There are certain sayings or beliefs in the education field that it benefits job applicants to know. One is, “everyone can learn.” That’s a provable fact since we can all speak. However, not everyone can be taught to change their point of view, even with provable facts that contradict their beliefs. Most people can’t be taught to change a strongly held view. That’s a point that I believe about half of you will accept by the conclusion of this article. If people ever do change, what we call their point of view, they must decide to change that on their own. Why? Because propaganda is rampant. And part of most people’s beliefs is shaped by it, something no one will admit to; because practically everyone denies that about themselves. But it’s true.

Let’s leave religion out of this article while demonstrating this point. Instead I’ll prove my assertion using today’s political environment. Today we have the perfect opportunity to demonstrate this because of the constant hype regurgitated in media about President Trump. To restate my assertion: People will not change their point of view because of you. And you nor I can get them to change it by sharing facts, because their point of view has been so thoroughly shaped by accepting propaganda, even before you or I will speak to them. And I also asserted I can prove that to about half the readers reading this article.

Do I now refer to those who base a viewpoint on false information, that I claim I can prove this to? Of course not. I suspect most in that group will reject the assertion I made about them. While still holding to an erroneous view they will either reject the facts presented here, or convince themselves their view was not formed because of these facts but some other facts. And so I submit this group as proof of my assertions. And I invite any in this group to state what facts formed their view. If not the facts presented here, what facts? Because I also assert there are no true facts that logically lead to your opinion. And really facts are either true or what is said is not factual. They would instead be lies or at best only believed opinions.

Factoring all this in I believe the 50% of readers accepting my assertions as true will primarily come from people who did not accept the lies to be presented in this article. Now to prove my assertion I’m assuming about half the readers here are Democrats and about half Republicans. And possibly a small fraction of readers are outside the country who follow American news through organizations like CNN.

Propaganda is effective when it’s constantly reinforced. And today we have that constant reinforcement coming out of news sources like CNN. To the best of my memory, before the last four years, I’ve never heard any so-called televised news station spend almost every minute, day and night, distributing derogatory stories about the president of the United States. CNN and other televised news sources are not alone. These stories are also spread by politicians and American citizens who are against Trump. And most of the stories are lies or opinions rather than factual news.

Now that I’ve got your attention let me repeat my assertion a second or third time. I asserted that I would prove to about half the readers that another person could not change your point of view by presenting factual information. Why? Because your opinion has been shaped by propaganda. So here’s that proof:

One of the big stories bantered in the news and by Democrat politicians about Donald Trump is that he is divisive, and a racist. That idea is spread so thoroughly that in Trump’s debate with Joe Biden the host asked Trump if he would denounce white racists like the KKK. Also in the vice presidential debate Kamala Harris claimed Donald Trump called white racists “good people.”

But what are the facts? And will the facts change your point of view, if you believed CNN and Kamala Harris? I’ve asserted the facts will not. Factually president Trump has denounced white racism for years, and he is on record doing so. He’s been filmed doing so for years. And he’s been filmed doing so since he’s been president, way before these presidential debates. Factually in that Trump interview that Kamala Harris referred to, then right after president Trump said, “there were good people on both sides,” (speaking about the protesters who attempted to tear down a statue and the ones that opposed them tearing it down), then Trump said, I’m not talking about the white racists, they are not good.

So, like I said, your view is shaped by what you’ve been told to believe. Do you believe CNN, the other news sources that repeated that lie, and Kamala Harris that lied didn’t know what Trump actually said? Of course they knew what he actually said. They would be totally incompetent not to know that while making such a statement about a sitting US president, and therefore they would be unfit to be a legitimate news source or a vice president. To be informed all they had to do was view the recording of Trump’s statement like I did. However, what Trump said was not shown to you. Instead the recording of his statement was edited, and the part where he denounced the white racists wasn’t shown you.

So who factually acted as the divisive entities? Factually CNN, other news sources, Kamala Harris, and every other person who knew they were spreading that lie to the ignorant viewers acted as divisive entities. And here’s another shocker, you acted as a divisive entity if you spread that lie, even if you didn’t know it was a lie. But those others lied to you. The lie was constantly reinforced. And the lie was divisive, even while they (and possibly you) claimed the president used divisive statements in the interview Kamala Harris referenced.

So those other parties I mention above contributed to shaping your belief, which still has not changed has it? And again, you contributed to shaping that divisive thought in other people if you spread that lie. And that’s whether you knew it was a lie or not. That’s the effect of reinforced propaganda. Why is your belief still not changed if you believed that lie?  Because your view was already thoroughly shaped by propaganda before you read these facts I presented. Erroneous religious views are shaped in the same way. “A man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest,” (from Paul Simon’s song titled The Boxer).

So How Can We Know Truth About God?

Some people will hear the truth about God from someone speaking it, but deny its power to draw them to God, and deny the authenticity of the one who shared those truths. Perhaps they will believe those speaking the truth about God speak only their own opinions. So many churches claim they only teach the Bible. But no Christian teacher does that. Still the most important ideas about God that are spoken from Christ’s actual church members do not originate with themselves. And the Bible does not claim they learned those ideas from other men, and the opinions other men have about what the Bible says. The Bible claims Christ’s real church members learn the truths about God from Christ sending his Holy Spirit to them, and in doing so disclosing those truths through his Holy Spirit. I’m talking about the most important truths, not everything about God. None of us know that. See 1Corinthians chapter 13:12.

So how can we know God? Christ said of his followers who receive Holy Spirit and stay in his word, “you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” Christ has a church, a congregation of people. And he lets them know God’s truth by sending them his Holy Spirit (Revelation 5:6). Only if he and his father accept a human as a member of that church will they understand the truths God wants them to (Luke 8:10). If they are not accepted into that church they will believe religious propaganda, because what they know will only come from men, those men who wrote scripture and those men who explain it to them. And we see the result of that. So many churches claiming they only teach scripture, but they have different opinions about scripture among themselves. And many people belong to a totally different religion, a non-Christian one. So what is taught often is similar to religious propaganda in and outside of churches claiming Christianity. It causes some of their members who are not part of Christ’s real church to turn away from the religion they once had, leave God, and become atheists.

John chapter 16:

12 I still have much to tell you, but you cannot yet bear to hear it. 13However, when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. For He will not speak on His own, but He will speak what He hears, and He will declare to you what is to come. 14He will glorify Me by taking from what is Mine and disclosing it to you. 15Everything that belongs to the Father is Mine. That is why I said that the Spirit will take from what is Mine and disclose it to you.

John 5:6 Then I saw a Lamb who appeared to have been slain, standing in the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. The Lamb had seven horns and seven eyes, which represent the seven Spirits of God sent out into all the earth.

Luke 8:10 He replied, “You are permitted to understand the secrets of the Kingdom of God. But I use parables to teach the others so that the Scriptures might be fulfilled: ‘When they look, they won’t really see. When they hear, they won’t understand.’

“But you have received the Holy Spirit, and he lives within you, so you don’t need anyone to teach you what is true. For the Spirit teaches you everything you need to know, and what he teaches is true—it is not a lie. So just as he has taught you, remain in fellowship with Christ.” 1John 2:27

There are tens of thousands of people online that complain about what WT did to them. And many of those cry online about the emotional and psychological damage that was done to them, by Watchtower. Isn’t it time to move on?

Addressing commenters on other websites is where I get material to develop a lot of the articles I post on this blog. Often I post the exact words that I posted as a commenter on those other websites. And so it is with this article. Below is the final comment I posted after a couple back and forth postings between me and another commenter on another website. She was crying about how Watchtower and Jehovah’s Witnesses misled her, and how hurt she is because now she knows she might have to die, instead of living forever without dying, an idea put in her head by accepting decades of WT teachings. And so my final post to her read:

That might be true of some. But you need to move on and forget about what WT did, at least in a certain way forget about it. I mean don’t hold it as so important. It’s better to value the truth you know now than think WT hurt you, and that was such a bad thing.

You know I was in for 40 years myself, and a servant in three congregations. Still I don’t hold WT as doing some great big bad thing to me. It was because of the work of JWs that I started serving God. None of my grown kids do now. They are all hung up on what WT told them, and how they were misled not to go to college, that the end was near, and other crap. Just to show you how stupid that is I went back to college when I was 49 and got a degree and became a teacher. And I told them to do the same thing, while they were living with me, which they still do. (I didn’t care what WT said about it). Fact is they never really got off their rear ends and they blame WT, when that’s not WT’s fault.

WT is really not to blame for much except apostasy. And that is something it will have to answer for before Christ, not me. There are only two things to do about it. You can be like those first century Christians who started following Christ, despite most of them coming from apostate religions, or you can feel hurt because of your experience in your ex-religion and sulk in the hurt feelings. Or a third thing you can leave God. I suggest the first course.

Most every ex JW site is primarily made up of people throwing pity parties about being a JW or what WT does and did. I don’t see God has any use for that. Rather than thinking about what WT told you I suggest contemplating your relationship with God. If you know more about God than WT taught you, I believe you would. But many here, I doubt if they do. Not knowing what you know I suggest getting to know God better. You might start by getting to know who Christ really saves, not who WT taught you is saved.

You should know this. God still cares deeply about you. I know that for sure. He still contacts people. I know because he contacted me during the most difficult time of my life. Yes miraculously, just like in your Bible stories. Here read this, it will debunk the false teachings that God stopped contacting some of his servants. I wrote the article, and I know it’s true from personal experience. But my experience harmonizes with scripture. Check those scriptures out: http://debatescripture.org/index.php/2020/01/12/when-are-the-gifts-of-the-spirit-done-away-with/

Christ said most of the people followed him, when he was on earth, because of the miracles he did, not because of who he was or what he taught. They followed because they thought they could see a miracle or get some other benefit from being in his presence. That’s what he meant when he said “you followed me because you ate” (the bread and fishes). Their eating was miraculous, because he did a miracle for them to eat. I’m not aware of any scripture that claims even one person stood up and said not to kill him when he was crucified. But we don’t have to be like them. We don’t have to be self-centered. We can actually know God. So who cares what WT did and is doing when we can know God. Let Christ deal with them. Move on.

Below is a comment I posted on Eric Wilson’s web site, Beroean Pickets. In his video titled, Is the Doctrine of Hellfire Blasphemous? Eric teaches it is blasphemous. This is how I answered that charge against Christians:

Unless you accept that Christ is God (but he doesn’t) then it is a contradiction to believe that if someone accepts/teaches Christ throws humans into a state of eternal torment then they are blaspheming God. Why? Because Christ is the one the Bible claims does that, not the Father. Bible teachers teaching that know the scriptures teach it is Christ who judges all people. And that Christ has life in himself, just as the Father does. Christ holds our lives. The Father judges no one, so the Father does not decide what happens to us eternally. Do you see the contradiction in your idea? Unless those believing in hell fire pin the blame on the Father they could not be blaspheming him. But they don’t. They claim Christ takes that action against sinners. So unless you believe they speak of Christ as God, and that they are correct, they could not be blaspheming God. That would be like you blaming me for something you did.

Also, since Christ is the one that spoke of eternal torment for Christians it doesn’t make any sense to believe a Christian blasphemes if he takes Christ’s words literally while accepting alternative understandings to scriptures you present in defense of your position. Your position is that scriptures you present must be literally understood, while scriptures that record Christ’s own words must be taken figuratively. For instance, “The soul that is sinning will die.” If Christ’s words are literal then we can be sure that “die” in that sentence does not mean what you teach it means. If Christ’s words are literal your understanding of “die” in that scripture must be wrong. Right? As an example: scriptures teach there is going to be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked. That shows the wicked were dead for a time, but not for all time. So your scripture speaking about the soul dying could very well be speaking of that time of death before the resurrection.

Another hole in your argument is that you teach Christ’s words are figurative, while you define that figurative meaning. If those words are figurative how can you definitively know what those words mean? You cannot. That would be impossible without an explanation from the author of those words. But Christ never defined those words he spoke about eternal torment. A counter argument to your reasoning is that eternal torment, hell fire, and maggots could denote a state of consciousness in some deprived state that is different than the state you definitively claim.

Whether consciousness continues for the wicked after they are judged by Christ I don’t know. But I do know Christ is judging no one based on their interpretation of his story of the rich man and Lazarus. But Christ did say we will be judged based on our judgment of others.