THE SPIRIT OF MENTAL CONFUSION MARCH 2006

March 14, 2006:

It's interesting that Babel in Hebrew means confusion and Babulon

or Babylon in Greek also means confusion. We are now living in a time

of confusion. There is a confusion between right and wrong and often

what would have been clearly seen as being wrong 20 or 30 years ago

is now done. For example, last year, the 13 day execution of

helpless Terri Schiavo, upheld by the courts, and not stopped by the

Bush regime or Congress, demonstrates that moral confusion in a

horrible way.

I think that part of the confusion described in the Bible and that

which we now see going on is a mental state. You could say its a

result of a heightened form of the spirit of antichrist (I John 4:3).

Confusion is a blurring of right and wrong.

Evil in our time is partly hidden; its also a mystery, as Paul says

in II Thessalonians 2: 7. There is a confusion or blurring of right

and wrong now, a loss of moral clarity.

There is also a blurring of understanding.

Paul writes in Romans 1: 22 that "Professing themselves to be wise,

they became fools." He is talking about hose who hold the truth in

unrighteousness. "They became fools" is all one word in the Greek,

emoranthesan. This is Strong's Exhaustive Concordance number 3471,

from number 3474, moros, which Strong's says means dull or stupid.

The Analytical Greek Lexicon Revised, by Harold K. Moulton, says that

moraino in Romans 1: 22 means "to be rendered insipid." That suggests

being dull or lifeless. Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament

Words tells us that moros, the root word for moraino, and hence

emoranthesan, means "stupid, foolish"

Emoranthesan is in the aorist tense and passive voice in Romans 1:

22. Note that an "e" is put before moraino and the verb

ending "thesan" is part of the change to put it in the passive

aorist. The sentence could be translated as "Professing themselves

to be wise, they became stupid." Since its passive it means "they

passively received a state of stupidity." This is what has happened

to many people living at this time. They have passively received a

mental condition of stupidity from America Babylon and from the

spirit of antichrist (I John 4: 3). Most of the people who have

acquired a diminished cognitive clarity did not of themselves seek to

become that way; it just happened to them.

There has been a loss of sharp discernment in the world that seems

to be more evident in the U.S. perhaps because 50 years ago were were

not nearly that lacking in discernment. Paul says in I Corinthians

14: 33 "For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in

all the churches of the saints." John Gill and Matthew Henry take

this to mean that there must be order in churches, so that everyone

does not talk at the same time. Yet I still think that confusion is

in part a condition of the mind. Paul mentions a renewing of the mind

in Romans 12: 2, that God has given us the spirit of a sound mind in

II Timothy 1: 7, and that we may have the mind of Christ (I

Corinthians 2: 16). The Holy Spirit in regeneration can give us a

mind that is not badly confused in either knowing right and wrong or

in cognitive discernment.

Understanding in general requires the ability to pay attention. This

cognitive skill has been diminished in many people, and it is

something needed to read and understand moderately demanding texts.

The people who do not pay attention very well do not exert much

mental effort to understand what is going on in the world. And these

people do not have a very large amount of information in their memory

on ideas, issues, events, people and things. E.D. Hirsch in The

First Dictionary of Cultural Literacy (1989) says problems in reading

are due to inadequate amount of information held in memory. He

says "More and more of our young people don't know things we used to

assume they knew."

Those with cognitive clarity problems, or lack of clear discernment

of the times, are not able to make connections very well between what

information they do have stored in their memories. They do not spell

out in an explicit way or elaborate in detail what they know in

thought or in communication. And so, they often cannot remember

something at he right time to make use of that memory. And they have

trouble in creating new combinations of ideas, which is vital to

being creative.

I think that mental confusion in our time can be partly caused by

unclear, ambiguous and deceptive communication to us from other

people, from the mainstream media and the government.

The Bush regime claims we are in a "war on terrorism." But

this "war" has been based upon lies and deceptions and communications

that are too vague.

Communicating in vague generalities can contribute to mental

confusion and cognitive unclarity. I have noticed that within the

Dot Com Culture - and this culture is discussed on the Internet -

there is often an inability or unwillingness to communicate clearly.

Those who offer software that can be downloaded, for example, may not

tell a user in explicit language step by step how to use their

software. Many times the user has to learn by trial and error.

Though George Orwell never said he had become a Christian, he was in

some ways a fairly clear thinker and could write well. In his

essay, "Politics and the English language," he said that "...politics

itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and

schizophrenia." Orwell called for the use of clear language. When

language becomes so ambiguous as to be virtually meaningless, or

nonsense, it is schizophrenic in nature.

Paul says in I Corinthians 14: 8-11 that "...if the trumpet give an

uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle? So likewise

ye, except ye utter by the tongue words easy to understand, how

shall it be known what is spoken? for ye shall speak into the air.

There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none

of them is without signification. Therefore if I know not the

meaning of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh a barbarian,

and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian unto me." The words that

are spoken should have a clear signification to the hearers.

He is telling us here that it is better for the edification of the

brethren that we speak in a clear language that can be understood

and not in unknown tongues. But what he says can be applied in a

general way to the issue of communicating in vague generalities which

can be interpreted in so many different ways. Is he suggesting that

those who do not communicate clearly are barbarians?

Bernard