It has been proven that someone can be told something over and over and over again and eventually they will believe it. That process has been called different things; indoctrination, propaganda, and brain washing to name a few. It doesn’t make any difference if what they are repeatedly being told is true or not. Believing, in this instance, isn’t about the truth, it’s about the repetitive process of telling someone something until they believe it to be truth.

The person being told can then be passionate about the thing with which they have been indoctrinated. Their passionate believing does not, however, change the fact that what they are believing is not necessarily true. It has been said that seeing is believing. But there again it is possible to look at something and never truly see it. Just because something is wrapped up in an attractive package, doesn’t mean that it is attractive. There are many things once unwrapped that are not what we thought they would be. Jesus addressed this issue in John 8:44.

“You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.”

If we can be made to believe something just by being told the same thing repeatedly, and we can be fooled by what we see because of its attractive wrapping, how can we really know the truth?

John 8:31-32; Then Jesus went on to say to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in my word, you are my disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

We as humans have a predisposition to hear what we want to hear, see what we want to see, and do what we want to do. We have a bent toward our opinion whether it is right or wrong. In all of these things we must search for truth because truth is not subjective, it is absolute!

These are the life issues we look into every Sunday morning at 9:30 and 10:30, and Wednesday evening at 7 at the Gathering Place Church. We have youth group and First Steps Recovery Sunday evenings at 6.