The craziness of the current political situation is difficult to deny; it’s like watching an episode of scripted television.
Jim Jones had his followers believing that he had supernatural powers. They would do anything for such a “gifted” spiritual leader, especially if he had power over life and death. But Jones had no special powers. He used deception and the irrational willingness of people to believe in any claimed supernatural feat to hold them under his spell.
Here’s how it worked. On one occasion Jones became angry with a worker, Jean Brown, because of a disruption during a meeting. Jones blamed Brown for the disturbance. “Looking directly at Brown, he said, ‘Drop dead.’ She fell forward from her chair, rolled over on the platform knocking over chairs…. Then she ‘died.’” Jones went on with the meeting, telling those in the congregation “not to look at the body, since the cause of her death was contagious and they too might perish.”
As you can imagine, many were upset and frightened. They had just seen a woman drop dead at the command of Jim Jones! Would they be next?
Several minutes later, Jones, proving that his awesome power was tempered by his bountiful mercy, decided to give Jean another chance. He raised his uplifted arms in her direction and commanded her spirit to return to her body. The spirit apparently responded, because Jean began to stir. She moved stiffly at first, but as life returned, she thanked her savior for his love and promised to do better in the future.
The “death and resurrection” event had been planned and staged for the trusting audience. Jean Brown was in on the deception. Their performance was designed to manipulate the people and to empower Jim Jones. Jones “was a master confidence man.” After seeing Jones “raise people from the dead,” did his followers believe that he could resurrect them even if they drank from a tub of grape-flavored Fla-Vor-Aid laced with potassium cyanide and tranquilizers? The evidence seems to indicate that most of his followers took the poison willingly possibly expecting to be brought back to life once the fact-finding mission to investigate reports of human rights violations left. They had seen Jones raise the dead before.
Thinking Straight in a Crooked World
The nursery rhyme "There Was a Crooked Man" is an appropriate description of how sin affects us and our world. We live in a crooked world of ideas evaluated by crooked people. Left to our crooked nature, we can never fully understand what God has planned for us and His world. God has not left us without a corrective solution. He has given us a reliable reference point in the Bible so we can identify the crookedness and straighten it.
Buy NowThe craziness of the current political situation is difficult to deny; it’s like watching an episode of scripted television. Anyone who still believes that we live in a country “for the people” isn’t paying attention. Facts don’t matter, history doesn’t matter, reality doesn’t matter. The narrative is made up on the spot and attested to by the mainstream media, regardless how ridiculous it sounds.