Last summer I decided that it was going to be a necessity for me to speak to the Historic Seventh-day Adventist people at some camp meeting about cybernetic warfare so I began doing research on this subject. I had already studied it. I have studied it off and on ever since I have been in high school. I began looking up many statements in the Spirit of Prophecy, the writings of Ellen White, which had something to do with this subject. In a little while I had a stack of documents about that high. But somehow, I never got the sermon preached; and fall came and camp meeting season was over. But I still thought, "Well, whenever the Lord opens up the way." I feel it is the right time; I want to present this to our people. Not so much because I enjoy presenting it, but because I cannot just stand by and watch the Historic Adventist people be deceived and not say anything about it.

Winter came and spring came and now it is most of a year since I was planning to speak on this subject, so it has been greatly delayed. I was thinking last night that when I get to heaven I am going to have to ask the Lord how did it work out that I got delayed speaking about this subject for so long, almost a year. I do not know, but the Lord knows. I do believe that it is an important subject for us in this period of earth's history to understand.

To begin studying this subject I would like to invite you to open your Bibles to 2 Timothy. Now, this subject is of special interest to ministers, elders, Sabbath school teachers, to anyone who is teaching the gospel, to anyone who is involved in God's work by teaching, preaching, or publishing. This is one of three letters in the New Testament that was written to gospel ministers. Notice what the apostle Paul says to Timothy. "But avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate strife. And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel." 2 Timothy 2:23, 24

I want that statement to sink in. I want it to sink into me. The servant must not quarrel. "Oh," somebody says, "but Pastor John, you do not understand. These people are destroying my reputation and if I do not answer, I am going to be totally destroyed. I have to get in and answer this thing." Yes, I know. But it still says, "A servant of the Lord must not quarrel." How are you going to get out of it? What are you going to do when the telephone rings? Well, I do know that God does not require me to violate my conscience and if somebody asks me a question, I will just have to tell them the truth. But after I have told them the truth, maybe that is about all I will be able to say. Oftentimes, I do not even say anything because I have found out that that is the only way to avoid the quarrel or the fight.

The devil is trying by every means imaginable to stir up God's people, to get them fighting, quarreling, bickering, divided, and bitter against each other. Have you noticed this? Scripture says, "A servant of the Lord must not quarrel."

Now I am human like you, friends, and sometimes when I get letters I have an assistant, or an associate at the office to help me with my mail. I receive so many letters that it is just impossible to answer them all. However, there are many letters that we receive that we choose not to answer, not because we could not answer them, but we choose not to answer them. And, of course, sometimes we get into great difficulty later on because we "did not answer" our mail. But I believe it is worth taking great risks, even having people misunderstand you, to avoid being involved in every quarrel, controversy, and fight that presents itself to you. That does not mean that we do not have convictions. It takes a lot of prayer with what is going on today to know when I should answer and when I should just be quiet and just not even talk about it.

Do you know that there were some very important things that Jesus wanted over and over again to tell His disciples, and He never told them because they were not ready for it? Even though I am not a prophet, just a common person, oftentimes when I receive mail, we have to look over it and read it a few times and try to evaluate in our minds, "Well, now, could this person really handle a straight answer or could they not." If we do not think that they can from the way they present themselves in the letter we have to decide that we better just let it be; they are not ready yet.

This is something to think about though. "A servant of the Lord must not quarrel." I want to live by every word in God's Word, don't you? We need to remember that is in God's Word. When we come together in our local churches, our institutions, in ministries, when we travel and speak to God's people, we need to remember that the devil is constantly trying to stir up quarrels and fights. As God's agents we need to be much in prayer and say, "Lord, help us." Even though we have differences of opinion on different things, that we will be able to talk to each other without fighting and quarreling, which dishonors the name of our Redeemer.

"A servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will." 2 Timothy 2:23-26. The King James version says, "have been taken captive at his will." That is a difficult phrase, by the way, to translate. It says literally in the Greek, "being taken captive by the devil unto his will." What does the expression "unto his will" mean? Does it mean "by" his will or "unto the doing" of his will? Different translators translate it different ways. I have checked in the Spirit of Prophecy and noticed that either translation agrees with what Ellen White says about the subject.

People are taken captive by the devil, to do his will. They are taken captive by the devil at his will whenever the devil pleases or wants to or desires to. Unless you are protected by the Holy Spirit, the devil can take you captive. Do you realize that? How does the devil take people captive? How does he do it? Well, that is something that I want to study a little bit about with you. How does the devil take people captive? How? By the way, I did not bring the book with me, I have it in my room. Ellen White says that these people who are taken captive by the devil and held by him in his snare, that they, not one of them know it. I want to tell you that when you realize that, that when the devil takes people captive, they do not know it, it is a humbling experience; and you will get down by your bed and say, "Lord, I do not even know whether the devil has me captive in some area of my mind, but I am surrendering myself totally to you, and I want to be under the total control of the Holy Spirit." That is the only security that there is, friends, against being taken captive by the devil at his will, to do his will.

When I was attending a Seventh-day Adventist college, I took a psychology course. I was so intrigued by a sentence in the text book that I have never forgotten it. It was talking about the purpose of psychology. Why do you study psychology? What is it all about? What is the reason? Psychology is the study of the human mind. In this course it was discussing why should you want to study psychology? It explained the answer. If you understand the human mind, that will enable you to control the human mind. Very interesting. Now, when a psychology book talks to you about understanding the human mind so that you can control the human mind, it is not just talking about your own mind, friends; it is talking about other people's minds. If you understand the way that their mind works, if you understand enough about the way that their mind works, you will be able to control them. I want to tell you, there are many people in the world today who are spending their whole lives studying this science because they want to control. They do not want to control just a few individuals; they want to control every single mind in the whole world.

There is somebody who has been studying psychology, that is the human mind, for a lot longer than any of us human beings. "For thousands of years Satan has been experimenting upon the properties of the human mind, and he has learned to know it well. By his subtle workings in these last days he is linking the human mind with his own, imbuing it with his thoughts; and he is doing this work in so deceptive a manner that those who accept his guidance know not that they are being led by him at his will. The great deceiver hopes so to confuse the minds of men and women that none but his voice will be heard." Medical Ministry, 111. They do not know it; isn't that what it said? The people who he has in control, he has linked their mind with his own mind and they do not even know.

Well, I did not just take freshman psychology when I went to college. I took sociology, which is closely related to psychology. Later on at the state university I took more psychology; later on at an Adventist university I took more psychology. I remember when I was at the state university, one of the things that I wanted to understand more about was the research of a Russian scientist by the name of Pavlov. I did a research paper on this man and his study. Now Pavlov was doing his research with dogs, and I will just recap his research for some of you who may not have studied this or remember.

Pavlov had a system rigged up so that when the dogs would be given their food, a bell would ring. He found out that after this had been repeated many times that he did not need to give them any food. All that he needed to do was ring the bell and they would begin to salivate. Now, does ringing a bell have anything to do with the salivary glands? You do not salivate when you hear a bell ring, do you? This has been called, psychologists call this a conditioned reflex. Incidentally, friends, this concept that Pavlov started working on has been much more highly developed and expanded by the developers of NLP. They call it anchoring. Maybe you have heard about anchoring. It is the same concept only it is much more highly developed and sophisticated. You can do it with a lot of other things besides bells.

With a totally unrelated, external stimulus, Pavlov was able to control physiological functions in these dogs. Now remember, one of the ultimate goals of psychology is to control the mind, that is other people's minds.

"This entering in of Satan through the sciences is well devised. Through the channel of phrenology, psychology, and mesmerism [the modern term is hypnotism], he comes more directly to the people of this generation, and works with that power which is to characterize his efforts near the close of probation. The minds of thousands have thus been poisoned, and led into infidelity. While it is believed that one human mind so wonderfully affects another, Satan, who is ready to press every advantage, insinuates himself, and works on the right hand and on the left. And while those who are devoted to these sciences laud them to the heavens because of the great and good works which they affirm are wrought by them, they little know what a power for evil they are cherishing; but it is a power which will yet work with all signs and lying wonders with all deceivableness of unrighteousness. Mark the influence of these sciences, dear reader, for the conflict between Christ and Satan is not yet ended." Selected Messages, book 2, 351, 352

As time went on, this research by Pavlov was further developed by Skinner and others, and it has reached astounding levels by the practitioners of NLP who claim right along with the behavioral psychologists that all behavior is the result of some stimulus and that if the right stimulus is present, any desired behavior can be elicited.

Now this advancing knowledge of the human mind was not lost or unnoticed by people who wanted to control the world, such as Hitler and Stalin. In the purges in Russia in the 1930's, high ranking leaders made some confessions that were simply unbelievable. They sounded completely unreal and we did not understand at that time what was going on. How did they get these people to make those kinds of confessions? Of course, we could postulate that they were made under torture or some terrible tyrannical pressure. But in the 1950's, for the first time we got some firsthand knowledge of these new, psychological weapons. I want you to understand that these psychological weapons came to be looked upon by many people in the United States government as more powerful than any kind of bomb or military weapon that we had at our disposal. They were so powerful that they affected changes in people's thinking and behavior that seemed to be almost permanent. Frankly, our government at that time was aghast at the power of these psychological weapons.

We did not know what to call it, so at first we called it brainwashing. Any of you who are forty years of age or older have heard that term, no doubt. Later, during the Vietnam conflict, these new areas of psychological knowledge were further perfected, and it was during that time that these new concepts were referred to as cybernetic warfare and mind control. Now if you look up the word cybernetics in a large dictionary, it will give you this definition. Cybernetics is the comparative study of the human nervous system and of complex electronic calculating machines aimed at increasing the understanding of how the human brain functions. The branch of psychology wanting to understand how the human nervous system works and how the brain functions; and what is the ultimate goal? If you understand how the mind works, you will be able to control it.

These techniques that were referred to first of all as brainwashing and later as cybernetic warfare or mind control, have been further developed in the 70's and 80's and are what is known today as NLP. I want to study a few of the fundamental principles upon which this mind control science is based. I have a list of twelve principles that are used in cybernetic warfare. I would like to try to look at just two if we can, because you have been and are meeting this, not just in the world but in the church, and among independent ministries, constantly.

Most people are not aware of what is going on. People's minds are being changed by subtle techniques of cybernetic warfare and they do not even know what is happening. We get telephone calls and letters from these people constantly. They do not have the faintest idea that their thinking has been twisted by somebody else. They have been put in a mental trap and changed and they do not even know it. They are "Historic Adventists."

They are utterly amazed that we do not immediately go along with the conclusions that they have drawn. They would say, "I am an independent thinker," but they are not. The content of their conversation and letters plainly indicate to any person who has a little training in psychology that they have been influenced by and usually have even adopted some of the techniques of cybernetic warfare, although almost to a man, they would vehemently protest this.

By the way, in regard to independent thinking, I personally do not have much regard for the concept of independent thinking because I am not convinced that it exists, except for the person who is in Christ. Here are a couple statements from the Spirit of Prophecy on independent thinking so that you will be crystal clear in your mind about this subject.

"In the Word of God are represented two contending parties that influence and control human agencies in our world. Constantly these parties are working with every human being." Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, vol. 6, 1119 [All emphasis supplied]

There are two parties. They are supernatural parties, and they are contending for the influence and control of human agencies. And how often are they working on every human being? Constantly, right now. Right while you are in this room, if you are not under the control of the Holy Spirit, the devil's angels are here working on your mind. It is just that simple. "Either the evil angels or the angels of God are controlling the minds of men." Ibid, 1120. Do you see why I do not think much of "independent thinking"? We do not think independently; we are either under the control of God's supernatural agencies or the devil's.

"Our minds are given to the control of God, or to the control of the powers of darkness; and it will be well for us to inquire where we are standing today whether under the blood-stained banner of Prince Emmanuel, or under the black banner of the powers of darkness." Ibid.

Some of the most wonderful promises in the book Desire of Ages appear on page 324, I believe, because there is a promise that Jesus can keep you from being brought under the control of somebody else. Now remember what we said before; when you are brought under the control of somebody else by one of these techniques, you do not know it. That is the whole point of it; if you knew it, you would not be under their control, most of the time.

"The soul that is yielded to Christ, becomes His own fortress, which He holds in a revolted world, and He intends that no authority shall be known in it but His own. [Isn't that exciting?] A soul thus kept in possession by the heavenly agencies, is impregnable to the assaults of Satan. But unless we do yield ourselves to the control of Christ, we shall be dominated by the wicked one. We must inevitably be under the control of the one or the other of the two great powers that are contending for the supremacy of the world. It is not necessary for us deliberately to choose the service of the kingdom of darkness in order to come under its dominion. We have only to neglect to ally ourselves with the kingdom of light. If we do not co-operate with the heavenly agencies, Satan will take possession of the heart, and will make it his abiding-place. [Matthew 12:43-45] The only defense against evil is the indwelling of Christ in the heart through faith [that is trust] in His righteousness. Unless we become vitally connected with God, we can never resist the unhallowed effects of self-love, self-indulgence, and temptation to sin." Ibid.

Weren't you excited last night when we were studying about this vital relationship, this vital living experience that God wants His people to have? Friends, if you do not have it, the devil is going to get control of your mind. "We may leave off many bad habits, for the time we may part company with Satan; but without a vital connection with God, through the surrender of ourselves to Him moment by moment, we shall be overcome." Ibid.

Oh, friend, are you surrendering yourself to God moment by moment? When you are talking to people on the telephone, maybe somebody is trying to pick a fight with you or influence your mind and you do not even know what is going on, are you surrendering yourself to God so that the Holy Spirit can be in control of your mind?

By the way, these techniques are in all areas of human society today. I have advertising that is sent out to people in marketing to teach them how to use these techniques that were developed by Pavlov and Skinner and in Russia and Germany, later in China and now by people in both Europe and the United States and called NLP, these techniques of cybernetic warfare whereby understanding how the human mind works you get control of another person's mind and they do not even know it, is in every area of society. This advertisement says, Come, learn how to do NLP. Your sales are going to go up. People will sign the order; they will respond to you positively. Your income will increase. They have all kinds of testimonies from salesmen after they learned how to use this technique.

Friends, it is very effective and powerful. Do not think that it is some sham thing or very crude. It is very powerful and it does work. The people whom it is being used on do not even know it. I have statements that it is even used to treat people in mental institutions, and it works.

Without the "surrender of ourselves to Him moment by moment, we shall be overcome. Without a personal acquaintance with Christ, and a continual communion, we are at the mercy of the enemy, and shall do his bidding in the end." Ibid.

Oh, friend, we are living in that time of the world's history. I have been meditating lately on what the apostle Paul says over and over again in his letters that we are to pray without ceasing. I thought some years ago that that was stated in 1 Thessalonians 5 but I have noticed lately that Paul says that throughout his letters over and over again in different words. He says to pray all of the time, have a continual communion with God; if you do not, somebody else is going to get control of your mind.

Well, how does it work? One of the most astounding things about it is that it is so simple. When you really understand the human mind and how it works, it is so simple to take control of the average human mind. I want to give you some data from the United States government of what happened when our soldiers that we had trained, more highly trained and educated than our soldiers in World War II, were taken prisoner by the Chinese during the Korean War. They did what we called then brain washing, what was later called cybernetic warfare, and is further developed today into NLP. NLP, of course, includes all of the former techniques. Somebody who is highly trained will use all of the former techniques along with a few new ones.

These soldiers were young, healthy, American young men who were trained to serve their country. They were overwhelmed with hoards of Chinese so that several hundred were taken at one time captive. They had heard of how the Japanese would take burning bamboo slivers and stick them under your fingernails and torture you in different kinds of ways, how they would starve you to death and do all sorts of terrible things. They were expecting something like that to happen, but it did not. If you have ever watched a boxing match, one of the things a person is always trying to do is to watch to see if he can get the other fellow off balance. One of the things that is used in cybernetic warfare and NLP is to get the other person off balance psychologically, and they do not even know it. Then you can take over. Something happened that they did not expect. They were gathered in little groups. With these little groups there was an instructor. He had no uniform, gun, or torture weapons. He was dressed in common clothes. I am going to quote, almost verbatim, the speech that he gave to them. Now, they were expecting to be tortured; they were expecting all kinds of terrible things to happen to them.

The Chinese instructors were people who spoke 1950's U.S. English. They had been trained in psychology and sociology at the best universities in the United States and Europe. They knew what they were doing. Here is what the instructors said. "Gentlemen, we welcome you to the ranks of the people. We are happy to have liberated you from the imperialist warmongers who have sent you here. We know that you did not want to come here." By the way, was that true? It was true. How many U.S. servicemen wanted to leave the United States and go to Korea? "You did not start the war." Was that true? It was true. "You did not start the war. You really do not even know why you are here." Unfortunately, for the most part, that was true also. "Therefore, we have nothing against you. We want to offer you a proposition. The proposition is this:" And do you know what? It was a deal. They had not been expecting anything that nice. They had been expecting starvation, torture chambers, and labor camps. It was almost an irresistible deal, the kind that you hear over the radio and on want ads all of the time. It was a get it now, do not deny yourself a thing philosophy such as is being foisted on the American public today. You hardly had to do anything, and they gave you everything! "All we want from you is your physical cooperation. We just do not want you to fight." So the philosophy was, do not fight the problem. Just sit back like other people, relax and see how it goes, but do not fight it.

Now in return for this deal, the Chinese made some offers. Everybody likes to get something when they make a deal. Here were the offers: 1) "There is no work. There are no slave camps here. We do not have those sort of things." Now, that happened to be a lie, but they did not know that. "There are no slave camps here. That is capitalistic propaganda that they feed you in the United States. We have no coal mines for you, no road gangs, and no overseers." 2) "We will give you the best food, clothing, shelter, and medical care that we possible can." Then he added, "Now, it will not be good because we are a poor country, but we will give you the best that we have." 3) "We will give you things that we know you Americans really like most of all, a chance to learn the truth. We are going to tell you what we think is the truth about your country and ours and what is going on in the world, about your system and ours, about how the people are rising up today. You have only heard one side of the story before because it is the capitalist imperialists who publish your papers and run your radio stations and publish your comic and text books. After all, what other side of the story have you, therefore, been allowed to hear? All we ask from you is just a little American fair play. Just listen to both sides. After you have heard our side, you can make up your own mind on what the truth is. When the imperialist, wall street warmongers have decided that they have used up enough of the excess tanks that have been made by General Motors and the excess petroleum produced in Texas and the profits are high enough and the people have been exploited enough and they let this senseless slaughter end, we want you to go back to your own home and fine families and simply tell them the truth as you yourself decide the truth to be."

I want to tell you, it took. Do you know that there was not one POW in Korea who escaped? They did not try to escape. Now, in World War II the American soldiers were known as the best in the world for escaping under impossible circumstances and conditions. But in Korea there was not one POW who escaped. Not only that, in a camp that had 600 American POWs they had 6 armed guards. Does it work? It works. Not one escaped; they only had 6 armed guards.

One of the things that I want you to realize, first of all, is that most of what they said was absolutely true. The government documents it. However, it was a surprise. They knocked the other person off balance psychologically right at the start. By the way, we need to understand the difference between God and the devil in that respect. It is the devil's program that knocks people off balance psychologically to take advantage of them and get control of their mind. The Lord does not work that way.

"The beneficent operations of nature are not accomplished by abrupt and startling interpositions; men are not permitted to take her work into their own hands. God works through the calm, regular operation of His appointed laws. So it is in spiritual things. Satan is constantly seeking to produce effects by rude and violent thrusts; but Jesus found access to minds by the pathway of their most familiar associations. He disturbed as little as possible their accustomed train of thought by abrupt actions or prescribed rules. He honored man with His confidence, and thus placed him on his honor. He introduced old truths in a new and precious light. Thus when only twelve years old, He astonished the doctors of the law by His questions in the temple." Testimonies to Ministers, 190

Now, if you yourself have studied a little psychology, you should have picked up a whole series of points from what I read to you from the introductory speech that was given by these instructors, who as I mentioned had been highly trained in psychology in American universities. We are only going to try to look at just two points.

The fact is that what our prisoners of war in North Korea were told was almost all true. The United States government recognized that, but there is a big but.

Here is the first method. By changing the context and the words used, the message conveyed may be completely changed. Let me give you a few examples. I have another document here, an autobiographical account of Chinese communist thought reform. It is an account of a person who was an officer in the Nationalist Chinese Army who was captured by the communists. He said that the communists are always turning words upside down. When they say protective custody, what do you suppose protective custody is? That means that they are going to put you in jail. Protective custody does not sound as bad as jail, does it? When they say protective custody, they try to make you believe that they are trying to protect you, the man from the mob.

They would come when somebody had confessed that is another point that they use. They use confession on other people; you never confess for yourself so much as for other people. They also use self-confession. When they found something about somebody, one of these plain clothed officers would take that person for what was called a walking conference. The two of them would go walking ,and this instructor would put his arm around the prisoner of war and would say, "Now we know such and such about you. You do not need to deny it; we know that it is true. I just want to tell you, we are not going to punish you for this." Oh, that person felt so relieved. "We are not going to do anything to you. Now it is anti-social, and we do not want you to get into trouble with your fellow prisoners [or your fellow comrades]. We do not want you to get into trouble with them. We need to bring it to your attention so that you do not get into trouble with them. All we want you to do is to decide not to do that again, that is all. Tell us that you will not do that again and sign your name on a document that you will not do it again. That is all that we ask. No punishment." And it took. They said, "We just want to protect you from the mob," or we want to protect you from the public assembly or from the purging that is taking place. We want to protect you. That means they want to put you in jail.

Now this is the National Communist officer talking: In the same way they refer to the places where they reform men and brainwash them as "military colleges." Have you been to a military college? Well, you need to be a POW to get there, but that is what they called them. Now, we could go on and show you how they did this ad infinitum, over and over again, but what I am interested in is, how does this very same method work in Adventism? It works. I want to tell you, it has turned hundreds of thousands, and maybe millions, of Adventists against independent ministries. It is very powerful and very, very effective.

Let me just explain how this very same technique works in Adventism, and we have been using this technique for decades, and I can document it. I can document it from a document that was written in the 1920's. Remember, what is the technique? You change the word and the context, and thereby you change the message. And people do not even know you have changed the message, but by changing the wording, it shifts the thinking. You have changed their mind, and they do not even know it.

In Testimonies for the Church, vol. 1, 321, Ellen White says that God requires of His servants today that they preach an even straighter message than John the Baptist. Is John the Baptist's message a message of reproof? Yes, it is. And God's servants, His ministers, if they do not reprove and rebuke what are they supposed to reprove and rebuke? Sin. And the Lord said, If you do not do this (this is Testimonies for the Church, vol. 1, 321), you will not be acknowledged as My servants.

By the way, I grew up in the public relations era in the United States. I was trained in all of it until I learned later when I studied the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy that my training was contrary to the Word of God. I had to change and ask the Lord to help me not to be that way anymore. I read these statements and said, "I have to do it. I have to do what God says to do."

God says we are to reprove and rebuke sin. In fact, we are even to denounce it. Those words, reprove and rebuke, are used over and over again in the Spirit of Prophecy with a positive meaning. Something that God's servants are to do.

But do you know what you can do? You can take that reproof and all that you need to do is just call it by a different name and it will turn people off, just like that. One of the buzz words to call it is criticism. Have you ever heard that? Do you realize that that is cybernetic warfare? That is exactly what it is. You have taken something that God impressed His servant by the Holy Spirit to do and have given it a different name that has a different connotation and you have changed a person's mind.

By the way, does Ellen White say a lot of things against criticism? Does she have a lot of things to say against fault finding? I have a whole page of statements from a dear brother not too long ago against fault finding. I thought to myself, "Now, why is he sending this to me?" Reproof and rebuke, which God says that if you do not do it, you will not be acknowledged by Me as My servant; and if you do it, it will be called criticism, fault finding, condemning, all those things, that is cybernetic warfare and is right in our church. You have taken something that God has told His people to do and have given it a different twist by changing the word. I just gave you one example; do not think that that is the only example that can be given.

"Paul longed to speak to the church in Corinth of spiritual things. But to his sorrow he found it in great weakness. The church members could not even bear to hear the truth concerning themselves. [1 Cor. 3:1, 2 quoted.] The spiritual growth of this people was so dwarfed that a plain 'Thus saith the Lord' was an offense to them. Paul knew that by giving them the truth he would be ranked as an accuser and faultfinder." Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, vol. 6, 1086

Now, an accuser is what the devil is. But if you reprove and rebuke, if you preach according to what Ellen White and the New Testament says to do as your duty as a Christian preacher, you will be accused of being an accuser and a fault finder, therefore, obviously you are one of the devil's agents. That is cybernetic warfare.

By the way, human beings have learned to use cybernetic warfare relatively recently. The devil has been doing it for thousands of years. Read your Bible.

Here is a statement that has directly to do with this problem. "If our Saviour was thus treated, can his co-laborers who go forth bearing the messages which He gives them expect to be treated better than was their Master? How many blessings Jesus bestowed on the world. How many discouraged, desponding, and distressed ones He relieved. His work was to bless and save. He covered His glory with humanity, bringing from Heaven the very best gifts which could be given to man; spoke peace, gave messages of light and hope. But all these gifts were considered as matters of course; the gift was received but the Giver forgotten. They walked in the light with no thought of gratitude to Him from whom its beams proceeded, when the chastisement came in reproof, in warning, or by affliction, to save from apostasy and ruin. . . " Signs of the Times, June 15, 1876

Now let us stop there. Why does God tell His ministers that they are to give reproof and rebuke? To save from apostasy and ruin! See, there is a difference between reproof and rebuke and criticism. The devil criticizes and accuses people trying to destroy them! God's servants reprove and rebuke people to try to get them to turn around so they can be saved. That is completely opposite. But with cybernetic warfare, you can turn something, with just a few words, in 180 degrees.

"When the chastisement came in reproof, in warning, or by affliction, to save from apostasy and ruin then there was a turning upon Jesus with a defiant, stubborn, impenitent resistance which was fearful. And why, says the proud, perverse spirit, must I be crushed by rebuke? Why must I be humiliated? They forget all the light, all the favors previously given, and feel that they are abused because God takes with them the only course which will bring them to a knowledge of themselves, that they may find peace in Him through submission, penitence for sin, and confiding trust in God. For this reason God sends to the church the greatest blessing He can give them in a knowledge of themselves." Ibid.

What is the greatest blessing that God can give to the church? A knowledge of themselves. Do people like to find that out? No. But unless they do find out, what is going to happen? They are going to be lost.

"Satan is alluring them to sin that they may be lost; God gives a clear presentation of their sins that they may repent and be saved. The greatest danger of the world is, that sin does not appear sinful. This is the greatest evil existing in the church." Ibid.

Why does it not appear sinful? The preachers are afraid to rebuke and reprove because they know they will be called critical, accusers, and fault finders. This is the greatest evil in the church. We do not realize how bad sin is.

"Sin is glossed over with self-complacency. Blessed indeed are they who possess a sensitive conscience; who can weep and mourn over their spiritual poverty and wanderings from God; who are poor in spirit and can receive the reproof God sends them; and who, with confessions and brokenness of heart, will take their places, all penitent, in humiliation at the cross of Christ. God knows it is good for men to tread a hard and humble path, to encounter difficulties, to experience disappointments, and to suffer affliction. Faith strengthens by coming in conflict with doubt, and resisting unbelief through the strength of Jesus." Ibid.

Oh, friend, if you and I are going to be saved, we must be willing to go through this conflict, and we must be willing for God to reprove and rebuke us through whatever instrument He chooses, or we will be lost.

Once you get a hold of this concept, once you really internalize it, you will not be tempted to use cybernetic warfare on your preachers and teachers and say that they are just being critical, fault finding, accusers, and all of that, when you are reproved by the preachers of the Word of God. You will have a completely different frame of mind and will say, "Lord, are you trying to tell me something that is wrong with me? Please help me to see and understand it clearly so that I can change." That should be our attitude toward rebuke and reproof.

"They do not seem to understand that if the Lord sent them reproof it was because He loved them." 1888 Materials, 226

Why does God send reproof? Because He loves you. And God sees people who are going pell-mell toward perdition. Ellen White saw it in vision in Early Writings, 88. She saw a train, and on this train there was a conductor who had a stately, fair appearance. All of the people on the train looked up to him with great respect and honored him. She asked the angel, "Who is this conductor?" The angel told her that it was the devil. She said that the whole train was going with lightening speed toward perdition. It seemed like the whole world was on board. Now did the devil force them to get on board? Oh, no. He took them mentally captive and they do not even know it.

"I am very sure that the greatest reason why the people of God are now found in this state of spiritual blindness, is because they will not receive correction. Many have despised the reproofs and warnings given them." Review and Herald, September 16, 1873

Oh, friend, has the devil tripped you up? Has he changed the words so that your mind is headed in a completely different direction than you ought to be headed? And every time that you hear somebody preach or teach and you are reproved or rebuked, instead of asking, "Lord, is there something that needs to be changed in my life?" you say, "Well, that person is critical"? What have you done? You have turned your back on the Lord. You are going the opposite direction. Just with a few words, by interpreting it a different way your mind has been changed. The devil has got you going the opposite way of the way that you should go.

"To speak the word of God with faithfulness is a work of the greatest importance. But this is an entirely different work from continually censuring, thinking evil, and drawing apart from one another. Judging and reproving are two different things." Review and Herald, October 29, 1901

Notice, it is not the same; it is two different things. Through cybernetic warfare people have been confused. They have taken certain buzz words and their thinking process is all confused. Some people need to take out a dictionary and find out what the words mean that they are using.

Well, I said we would try to study two; we just got over one. We will take up the second one tomorrow. It is more deceptive than the first one. But the devil is trying to take control of people's minds, and he is doing it by the words that are being communicated between people, in sermons, and in print. The devil is out to take control of people's minds, and it is happening in Seventh-day Adventist publications, too. People do not even know it. Your only safety, friends, is if you are moment by moment having communion with Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit is filling your heart and you have a supernatural barricade.