“TRUST NO ONE” – A Crisis of Confidence!

  Bribed, Blackmailed & Brainwashed – Pt. 9: “The Erosion of Truth”

  By Richard Allen – August 19, 2024

Being a life-long fan of Science Fiction, I well remember the “warning” posted during the opening credits to the Fox series, “X-Files.”  After listening to 60 seconds of the other-world music of Mark Snow (a haunting tune entitled: "Materia Primoris”), we then see the graphic pictured at the top of this Blog saying: “Trust No One!” This will be the theme of my Blog this week, and I’m not talking about trust within your family or even your church – but I am talking about trusting the modern institutions in American Society that have been set up by government, academia, health-care, corporate, and especially media conglomerates. We live in a time where the “Fake News” are the chief purveyors of falsehood and can’t be trusted!

The corrupting influences of money and the constant quest for power by secularized Americans, fosters an environment where most people seek their own interests, not the well-being of their fellow man. Paul admonished the Church in Philippi Christians must be different:

“Don’t act out of selfish ambition or be conceited. Instead, humbly think of others as being better than yourselves. Don’t be concerned only about your own interests, but also be concerned about the interests of others. Have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Although he was in the form of God and equal with God, he did not take advantage of this equality. Instead, he emptied himself by taking on the form of a servant, by becoming like other humans, by having a human appearance. He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, death on a cross” (God’s Word Translation - Philippians 2:3-8).

People controlled by the Spirit can actually live out these words of Scripture – and be trusted, but sadly, not many others. I admit there are decent, moral people out there who have integrity, but without faith. This sad state of affairs is nothing new, as man has always been corrupt, since the Fall. It has become “exponentially worse” over the past centuries of our Modern Era. This is due largely to the connectivity of our information age and the corrupting influence of power and money. Things have gone from bad to worse with the “waning influence of Christianity in general, and the Church in particular.” While there is blame enough for all parts of Society – there are without a doubt – organized efforts by those who hope to gain from the confusion and mistrust they sow among the populace.

How ironic that a country founded by men who sought to put checks and balances upon the “reins of government power,” has ended up with “A government Of the Connected, By the Lobbyists and For the Rich and Powerful!” It was never supposed to be so. In this series, “Bribed, Blackmailed and Brainwashed,” I’ve reflected on the corruption within our American Institutions, often citing specific examples. But what I’d like to ask and answer in this Blog is: Why are people such easy targets for the scams that “The New World Order” is using to eliminate our Freedoms, and convert America from a Republic to a Communist or Crony Capitalist System?  Without getting too complicated, it’s clear that our Fallen Human Natures make us prone to this corruption. Let me relate a story that happened to me approximately 15 years ago.  As a master trainer for my company, I regularly “trained trainers” to deliver coursework developed in-house by my company. I was delivering a learnings module to a group of two dozen trainers from all over Europe, teaching them how to train managers and employees to be Ethical and Legal in all their corporate behavior. 

Seeing that the coursework had been developed in the United States for “worldly European,” it was almost “puritanical” in the “squeaky clean” ethics and behavior it demanded by our managers and employees. Seeing that I had trainers from all over Europe from our Affiliates,

I led them through about half of the learning, answering questions on delivery and giving examples along the way. About 45 minutes into my “train-the-trainer,” I noticed one of our trainers from Italy smiling at me non-stop. For sake of anonymity, let’s call him Mario. Realizing that he was either finding me quite funny, or the course content, I finally asked him: “Mario, I see that you are smiling. Would you be willing to share with the class what’s so funny?” He continued smiling and said: “Rich, if we implemented even a quarter of these restrictions in Italy, the whole place would shut down!”  As he spoke, virtually all the other European trainers said the same about their own countries, commenting that American principles of right and wrong were very extreme, compared to the standards in Europe. They further explained, they’d initially been polite because I was an American!  What an eye-opening experience. Turns out, I heard similar feedback with Trainers in the “Pacific Rim” and Asia when training there. 

I learned two things by this experience: 1.) That ethical values in America still reflected our Protestant Christian origins and the lasting impact these values had on the whole country.  But even more important, 2.) I learned that longstanding “institutionalized corruption” was ingrained in the older cultures in Europe and much of the rest of the world. Since Adam and Eve fell into Sin (and we, their posterity with them), as Mario explained – have always used kick-backs, bribes, greased palms, blackmail and coercion to get things done!  You might then ask: “I thought Christian cultures in Western Europe had changed from their “pagan ways” in pre-Christian societies for the better?” The answer is, they have, and the Church’s influence has changed Western cultures – especially where “human rights” and “mercy to the poor” are concerned. But we need to understand, those Western cultures have long been under the influence of Institutionalized Christianity.

And over time, the natural corruption of Fallen Men and Women has lessened the influence of Christ’s Gospel Teaching. What’s left is outward morality and religion that’s more “pretense” than “substance.”  There is probably no place where this irony can be seen than in a scene of the original Godfather Movie. If I remember correctly, Al Pacino (a.k.a. Michael Corleone), is in Church with the Priest baptizing his infant child.  All the while, the scenes flipped back and forth to show Michael’s mafioso goons taking out his competition in quick executional style!  As Mario explained, this is how things got done!

Fallen people are “untrustworthy.” So, when we wonder why “The New World Order” and its bags of money, influence and rewards are making such inroads into all of our American institutions, we need to remember:  Corruption is our natural state of behavior. If we just reflect for a minute, 90% of all Television, Books and Movies have themes that are infused with Bribes, Blackmail and Brainwashing –  controlling all of human society. And there is always a cast of fallen men and women who are trying to “get their way,” or “get a leg up on someone else.”  Even our popular music offerings are about sin – or “somebody done somebody wrong song.”  Fallen men and women – many of them not evil in the demonic sense – are just hungry, hurt and deprived – trying to gain some comfort and bring some joy into their miserable lives. Like the infant who is born crying, cold and hungry, they never seem to rise beyond the pull and total control of the flesh, to strive for anything higher than creature comforts. That change in behavior only comes from a “disciplined life,” often from the work of God’s Spirit in our souls.  Moral behavior may also issue from some sense of “asceticism” or other “moralistic” discipline – but either way, these are the exceptions to human behavior.  Sadly, even people who are morally disciplined can be “untrustworthy.” 

So, what are we to make of life here under the sun with untrustworthy men and women? For Believers in Jesus Christ, we should take the “warning from X-Files” seriously.”  We should ultimately “Trust No One” in an absolute sense –other than God and His Word.  Even fellow believers will often act out according to their fallen natures. “The arm of the flesh will fail us” – both our own, and the arms of others. We need to have a sober understanding of the world around us.  That’s why Jesus admonished us: “To be wise as serpents, yet harmless as doves” (Matthew 10:16). As we have seen over these past eight years, many so called “conservatives” and others who we believed to have good motives and right behavior, have turned out to be “sell-outs.”  Many of them have “betrayed others” taking the easy path of going along to get along with deep state actors – they have also sold out for a quick buck.  Often, people just “compromise” in order to keep from being persecuted for taking a stand or resisting the onslaught of “Falsehood” that is being pushed. I’m reminded that “only living fish fight the current and swim upstream. Any dead fish can easily float downstream with the current of this world.”

My prayer for all of God’s people is that we would “put on the full armor of God, and stand strong against the wiles of the enemy” – especially in these troubled times. And we don’t have to fight alone, we have “Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who has gone on before us, also not compromising the Truth” (Hebrews 12:2).  Trust No One, except God and His people – there are some major deceptions coming, we need to be ready.  I only ask for the People of God to stand strong, prayerfully read and study God’s Word, and conduct ourselves as men and women of faith!  Never give up, sell out or give in!

Soli Deo Gloria!