In this piece we will explore the first half of chapter three of David Kupelian’s book, How Evil Works. Please find a link below where you can purchase the book from Amazon. Overall this chapter deals with how fear works in connection with terrorism and the result, Stockholm Syndrome.
The first point Kupelian makes is that although “violent Islamic jihadism” had been in remission for centuries it is currently growing and multiplying worldwide. The author reminds us that Islam has attempted global domination in the past, conquering Arabia, Persia, Syria, Egypt, and major portions of Africa, Asia, and Europe until it found itself conquered, ultimately losing what it gained and its will to fight for a season. The spread of Islam as a geopolitical force during the last fourteen centuries has had a horrible impact on billions of lives.
A point I would like to make is that this conflict with Islam dates back to the biblical days of Ishmael and Isaac (Genesis 16, 21, and 39), approximately BC1910. Ishmael’s descendants are now Mohammedans (Islam). Joseph was sold to them (Genesis 39).
One of the things I would agree with the author on is the misuse of the word “martyr” to describe the radical Islamic individual who chooses to die in order to advance terror and fear, while taking innocent people’s lives. These are killers committing atrocities not martyrs! Stephan who was stoned to death because he was a Christian, because he believed in Jesus the Christ, now that is a martyr (Acts 7)!
Terrorism works by producing the fear of what “might” happen in the future. If that fear is strong enough then those individuals perpetrating the terror can get people to give into their demands. The ideal for terrorist would be to convert us to their manner of thinking. As the author points out, militant Muslims will, and have for centuries, demanded conversion to their religion even if that conversion had to be obtained by means of the threat of death. Either way, they wish to control our minds. God warned, and warns in His Word of the dangers of allowing the mind to be controlled by anything other than His Truth, which is why we are to take every thought captive to the Truth of Christ.
2 Corinthians 10:4–5 (NKJV)
4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,
In the face of serious intimidation we must remain calm and seek Christ. Most people become upset in the face of fear or intimidation, and thus emotional upset, allowing anger, fear, and confusion set in. Within the grasp of extreme emotion the mind cannot work properly and even worse is thrown into a program mode, which makes Stockholm Syndrome or conversion at the point of a sword possible. Emotional upset, especially when it is intense, can alter our perceptions of what is good and what is evil. People, groups, and governments love to produce fear and anger so they might alter the people’s perceptions about what is right or wrong, in order to advance their own agenda.
We see this same type of thing happen to wounded people. Psychologically when people become wounded their perception about the world, people, or themselves changes because of the intense emotional upset they endure. Jesus’ inner psychological upset was so intense that He sweat drops of blood (Luke 22:44). In the Scripture His inner emotional pain was referred to as agony. (Side note: There is a medical condition where people sweat blood. The psychological agony they are in is so intense that the blood within their blood vessels rises to the surface producing and mixture of sweat and blood that actually exits their pores.)
That emotional upset left uncontrolled opens the mind up to reprogramming and thus evil becomes good, hate becomes love. Intense emotions causes a type of “mind meld” then fear and/or rage wipes our mental hard drive and begins the reprogramming process. This is what brainwashing is at the most basic level.
The author notes one of the most famous individuals in recent history who was reprogrammed in just such a way. Patty Hearst, the granddaughter of the famous newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst. She was taken captive, locked away, and emotionally tortured to the point of such great emotional distress that her perception of right and wrong became so twisted, she did anything she had to do in order to make the emotional abuse stop. People think her not so innocent, but Kupelian warns us against thinking ignorantly that under the right circumstances we too could not find ourselves manipulated by others in just such a way.
There truly is a fine line between love and hate. Hate can turn into love under the right conditions. Not real love of course, but instead a distorted and perverted form of love. The author calls it “an emotional identification and bonding” that people mistakenly think is love.
Think for a moment about the following. Those we love bring out the worst in us. We love them, and because we love them so much when emotional distress enters into the picture that love can turn to hate quickly. If the love we have for them is severely damaged this may set the emotions we might otherwise temporally feel as hate into a permanent state of hatred.
All of this is used by, and makes it is possible for, people who administer terror to use fear, anger, and grief to imprison people within a prison without walls – the prison of political correctness, silence, and fear. Creating a world where people are afraid to call sin, sin or evil, evil. A world slowly and methodically taken over by that creeping slime of evil.
In the next posting we will explore the second half of chapter three of David Kupelian’s book, How Evil Works.
How Evil Works
Evil can be understood and overcome before it transforms our country entirely. Evil can be understood and overcome before it transforms someone you know or even you. Knowledge is power and without it we will perish. We need to be extremely knowledgeable when it comes to evil.
Hosea 4:6 (NKJV)
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.
Because you have rejected knowledge,
I also will reject you from being priest for Me;
Because you have forgotten the law of your God,
I also will forget your children.
The Marketing of Evil
Evil is sold in our society just as anything else might be sold, through marketing. Satan has marketed his product through those willing and those ignorant to his schemes. Through his craftiness he has turned the minds of even Believers to think that tolerance of his evil is some form of love. In so doing he has transformed to a large degree the once Devout Church and transformed our society to an enormous degree. He has not accomplished this without his workers however, the willing, the sold out for their own gain, and the ignorant masses following blindly behind the majority.
Spiritual/Political Disclaimer:
This blog will not be for the faint of heart or the easily offended. It will not be in any way politically correct. It will make every effort to share the truth in love, [Ephesians 4:11-16], to a decaying and dying society and church. I share what I share not to hurt, harm, or offend any person[s] or group; I do it because Christ’s Standard and Truth is not being represented by enough of His Followers, and I do it out of love. I love enough to tell His Truth.
Ephesians 4:11-16 NKJV
11And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— 16from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
God's Truth in Love 