Ignorant Intellectuals, No. 3

RV49-02

The key factor in the human personality is, of course, the mind of the soul. God, in the Bible, reveals that a person is what he thinks (Proverbs 23:7). Just as a person is physically what he eats, so he is psychologically what he believes (what he takes into the mind). Human viewpoint garbage accepted into the mind produces human viewpoint garbage concepts and actions in one's life. This is the problem with pornography, for example. Pornography has the devastating effect of being garbage into the mentality of the soul, which then creates problems for that person in his attitudes and in his external reactions.

Satan has, in recent centuries therefore, been shaping the minds of people with doses of human viewpoint garbage from influential, but ignorant, intellectual opinion-makers. These ideas are designed specifically to wean people away from the divine viewpoint thinking of the Bible, which is provided to preserve people from being victimized by Satan in this era when Satan dominates the world. These ideas are portrayed to the human race as superior knowledge over biblical beliefs. These ideas are actually preparing mankind for life in the tribulation world under the dictatorship of Satan's man, the antichrist. These key ideas are directly against God and His will, and they will receive God's most devastating punishment in the time of the tribulation era, as well as in eternity.

God, who preserves Christians from the tribulation judgments in the future, however, also now preserves believers from these concepts which are going to create that tribulation nightmare. In order for us to understand what is coming, we have to understand where it comes from. Understanding where the concepts that create the tribulation come from also preserves us now from being victimized by these concepts, because if you are not informed on the ideas of these influential thinkers, then you won't understand how people think today and why our society operates the way it does. And you will not know how to interpret what you hear from all kinds of directions today, and how, yourself, not to be victimized by those ideas as the people in the tribulation will be victimized in time.

Ignorant Intellectuals

1. Immanuel Kant

   One was Immanuel Kant. He said that knowledge was basically learned through the method of empiricism; that is, through the human senses, and that consequently, there was no absolute truth. What you could not grasp through your senses, you could not really know. Therefore, we're talking about things like heaven; sin; God; eternity; creation; and, so on. Kant said that none of those things can in any realm be areas of absolute certain knowledge, because we cannot secure them through the senses. Consequently, Kant's idea reversed centuries of thinking where A was different from non-A, and that there was such a thing as a cause and a certain effect. Kant's idea established a new way of thinking – that people would not suffer the consequences of their actions.

2. Georg Hegel

   The second thinker we looked at, who speaks to us from the grave, was Georg Hegel. Hegel took up Kant's idea and projected it into a system of thinking called the dialectic, where he was to establish truth, but it was always relative truth: a thesis faced by an antithesis; resulting in a synthesis; which became a new thesis to be faced by a new antithesis: and, to make a new synthesis. The result was that nothing was ever buttoned down. There were no absolutes of morality binding on mankind in society.

3. Charles Darwin

   This concept was then further followed by a third man who speaks to us from the grave: Charles Darwin. He declared that life forms all originated from inanimate matter by gradual evolution, not by divine creation. Consequently, man was a mere animal with no soul, and could be treated and dealt with as an animal. Now, the human race had come quite a way from its original biblical heritage. Now there was no absolute truth. Now there was only relative truth. Now there was no absolute way of thinking – it was only relative thinking. Now, man was not a creation of God made in the image of God. He was just another one of the animals that evolved like all the rest of the animals. There was no difference between man and some other animal, except that he was smarter.

4. Karl Marx

   Along came another voice that speaks to us from the grave today: Karl Marx. Karl Marx came up with the economic system of communism based on dialectical materialism as the means for providing all men with material abundance. This rejected the biblical principle of private ownership, and the biblical principle of profit motivation for elevating the standard of living of people. Karl Marx came up with a system of economics that simply was all based on the concept again that man was a material animal, and if you wave the right things in front of him, he will respond in a desirable way.

5. George Wellhausen

   A fifth man who speaks to us from the grave was George Wellhausen. George Wellhausen said that the Bible was not produced by God the Holy Spirit through human authors, but was merely a human record embellished by human imagination. It was a record of the evolution of religion. The Bible thus was merely a series of writings pasted together from various authors, and there was no absolute authority in spiritual matters in the Bible. It was a record which was subject to human reason and to human evaluation.

6. John Dewey

   We now come to man number six, and this is probably the greatest agent who interjected poison into the line of human thinking. Consider yourself fortunate to be here today to get what I suspect will only be the introduction this morning, and that we will have to follow through next time. That man is John Dewey. John Dewey was the greatest agent for the poisoning of the human mind with Satan's human viewpoint concepts that has ever lived, because he dealt in the field of education. I remind you again that the battle in the final days preceding the return of the Lord is in the field of education, and in the field of the teaching of Bible doctrine. Both those areas are under major attack today, and both those areas are areas that Satan is seeking to depress and to dismiss. The teaching of Bible doctrine in an expository fashion is held in disrepute and in contempt, and is seldom done in churches; and, the concepts of education that have evolved from John Dewey's progressive education concepts have totally destroyed the American public school system and has affected school systems around the world.

   History has clearly demonstrated that freedom in a society is dependent on an educated citizenry. The founders of our nation knew this, and they knew it well, so they were very careful to try to make provisions for public education for everybody. An educated citizenry is the only way to preserve the kinds of liberties and freedoms which the world has never imagined or dreamed of, which were made available through the American Constitution. Education, however, has also been the tool of tyrants to establish control over society. Stalin once said that education is the gun; it is helpful to those who hold the gun; and, it is a disaster to those who are on the other end at whom the gun is pointed. Tyrants have always known that education can be used to bring controls over a society.

   Today, the deterioration and the perversion of public school education in the United States is accompanied by increasing loss of personal freedom in our society with growth and government controls, and the two are related. As public school education has deteriorated and lost its foundations; its moorings; and, its orientation to divine viewpoint, so human freedom has increasingly been lost. What, as you shall see, is being taught in the public school is specifically designed to start reducing the kinds of freedom that have characterized American society, and to bring in the kinds of tyranny that we have long since left behind us in this country that has characterized nations throughout history.

   The educational system in our country today is now anti-God; anti-parents; anti-home; and, anti-social. The degree to which it is that varies. It is a little less here in the Bible Belt than it is in some other parts of our country. But make no mistake about it, it is this, in whatever part of the country you live in, including ours. It is anti-God; anti-parents; anti-home; and, anti-social. The concept of education today, which was inherited from the thinking of John Dewey, is to take a child who is "frozen" in certain values called middle-class values (which means biblical orientation). He is to be unfrozen from those values, and that's the word they use: "unfrozen." He is to be unfrozen from the values; from the morals; and, from the principles of a biblical society, and he is to be "refrozen." That's the jargon they use: "refrozen" into a new identity devoted to anti-Biblical concepts. This is to be achieved through a grand program of education which was conceived by John Dewey – one of the greatest agents of his majesty the devil that ever lived.

   The people who will understand the information we are going to be dealing with in the next couple of sessions are the people who will flee from the public school system immediately. They will see that system in its current perspective, in its true light, and they will see the subtle devastations that are taking place to their children. Only a few parents are able to counter it, and to preserve their children from succumbing to the consequences of these influences.

   John Dewey was born in Burlington, Vermont, in 1859, and he died in 1952. He was a 93-year-old dude who was around a long time to create a lot of mischief. He earned a PhD in philosophy at Johns Hopkins University in 1884. In the late 19th century, Johns Hopkins University was the center in the United States for the promotion of economic socialism and the philosophy of secular humanism. Dewey himself, under the influence of his training at Johns Hopkins, became a devoted socialist and a believer in secular humanism. That immediately should tell you a lot about the man who is the father of all that is taking place in modern American education, not only on the lower levels, but right on up through the higher levels of the universities and colleges. He was a devoted socialist, and he was a devoted believer in the religion of secular humanism. All of his thinking proceeds from those two premises.

   John Dewey based educational philosophy on Hegel's dialectic method for determining truth through the senses, and on Darwin's evolution theory as the source of human life. When Dewey sat down to conceive an educational philosophy, he began with these two premises: one – Hegel's dialectic, where everything is relative, and there are no absolutes; and, two – Darwin's evolutionary concept, where man is an animal; he has no soul; there is no God; and, there is no life after death. Therefore, we are educating an animal in an atmosphere in which there are no absolute truths. Of course, we should mention that Dewey was an atheist who rejected the existence of the human soul and any concept of life after death. Consequently, because man was an animal, there could be no absolutes of moral conduct.

   In the late 1920s, Dewey visited Russia, and was captivated by the newly developed concept of communism which was evolving in Russia. He saw communism as the solution for providing for human needs and happiness without the strain of competition. Immediately, that should tell you something. You know what this man is going to come up with; you know what kind of ideas he's going to project; and, you know what kind of an educational system he's going to produce. This is the educational system which is known as American public schools today. He rejected the profit motive as the means for producing a plentiful supply of what people want and need. He ignored the well-demonstrated fact that the standard of living is directly related to individual effort motivated by reward.

   It is amazing how many Americans who, as the result of the educational system that they have been under, have lost sight of this. Most Americans do not understand that the standard of living is in direct proportion to the motivation for profit. As the motivation for profit is removed, the standard of living of a society falls. It isn't because Americans are smarter; that they necessarily have more material goods to work with; or, more natural resources than other nations of the world. There are some nations in the darkness of the backwoods jungles of the world that have infinite resources, but their societies live on an animal level, because there is no motivation for producing goods; for producing the things people want; for putting yourself up to come up with an idea in order to be profited. Most of those nations are under dictatorial and socialistic governmental arrangements, and there is no encouragement for them to put themselves out to be creative.

   When people are not creative, they are not producing things that increase the standard of life. Many of the things you use today that have improved the American standard of living in recent years did not even exist ten years ago. Many of the vast things that we just take for granted in the electronics world now did not even exist ten years ago. The reason they exist now is because somebody came up with an idea; he lived in an economic climate where he could use that idea; he had the motivation to run with the idea and to produce something that people would buy; and, he thereby would profit from their desire for his product.

   Dewey completely ignored this. He seemed to completely reject this idea that a standard of living is directly related to the motivation that people have, through profit, to put themselves out to create more things that elevate the standard of living. The standard of American living today is going down, simply because we are discouraging the profit benefit; the encouragement; and, the motivation that comes from people benefiting by the fruits of their own labors. So, he ignored this well-demonstrated principle.

   George S. Counts

   He favored, obviously, therefore, the abolition of private property. He championed the welfare state, a welfare state to be run by an intellectual elite. The economic viewpoint of John Dewey was well-stated and well-reflected by his star pupil, and the man who was his successor after he retired, George S. Counts. Dewey's pupil, George Counts, had this to say of the economic viewpoint upon which progressive education is based: "Capitalism has become cruel and inhuman. Traditional ideals in economics, politics, morals, and religion have been rendered totally anachronistic. America has reached a point where competition will have to be replaced by cooperation, and private capitalism by some form of socialized economy." That was said several decades ago. That was said when progressive education was being born; was being formed; and, was being implemented. It has now since borne the fruit of the consequences of that very idea.

   Pragmatism

   John Dewey subscribed to the ancient pagan philosophy known as pragmatism. Pragmatism means that everything is judged by how well it works, and not by any external standards of whether a thing is right or wrong. It doesn't matter whether somebody says the thing is right or wrong. If it works, it's OK. That's the thing that counts. Of course, all socialism and communism is based upon this. Communist nations never hesitate to slaughter people by the millions, and to murder people literally by the millions if it meets a goal that they're after. That is the thing that counts. Slaughtering those people helps make the system work, and therefore it is acceptable.

   Existentialism

   So, things are judged in the light of your present experience, apart from any previous value system. The deed was not important – only the end result. So, as the existentialist today has described it, if you want to prove that you exist, and that you're somebody, and that you're important: here's a little old lady; she's crossing the street; and, if you take your car and you run her down, it doesn't matter what happened to the old lady. It's only important that you have proven that you're a person who can make things happen; that you exist; that you are aware of yourself; and, that you have a self-awareness. That is the concept of pragmatism. It's the existential philosophy as we know it today, which says that there are no consequences to your deeds. That's what existentialism is all about. You exist in the moment. What you've done in the past has no effect upon this moment of your life. What you do now has no effect upon the future. That is pragmatism. That should tell you a lot about the American public school system, because it's going to be based upon that concept.

   So, Dewey believe that sheer educational experimentation and innovations would somehow produce future improvements in the school system and in society? He went back to Hegel's principle again: experimentation. The public schools still do this. They call it innovation. They're always innovating. Their latest innovation is to put the spring vacation not at Easter time, when it's convenient, but a little earlier in the year. That's where it has been for a couple years. Now they shoot it up there in the middle of March, when it's cold on the Rio Grande and all that. But I can tell you that in a short time, it's going to be back at Easter, and they're going to announce we have made a great advancement in the educational system of the city. We're putting spring vacation back at Easter time. This will have several educational benefits, and then they'll go on and tell you how that's an innovation.

   A few years ago, somebody came up with the bright idea: "Why have 50-minute periods. Let's have 100-minute periods." Somebody said, "That's wonderful. Kids can learn a whole lot more in 100 minutes than 50 minutes, obviously." So, there was this great program within the city of the advancement of the double-period. You had two periods in a row for kids to get bored, instead of giving them a little break in between. It was just a wonderful innovation. Now they have all kinds of multiple devices, such as mechanical devices you can talk to and that you can learn from. And then there was the learning packet. That was a great advancement – the self-teaching packet. You look up an answer; you read a book; you fill this out; and, then you check your chart. It's a wonderful system. We've got a Christian system called ACE (Accelerated Christian Education). It has accelerated baloney. It is kids trying to teach themselves out of their own ignorance. So, this is the whole concept that there's going to be this Hegelian principal of experimentation and innovation: try it; change it; and, it's something better.

   The reason for this, of course, is that all of this is smokescreen. About the time that the public school system and the administration see that parents have just about had it up to their craw, and they're really going to come charging into the board room, then they come up with an innovation. The parents are always hopeful: hope springs eternal in the human breast. ... They always hope that somehow this new innovation is going to straighten it all out. Boy, the parents sit back there; then they wait; and, then they realize that they've been hoodwinked again. About the time they're ready to charge up in their indignation, a new innovation comes along. This is all Hegelian. Learn what's going on. Understand that Hegel is the man that they're following. His poison is what is corrupting, in part, our school system.

   The League for Industrial Democracy – Fabian Socialism

   John Dewey was a lifelong leader in an organization called the League for Industrial Democracy. It's an organization which promoted Fabian Socialism in the United States. Fabian Socialism is an idea which was developed in England by the wealthy couple Sydney and Beatrice Webb. The Webbs develop Fabian Socialism, which was a gradual change from capitalism and private ownership to state ownership and the welfare state. They realized that a prosperous nation like England was not about to go to a bankrupt system like socialism, which had been demonstrated in major ways in the world, particularly in nations like Russia, which can't even raise enough food to feed its people, and can't provide anywhere near the kind of consumer goods level of the standard of living that we commonly enjoy in the United States.

   So the Webbs said, "We've got to do this gradually." So, Fabian Socialism was interjected into England. And, hasn't it worked beautifully? England was once the nation upon which the sun never set upon its empire all over the world, and was held in esteem everywhere. People who, if they had to be under any kind of master other than their own national leadership, always preferred to be under British control. That nation is now a rinky-tink backwoods fourth-or-fifth rate power in the world, because socialism has done its devastating work in every phase of its national life. Fabian Socialism was the means for bringing it about.

   Well, the League for Industrial Democracy, that John Dewey it was a major leader in, was the American expression of that. The political arm for this, particularly since the days of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, was the Democratic Party. This is why the Democratic Party is in such a mess today. Our previous administration did more than any other administration to throw all caution to the wind. Up to now, the Democratic Party has always been very careful to shield its "socialism." It calls it "social programs." John Dewey's word for it was "social reforms." It meant the same thing. The poor average Joe Citizen who's in the party and votes – he has no idea in the world what the elite in the organization have in mind as they are directing the party's activities. The elite know full well what John Dewey knew –the principle of Fabian Socialism.

   So, the political arm in the United States has been primarily the Democratic Party, though Republicans have been equally involved in many respects. But Fabian Socialism is the philosophy of the Democratic Party. That's why, suddenly, that party was in a panic in the last election: Suddenly people were standing up and saying, "Don't pay any attention to the candidates. Pay attention now only to the party label, because the candidates represent a philosophy which now has a death grip upon the American nation." And that philosophy of Fabian Socialism, if not broken, will destroy us. Thank God that the message got through, and people took their eyes off of candidates, and they realized that it was the party that was the problem.

   The Democratic Party is now in a panic and a shambles, and is seeking now to put on a new image. It's the same old game they've always played of hiding behind an image of free enterprise capitalism, but in the back, the manipulating hands are still moving toward John Dewey's Fabian Socialism. If you don't understand that, you are going to be a sucker. You better think it through; you better think through your own experience; you better think through the history of the social programs in this country; and, you better look and see who's screaming bloody murder now when the country is finally saying, "We cannot continue paying for things that the government has no business supplying to people, because the government can't supply this unless the government steals it from people who have produced by their efforts. We are forcing them to use the fruits of their labors to be dispensed to those who have not produced these things."

   The political arm has done its job very well indeed. In 1919, Dewey was the founder of the new School for Social Research, which sought to implement this idea of Fabian socialism, and it turned out teachers, lawyers, and writers who were oriented to socialism. John Dewey held in contempt the traditional individualism and the biblical values upon which American society had functioned, and become great and prosperous. He said, "It doesn't make any difference how far the United States has come over other nations. There are still people in our country who are poorer than other people."

   Of course, those who are ignorant of history and the economy are always able to hoodwink people by pointing back to how terrible things were when capitalism took over in modern times: the poor children had to work hard; the long hours that people worked; and, the sweatshops and all of the emotional code words. But one of the things they never tell you is that, until capitalism came and began giving people jobs, even under long hours of work and hard work, they were animals scratching an empty field to try to survive, like you see in some primitive societies today. Don't ever forget that what needed improving under 19th century capitalism was a whole lot better than what the human race had ever experienced until that time.

   The American Humanist Association

   You have to have the background of this man before we delve into the consequences in detail. However, the worst thing about John Dewey was that he was a member and a leading force in the American Humanist Association, which exists to this day. The American Humanist Association put out a manifesto in 1933. It is now called Manifesto I. It was a brief statement with 15 propositions, and it was signed by 34 influential people. The Humanist Manifesto I was the program for the social reform of the United States. Now you have to translate that: "social reform" (or in the Democratic Party's words – "social programs") means "Fabian socialism." You have to translate that into "the religion of secular humanism."

   The Humanist Manifesto I

   These brief 15 statements said this: It held to an organic view of life. That means that man was a material animal, and that's all. It therefore rejected the dualism of mind and body, by which they meant "soul and body." man has no connection with any quality of a spiritual nature. He is just a material creature. They also declared that man is a part of nature, and has emerged as the result of a continuous process, which said that man was the product of evolution. It also said that it viewed man, with all his faculties, as part of one all-embracing natural order with the animal world. That is secularism – that man is just part of the animal world. It is just life here. It also declared that man was the highest product of the natural processes, with nothing above him but his own aspirations. This was their way of expressing theism. There wasn't anybody above man – just himself.

   The Humanist Manifesto II

   In 1973, the Humanist Manifesto II was proclaimed. It was a more extensive document of 4000 words, and it was signed by more than one hundred prominent people, including philosophers, scientists, religious leaders; and educators from several countries. This expression of humanism spelled out in considerable details the views of secular humanism. In this document, there was affirmed the human right to birth control; to abortion; to divorce; to complete sexual freedom; to euthanasia; and, to privacy. It stressed the need for freedom of the individual, by which it meant the welfare state. It stressed participatory democracy, by which it meant socialism. It stressed the need for a minimum guaranteed annual income; for universal education; and, for worldwide ecological planning, by which it meant world government. It opposed war, nationalism, and any dogmatic and authoritarian religion that places revelation, God, and creed above human need and experience; that is, reason was above Scripture. It sought the goal of the fulfillment of the potential growth of each human personality. But it sought that growth without God, which is the only way that anybody can reach his full potential. It called for the use of reason and intelligence in building a world community in which all sectors of the human family can participate – the world government concept.

   Secular Humanism

   I'm going to read several definitions to you that have been written by secular humanist and others, to try to crystallize humanism for you. You're always hearing about secular humanism. I have the feeling that most Christians talk about it, and they don't really have a clear idea in their mind what it's all about. Once you understand secular humanism, then we can go back to Mr. Dewey, and you will know where he came from, and you will know why we are where we are in the school system today, and why Americans are where they are intellectually in the society in which we live today.

   One definition is from Corliss Lamont in "The Independent Mind:" "Humanism stands for the continuous and wholehearted enjoyment of experience, sensory, cultural, and spiritual in this one and only life, and for the unceasing progress of humanity toward greater wisdom and happiness, freedom and beauty."

   Another definition is by Oliver L. Reiser and Baldwin Davies in "Planetary Democracy." It says, "Scientific humanism is the doctrine that men, through the use of intelligence directing the institutions of democratic government, can create for themselves, without aid from supernatural powers, a rational civilization in which each person enjoys security and finds cultural outlets for whatever normal human capacities and creative energy he possesses."

   Then in "The Humanist" publication of July, August 1968 gives this definition: "Humanism is a way of life which relies on human capacities and natural and social resources. Humanists see man as a product of this world of evolution and human history, and acknowledge no cosmic mind or supernatural purpose or force."

   Then we have one more definition from Texas Tech Law Review, volume 10 in a statement by John W. Whitehead and John Conlin (and these men are Christians): "Humanism is a doctrine centered solely on human interests or values. Humanism deifies man collectively and individually, whereas theism worships God. Moreover, while humanism draws its values and absolutes from the finite reasoning of relativistic man, theism has received its values and absolutes through the revelation of the infinite deity or Creator. Therefore, secular humanism is a religion whose doctrine worships man as the source of all knowledge and truth, whereas theism worships God as the source of all knowledge and truth."

   Looking at the educational philosophy of John Dewey, we find that he taught philosophy at the universities of Michigan, Minnesota, and Chicago. But then he made his big move in 1904. He joined the faculty, and became the head of the Teacher's College at Columbia University in New York. He became a professor, and he held the Chair of Educational Philosophy. And now, the fat was in the fire. This man, who for years had been preparing, whose orientation had been as we have been describing it – to secular humanism, and all that that connotes, had now assumed a position that was a key point of influence for the next 50 years upon American education; upon the training of teachers; and, upon Western civilization. For 50 years, he controlled the whole ball of wax.

   He introduced the concept, which was revolutionary, that the public schools were to be used to bring about social changes to a humanist society under socialism. It was to be done, of course, gradually on the Fabian social pattern. But no longer were schools to be viewed as someplace that you send your child to learn how to read English; how to do numbers; and, how to be able to write, and to communicate that way. Dewey said, "That is secondary. Henceforth, public schools must be used as the agents of social reform, because if we can capture one generation of children in the public schools; get them devoted to the concepts of socialism; and, get them devoted to the principles of secular humanism, we've got the nation." He was right. And it is only because this nation has been so steeped in biblical principles that that has been fought and resisted, and it has not made as dramatic progress as it has made in other parts of the world.

   Dewey's educational philosophy viewed man, of course, as merely a biological animal who responds to influences in his environment. To Dewey, the child was a living organism which was a stimulus response machine, so he can be conditioned to desired reactions. Get that. Dewey said, "Every pupil in your class is a stimulus response machine. That's all. He's just a little animal, and if you give him a certain stimulus, it will create a certain response. Our job is to find the stimuli which will create the responses we want, and which will create the socialist world that we think is the world that the American society should pursue." This conditioning was to be through material means or through words used to create certain emotional responses.

   You know how that works. I found that I have conditioned my little dog that when she hears me rattling my car keys, she knows it's time to go riding. Every morning, we take a ride down to one of the public schools, to kind of see what's going on, and then come home again. That's just sort of a ritual that we have. As soon as she hears those keys rattling, she comes tearing out, no matter where she is in the house, and she stands by the door – ready to go. She knows just where to go; she jumps up on the seat; she takes her place; she looks around; and, she checks the traffic, and we drive along to school. She used to insist on helping me drive. She used to nudge over. It was interesting. The minute she saw me drop Heidi off at school, then she would move over and sit in my lap. ... She just got cozy. For weeks, I sat there driving with this dog sitting right in my lap in front of the wheel, until I saw a policeman go by one day, and I saw his eyes following me. I thought, "I better not do that anymore." So, I had to recondition her not to sit in my lap while we're driving. This is a condition response of an animal: rattle the keys; she comes running; and, it's time to ride in the car.

   This can this can be done in a variety of ways. It can also be done with words. There are certain words that you can use – words that make you hopping mad: "dummy;" "stupid," or, "Stop acting like Jimmy Franco." Right away that makes you mad. Those are emotionally charged words. And you can condition an animal to have a certain response.

   Modification Techniques

   Well, he can be conditioned as an individual or he can be conditioned as a group. That's called the peer mentality. He can be conditioned by his peer group to have a certain response. So, the group is given certain influence (certain ideas) which it then imposes on others. You wonder why teenagers do what they do. Many of them do things they don't want to do, but they do it because they've been conditioned by the peer group response. Their gang does this. Their gang wears this. Their gang acts like this. Therefore, they have to act the same way. Dewey saw that. Dewey said, "We'll create not only individual responses in these animals that we have in our classroom, but we'll also create collective responses so that these animals, as a group, will force everyone in the group to act in a certain way, and nobody will dare to step out of the pressure of the group. These are called modification techniques.

   These modification techniques have been promoted under various code words. You, perhaps, know some of these code words, and have never realized that it's John Dewey's boys who invented these code words as a means of conditioning the human animal, which they then transferred into the educational system to condition American children into a socialist world. These words are "psychodrama;" "role playing;" "role reversal;" "soliloquy;" "group dynamics;" "encounter group sessions;" and, "sensitivity training sessions." These are some of the words which are used to convey this conditioning of the animal technique.

   John Dewey rejected the biblical principle that the knowledge of God is the beginning of all wisdom, and is the foundation of all genuine education. Dewey was indeed one of Satan's key agents in preparing Western civilization, through his educational philosophies, for the terrible conditions that will be accepted in the tribulation world to come. He thought he was creating a utopia on earth. Please do not forget that he was just as sincere as could be. He was a kindly man. If you had met him, you would have seen he was a kindly gentleman. You would have liked him. He really thought he was creating a utopia for mankind.

   That brings us to a quick summary of John Dewey's specific educational principles. They are these:

   1. Individuality

      He said, we are going to pursue the expression and cultivation of individuality. That's meant no regulations and requirements imposed from above. This resulted in doing one's own thing and rebellion against controls of God and society in time. He made an autonomous man with no control factor anywhere in the universe. He called this the expression and cultivation of individuality, and it has borne its bitter fruit.

   2. Free Activity

      Dewey's second principle was called free activity, as opposed to external discipline of a structured curriculum. This resulted in children engaging in the classroom in chaotic activities which wasted their school time, and which failed to enable them to secure a mastery of the basic skills of education. That's why kids don't learn to read. They were ignorant, immature children deciding what they should study. Dewey said, "You let the child decide what to study." He said, "Education has been teacher-oriented. We're going to make it child-oriented, and the child will be given a nice wide area of the classroom, and he will decide what he should study and what he should do. And if he wants to play, that's one of the ways that he learns a lot."

   3. Experience

      Principal number three was learning through experience as opposed to learning through the study of a textbook and the information from a teacher, and to drill in the class to memorize. Well, this resulted in the lack of a frame of reference to make judgments beyond one's own ignorance. You take a look at some of these little kids sitting around here. How much smarts do they have about knowing how to interpret their own experience? Dewey said, "They can learn through their experience, and they'll know how to analyze and learn from that." The only experience they learn is that some guy hits his little sister, and she learns to hit him back. That's what she learns by experience. They don't know how to interpret that experience. They're devoid, therefore, of intellectual and cultural heritage of Western civilization.

   4. Don't Learn it until you Need it

      Principle number four was acquiring skills as a means of attaining ends which have direct appeal. You don't learn to read unless you have some need for reading. You don't learn to count unless you have a reason for counting. This was opposed to learning the essential skills of the three Rs and the history of mankind. Well, this resulted in the lack of basic skills for functioning independently in society to enable you to handle personal needs. Why is it that most high school kids can't balance their own checkbook? Why can't they fill out a job application? The answer is right here, folks. Acquiring skills is a means of attaining ends which have a direct appeal. Don't learn it until you need it.

   5. Life in the Here and Now

      Point number five was making the most of the opportunities of present life (the here and the now), as opposed to preparation for the future, both here on earth and in eternity. Well, this resulted in the demands that we know today as instant gratification – gratification for things that you haven't even earned or tried to earn. This is the now generation. I want it now. I have a right to have it now, and I'll take it from you, by violent means, if you try to deny it to me. This is what our government is up against now. It isn't just that we're trying to cut the budget down. We have a society which has been educated by this concept of doing that, "I have a right to have it now. You don't have a right to deny it to me." They have been handing out free money to free-loaders who now are so addicted to that free money that they're not about to have to be willing to permit the government to stop handing it out. You can just watch for more violence. The violence has already been directed against the president. When they can't stop him there, the violence is going to be directed toward those of you who have something that these people want.

   6. A Changing World

      Point number six was the acquaintance of a changing world as opposed to the absolute values and standards from God. This resulted in rejecting the biblical economic system of free enterprise capitalism, and moving toward the reception of socialism. Dewey said that materialism is the basis of all human relationships. So, that's what he meant by acquaintance with a changing world instead of with absolute values and absolute standards based upon biblical concepts. This has borne a very bitter fruit.

   Next time, I'm going to tell you about how it has borne its bitter fruit right here in part of the program in the ministry of Berean Memorial Church, as we have seen the fruit of Dewey's progressive educational concepts destroying an area of ministry that was productive and effective. But once people were suckered into these concepts, Satan had them by the jugular vein. Don't miss it next time.

Dr. John E. Danish, 1977

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