How do you kill 11 million people? 3 reasons why we’ve likely been duped

Florida has been making the news once again as its board of education approved a curriculum for middle school students that affirms that slaves benefitted from their enslavement: after all, the new curriculum suggests, they gained many useful skills such as carpentry and the like.

In Israel, the Israeli Education Ministry has barred the Parents’ Circle Family Forum from giving presentations in Israeli schools. The Parents’ Circle Families Forum (PCFF) website describes the group as, “a joint Israeli-Palestinian organization of over 600 families, all of whom have lost an immediate family member to the ongoing conflict.” In other words, they are bereaved Israeli and Palestinian parents who have come together to advocate for an end to conflict so that no one else will have to lose a child as they have.

Makes sense why the Israeli Education Ministry would want to bar them from speaking up. After all, we don’t need to hear from grieving parents about how we should stop this senseless violence!!

If we think these are one-offs, we are greatly mistaken.

How do you kill 11 million people?

There is a very short book by Andy Andrews titled, How do You Kill 11 Million People?

Andrews notes that the problem is not merely in the one doing the killing but in the fact that millions (of Jews—Andrews clearly has the Holocaust in mind) allowed themselves to be loaded into boxcars without much resistance. Andrews explains how mothers and fathers allowed their families to lock up in boxcars that were escorting them to their deaths with little to no resistance: “The answer is breathtakingly simple. And it is a method still being used by some elected leaders to achieve various goals today. How do you kill eleven million people? Lie to them.” (Andrews, 21-22).

Beware of deception from governing officials

Andrews goes on to suggest that if we allow our elected officials to lie to us, we too might go the way of Nazi Germany.

Now, although I agree in principle with what Andrews proposes, I think he is tragically naïve. After all, Andrews seems to assume that the truth is readily available and that everyone can access it.

At one point he even says, “My point is that each of us must stop blindly believing everything someone with an agenda says. Today, with the advent of the Internet’s search engines and sites like YouTube, it is fairly simple to verify a politician’s promises, voting record, personal life, and so on. So let’s all work together. Post your proof online for all of us to read and pass along” (Andrews, 59-60). Later he adds, “Read the books yourself . . . examine the record . . . it’s all there for anyone to see.” (Andrews, 68).

But it’s not all out there for anyone to see!

Andrews also seemingly overlooks the fact that everyone has an agenda! This means that as we sift through the data we then need to be sure that our sources are giving us accurate information.

In addition, the question must be asked: “Who has the time and education needed to sift through every statement uttered to determine what is true and what is not?” How can we be sure that one person’s post represents the truth over another’s without spending vast sums of time analyzing all the data?

There is another, even more fundamental, flaw in Andrews’ work. Namely, we often believe what we want to believe. In other words, even if it were “all there for anyone to see,” it doesn’t mean that we are objective evaluators who are willing to believe the truth regardless of what it is.

Be Humble

I teach Biblical Interpretation at a Seminary to students, men and women, who are training for ministry. The objective is for them to learn how to interpret the Bible well so that they can apply the Word to their own lives, then write sermons and various lessons so that they may teach the Word effectively.

My first exhortation is: “Be humble.” For without humility, we will likely use our training to conclude all sorts of things. After all, we need to recognize that well-meaning men and women have believed wildly different things when it comes to what the Bible says: some of which include gross injustices. Christians have advocated for slavery, supported the Crusades, lynchings, and the slaughtering of Native Americans (And I could go on for a long time—I actually do so as part of my opening lecture on the need for humility).

So here is my question:

Have we been duped?

Is it possible that the history of the world, the history of the US, the history of “you name it” that we learned doesn’t reflect the truth? Is it possible that our view of economics, politics, and virtually anything else is full of half-truths and errors?

Some may respond to such questions by remarking that if we have been duped, then what is the truth? and how can we be sure?

In response, I would note that to some respect we cannot be sure. That is what it means to be human.

NB: This is where some evangelicals claim that the Bible gives us certainty. To which I reply, “But how do you know for certain what the Bible means?” After all, Christians believed that the Bible taught or advocated for all sorts of things.

Education and disinformation

Of course, one of the evils of a good lie is that it has truth within it. It might be easy for someone to say, “Yea, I never thought about it that way. The Florida Board of Education has a good point: slaves really did benefit from slavery.” All the while we are led to overlook the fact that it is still slavery that we are talking about.

NB: When asked about the board of education’s decision, Florida Governor DeSantis remarked that this was not his decision but “well-educated” individuals were involved in the process.

This sort of censoring of information, or in the case of Florida, framing the information so that evil might masquerade as good, is the norm! It is not exceptional.

Therefore, I would conclude:

Of course, we have been duped! 3 Reasons

I would first note that we have been duped because everyone has an agenda.

That includes those who wrote the textbooks that we grew up with.

Second, we have been duped because that is what nations do.

If you have followed my blog, or tuned into my podcasts, you may know that the book of Revelation places a heavy stress on the truth. It does so mostly by noting that deception is the weaponry of the Devil.

The book of Revelation describes Satan as the one “who deceives the whole world” (Rev 12:9).

The Beast has a “mouth speaking arrogant words and blasphemies” (Rev 13:5).

Later, the Satanic triumvirate has coming out of their mouths, “three unclean spirits like frogs; for they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them together for the war of the great day of God, the Almighty” (Rev 16:13-14). Of course, the implication is that that these demonic spirits use deception as the primary means by which they gather the nations for war.

Third, we have been duped because we often don’t want to admit the truth.

The fact is that we too have been duped because we want to believe that we are the good guys/gals. Surely, we haven’t contributed to gross injustice. Or have we?

The Beast and the Great Prostitute

Over the course of the next several months (and maybe longer), I intend to write on the nature of the kingdom of God and what it means for the people of God today. My aim is to address the Beast of Revelation 13 and the Great Prostitute of Rev 17-18 and to ask how this applies in the 21^st century.

I suspect that you may want to resist and even disregard what I have to say. You may choose to tune out and dismiss my convictions because they are too radical.

My exhortation to you is this:

Satan is the mastermind of deception. And his efforts are aimed at the church.

It is too easy for those of us in the church to conclude that we are the good guys/gals. After all, God knows that we are trying hard to do what is right.

Speak the truth at all times

My mom ingrained in me the necessity for telling the truth. If I recall it correctly, I might have been 10 and I had just lied about something. My mom then explained to me that if I lie, how is she supposed to know if I am telling the truth the next time?

Her words stuck with me. So well, in fact, that I have never lied since.

Okay, maybe that is a lie. I suppose I have once or twice. But only on my taxes and everyone lies on their taxes.

Jesus said, “You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free” (John 8:32). Of course, for Jesus, the Truth was a person. Ironically, as the Gospel of John continues the conflict with Jesus as the Truth reaches its height when Pilate, who was standing next to the very One who was the answer to his query, asks, “What is truth?” (John 18:38). I almost wish I was there so I could yell, “You are looking at Him!”—not that Pilate would have listened to me. After all, I doubt he knew English and I don’t speak Latin.

The title of this blog and my larger ministry is “Determinetruth.” This title does not intend to suggest that we have already determined the truth. Instead, it is an assertion of what our goal should be. After all, I am firmly convinced that all truth leads us to Him who is the Truth.

There is only one problem with this aim. What do we do when we don’t like the truth?

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