Greetings. This is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church with a moment of truth where we challenge you to think through an important issue of life and faith. Today, are you a full-fledged devotee of the cult of the lie? Oh, socialist tyrannies like the one we are under always depend upon lies to acquire, maintain, and extend their power. George Orwell said cynically but truthfully, even when the state tells the truth, it is a lie, meaning that at the base of the state's power is a big lie and that all things must serve the narrative of that lie, even the truth.

The narrative does not have to be true, but it must serve the interest of the state. For example, the lie of the insurrection of January 6 serves the interest of the deep state because its ultimate goal is a conviction of Donald Trump of insurrection under the provisions of the 14th Amendment, Section 3, which bars anyone who has served in the government but who has engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, quote-unquote, from holding office again. But the cult of the lie goes deeper than getting Donald Trump. It goes to the very core of the existence of the socialist deep state and its illegitimate rule over us.

The big lie of the socialist state is, ironically, that we speak the truth. The state says we speak the truth. That's the big lie. And it is the lie that must be believed for socialism to succeed. It was true at the dawn of the Soviet Union and the communist Chinese party and has been true of every Marxist state since, including the American deep state.

Orwell, in his classic 1984, his classic novel 1984, which revealed the true nature of communism, by the way, the Department of Government charged with informing the public was called, euphemistically, the ministry of truth. Ah. But of course, its entire mission was to aggrandize the power of the state and completely tyrannize the people. And more often than not, that meant propagating lies rather than the truth. Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, so we must invade.

Remember this from the debate over Obamacare, right? If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. If you like your plan, you can keep your plan. And the average American will save $2,500 per year. All lies meant to aggrandize the power of the state.

Or this, January 6th was an attack on our democracy. It was a violent, malicious event on a par with Pearl Harbor and 9-11. Lies, all of them. And all of these lies and more, they were not meant to serve the people, but the power and interest of the deep state. In fact, all of the particular lies that fly off from the ministry of truth, like popcorn kernels from a popcorn popper, they're all sourced in the original lie.

That is, we speak the truth. But it is a lie. Rather, our socialist deep state speaks a narrative designed to obtain, maintain, and expand its power. That is what the deep state does. That is the propaganda put out by the deep state.

It is a narrative designed to obtain, maintain, and expand its own power. That is all. Truth plays no part in that narrative either, unless it serves the narrative. Now, the tyrannical character O'Brien in the novel 1984, at the end of the book, says this to Winston. Very insightful.

O'Brien tells Winston, the main character in 1984, at the end of the book, he says, the party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others. We are interested solely in power, pure power. Power is not a means. It is an end.

One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution. One makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power.

Now you begin to understand me. Unquote. Oh, very baldly put. But that, indeed, is the nature of the state. Now do you begin to understand our socialist deep state current in America?

Power is an end in itself, as O'Brien says. And if it served to acquire power over you to tell you that, well, then that would become a part of the narrative put before you. But people rebel against that notion, right? Power is an end in itself. It's the truth.

And consequently, a lie must be told instead, which you must believe as the truth. Power to the people. I remember that reigning slogan from the 60s. Or this today, equity for oppressed people of color. Of course, that is from critical race theory.

Or this, only the voices of the marginalized need be heard. And that, that epigram serves as the basis for censorship and cancel culture. Or we're all in this together. Remember that from the pandemic? Lies.

All of them. The lie which must become axiomatic, however, for all other lies is that the state has the good of others. That is, your best interests at heart, not its own power. That's the lie which must prevail. That is why we do what we do, the state says.

And that's why we say what we say. It's for you. We want you to wear masks, not because it's a badge of servitude to the state, but because it's for your health and the health of others, for the greater good. We want to eliminate fossil fuels and your car and put you in a tiny house, not to restrict you and impoverish you, no, but for the environment, for the greater good. We want to confiscate all of your firearms, not to disarm you from protecting yourself against us, no, but for your own safety and the greater good.

So, this axiomatic lie reinforces the big lie. That is, we speak truth. When the state speaks, it speaks truth, and it does so for the greater good. That's the big lie. Consequently, it must be believed.

And this, no matter what your senses or your reason tells you. George Orwell says again, one of his characters puts it this way, the party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command. Oh, insightful. The state's final and most essential command to you is to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears.

The state lies, and it must be believed as truth, the truth, that it speaks the truth. And we, the state, will use all the force at our command to make you reject the evidence of your eyes and ears if those evidences intrude with contrary information. So, behold, another insight from George Orwell. It is the state's final, most essential command for you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. Indeed, if they cannot make you do this, then they cannot make you believe the big lie.

That is, the state speaks truth. That is why the ministry of truth, under whatever name it goes in the particular state and culture resides. For example, the captured lapdog lackeys of the mainstream media here in America. If they, the ministry of truth, under whatever name it goes, has the greatest effort spent in generating narratives which deny the evidence of your eyes and ears. And those narratives reinforce the lies which the state wishes to propagate.

And of course, the material that results from lies propagated is called propaganda. And that is the steady diet of information you are being fed, comrade. The author John Grierson puts it this way. He says, the oblique paradox of propaganda is that the lie in the throat becomes, by repetition, the truth in the heart. Oh, isn't that true?

The lie in the throat becomes, by repetition, the truth in the heart. That's kind of another way of putting it the way Joseph Goebbels, German minister of information, puts it. He says, tell a big lie often enough and it becomes the truth, right? But of course, none of this would be effective. None of this would matter to the human condition if men were not susceptible to lies.

If you were not susceptible to lies, dear listener, to propaganda, to the big lie. Do you believe indeed that the state speaks truth? Indeed, then you believe the big lie. But we are susceptible to these things, aren't we? Many of us fall prey to propaganda and we are manipulated by it.

And so many do not even know it. So many are unaware of their being conditioned and, yea, brainwashed by propaganda. But the state must rely on this fatal flaw in our nature in order to acquire, maintain, and expand its power. It must rely on the weakness of the human condition to fall prey to propaganda and the big lie. What is it in us then, dear listener, that makes us vulnerable to propaganda?

Especially to the big lie? That is, the state speaks truth. The state speaks truth. Is that a lie that you believe, dear listener? What makes us vulnerable?

Who is it that falls under the sway of the big lie? Who is it that falls under the sway of propaganda? Oh, let me give you a few examples. Number one, those who are afraid are susceptible to propaganda. Oh, it's one of the baser, uh, vibrating, uh, wavelengths of the human condition.

Fear. Those who are afraid are susceptible to propaganda. Fear is golden to the socialist state. Fear is perhaps the chief motivator to herd the lemmings towards the cliff. Never has it been used with such effectiveness and devastating consequences, however, than during the recent, or might we say even ongoing, COVID hoax.

Fear. Fear of an unseen virus made us do what we would never do in the calm light of day. That is mask up, lock up, and vax up, right? But the masters of propaganda used our fear to play us like a concert violin. And when the adrenaline rush of fear subsided, we found ourselves no safer for these measures, but in reality, having fewer rights, far more restrictions placed on us than before, and increasingly under the thumb of the state than ever before.

And we can also say arguably sicker than we were before. Just look at the vaccines and their devastating consequences amongst us. The truth is that many more people are under the sway of the cult of the lie after being driven by COVID fear than ever before. Are you one of those, dear listener? Are you one of those who still believe that Anthony Fauci really has your best interest at heart?

Are you one of those that still believe that the lockdowns, despite their devastating our economy, destroying small businesses, and driving people literally crazy, and doing all kinds of negative impacts within our culture? Are you one who still believes that the lockdowns were a good thing and a necessary thing? Well, then, you indeed are under the sway of a cult of the lie, because those who are afraid are definitely susceptible to propaganda. Well, number two, those who hate and act on prejudice are susceptible to propaganda, too. Those who hate and those who act on prejudice are also susceptible to propaganda.

Hatred of the other is a most reliable motivator for the propagandist. Are you one who has fallen prey to this motivation, dear listener? Hatred, prejudice, several of those primal emotions that man loves to act upon, even when he knows it's wrong. There's something compelling about them, isn't there? Hitler relied upon hatred to prosecute the Holocaust against the Jews.

The Communist Chinese Party today is relying upon the abiding feelings of racial superiority that is prejudiced against other races. The feelings of racial superiority of the Chinese people and Chinese culture to aggressively expand China's power all over the world. So, in fact, so prominent is hatred and prejudice in motivating people to act by the state. In fact, it could be argued that wars could not be fought at all without this primal motivator that is hatred of the other. That's often combined with the previous one that is fear.

In World War I, for example, we here in America, we still have posters ginning up the fear of the primitive barbaric Hun, that is the German. And then in World War II, we were taught to hate the inscrutable, slant-eyed, yellow-skinned nip, that is the Japanese. And the inertia to refrain from taking another human life built into all of us, and a steady, powerful stream of propaganda because of this. A steady, powerful stream of propaganda, consequently, is necessary to overcome that inertia against taking a human life. And that steady stream of propaganda is necessary to motivate us to kill the enemy.

But the primal impulse of the human heart to hate is also strong. And the state relies upon it to acquire, maintain, and increase its power over us. In fact, we see it reflected even in the COVID hoax, as people are taught to hate the other, that is, the unvaxxed among us. Oh, lepers! What would normally be transparent, laughable nonsense, that is, that unvaccinated people endanger the vaccinated, who ostensibly are protected by the immunity provided by the vaccine, right?

What would normally be transparent, laughable nonsense becomes irrational prejudice against those unvaccinated. And vituperative hatred is leveled by the vaccinated against the unvaccinated, and is fed by the propaganda of the socialist state. We hear official after official saying, this is an epidemic of the unvaccinated, and it's really a lie, propagated by hate mongers in lab coats. And those susceptible to hate and prejudice come under its sway. Are you one of those?

Have you fallen prey to the cult of the lie by this motivation? It's a classic example of how a lie in the throat by repetition becomes a truth in the heart. Well, another motivation then for coming under the sway of propaganda, of enlisting in the cult of the lie, to which many, many Americans have fallen prey to the deep state, to the socialist deep state of America, is number three, those who rely on authority are susceptible to propaganda. Those who rely on authority are susceptible to propaganda.

It's also wired into our nature, isn't it, to trust authority for so much of our lives, so much of our survival depends on not finding things out for ourselves, but relying on authority. From the cradle, we trust our parents, right? Our teachers and experts in many areas of our lives. We trust them for information that we otherwise would not have, or maybe die trying to get by experience. But we also learn to acquire information for ourselves on our own.

As we grow and mature, we establish our own authority by gathering our own information. And we are hopefully taught these things, these skills, by those same authorities. But that's not always the case. Some never do mature. And consequently, some always rely on those in authority for the truth.

Oh, and the big lie of the state, of course, is we speak the truth. It is really a childlike trait. And it's a sign that the person so brainwashed has not matured, who just blindly trusts, then, the authorities for the truth. They say to themselves, how do I know it's true? Well, the government told me.

Oh, the worst of naivete. Those people hypnotized by authority who cannot challenge it or question it or concede that could be wrong or possibly even malevolent, these people hypnotized are most susceptible to its propaganda. Have you fallen prey then to this aspect of propaganda? Have you fallen prey to the cult of the lie? Because you trust authority.

Number four, those incapable of or unwilling to think independently are susceptible to propaganda. And there's many people in this category today, that is, they are those incapable of or unwilling to think independently, and they are susceptible to propaganda. It's really a corollary of the previous one, too. America is becoming the land of the deliberately dumbed down. It is no coincidence that emerging from public schools, Johnny cannot read the very diploma he's been handed, but he will reliably vote Democrat for the rest of his life.

That's no coincidence. As we see in the headlines on a daily basis, our public schools are places where a child is taught what to think, like critical race theory, and not how to think. That is, he's not taught reason and logic and history and science. It takes skill and training and plain hard work to find and then critically evaluate information for oneself. Information that is not spoon-fed by a sycophant media, as the mainstream media is today.

But those skills of reason and discernment are increasingly rare amid our crisis of learning and thinking, isn't it? Oh, the author, that great science fiction author, Robert A. Heinlein, puts it this way. He says, reason is poor propaganda when opposed by the yammering, unceasing lies of shrewd and evil and self-serving men, unquote. That's so good. Reason is indeed poor propaganda when it's overwhelmed, when it's opposed, as Heinlein says, by the yammering, unceasing lies of shrewd and evil and self-serving men, which perfectly describes the socialist deep state of today.

All of the whole pack of them on the hill of Congress are shrewd, evil and self-serving men and women, for that matter. Far too many modern Americans are just plain ignorant and lazy. These are the easiest men to enslave. The truth is out there from many sources, dear listener. For a little work, a little thoughtful analysis, it can be yours.

But for many of us, it is either a thing beyond our capacities or a thing beyond our will or desire to obtain. We'd rather be content with processing what's been fed us by CNN or Fox News or Jen Psaki on the state and adjusting our lives then according to that information. And to the delights of the socialist deep state, most Americans form themselves in line with tyranny. The author Dresden James, the critic and author Dresden James puts it this way. He says, the ideal tyranny is that which is ignorantly self-administered by its victims.

The most perfect slaves are therefore those which blissfully and unawares enslave themselves. Oh, the most perfect slaves enslave themselves, don't they? And that's what's happening with so much of America these days. Most of America has enslaved themselves. We are a nation of the cult of lies.

And then fifthly, let me treat briefly another category of those who are easily susceptible to propaganda and those who live by tribal identity. That's becoming increasingly current in our culture today is that those who live by tribal identity are susceptible to propaganda. The human tendency has always been to identify with and gather one another into tribes. Within those tribes, one finds a set of beliefs and behaviors that give one a distinctive identity from others in the world. And those beliefs and behaviors thus become foundational to one's identity.

And they are also fiercely defended and nourished by the tribal faithful. That includes information and long-standing truths that the tribe accepts without question, right? The progressive tribe, for example, diversity is our strength, which is a meaningless phrase, or a woman's right to choose the sacrament of abortion, right? Or count all the votes, right? We heard that in the last election.

Count all the votes, whether those ballots, those votes, are manufactured or represent dead people or represent people that have moved out of the state, whatever it might be, even the illegitimate ballots must be counted under this thinking, right? Information, long-standing truths that the tribe accepts without question. And these are indeed are very susceptible to propaganda. The socialist state has relied upon the gathering of its subjects into tribes for a very long time now. Many of its lies are indeed tailored to appeal to specific beliefs and behaviors of particular tribes.

Dear listener, the socialist deep state of America, which is the federal government, is a cult of lies governed by the big lie. That is, we speak truth. Have you come under its sway? Dear listener, do not fall prey to it, because indeed, our socialist deep state is increasingly obvious that they indeed are aggrandizing power for themselves, that they are acquiring and seeking power for its own sake, and that they do not have our best interest at heart. In fact, in order to obtain and acquire this power, they spin narratives.

That is important, isn't it? Like the narrative of January 6th, which is a complete falsity, but nonetheless, it is a narrative with a purpose, that is to acquire power and to ensure that others, i.e. Donald Trump, do not acquire power at all anymore, even though that narrative is composed of lies, exaggerations, and half-truths. And indeed, we are beginning to see more and more that those who inhabit, who infest Washington, D.C., that is, the district of criminals, are indeed true sons of their father, the first liar.

Jesus told those in power, Jesus told the deep state of his own day in Israel, that is, the collection, the gaggle of indeed Pharisees and scribes and leaders of Israel, he indeed called them sons of their father. He said, you are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

Indeed, we find, indeed, the sons of this father inhabiting the deep state and, indeed, increasingly becoming a place of lies and cultivating and developing a cult of lies. Even the person who does, who realizes this consciously, sometimes bends to it because it is, indeed, the trend of the people, and they follow it whether they know they should or not. Indeed, when you look at the deep state today, we see that they, indeed, are liars. They speak out of their own character, for they are liars, and even as Satan is a liar and the father of lies, they follow the character of their own father.

Dear listener, do not fall prey to the cult of lies today, but seek the truth, first and foremost in Christ, who is indeed the truth. I am the way, the truth, and the life Jesus proclaims, and that, indeed, if you seek for him, you seek for the truth, that is, the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior. That truth will set you free, and we encourage you, then, to seek the truth in Christ, first and foremost, and not fall prey to the cult of lies. This has been Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church.

We meet for holy worship on Sunday at 10 a.m. at 1014th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard, and we encourage you to then give us some feedback by calling us, or for more information, at area code 208-523-0196. 208-523-0196.