For the last two weeks, I tried to expose the danger of propaganda, which appeals to emotions and is without real substance except ill intentions and partial truths, if not whole lies.  Joseph Goebbels has been known to have said, “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.”  I just read Acts 23-25 in which Paul encounters various opinion groups against him.  All begin with his arrest in Acts 21.  Let’s read verses 27-36, “And when the seven days were almost ended, the Jews which were of Asia, when they saw him in the temple, stirred up all the people, and laid hands on him, ²⁸ Crying out, Men of Israel, help: This is the man, that teacheth all men every where against the people, and the law, and this place: and further brought Greeks also into the temple, and hath polluted this holy place. ²⁹ (For they had seen before with him in the city Trophimus an Ephesian, whom they supposed that Paul had brought into the temple.) ³⁰ And all the city was moved, and the people ran together: and they took Paul, and drew him out of the temple: and forthwith the doors were shut. ³¹ And as they went about to kill him, tidings came unto the chief captain of the band, that all Jerusalem was in an uproar. ³² Who immediately took soldiers and centurions, and ran down unto them: and when they saw the chief captain and the soldiers, they left beating of Paul. ³³ Then the chief captain came near, and took him, and commanded him to be bound with two chains; and demanded who he was, and what he had done. ³⁴ And some cried one thing, some another, among the multitude: and when he could not know the certainty for the tumult, he commanded him to be carried into the castle. ³⁵ And when he came upon the stairs, so it was, that he was borne of the soldiers for the violence of the people. ³⁶ For the multitude of the people followed after, crying, Away with him.” 

Let us look into the passage with an analytical mind.  (1) According to the customs of the Jews, Paul went to the temple to keep the laws of purification.  When the seventh day was about to end, some Jews from Asia saw him.  They called for help to the fellow Jews in verse 28.  Their charge was, “This is the man, that teacheth all men every where against the people, and the law, and this place: and further brought Greeks also into the temple, and hath polluted this holy place.”  (2) Paul refuted these charges in 24:18-20, “Whereupon certain Jews from Asia found me purified in the temple, neither with multitude, nor with tumult. ¹⁹ Who ought to have been here before thee, and object, if they had ought against me. ²⁰ Or else let these same here say, if they have found any evil doing in me, while I stood before the council.”  What the Jews said about and against him was not true, but false.  Paul also said in 25:10 that he had not done any wrong to the Jews.  Thus, he was not guilty of doing anything to the Temple nor against any one of the Jews.  (3) The people’s reaction to Paul is found in 21:30, “And all the city was moved, and the people ran together: and they took Paul, and drew him out of the temple: and forthwith the doors were shut.”  Everyone was after him with anger and animosity.  How much animosity did they have toward Paul?  21:31 says that they were about to kill him.  It was their consistent attitude toward him.  When the Roman soldiers got involved in the situation, the Jews in the city said in 21:36, “Away with him!”  This sentiment is well mentioned by Festus while speaking to King Agrippa in 25:24, “… All the multitude of the Jews… crying that he ought not to live any longer.”  All they wanted to do with him was to kill him (see also Acts 23:12-22).  (4) Then, we should wonder why they wanted to kill him.  It was very strange that they did not have any clue about Paul, in fact.  21:33-34 says, “Then the chief captain came near, and took him, and commanded him to be bound with two chains; and demanded who he was, and what he had done. ³⁴ And some cried one thing, some another, among the multitude: and when he could not know the certainty for the tumult, he commanded him to be carried into the castle.”  The chief captain could not possibly find out the reason of their uproar against Paul, because the accusers themselves did not have any clear idea at all.  Nonetheless, they wanted him to die.  Isn’t it strange?  (5) Now, we go back to the reason why the Jews hated him even to kill him.  In 21:28, the accusation was that he taught against the Jews, the law, and the temple.  He was also accused of having brought Greeks into the Temple.  Tertulus, an orator, represented the high priest and the elders in the governor’s court against Paul in 24:5-6, “For we have found this man a pestilent fellow, and a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes: ⁶ Who also hath gone about to profane the temple: whom we took, and would have judged according to our law.”  Paul refuted such accusations in 25:8, “While he answered for himself, Neither against the law of the Jews, neither against the temple, nor yet against Caesar, have I offended any thing at all.”  Their accusations were lies but the people were convinced . 

(6) Now we see that Paul was accused for something that he had not done.  The people were agitated, and their emotions were stirred up.  Some people swore to kill Paul in 23:12.  Such a vow was vouchsafed by the chief priests and the elders in 23:14.  People came to believe with all sincerity in something that was not true but false.  In reality, they became convinced that Paul was an evil man who harmed the Jews and Jewish religion as well as defiled the Temple.  Nothing became something against Paul.  (7) The real reason that the religious leaders hated Paul was his faith in the resurrection of Jesus Christ (23:6), but they concealed it.  Even the chief captain who detained Paul wanted to know the cause of the Jews’ animosity toward Paul and could not find any fault in him.  He found that all the disputes were about the Jewish laws (23:28-29).  Paul believed in the resurrection of Jesus (24:15; 26:23).  He declared that this resurrection faith was the primary cause of their accusations.  Here comes the use of propaganda by his enemies.  The real issue was of Jesus and His resurrection.  The chief priests and elders conspired with the Romans guards that the body of Jesus was stolen away by His disciples.  As Paul was preaching the resurrection of Jesus, they felt threatened.  However, they did not want to bring the issue of the resurrection of Jesus into the centre stage.  Instead, they chose sentimental and emotional accusations to agitate the fellow Jews.  They accused Paul of defiling the Temple and despising their religion.  This accusation was a successful form of propaganda.  (8) The end result of propaganda is to change the minds and opinions of people.  Thus, something untrue is believed to be true.  Darkness is called light, and a lie is called truth.  Emotions are flared up, and insensible and unreasonable decisions are made.

Here let me introduce you to another gross example from Nazi theorist and proponent of propaganda Walther Schulze-Wechsungen who wrote, “Many a one laughed at the propaganda of the NSDAP [National Socialist German Workers’ Party] in the past from a position of superiority.  It is true that we had only one thing to say, and we yelled and screamed and propagandized it again and again with a stubbornness that drove the ‘wise’ to desperation.  We proclaimed it with such simplicity that they thought it absurd and almost childish.  They did not understand that repetition is the precursor to success and simplicity is the key to the emotional and mental world of the masses.  We wanted to appeal to the intuitive world of the great masses, not the understanding of the intellectuals” ( “Political Propaganda,” Unser Wille und Weg, 4, 1934, Calvin College German Propaganda Archive.).  When people are repeatedly exposed to something, their mind becomes dull and sluggish, and ideas born out of repeated propaganda begin to take roots in their minds.

Can we imagine the effects of false teachers and teachings on Christian churches, by those who are propagandists (promoting their own agendas) and stir up people to reject the sound doctrines?  People believe in propaganda even without evidence.  Propaganda can break up churches and their communities.  We need spiritual discernment as the end time comes nearer.  Hold on to the truth.  Grasp it.  Exercise and keep your mind!

Lovingly,

Your Pastor

More Lively Hope

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