We have to be very wary when doctrines are controlled by a geopolitical entity, especially when it comes to the West. Even scriptures are weaponised by particular groups, as yet another kind of propaganda. Groups use religion to create identity for themselves, and then they often twist that religion to suit their self-image, to help them project their image onto others. God does not go along with this, because the Spirit of God is the Spirit of Truth, not propaganda, not a weaponised self-identity of human groups. The doctrines twisted for self-image are very dangerous because they can be very misleading by people caught in the sway of those so abusing the doctrines. Jesus taught those listening to him to dig down into the reality in his teachings by obeying them, rather than twisting them to suit self-image. The lesson most striking in this regard is the Good Samaritan. The good guy is not the one favoured in the group’s self-image but rather the one showing kindness. The parable of the man building on rock and the other man building on sand is another lesson about this, in that to build on rock, the wisest option, requires some digging down to that rock, with the reward of stability when storms come. Jesus compares this to the wisdom of actually practising what is learned from Jesus. Only when we practice do we have to dig down to the true meaning, and this gains stability. The easier way is to take some advantage of the teachings, and scriptures, without intention of practising them, such as by looking how to use them as propaganda, or to weaponise the teachings or capitalise on them. It is easier like building on sand without digging down to rock, but it is foolish. An example of all this is in how easily USA accepted twisted versions of doctrines over a century ago when there were doctrine twisting teachers of scriptures and of Christianity coming to USA from Europe. It was easy to see immediately how such teachings could be used to bolster a self-image and attractive self-identity, rather than have to dig down to the real teachings behind the scriptures. This ignores the harder but wiser way of looking for the real doctrines taught by Jesus in order to truly practice them. Beware such easy self- image, self-identity, propaganda interpretations of scriptures and doctrines. Be wiser than these. Find what Jesus really meant and do so with a view to putting it into practice as he intended. That creates wise stability for facing the storms ahead. The foolish will lose their false illusions of security when the storms come.
