I was going through some old periodicals and found an article written in January of 1972 about some papers that were captured by Allied forces following World War I (1919). The papers were of communism’s rules for revolution and have come to be known as “The Dusseldorf Papers”. Since the end of the Cold War, Russia is no longer perceived to be the communist threat it once was. China, the largest nation in the world both from the standpoint of land area and population, remains a communist country. 
 

    As I read the rules contained in the Dusseldorf Papers, it made me to realize that communism has done, and possibly continues to do, a very effective job of implementing it’s rules of revolution. In fact, it sent cold chills up and down my spine as I read each rule. It made me to think that undoubtedly there are strong and powerful organizations still at work today to bring this nation to its knees, if we are not already there.

    Here are those rules:

“A.  Corrupt the young, get them away from religion. Get them interested in sex. Make them superficial, destroy their ruggedness.

B.  Get control of all means of publicity and thereby:

    1.  Get people’s minds off their government by focusing attention on athletics, sexy books and plays and other        trivialities. (Editor’s Note: You must realize TV wasn’t invented at the time these rules were formulated.)
     2.  Divide the people into hostile groups by constantly harping on controversial matters of no importance.
     3.  Destroy the people’s faith in their national leaders by holding the later up to contempt, ridicule, and obloquy.
     4.  Always preach true democracy, but seize power as fast and as ruthlessly as possible.
     5.  By encouraging government extravagance, destroy its credit, produce fear of inflation with rising prices and        general discontent.
     6.  Foment unnecessary strikes in vital industries, encourage civil disorders and foster a lenient and soft attitude on the part of government toward such disorders.
     7.  By specious argument cause the breakdown of the old moral virtues, honesty, sobriety, continence, faith in the       pledged word, ruggedness.

C.  Cause the registration of all firearms on some pretext, with a view to confiscating them and leaving the population helpless.”

    While most of the rules are political in nature, it is not my purpose in this article to get into politics. Yet I still could not help but be amazed at the number of rules that have become reality in our present day society.

    Of the rules that are of most interest to me are rules A and B7. Who of you reading this article can say our nation, along with its youth, is getting farther and farther away from religion and any recognized standard of moral values? How many years now has this country been living by the philosophy: “If it feels good, do it!”, “It’s my life, I’ll do with it what I want to!”? We have now inbred this line of thinking into at least two, maybe three, generations. Where is the attitude that God would have us to have: “O LORD, I know the way of man is not in himself; It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps.” (Jeremiah 10:23) “There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.” (Proverbs 14:12;16:25).

    Think about how much is said in the Scriptures pertaining to unlawful sexual activity. Think of the number of warnings that the Scriptures issue about fornication, adultery, homosexuals, sodomites, etc. Yet we have the media of television, radio, music, movies, magazines, books, and the Internet that portrays all forms of unlawful sexual as a form of entertainment. Think about how all these forms of media have shaped and influenced our thinking and our attitudes; not to mention that of our children and grand-children.

    Ever so gradually but ever so surely, God’s truth is being gagged. Gospel preachers are coming under greater scrutiny when it comes to what they can say on radio and television or have printed in the newspaper. Certain Bible topics are taboo in our society. I know of a preacher, in recent years, who had his articles reworded by newspaper editors. I know of preachers who had radio programs discontinued by station owners who were living in adultery. It happened when those preachers began to teach on adultery at the request of the call-in radio audience.

    We are at the point where there cannot be any public display of anything pertaining to God. Parts of His word cannot be displayed and the act of prayer has been restricted if not outright banned. How much longer will it be that we can freely and fearlessly worship Him openly? God has been pushed around so much and nearly driven out of this country. As a nation, we ought to be ashamed of such rank hypocrisy to be treating God the way this country is and yet mint coins and money with “In God We Trust” engraved on them.

    The Dusseldorf Papers may have been written in 1919 or even earlier but it only serves to show that in the ninety-one years that has followed, someone or something has done a very effective job of planting its seed and nurturing them to where they have become woven into the very fabric of our American culture. The question is: Have we as Christians been swept along with it? Is our stand with the world or with God and the things He teaches us in His word?

    We must remember: “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” (1 John 2:15)

                                                                                                                                                                           ---E.R. Hall, Jr.

                Changing the Label Makes Sin More Dangerous

    One of America's great needs is to recognize sin for what it is. We are too prone to explain it away, or to soften it's horrors.

    Wilbur Chapman tells of a distinguished minister who preached on sin, and one of the leading members came to talk to him in his study. He said to the preacher, "We don't want you to talk so plainly about sin, because the more our boys and girls hear you talking about sin the more easily they will become sinners. Call sin a mistake if you will, but do not speak so plainly about it being just plain outright sin."

    The preacher took down a small bottle from the shelf marked "POISON" and showed it to the visitor. It was a bottle of strychnine. He said, "I see what you want me to do. You want me to change the label. Now, suppose I took off this label marked "Poison" on this bottle, and put on some mild label, such as "Oil of Anise," don't you see what happens? The milder you make the label, the more dangerous you make the poison!"

    And so it is with sin. It is hideous and horrible and no amount of whitewashing will change the picture. It must be branded for what it really is if we are to escape its blighting devastation.

                                                                                                                                                                                ---Selected