In this piece we will explore the second half of chapter four of David Kupelian’s book, How Evil Works. Please find a link below where you can purchase the book from Amazon, should you desire to do so. Here are some of the highlights found within this chapter.
The author notes that the truths that lead to true happiness are rarely talked about in modern society. One of those truths being that too much praise to the point of leading to an overdose of praise can result in self-destruction. A spiritually mature person has a quiet inner strength that keeps them centered, self-contained, and most importantly humble.
Kipling has a classic poem which speaks to this truth.
“If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too…
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors jus the same…
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings – nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Your is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – you’ll be a Man, my son! ”
In a narcissistic society we must be willing to face the following truth with maturity. Not everything that feels good is good. Truth often hurts and cocaine often feels good. Truth is almost always good for us even when it hurts or makes us feel bad. Cocaine is never good for us even though it may make us feel good temporarily. Truth will set us free and set on the right path in life. Cocaine will destroy us and set on the path to death.
If you are a narcissist you are addicted to praise and supersensitive to criticism according to Kupelian, many psychologist, and I agree myself. Why is this so? Because for a narcissistic person their entire sense of self-worth is based on what others say to and about them. A complement equals feeling good for them and a criticism equals feeling bad for them. Hence, other people control how they feel continually.
As the author notes if you live for applause or appreciation then you entire life can become a stage and you an actor. You cease to be who you truly are and you become whatever is necessary to get the approval, appreciation, and the applause your sinful soul craves. Your inner emptiness will not be filled through your continual manipulative actions to ensure you are viewed in a favorable way by everyone around you.
The author notes that, just as ‘a cruel thoughtless comment can affect you emotionally, so can too much praise affect you emotionally – and adversely.’ The adulation of others only gives you a temporary fix that mask the hunger within but never fills that hunger, more approval will be needed later and the volume of approval needed will increase as times goes on – much like a junky the same amount of your drug will cease to be enough as time goes on. This type of life will exhaust a person mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually.
Many people use this approval seeking behavior to avoid facing who, what, and how they are. When you slow the pace of life you begin to discover the real you. For some people that person has been all but lost. Avoidance behavior can be applied to the use of any distraction to avoid seeing oneself clearly – approval, appreciation, busyness, drugs, food, alcohol, and etcetera.
If you are addicted to the drug of worship it will ultimately destroy you. Humans were never meant to be gods, worship destroys them and drives them mad.
The good news is that you can transition from the outer to the inner person. However, you must be willing to face the problems you find within your soul, your inner man. You will find relief in facing them and a blessing in correcting them. Change and real healing are possible. People are kept sane, happy, and progressing in the right direction in life by living continually in the LIGHT, the light of constant self-awareness and God-awareness.
Only when you have God Himself living inside of you, keeping you centered, God-contained, and humble can you truly be rooted and growing in life regardless of what people think of you or what is going on in the world around you. Your confidence comes from your Creator, not self, and not other people.
Through our obedience to our Creator we find that inner stability and peace. We were created and designed to follow those inner promptings from the Creator and be obedient to those directions. As we learn to do this moment by moment throughout our day, our week, our months, and our years God fills us with purpose and genuine lasting happiness that can come through nothing except following His directions. When you have that going on inside of you, you do not crave the reassurance of troubled souls – people of the world.
Kupelian makes an excellent point near the close of this chapter. “When we develop real character, rooted in ever-growing loyalty to the kingdom of heaven within, we find that “neither foes nor loving friends” – that is, neither condemnation nor praise – have much effect on our happiness.” This measure of character comes with spiritual and personal maturity coupled with life experience.
In the next posting we will explore two key points, pride and hate, from chapter four of David Kupelian’s book, How Evil Works. Followed by a very controversial chapter on doctors, drugs, and demons – the mental illness craze in America.
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 