Propaganda

Joseph Goebbels was Hitler's Reich Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany. He was the head of the Nazi propaganda machine. When the Allies bombed Dresden late in World War II, killing 25,000 civilians, Goebbels added a zero and reported loudly that the evil Allies had killed a quarter of a million German civilians without cause. Because, you see, Goebbels had no vested interest in the truth; he only cared about the message. Goebbels was known for a technique known as "the big lie." The idea was that people didn't care about the truth, so "if you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it." It was this principle of Goebbels' propaganda that enabled Nazi Germany to accept willingly the slaughter of 6 million Jews and 11 million other "undesirables." Tell them long and loud and often that these are horrible sub-humans and they won't mind if you eliminate that problem for them.

Goebbels was not alone. The principle -- people suppress the truth -- predates him (Rom 1:18) and the practice continues. Tell people something they want to hear, whether or not it corresponds to reality, and they'll jettison the facts in order to embrace the lie. Claiming to be wise, they become fools. Today. In our modern world of instant information and "civilized society." So we will see two accounts of the same event, one slanted negative and the other positive, and select the one that feels better to us and declare it "truth." It's called "propaganda." And propaganda can actually kill. (Ask the Jews.)

This concept is not a Joseph Goebbels concept. It's not a Nazi concept. It's a human concept driven by the father of lies (John 8:44). Scripture indicates that underneath it all, humans are liars (Rom 1:18; Psa 58:3; Jer 17:9; etc.). The truth is that humans do have a difficult time with the truth. That's why Jesus's statement, "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free" (John 8:32), is so stunning. And this is why it's so important to "test everything; hold fast what is good" (1 Thess 5:21). The good news is that in a world of lies you can know the truth and you can test everything.