To demonstrate their duty and submission  to their spiritual overseer
and pastor David Koresh, many  "Christians"
were willing to be transformed into human  torches in the town of Waco, Texas.
To demonstrate their obedience and duty  to “Obey them that have the rule over you," many "Christians" submitted to their  spiritual overseer and Pastor  
the Rev. Jim Jones, and "partook of the  communion of death" in the jungles of Guyana, South  America.
Introduction
Many Christians will be quick to express the  “extremeness”  of the examples mentioned above in regards  to people following their leaders, yet nevertheless, there is a lot more  relevance to what has just been said than most of us care to recognize –  relevancy that lands itself right at our own  doorsteps.
When someone joins themselves to an  organization or an institution called the “local church,”  the times that will be spent there are very  formative.  
These formative times give ample  opportunities for the “religious leaders” or  “spiritual overseers” to  brainwash the people by planting fears that will literally keep a person in  bondage to their particular brand of religious system for life, or keep a person  from looking at anything else for fear of being deceived. 
These formative years provide an abundant  opportunity as well for the “church leaders” to  implant concepts which will actually keep the person from ever seeing the truth,  even though the truth may be right before their eyes!  If a particular doctrine  or practice is continually being implanted into one’s mind time after time,  using vivid graphic illustrations, a handful of Scriptures, add a little fear,  and of course, throw in some “awesome respect for church authorities”  and then, when that person reads plain Bible  texts which tells them something different, they will not be able to clearly see  what is directly in front of them.  They will see the text through the filters  that were put on their mind. They will not see the text as it really  is.
It’s absolutely amazing how many times a  Scripture is read in church that completely contradicts one of their main  teachings and no one ever comments about the contradiction. 
There was a time at the beginning perhaps  when they asked those hard questions, but when they were rebuked or ridiculed  and shamed for asking questions that caused division, they learned not to  question anymore. They learned to go along with the crowd. 
The scales over the eyes have become so  thick that everything, including the concept of God Himself, becomes gross  darkness. But they do not know it is darkness on account of the fact that they  have been seeing that way for quite some time now.  The  “leaders” have locked them in to their own little  system.  To stray into a different area of thought is almost unthinkable for  many of them.  
Yea, rather the “leaders”  view it as tantamount to heresy!  
I say without intending offense that such  exclusiveness differs little from the two extreme  examples mentioned above or any other authoritarian  groups. 
Victims of such brainwashing have lost their  personal autonomy and in some cases are reduced to almost a  zombie-like state!  A person who goes to their church Sunday  after Sunday, and hears basically the same underlying message repeatedly for a  lifetime, has little hope of ever understanding TRUTH as it is revealed in the  all of Scriptures. 
But these people will  refuse to learn anything different from what they  have been indoctrinated in.  Why is that?
The reasons are simple but very important to  be aware of and understand — BRAINWASHING and FEAR.
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www.wickedshepherds.com
