islam and want to steal their oil!  Terrorists thrive on attention.  We gave them what they wanted. 

Most wars we have fought have set in motion a collective hysteria of patriotism that leaves rational thought in the dust.  The fact is, most wars are based on falsehood.  War isn’t always necessarily the best answer.  Most nations negotiated freedom from Britain rather than waging a “revolutionary war.”  Most countries ended slavery without bloody civil war.  America had no interest in the Archduke Ferdinand’s assassination prior to WWI but entered it auspiciously to “save the world for Democracy” even though it had nothing more to do with democracy than our wars in the Middle East!  What on earth a squabble in the Austro-Hungarian Empire had to do with America is beyond historians!

Our intelligence services discovered the Japanese were going to bomb Pearl Harbor but we did nothing to stop it, knowing the American public needed a good reason to get into the war.  That may have been one war worth fighting for.  Does our government continue to lie to us?  You bet!  We got sucked into Vietnam when a bogus attack was staged in the Gulf of Tonkin in 1964, into Bosnia by staged rocket attacks and Iraq by the lies and deception of the present administration.  Men are willing to fight and die for these perceived threats rather than be considered cowards.  During war, dissent is dangerous.  The goal of our government of late has not been to defeat an enemy but to create one – to create an enemy that is so potentially dangerous and ubiquitous that it will justify any intrusion into our privacy, any cost to our pocketbook and any restriction of our freedom.

It has been well documented over the years that lies and deceptions can bring about mass hysteria.  This goes back to events such as the Salem witch trials or to more recent “Satanic ritual abuse,” where vivid imaginations are sparked by zealous counselors.  Lives have been ruined by implanted memories only to have children come forward years later and confess their lies (they were trying to please the adults/counselors); meanwhile lives were ruined.  People needlessly served years in jail, lost everything they had, including their reputation. 

Studies with children have determined that memories can be implanted and that contrived threats work as well as real ones.  One group of kids is told they are smart and better than another group which they begin to treat as lesser equals.   Remember Star Trek where the people were black on the left side and white on the right side - they discriminated against those who had opposite markings?  It is human nature to suspect people who are different from us and to generalize (e.g. all Muslims are terrorists).  How willing Germans were to give up Jews and other unsavory elements, thinking they were doing society a favor.  Most Jonestown believers willingly drank their Kool-aid.  The question is, do we control the world or does the world control us?  How many live out the expectations of their parents and society rather than pursue their own track?  How much does a person really know about issues such as global warming, UFO abductions or drought in the Southwest and how were these opinions formed?

When the threat level goes from yellow to red, the government is implying that terrorist attacks could be imminent.  Travelers line up like grateful lemmings in the security lines at airports, dutifully taking off their coats and shoes, laying out their gels and liquids and laptops, while some are randomly selected for pat downs and hand searches of their carry-on luggage.  In spite of their best efforts, check points are porous at best and these measures are hardly deterrents to the determined.  They do make us feel better.  The risks of mad cow, bird flu, power lines, toys and you name it are touted by the authorities.  The more complex the world and the reasons for us to follow our leaders, the more willing we are to follow them.  This will lead one day to a grateful people lining up to receive a mark on their right hand or forehead (Revelation 13:16).

The Ease of Deception

We are easily deceived by our governments, by our schools, by the news media, by advertisers and by our government.   It is not that hard to dupe a whole country! 

Deception is defined as the act of convincing another to believe information that is not true, or not the whole truth as in certain types of half-truths.  A few slogans such as “Operation Iraqi Freedom” and “Patriot Act” move us to believe they are for our good.  Watch the “Weapons of Mass Deception to see how the media molds us.  Life has become so complex and the media so pervasive, none of us has the time to study and become experts in every subject.  The tendency is to believe what the experts tell us.  The administration and market experts assured us there was no housing bubble, that there would be no recession, or if there was, it would be a shallow one and everything would be on the upswing by the second half of 2008.  Watch Bloomberg or CNBC for the latest economic propaganda.  Ask a real estate agent to tell you where the market is going and nine out of ten will tell you we are at the bottom and the only way to go is up.  I have been writing about this for years.  It took longer than I thought but the economy is beginning to unravel.  The goal of the government, the Federal Reserve and the media is keep the Ponzi scheme running.  Spend money to get wealthy.  Don’t worry about producing.  Just keep consuming.   Makes a lot of sense, doesn’t it? 

So if we have deception in money, empire and government, we had better be careful because we have it in religion as well.  One day, there will be a spiritual deception the likes of which the world has never seen.  The Bible tells us that in the last days:

“False christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.”  (Matthew 24:24)  “And He said: ‘Take heed that you not be deceived. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am He,’ and, ‘The time has drawn near.’ Therefore do not go after them.’” (Luke 21:8). 

We’re not talking just a great orator but people who can do great signs and wonders!  And we’re not talking about a little tiny deception causing a little bitty problem, but the greatest tribulation the world has ever seen!  Matthew 24:21 tells us, “For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be.”  Brothers and sisters will betray one another (Matthew 24:10), delivering loved ones up to death to the religious authorities. (Matthew 10:17-22). 

Humans may deceive other humans, but remember, Satan is the father, the source of all lies; the original deceiver.  He is not just a mere man like Hitler, but one imbued with dark power, lies and deceit.  Satan will enlist the help of every unregenerate man to help him whether they know it or not.   No man, apart from the discerning Spirit of Jesus Christ within, can stand against that deceit.  The people of the world will line up to take the mark of the beast and will gladly fall at the beast’s feet to worship him.  Initially, he will not have horns and appear evil but he will be riding a white horse bring peace to the world (Revelation 6:2), looking like a savior.

I have made these points in great detail in other writings, but Christians are being set up for deception.  Although the rapture seems to be an unimportant doctrine, I have never seen any other non-essential doctrine that is so controversial and emotional.  With that doctrine of the pre-tribulation rapture goes a whole host of other “dispensational” teachings. 

We were watching Hal Lindsey’s January 18, 2008 prophecy report on his website.  He was almost to the “treaty of hell and death” practically admitting the only nation that could sign that treaty with Israel was America – knowing full-well that the signing signals the beginning of the last seven years of tribulation.  Suddenly he stops, makes a joke about the rapture – we won’t be here anyway and he won’t have to pay his bills (“I will bless them that bless thee”).  Whoopee!!!  It is this kind of thinking that stops most evangelicals today and makes prophecy (even to the likes of Hal Lindsey) of no real importance.  Just listen to it.  It will astound you.  As long as Christians think that prophecy has been fulfilled, or the social gospel of the rich vs. the poor, or the dominionists’ goal of taking over the world for Christ and the church, or that Christians will rapture before the tribulation, ipso facto prophecy will be of little practical importance to them; consequently, they are set up for deception.  Regrettably, the Bible-believing “born again” element of the church is primed for deception.  When the treaty is signed between Israel and the Antichrist, most won’t recognize it because they haven’t raptured or because they are so pro-Israel, they are cheering the peace treaty.   

In mid-January (2008) we attended a fantastic conference on the perils of the Last Days’ apostasy and deception within the church.  One speaker in particular was incredibly powerful and controversial.  Most churches wouldn’t dare let her speak.  They wouldn’t be able to handle the truth.   But the time is coming when people who see the Great Apostasy and speak out clearly will no longer be welcome in the church.  Somehow, some way we will meet outside the camp, (Hebrews 13:13) because we will no longer be welcome.  These wonderful brothers and sisters saw the problem of falling away and mixture in the church clearly.  What they didn’t see clearly is the fact that the church is an old wineskin, way too flawed with its clergy-laity system, programs, doctrines and teachings to contain new wine; furthermore, almost every speaker’s arguments falter because they still believe the apostate church’s pre-tribulational rapture – therefore, there is no witness left on earth other than the Jews during the final 70th Week of Daniel.  What a huge deception the pre-tribulational rapture is - making the witness of the church irrelevant by prophetic definition! 

The fact is the Great Deceiver has darkened the minds of humanity.  We are all under the ether of His influence.  The power and presence of evil in the world has never been as overwhelming as it is now.  As Christians, we should have an inner sense deep within our spirit, warning us of the deception all around us.  Jastrow in Herman Wouk’s brilliant work War and Remembrance wrote:

The Germans are part of Christian Europe.  The Jews have passionately embraced and enriched the German culture, the arts, the sciences.  In the World War the German Jews had a record of insensate loyalty to the Kaiser.  No there has been nothing like this before.  We are caught in a mysterious and stupendous historical process, the grinding birth pangs of a new age…” (p. 1024)“I cannot believe that so blatant a comedy can hoodwink anybody… Yet, the Jews are disappearing.  Millions are gone…Calling the Germans sadists, butchers, beasts, savages explains nothing, for they are men and women like us…The root of the matter cannot be Hitler.  I start with that premise.  Such a thing must have been brewing for centuries, to have encountered so little resistance among the Germans when it happened.” (p. 1092) 

He couldn’t understand what happened until it was too late.  The horror was beyond any capacity to believe.  Yet we are facing a persecution far worse.  Revelation says this about the Beast:

He was given power to make war against the saints and to conquer them. And he was given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation. All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast—all whose names have not been written in the book of life belonging to the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world.”  (Revelation 13:7-8)

Yet, we lukewarm Laodicean Christians are incredibly wealthy with our suburban McMansions, our SUVs, huge flat screen HDTV’s.  The husband and wife both work 60 hour weeks trying to make ends meet, spending the balance of their time shuffling the kids from soccer, to dance, to Karate lessons.  We slump exhausted each night into our recliners and bury ourselves in the latest TV.  We pay homage to God once or twice a week with church meetings.  But most Christians today suffer from the same assaults as their “unsaved” friends in terms of divorce, drug abuse, alcoholism and other social maladies.  

A person is really deceived when he doesn’t even know it.  So we sit comfortably ensconced in our comforts while our economy falters, our empire flails and calamitous forces gather against Israel.  The wheels of time grind toward an ultimate conclusion, while the greatest tribulation the world has ever seen encroaches upon our alleged liberty (Matthew 24:21)  We are oblivious and fail to wake up our neighbors from their bewildered stupor to the glories and perils before them.

And so we press on toward the most climatic events in history: the greatest deception, the greatest tribulation the world has ever seen, the return of Jesus Christ and the establishment of His kingdom, and the greatest and most dramatic moment of testimony for the church – all this, while Christians bask in their wealth and distractions.  We believe the humbug on the news and from the pulpits.  Rapture or dominion, who really cares?   The United States doesn’t even hold a bit part in Bible prophecy, and quite frankly, as Rick Warren declares Jesus said:  Prophecy is none of your business!  After all, we are His chosen people, maybe his chosen nation.  God loves us and everything will work out. 

This is what deception is all about.  We wrap ourselves in the warm and fuzzy promises of our church, our country and our culture.  Culture bestows beliefs and values and we have added riches and distractions beyond measure.  Only those who have divine revelation and commitment to testify will stand against the tsunami of evil and deception that marks the end of the age. 

Dene McGriff, Sacramento January 2008