GOD: MIND CONTROL?

By Derek Caldwell, Contributor, Friday, January 12, 2024

The Pharisee stood alone and prayed: 'Lord, I thank you that I am not like other people-robbers, evildoers, adulterers-or even like this publican.  I fast twice a week and give a tenth of everything I get "(Luke 18:11-12).

I once heard a story about Charles Spurgeon that, whether apocryphal, spoke of the man's wisdom and intelligence. In his story, Spurgeon would invite seminarians and young pastors to preach before him and other more experienced pastors. The result will be a constructive and useful response. A man had a young Peacock who took to the podium one day. However, he stumbles and falls during his journey. His notes flew and scattered on the floor. He immediately picked it up, cleared his throat, and began his sermon before he realized that his record was broken. Passing the message, he muttered, stuttered, and grimaced. He then humbled himself and rushed off the stage, eyes distracted and head down.

The crying minister was contacted by Spurgeon. Dead people can't walk. "If you go up like you go down, you'll probably go down like you go up," Spurgeon said kindly.

This is very similar to what Jesus said when he answered the Pharisees ' prayer, "for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted" (Luke 18: 14b).

God: Mind Control?

Although there are some very subversive examples in the Bible, contemplating the exalted self is not uncommon in the Bible. For example, ignoring the outward appearance and leveling the playing field is a major theme in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus consistently described the Pharisees and other religious authorities as "whitewashed tombs", which means that although they look clean from the outside, they are filled with cobwebs, that is, the smell of death, and there is no life or light in them. Jesus did not praise the Pharisees for their false display of piety; rather, he praised those who did not wear their righteousness on their sleeves, those who realized that they were lost and that he was the only source of their piety. Jesus knew that many of these mercy-hungry people were in their state because they were desperate or didn't know any better, and there was a qualitative difference in this. While the Pharisees were not concerned with their true righteousness, Jesus was more concerned with the heart. So, a high heart is humbled, but a low and contrite heart is humbled.

The Sermon on the Mount features another example of this theme. Jesus points out that hateful thoughts can be just as deadly in the long run, if not more so, if they look down on adulterers (such as women who may feel compelled to become prostitutes or mistresses) as less valuable people. Does history need additional evidence that lifelong oppression can lead to a slow death of the soul and heart that does not require conventional "murder"?

Jesus continued to believe that the mind is the source of sin and sin itself. Jesus said that it is not what goes into a person's mouth that defiles them, but what comes out of their mouth, because what comes out of their mouth "comes from the heart, and this defiles them". 

Fair criticism is given to the idea of the mind itself, which can sometimes feel beyond our control. During his lifetime, Christopher Hitchens, an atheist firebrand, often quoted passages like this to denounce Jesus ' Orwellian police theory of the way we think. Hitchens challenged by saying, " I don't put myself under his rule. I was born under a heavenly dictatorship that I could not choose for myself."I was told that it had the ability to peek at me in my sleep and punish me—this is the definition of totalitarianism-the evil of the mind of what I consider to be right. I have the possibility to be punished and punished."I am" 

In a way, Hitchens is right: because of God's very high standards for us, we need Jesus. In another sense, however, I think he was depressed by his own insecurities (as we all are when approaching God), and he longed for nature for trees.

The basis of this problem

Jesus must have understood the plight of the weak in Israel at that time. That's why he cleanses the temple from those who sell the temple for money (Mark 11:15), he prophesies that those who "devour the widow's House" will be destroyed (Mark 12:38-13:2), and his church remembers to take care of widows and orphans (James 1: 27).In addition, Luther reminds us, "we are all beggars, this is true," when he dies, that being rich or powerful does not essentially make you more sinful than anyone else.[iii] the difference lies in the fact that certain beggars are aware of their circumstances and ask for help, while other beggars try to avoid the road so that they forget that they are beggars. "It is better to live one day as a lion than a hundred days as a sheep" is a phrase often attributed to Benito Mussolini.In their excitement, he and many others did not realize that everyone was a lost sheep, surrounded by wolves, wandering the mountainside in search of its Shepherd.

Jesus said of our murderous and adulterous minds that a murderous or adulterous heart is not much different from an act of murder or adultery. In fact, the differences are only related to methods, opportunities, needs, and risk rewards most of the time. Would the Pharisee have acted differently if he had been in such a situation? If he grew up in his own life? If the Pharisees knew he could just run away, would they be much worse off than the murderer? Are religious governments doing worse, but in a more dangerous and unmonitored way? It seems that Jesus was more merciful to those caught in adultery (John 7:53-8:11) and guilty of murder (Acts 9: 1-19), than he was to the temple leaders who, for example, "devouring the widow's House" (Matthew 23:14; mark 12:40; Luke 20:47). In Luke 18: 11-12, Jesus compares the humble heart of a publican who prays for mercy to the self-righteousness of a Pharisee who only compares himself to others. He told the lowly publican,"I tell you that this man, not [the Pharisee], went home justified before the Lord".

This examination of the heart is not the fault of the mind; it is the true justice we hope for, which only God can give. Justice was especially liked by Hitchens. He certainly had a heart for innocent people whose crimes of despair were denounced by religious people, who often left them no other choice. He would also inevitably disparage religious people as "hawkers" who equate accusations of crime against others while, with all their casuistic power, redefining crime to avoid the accusations themselves. Almost at all times, Jesus ' greatest anger was directed at religious elites who found ways to justify their own disobedience and, in the wrong way, led others into despair and disobedience. In other words, those who know the truth but have no love, those who turn the truth into a constant snare around the neck of God's beloved. The God Hitchens opposes is a God who does not exist, but Jesus is a God who exists, a God whose love is so deep that it transforms us from the inside out. Jesus was not considered a tyrant; rather, he was considered an abolitionist.

We see only the result of the choice of a man for his raw materials. God doesn't judge her based on what she has, but based on what she does with it. Much of the psychological makeup of the man comes from his own body: when his body dies, all will fall out of it, and the real central Man—The Chosen One, who produces the best or the worst of this material—will stand naked. All the good things that we consider our own, but in fact, due to good digestion, will fall on some of us. All sorts of bad things caused by problems or poor health will happen to others. There will be surprises when we see everyone as they are for the first time.

The love of our Lord is all-seeing, all-knowing, and all-seeking. He has an understanding of the complexity of life. He does not deprive us of the right to make moral decisions; on the contrary, he shows us mercy in difficult situations that we often experience. Jesus does not love us even though he sees us as we are. He loves because he is who he is and sees everything. What is it, what is it, what will happen, what may happen, what may happen? How we have sinned, why we have sinned, how it shapes and injures us, how it obscures our vision, collects our feelings, and how it destroys us. He sees it all and has compassion for those who have a harder life than the one the world considers lacking. However, the Lord loves and has mercy on those who live a hard life from birth or fall into humility. According To Dietrich Bonhoeffer, 

God is not ashamed of man's humility; on the contrary, he enters directly into it. God draws nearer to the weak, loves the forgotten, the unnoticed, the ordinary, the excluded, the powerless, and the broken. Where people say "no!"and "yes!", God answers "saved"; what people say" cursed", God answers"saved". Where people say "no!"and "yes!", God gazed with warmer love there than anywhere else.[[v]]

Looking back

In the Old Testament, we read in Exodus 21:23-25 and Leviticus 24: 19-21 that justice should be "an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth."There may be several reasons why we often think of God's word as the worst; the vast majority of people read it as an affirmation of pain and retribution. "If you do this, I will arrest you again!"Basically, this relates to the corresponding Justice. You can be sentenced to death if you commit a death-inducing crime, but if you commit a non-death-inducing crime, such as removing someone's teeth, the worst that can happen to you is losing your teeth in return. In other words, it serves to limit what a person can produce in their efforts to rebuild shalom after defeat.

I would like to emphasize that a similar misunderstanding has already occurred regarding Hitchens ' accusation of the statement of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, which is considered a "crime of the mind". Here, we see an increase in moral responsibility not only on actions but also on our thoughts. This should be taken as a warning about our fantasies, whether they are sexuality, resentment, or schadenfreude. These are diseases of waste that corrupt our hearts and minds, and often they become self-fulfilling prophecies when the opportunity to deviate arises. "It will be much more difficult to physically resist the sin for which you have been mentally trained," says Sam Allberry.However, Jesus speaks further here.

Moreover, we see that this is happening here. In everything else Jesus says, it is the degree of justice, not the desire to punish you for every wrong idea. Jesus promised to look at the heart, not just disobedience on the outside. This shows that, more than us, he sees injustice in the world. This means that the contrite heart of a person who feels that there is no other way to support his family than to be a prostitute is an acceptable sacrifice before God (Psalm 51:17). It also means that people sin actively by enacting harsh policies that force others to suffer and be marginalized or by not using what God has given them to support others. Jesus equalizes justice from within, not from the outside.

Our Lord is a God who protects the vulnerable, humbles the self-righteous, and holds everyone accountable with Justice and mercy. Jesus passed down the moral law while spreading His grace farther and wider than ever before. The publican and the Pharisee, in need of this Grace, were on the cross, arms outstretched to all, to all, forever.

Derek Caldwell is a researcher and content creator for Embrace The Truth Ministries.

Embracing the truth know people of all ages and walks of life have sophisticated questions about faith, reason, and culture. This organization offers thoughtful answers to thoughtful people with questions and doubts.Website | embracethetruth.org Instagram Facebook / / abdumurray 12 Facebook / / abdumurray / Youtube / @ AbduMurrayOfficial / TikTok / @abdumurray

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