The “Big Lie”

Under Nazi Germany, Adolph Hitler reigned as the Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945. He systematically transformed the Weimar Republic into a single-party dictatorship through a series of well planned and calculated ideas of National Socialism.

But Adolph Hitler would have never been as influential as he was if it wasn’t for a man by the name of Joseph Goebbels (pronounced “Gerr-buhls”).

Minister of Propaganda for Nazi Germany 1933 - 1945

Goebbels was Hitler’s “Propaganda Minister” from 1933 to 1945. And (and I mean this in the most terrible way possible) his tactics were nothing short of genius.

Goebbels would get the agenda from Hitler and prepare speeches to preach to the newly founded Nazi party leading up to the 1933 election. As fate would have it, Adolph Hitler was elected Chancellor of Germany.

Lausanne Conference of 1932 in Switzerland

Maybe you’ve seen clips on television of the massive book burnings in the Weimar Republic. Goebbels propagated that the people should burn all books that were rejected by the Nazi party: Books of literature, philosophy, the arts, and all Bibles – anything classified as “Un-German“. The result was a massive bonfire where people from all walks of life mindlessly came to the square and tossed their treasured literature into the flames. (Even the writings of German physicist and philosopher Albert Einstein and journals of the famous Ernest Hemingway were not excluded.)

Berlin 1933

Goebbels perfected the “Big Lie” technique of propaganda, which is based on the principle that a lie, if it is audacious enough and if it is repeated enough, will become a form of truth for everyone to believe. He would meet with Hitler; discuss the agenda; figure out what they would like for the people to believe; and then go out and make a series of speeches to sway the public opinion.

He controlled the media, he controlled all forms of arts and information, and he would have those who questioned him or his policies executed by the Brownshirts. His zealous oratory and virulent anti-Semitism made him the chief architect of the Kristallnacht attack on German Jews which was the beginning of Hitler’s “Final Solution” leading towards the genocide of the Holocaust.

Now, I remind you of this story because 1.) It’s always good to go back and review the past, 2.) This was a very dark time in the history of the world, and 3.) The tactics of propaganda that Goebbels used in Nazi Germany are the same tactics that Satan uses today.

And I want to make a very strong point that this is a progressive, constantly evolving form of propaganda. If you are not aware of it, it will slowly and surely infiltrate your mind and slide you and everything around you into sin over time. Let me give you just one example:

Controversy erupted over the 1939 release of the motion picture “Gone With The Wind” concerning the usage of a profane word by actor Clark Gable, who portrayed the character of Rhett Butler in the movie. In the last scene, Rhett passionately tells Scarlett O’Hara (Vivien Leigh): “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a d-mn” as he storms out of the house and out of Scarlett’s life for good.

The 1930 Motion Picture Association’s Production Code prohibited the usage of that particular word in any motion picture, along with several other words deemed as “profane”. However, the MPA passed an amendment to the production code on November 1st, 1939 (ironically, a month and a half before the film’s release) that forbade usage of profane words, except when their use: “shall be essential and required for portrayal, in proper historical context, of any scene or dialogue based upon historical fact or folklore … or a quotation from a literary work, provided that no such use shall be permitted which is intrinsically objectionable or offends good taste.”

Fast forward seventy+ years.

To most, profanity is not even that much of a big deal anymore. The same word that brought so much controversy in “Gone With The Wind” in 1939 is now commonly used as a substituted ‘last name’ for God. It is nothing to hear an elevated conversation at random turn into a profanity match with people using some of the most vile, filthy, detestable, and horrible language known to man. Not only that, but profanity has invaded our language to the point where casual conversations between friends are not devoid of it.

And this is exactly my point. Satan, ever the master strategist, has slowly implanted vileness and filthiness into our culture and our language. The “Big Lie” is that words now do not matter so much – that the message is what matters, and you should use any means necessary and available to you to get it across.  It is a strategy that was effectively employed by Goebbels, but conceived in the mind of Satan thousands of years ago.

So, let’s put it to the test: Do you have control over your tongue? No, really? Do you? Is profanity a part of your normal, every-day communications? If your answer is “yes”, then you must ask yourself what else the Devil has slowly and progressively deceived you about? By the definition, deception gives you a form of truth while masking reality.

Remember: a lie, if it is audacious enough and if it is repeated often enough, will become a form of truth for everyone to believe.

Always hold to the Truth. Don’t let the “Big Lie” affect you.

Oh, and, by the way, the only Truth that will never lead you astray or down the wrong path is found in the Word of God. How much of the Bible are you taking in? God compares His Word to a fire that strips away all inconsistencies: “Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?” (Jeremiah 23:29)

And instead of the “Big Lie”, you can know the “Big Truth”, which is: A Truth, if it is read often enough and adhered to closely enough, will completely transform your life through the power of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I will meditate in thy precepts, and have respect unto thy ways.I will delight myself in thy statutes: I will not forget thy word. Psalms 119:15-16