Neuroplasticity, A science falsely so-called

NEUROPLASTICITY AND HOW TO RE-WIRE YOUR BRAIN (SALVATION REVISITED)

1 Timothy 6:20
(20)  O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called

Neuroplasticity – the mind-science or neuroscience that alleges you can change your brain and therefore alter your life from “bad mapping” or “bad patterns” to “good and wholesome mapping” or “good and wholesome patterns” – is one the of most dangerous winds of change blowing through the church today. (Ephesians 4:14).

It has become taboo to mention the words “sin,” “lost,” “hell,” “lake of fire,” and “judgment” in most churches because it sounds too condescending and threatening.

Therefore the so-called new apostles and evangelists prefer to use words like  “toxic thoughts,” “bad choices,” and “mistakes” of which anyone (believers and unbelievers alike) can now rid themselves by merely switching on and manipulating their brains. Let’s use our brains and think about this for a moment.

What makes man to think and then to act on his thoughts? Is it your brain? Hardly! Your brain is the fattest organ in your body and may consist of at least 60 percent fat.

Does that mean when you learn how to switch your brain on and off you are switching on and off 60 percent of fat tissue? Hardly! Your thoughts and actions do not emanate from your brain. They originate in your spirit and soul – the two non-physical entities that make up the real you. Dave Hunt comments:

“[The articles] Sir John Eccles has written are very fascinating….he received his Nobel Prize for research on the brain.  He describes the brain as: ‘A machine that a ghost can operate.’

Your brain doesn’t think; if it did we would be prisoners of our brain. Our brain is like a computer that we use. There’s a ghost in the machine, as they say and the brain is like a computer that we use to interface with this space-time-matter continuum in which our bodies function.”

Jesus said that the spirit of unbelievers is dead (Luke 9:60) which means that their thoughts and actions are controlled by their soul, the seat of everything pertaining to the self (ego) – self-contentedness, self-esteem, self-worth, self-aggrandizement, self-importance, self-improvement, self-love etc. etc.

It follows that whosoever claims to teach unbelievers (and carnal Christians whose lives are controlled by their souls instead of the Spirit of God who lives in their spirits) how to switch on their brain, is actually teaching them how to facilitate and empower their egos.

Apart from the fact that it goes against the grain of everything Jesus taught on true discipleship (Luke 14:27, 33), it prevents unbelievers from finding the truth and being saved.

Not only has neuroplasticity gained a firm foothold in the Word of Faith Movement and its positive confession doctrine, it aims to prove that the WOF’s doctrine on healing, in particular, is scientifically verifiable, much in the same way the Emergent Church claims to have proven that contemplative meditation is scientifically confirmable.

It is, therefore, no surprise that the promoters of neuroplasticity are medical doctors who have done massive research on the human brain.

Many Christians have joined other religions in their quest to prove that spiritual, non-physical realities such as mind, thinking, intelligence, and emotions are scientifically demonstrable. Dave Hunt in his book “Occult Invasion” says on pages 60 and 61.

While the development of transpersonal psychologies in the early 1970s brought an almost grudging admission that the realm of the spirit was real, there was a reluctance to admit that science had no jurisdiction over it.

Science continued to be regarded as the only way to evaluate the nonphysical as well as the physical. We had been conditioned to revere a “scientific explanation” for all phenomena.

Many of those involved in the New Age were only too eager to pretend they had “scientific” support. When TM (one form of yoga) fell flat as the”Spiritual Regeneration Movement,” Maharishi Mahesh Yogi changed its name to “The Science of Creative Intelligence.”

With that new and deceitful name, TM became a success worldwide. One of the most ancient religious practices in Hinduism and Buddhism is now widely accepted in the West as the science of yoga. (Emphasis added).

Paul sternly warns the church that Satan transforms himself into an angel of light and often uses highly intelligent and learned scholars who are equally adept to transform themselves into ministers of righteousness. (2 Corinthians 11:14-15).

MIXING A SMALL PERCENTAGE OF POISONOUS LIES WITH THE TRUTH

Two of the most prominent advocates of neuroplasticity in South Africa are Dr. Caroline Leaf and Dr. Michelle Strydom. Both have written extensively and given many talks on the subject and both use Scripture very copiously.

They cleverly weave Scripture into their research to substantiate their claims – most of which are brazenly anti-biblical. Here is a good example. Dr Caroline Leaf says:

“If we have wired bad thoughts in, we can wire them out. This is = neuroplasticity; the science of “renewing the mind” (Rom. 12:2). Read more here.

In ecstatic response, one woman wrote on Dr. Caroline Leaf’s Facebook.

I love the way you always have a scripture to go with what you say/teach, I so much enjoyed [it] when you visited my Church in OKC last year!

What is so special about using and quoting Scripture when it is so easy to use and abuse it? The devil used Scripture in trying to trip Jesus during his temptation in the wilderness. In fact, Satan is masterful in his use of Scripture to mislead unsuspecting people and especially carnal Christians who are not well-grounded in Scripture.

Satan knows the Bible far better than any Christian and can quote it word for word. His recipe looks something like this: Mix 99.99% of truth with 00.01% of lethal poison in a beautifully colored Christian bowl and voila, you have baked something that looks like, smells like and tastes like something very sumptuous but the end result is disastrous. Isn’t this what the Bible teaches?

There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. (Proverbs 14:12)

It proves what I said earlier. It matters very little what our learned friends teach. It may be some of the most heretical teachings imaginable but most women are easily taken in when they drag and drop a verse or two from the Bible into the cesspool of poisonous venom and voila, they prettily hang on their lips.

In Caroline Leaf’s DVD “Switch on Your Brain – The Key to Peak Happiness, Thinking and Health, featuring the 21 Day Brain Detox Plan” she says the following.

What would you do if you found a switch that could turn on your brain and enable you to be happier, healthier in your mind and body, more prosperous, and more intelligent? Dr Caroline Leaf will show you how to find and activate that switch. 

(Discerning the World comments: Believers do not need a switch to turn on to make them happier because they already have the perfect joy of the Lord. [John 15:11; 16:24; 17:13].

Jesus is not someone you can switch on or off to make you happy. He lives for evermore and sits at the right hand of God in heaven where He secures our eternal happiness.

Believers also do not need to switch on a switch in their brain to make them healthier in their mind because they already have the mind of Christ. [1 Corinthians 2:16].

Believers have no need of a switch in their brain which they can turn on to make them more intelligent because God has chosen the foolish to confound the wise in the world [1 Corinthians 1:27].

Caroline Leaf and Michelle Strydom are presenting their unsuspecting readers with another gospel, a gospel that tells you, you don’t need Jesus. You can do it all by yourself. You only need to switch on your brain and detox it.)

What you think with your mind changes your brain and body, and you are designed with the power to switch on your brain. Your mind is that switch.

You have an extraordinary ability to determine, achieve, and maintain optimal levels of intelligence, mental health, peace, and happiness, as well as the prevention of disease in your body and mind.

You can, through conscious effort, gain control of your thoughts and feelings, and in doing so, you can change the programming and chemistry of your brain.

Science is finally catching up with the Bible, showing us the proof that “God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind” (2 Tim. 1:7).

Breakthrough neuroscientific research is confirming daily what we instinctively knew all along: what you are thinking every moment of every day becomes a physical reality in your brain and body, which affects your optimal mental and physical health.

These thoughts collectively form your attitude, which is your state of mind, and it’s your attitude and not your DNA that determines much of the quality of your life.

Based solidly on the latest neuroscientific research on the brain, as well as Dr Caroline Leaf’s clinical experience and research, you will learn how thoughts impact our spirit, soul, and body You will also learn how to detox your thoughts using her practical, detailed, and easy-to-use 21-Day Brain Detox Plan. 

[Discerning the World comments: Does this apply to believers only or also to unbelievers? If neuroplasticity impacts both believers’ and unbelievers’ spirit, soul and body, then who needs Jesus Christ?

You only need to follow Dr. Michelle Strydom’s and Caroline Leaf’s instructions on how to detox your brain and viola you become a totally new creature in spirit, soul and body. This is pure witchcraft, as I will prove to you later in this article.]

The application is for all walks of life. You won’t forgive that person, get rid of that anxiety or depression, follow that essential preventative healthcare, strive to that intellectual level you know you are capable of, follow that dream, eat that organic food, do that diet, be that great parent or husband or wife or friend, get that promotion, or make other changes to create quality, positive lifestyles – unless you first choose to get your mind right and switch on your brain.

After all, the ability to think and choose and to use your mind correctly is often the hardest step, but it is the first and most powerful step. (Emphasis added) [Discerning the World comments: Using your mind correctly is the most powerful thing you can do? Really? I always thought the cross of Christ was God’s power and wisdom (1 Corinthians 1:18).

In other words, it is not the break in your relationship with God – constituted by the fact that you are saved or unsaved – that causes you not to forgive others, to get rid of your anxiety or depression  (Isaiah 48:22; Isaiah 57:21), and to be the great parent, husband or wife God wants you to be, but your brain which is in the off-switch position and you only need to switch it on to change your life for the better.

As I said earlier: Who needs Jesus when your brain becomes your Messiah, Redeemer, and God?

In fact, Dr. Gys du Plessis of the Mosaiek Kerk in Fairland, Johannesburg says “My biggest desire is that  . . . we seek the Holy Spirit in the brain because that is where the Holy Spirit, where God belongs, where mind and soul are and where God belongs.

The brain is the seat of the Holy Spirit. Do you see from whence du Plessis gleaned his extremely unbiblical thought patterns? Well, of course, from the Dailai Lama’s equally extreme unbiblical thought patterns that we don’t need religion because “our own mind (brain) is the temple.” 

It proves that both – a Christian and a Buddhist – must have received their thoughts on the brain from the same source which the Bible refers to as “doctrines of demons.” (1 Timothy 4:1). If non-Christians are included in du Plessis’ plea to get God back into the brain, his entire supposition that the brain is the seat of the soul and the spirit of man falls flat on its face.

He knows as well as I do, unless he believes Trevor Hudson who says Jesus is in everything and everything is in Jesus and we are already living in a Christ-shaped world, that the non-Christian’s spirit is dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1).

They simply do not have the Spirit of God residing and living in their spirits; they are dead and that is precisely why Jesus once said to the man who first wanted to bury his dad before he would follow Him: “Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead.” (Matthew 8:22).

If the brain is the seat of the spirit and Holy Spirit, then the non-Christian must be brain-dead because his spirit is “dead in trespasses and sins” and will eventually be buried by their own dead so that they may enter the reality of the eternally dead in hell.

The Bible warns us not to be wise in our own conceits (Romans 12:16) and hence we should be wary of anyone who purports to have found new ways to pursue and find happiness, wholeness, solace, health, and prosperity; i.e. new ways other than what the Bible sets as parameters for happiness, wholeness, solace, health, and prosperity.

The question we need to ask is: To whom is she addressing her message? If she has both believers and unbelievers in mind with her 21-day brain detox plan, she is making a lot of money because many unbelievers are buying her products and practicing her brain detox methods.

Biblical Christians have received a mandate from God to go into all the world, to preach the Gospel and make disciples of all nations and not to construct new ideas and plans to substantiate biblical truths, let alone provide a scientific explanation for each and every spiritual phenomenon in the Bible.

The Word of God does not need any new ideas to prove its validity and truthfulness. Jesus who is the way, the TRUTH, and the life is the essence of the Word of God and cannot possibly be enhanced or improved by any new scientific experimentation. Nonetheless, to give her own research a stamp of approval she once again drags and drops a verse from the Bible into her plan and quotes 2 Timothy 1:7.

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. (2 Timothy 1:7).

You cannot and dare not tell unbelievers that God has not given them a spirit of fear, but of power and of a sound mind. In fact, the very opposite is true of unbelievers. They should be fearful of God’s righteous judgments and they definitely do not have peace of mind or a sound mind. This is what the Bible says:

In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. (2 Corinthians 4:4).

This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart.” (Ephesians 4:17-18).

But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked. (Isaiah 57:20-21)

Oh! but don’t fret. Never fear when Caroline Leaf and Michelle Strydom are near. They know how to teach you to detox your mind of the darkness Satan has pulled over your mind in only 21 days, in much the same way Rick Warren teaches how to find your purpose in life in only 40 days (The Purpose Driven Life). Caroline is even more successful than Rick because she can do it in 21 days – 19 days quicker than Rick.

That’s like telling unbelievers they are already saved because they have received the mind of Christ. (1 Corinthians 2:16). In a nutshell: Dr. Caroline Leaf is not drawing unbelievers to Christ in order to be saved. She is putting a huge stumbling block in their way so that they may not come to Jesus Christ for their salvation. It reminds me of Jesus Christ’s solemn warning in the Gospel according to Matthew.

But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. (Matthew 23:13)

Both Caroline Leaf and Michelle Strydom believe that anyone can be trained to manipulate or change the chemistry of their minds so that it may have a positive and lasting effect on their physical body and psyche to produce happiness, soundness of mind, health and even intelligence. In her book, “Healing begins with the sanctification of the heart” Michelle Strydom pays tribute to Henry wright and Caroline Leaf.

Pastor Henry Wright – the knowledge and insight about disease that I have gained from you has been more valuable than anything I have learned from the medical text books or doctors who taught me at university. You are the pioneer of this teaching.

The knowledge and insight in this book concerning what causes specific diseases is thanks to the years of research done by you and your team. Thank you for sharing this knowledge with me – it has radically and outrageously transformed my life and my entire approach to disease as a doctor.

Doctor Caroline Leaf – you are my greatest and favourite teacher in the world of science and medicine! Your teaching on the brain and how thoughts form filled in the missing link and has helped me to understand so many diseases on a physical level. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and research so generously and freely with me and for allowing me to use it in the writing of this book.

Apart from his heretical teaching on “positive confession” (WOF garbage), Henry Wright – in his book “A More Excellent Way” – lists generational curses as one cause of disease: “If you do not deal with what has happened in your family tree . . . your children will inherit your curses . . . (p. 68).

[W]e can break the power of sin and so genetically inherited diseases no longer exist” (p. 69). According to Scripture, however, ” . . . the Lord commanded, saying, The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, nor the children be put to death for the fathers; but every man shall be put to death for his own sin” (2 Kings 14:6).

He claims to have identified the cause of many diseases. His editor notes,

“Henry Wright has identified a specific fear issue as a root for asthma. That root is fear of abandonment coupled with insecurity” (p. 209). Colon cancer is said to be “deeply rooted in bitterness and slander with the tongue….When you speak evil against someone, it is a curse and what you speak against another returns” (p. 231).

Wright (who is totally Wrong) also believes that it is God’s explicit will to heal all of our diseases every time. Dr. Michelle Strydom echoes his unbiblical claim.

God’s perfect will is actually not healing, His perfect will is that you don’t get sick. (“Healing begins with sanctification of the heart,” p. 1).

If that was true the entire chapter 9 of the Gospel according to John should be torn out of the Bible, especially verses 1 to 3.

And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. (John 9:1-3)

Jesus did not say to the blind man and his parents: “OK, listen up, the first thing we must do is to get at the root of the problem. I can see that your son fears abandonment and rejection coupled with insecurity. I can also see that your son suffers from the infirmity of blindness because his parents, his grand-parents, and great-great-grand-parents have dumped all their own generational curses on him.

I can also see that you, his parents. have spoken evil of other people and that this evil has now returned to him. But don’t despair. I will teach him how to sanctify his heart and how to rid himself of all these toxic thoughts.”

Once again, this is not the Jesus of the Bible but another Jesus and unless these illustrious so-called medical doctors repent of their evil, they will end up in hell as surely as Satan and his demons are going to end up in hell. This has nothing to do with biblical Christianity. It is shamanism, wizardry, witchcraft, at its very best.

For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie. (Revelation 22:15).

Norman Vincent Peale played a major role in Christianizing shamanism. The following statements reveal Peale’s basic science of mind teachings.

The world you live in is mental and not physical. Change your thought and you change everything. ^{(Charles S. Braden, Spirits in Rebellion: The Rise and Development of New Thought (SMU Press, 1966), p. 387.)}
Your unconscious mind . . . [has a] power that turns wishes into realities when the wishes are strong enough. ^{(1. Norman Vincent Peale, Positive Imaging (Fawcett Crest, 1982), p. 77.).} (Emphasis added).

The so-called scientific research Dr. Michelle Strydom and Caroline Leaf have done to reveal new groundbreaking insights into the brain, the power of your mind and healing is nothing new. It’s Norman Vincent Peal-ism in shades of beautiful feminine pinkish colors, but desperately wicked and dangerous.

NEUROPLASTICITY – DOES GOD ALWAYS HEAL THE SICK?

In the disclaimer to her book “Healing Begins With Sanctification of the Heart” Michelle Strydom writes:

There is no guarantee that any person will be healed or that any disease will be prevented. I cannot heal a fly with a headache by myself. And it really doesn’t depend on me or God, it depends on you. Not everyone who starts applying the principles in this book will get well, mainly because they do not fully apply them to their lives.

God does not honor partial obedience. I do not take responsibility for failure of these principles to work when the person withdraws from applying them half way through or merely applies them in a half hearted manner. It doesn’t make this teaching invalid, it just means there is a breakdown on a different level.

Her words “And it really doesn’t depend on me or God, it depends on you” says it all. “Don’t depend on God or on me for your healing” . . . Yes, that’s what she is saying. Yet, she warns dissidents that God does not honor partial obedience. Obedience to whom or what? What’s the use in obeying someone upon whom you cannot depend? That’s ridiculous, to say the least. In that case, God may as well say, “Obey me with all your heart, mind and strength but t never, never put your trust in me or depend on me.”

If your healing does not depend on her or on God, why then does she assert with so much confidence that anyone who withdraws or applies half-heartedly the principles she has laid down in her book, that failure is inevitable?

She may just as well have said – “Don’t depend on me or on God for your healing but you must obey God and apply my principles if you want to be healed.”

In other words, if you don’t apply her healing principles according to her book, you are downright disobedient to God. Imagine Jesus saying to the leper who came to Him and pleaded “If you will, you can make me clean” (Mark 1:40), “First of all, I need to present you with my disclaimer.

If I am successful in healing you, my principles to heal you have won the day with flying colors. But if you are not healed, you must understand that you are to blame because you have not adhered to my principles completely, but only partially.” Is this the Jesus of the Bible? NO! it is a caricature of Jesus Christ, another Jesus, a false Jesus. It is BLASPHEMY!

Are her principles more powerful than God? To protect herself against the possibility of failure she says “It doesn’t make this teaching invalid, it just means there is a breakdown on a different level.” This is so typical of the Word of Faith charlatans who claim to be prophets of God. If you’re not healed, the problem must not be sought in them; you are to blame.

“The breakdown on another level” reveals to perfection their pride and haughtiness. (Proverbs 16:18). When you are not on their level of spiritual development and maturity (they always want to move to the next level), but a different and lower level than theirs, the breakdown in the process of healing is unavoidable.

Someone once informed me that a woman said the following of her husband: “Oh, I so dearly wish that my hubby was on the same level I am.” Doesn’t the Bible teach us that we should esteem others better than ourselves with humility and lowliness of mind? (Philippians 2:3). It is obvious that this woman is not following the true Jesus of the Bible but another Jesus. The true Jesus of the Bible said:

Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. (Matthew 11:29).

If the Almighty Son of the Almighty God who created the heavens and the earth and everything that is in it, is meek and lowly in heart, how dare we – who are but dust and ashes – think we are better than others (on a higher level)? Has this woman found rest for her soul yet? I don’t think so. The question is: Where do “loving wives” who regard their husbands lower than themselves get this garbage from?

We don’t need to travel thousands of kilometers to know from whence this infamous lie comes from. It comes from “Christians “who boast that they walk in divine health and that anyone else who is ill with whatever illness they suffer from, is not on the same level as what they are. Pride? Haughtiness? Arrogance? Conceit? Smugness? Self-importance? Egotism? Vanity? Immodesty? Superiority? You bet! And what does the Bible say about all these immoderate egotistic traits?

Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall. (Proverbs 16:18)

Strydom continues to say on page 1 of her e-book:

God’s perfect will is actually not healing, His perfect will is that you don’t get sick.

No! God’s perfect will is that you repent of your evil ways and plead for the forgiveness of your sins so that you may be saved and then to be holy as He is holy.

The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9).

But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy. (1 Peter 1:15-16)

Because God is so eager to save lost sinners, He is not only waiting with much long-suffering for them to turn to Him for their salvation; He even makes them sick? What? He even makes them sick? How dare you say God makes people sick. The devil makes people sick, not God. Well OK, let’s see what God says in his Word?

But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality.

Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works, and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works. (Revelation 2:20-23)

“Man is also rebuked with pain on his bed and with continual strife in his bones, so that his life loathes bread, and his appetite the choicest food. His flesh is so wasted away that it cannot be seen, and his bones that were not seen stick out. (Job 33:19-21)

Barnes explains that latter verse as follows:

He is chastened also with pain – As another means of checking and restraining him from the commission of sin. When the warnings of the night fail, and when he is bent on a life of sin, then God lays him on a bed of pain, and he is brought to reflection there.

There he has an opportunity to think of his life, and of all the consequences which must follow from a career of iniquity. This involves the main inquiry before the disputants. It was, why people were afflicted. The three friends of Job had said that it was a full proof of wickedness, and that when the professedly pious were afflicted it was demonstrative of insincerity and hypocrisy.

Job had called this position in question, and proved that it could not be so, but still was at a loss why it was. Elihu now says, that affliction is a part of a disciplinary government; that it is one of the means which God adopts, when warnings are ineffectual, to restrain people and to bring them to reflection and repentance. This appears to have been a view which was almost entirely new to them.

Irrespective of what the Bible teaches on humility (lowliness of mind) which – as we’ve seen, is a characteristic of Jesus Christ – Dr. Michelle Strydom affirms that “developing a healthy self-esteem starts with knowing who you are in Christ, placing your identity and sense of self-worth in Him and learning to see yourself as God sees you.”

However, she does not tell her readers that God sees mankind as sinners and helplessly lost and need to repent and believe the Gospel in order to be saved. Like all the Word of Faith folk, she places emphasis on “love” instead of on God’s word that says ” . . . whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.” (John 3:36). She writes:

. . . developing a healthy self-esteem comes from knowing who you are in Christ – being “in Christ” involves an intimate love relationship with God the Father. So can you see that ultimately, when it comes to healing, you are pointed back to getting right with God and developing a more intimate love relationship with Him. It’s about getting to know the Father more!

Don’t let her statement “you are pointed back to getting right with God and developing a more intimate love relationship with Him. It’s about getting to know the Father more!” fool you. It’s got nothing to do with biblical repentance.

Knowing what you are in Christ, is of course of the utmost importance but you cannot use it as a blanket statement for both believers and unbelievers. A person’s position in Christ and a sound knowledge thereof can only be applied to believers. Unbelievers have no position in Christ whatsoever. (Romans 8:9). Let’s assume that Dr. Michelle Strydom has written her books for believers only.

Does that mean she deliberately excluded unbelievers from the benefits her principles to be healed provides? Absolutely not, because she clamorously announces that ” . . . it really doesn’t depend on me or God, it depends on you” to be healed. Unbelievers would think:

“Ah, I don’t need to trust anyone – even God – to heal me. I only need to trust myself and the way I apply Dr. Michelle’s principles to be healed. If I apply them half-heartedly and partially obey her principles, I will not be healed. But if I apply them wholeheartedly and in total obedience, I will be healed.”

How does an unbeliever who does not know or believe in God discern when he or she is obeying her principles partially or half-heartedly?

And by the way, if your healing does not depend on her or on God why is it necessary for her to warn her readers that God does not honor partial obedience? Surely, if your healing does not depend on God but solely on yourself, you don’t need to obey Him. You only need to trust and obey yourself.

Admittedly, she does speak about repentance (page 64). Nonetheless, there is nothing of having sinned or rebelled against an awesomely holy God and that sin separates unrepentant sinners for an eternity from God This biblical truth is not even remotely recognizable in her book.

It’s all about having to know and understand what benefits you now in your health, wealth and prosperity. Her entire soteriology is based on God wanting to heal you and prevent you from becoming sick. Here’s how she explains her version of repentance:

Repentance is the condition for healing. Repentance means changing your thinking. To get well you need to replace your old toxic sinful thinking habits with a Godly mindset – in other words you need to renew your mind. Renewing your mind basically means changing your thinking to the way that God thinks.

We find out how God thinks by studying His Word – the Bible. When we take God’s thoughts from the Bible and make them our own by meditating on them, we get new attitudes and new ideals. Sometimes we have become so used to a certain pattern of thinking that we think it is part of our personality.

And so we say “Well that’s just the way I am.” But is it the way God intended you to be? I think God wants His mind which is the mind of Christ to be our mind, His thoughts to be our thoughts, His ways to be our ways…and how He would do it should be how we would do it. So if God is love, then who should we be?

We should be people that love each other. If God is full of forgiveness and He is, what should we be? Forgiving people. If God has no fear, what should we be? People that are not bound by fear, anxiety and stress.

The very first sentence in the above paragraph proves without any reasonable doubt that she has no intention to busy herself with the Gospel of Jesus Christ but with a social gospel which turns the eyes inward and away from God to self. Repentance is, never was, never has been, and will never be the condition for healing.

Repentance is exclusively for salvation. Nonetheless, Michelle Strydom insists that “The fruit of this teaching will come forth out of an intimate love relationship between you and God the Father based on the application of these insights.” Although she denies that her teaching is steeped in the Word of Faith doctrine, she – like the WOF – very quickly plead innocence when her principles for healing does not work for you.

What must the poor souls think who have been praying for days, weeks, months and maybe years for God to heal them and nothing happens? “Oh, woe is me; I am to blame for my illness because I have failed to love God the way He expects me to love Him and to apply Dr. Michelle Strydom’s principles.”

Michelle Strydom’s proviso for healing – i.e. to apply her principles and to love God – is completely at variance with Jesus’ teaching. He said that those who had been forgiven much are those who love God the most.

Luk 7:37-48
And, behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster box of ointment,

And stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment.

Now when the Pharisee which had bidden him saw it, he spake within himself, saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him: for she is a sinner.

And Jesus answering said unto him, Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee. And he saith, Master, say on.

There was a certain creditor which had two debtors: the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty.

And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which of them will love him most?

Simon answered and said, I suppose that he, to whom he forgave most. And he said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged.

And he turned to the woman, and said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house, thou gavest me no water for my feet: but she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head.

Thou gavest me no kiss: but this woman since the time I came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet.

My head with oil thou didst not anoint: but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment.

Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.

And he said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven.

Instead of urging people to repent and receive forgiveness for their sins (as the woman in Luke 7) with the intent to be restored to a right relationship with God and to love Him with all their mind soul and strength, she implores them to focus on the restoration of their relationship with other people so that they may be healed of all their diseases.

Her entire premise to focus on the horizontal relationship with man instead of the vertical relationship with God is the wrong motive and therefore completely unbiblical. She writes:

“Forgiveness [is] A Necessity For Healing” because unforgiveness can block your healing. (page 2).

If you are meditating on thoughts of fear, anxiety, self-hatred, a low self-esteem, rejection, guilt, condemnation, bitterness, unforgiveness, anger, rage, resentment and so forth – your brain is full of toxic memories that are making you sick. (page 12)

If your mind is dominated by toxic thoughts such as fear, anxiety, worry, unforgiveness, bitterness, anger, rage, resentment, self-hatred and so forth, your hypothalamus is going to respond by producing either insufficient or excessive quantities of certain chemicals which then become toxic and harmful for you.

This alters the structure of the memories that are built in the cortex. These memories are toxic and the corresponding physical reaction through the mind-body connection leads to the development of disease. (Page 13).

This applies to any other toxic thorn tree such as fear, anxiety, worry, a low self-esteem, guilt, self-hatred, anger, jealousy, rejection etc. When you make a decision to reject those toxic thoughts and change your thinking to the way that God thinks as described in His Word, a new healthy memory will be built on top of that old toxic thorn tree and the emotional sting will be removed at the same time.

You can change and grow your brain at will through thinking. You can choose to deal with those toxic thorn trees and build new healthy memories over them. In science this process is called “retranscribing those memories neuroplastically.” The Bible calls this “renewing the mind”. (Page 20).

I’m sorry, but this is not what the Bible calls the renewing of the mind. First of all, Paul warns believers to guard their minds against being conformed to the rudiments of the world (Colossians 2:8).

Ironically, her assertion that a low self-esteem and self-hatred are toxic thorns that need to be re-transcribed through the new Messiah called neuroplasticity is precisely just that – conforming the minds to the rudiments of psychology and psychiatry and not the Word of God.  Jesus said the very opposite.

Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. (Matthew 11:29).

Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly in heart. Never be wise in your own sight. (Romans 12:16).

I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 18:14).

“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. (Luke 14:26)

Anyone who teaches you that self-hatred is a toxic thought that needs to be re-wired by neuroplasticity is actually teaching you how not to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.

Martin and Deidre Bobgan wrote:

. . . a high-self-esteem-will-help-you-low-self-esteem-will-hurt-you formula is not biblical. Nor is it proven in the research. It is unfortunate that many Christian leaders and psychologists have chosen to promote self-esteem.

Self-fulfillment, self-actualization, self-love, and the other combinations and permutations of self-enlarging words are just various facets of the desire to be like God which originated in the Garden of Eden. Amalgamating Scripture with psychology only baptizes the flesh with the Holy Water of the Word, but it is a false message. (Martin & Deidre Bobgan, Psychoheresy,Eastgate Publishers, 1987 p. 67).

A research project at Purdue University compared two groups of individuals, one with low self-esteem and the other with high self-esteem, in regard to problem solving.  The results of the study once more explodes the myth that high self-esteem is a must for mankind.

The results of the study were reported by one of the two researchers assigned to the project.  He says, “Self-esteem is generally considered an across-the-board important attitude, but this study showed self-esteem to correlate negatively with performance.”  He concludes by stating that in that particular study, “The higher the self-esteem, the poorer the performance.” (Martin & Deidre Bobgan, Psychoheresy, Eastgate Publishers, 1987 p.60)

THE NEW MESSIAH – NEUROPLASTICITY

In her book “The Gift in You” Caroline Leaf wrote:

Each person can do something no one else can do. There’s something each child can do that no one else can do . . . Find it in yourself. Find it in your children. Find it in your spouse. Find it in your colleagues at work. Find it, because in it you will also find the truth of God’s living promises.

Wait! There’s more. In an interview Sid Roth of “It’s Supernatural” had with her, he said”

But you know what? I believe with the latest research you have, people are going to start, even agnostics, are going to start seeing, “Hey Jesus said what we’re just finding out in our research.”

And the thing that’s so amazing to me is that you say God created us with a gift and everyone’s gift, and this is hard to comprehend, this is a lot of people on earth.

But she says everyone’s gift is so unique and when you can learn what your gift is and operate in your gift you’re gonna have extraordinary peace. You’re going to accomplish your destiny. You’re going to be walking in Divine health. Your relationships are going to be better. And most people that take these standardized tests, they’re not tests for the gift that God’s given them. They’re tests for their talents.

There’s no doubt that every person is unique in his or her own particular way. However, to bring the alleged uniqueness of a person’s thinking processes into the sphere of spirituality and to claim that it fosters extraordinary peace is way off track with what the Word of God teaches.

As far as I know, the Bible teaches that only Jesus is capable of giving believers – not unbelievers – a peace that surpasses all understanding (Philippians 4:7). Unbelievers have no peace and are like a raging sea, forever tossing up mire and dirt. (Isaiah 57:20-21).

Yet, Dr. Leaf claims that when each person seeks this unique gift which is in every person, including unbelievers, they will find the truth of God’s living promises. Here, again, she attributes to all men, including unbelievers, the things that pertain only to Jesus Christ. God’s Word says that His promises are all yea and amen in his Son and not in the unique gift every person allegedly has hidden in himself. (2 Corinthians 1:20).

But wait, it gets even worse when Sid Roth echoes Dr. Leaf in saying that you are going to accomplish your destiny when you find the unique gift hidden in you. Destiny, in the spiritual sense of the word, can only refer to one of two possible places you can go to – heaven or hell.

Here again, she alludes to the bizarre assumption that neuroplasticity empowers you to be your own little Messiah, a lie the WOF false prophets like Joyce Meyer, Benny Hinn, Kenneth Copeland and Kenneth Hagin have been teaching their followers ad nauseam. And then, as a bonus, you’re going to walk in Divine health.

If Divine health means that you never become sick, then it follows that you also never sin because – as Drs. Caroline Leaf and Michelle Strydom readily admit – sin (toxic thoughts) cause all kinds of illnesses. Just imagine for one moment if this were true and everyone walked in Divine health, then their research on the brain and the effects of toxic thoughts on the body would be obsolete.

They would never have to write a single book on the brain ever again because everyone will be walking in Divine health. The truth is that many Christians still get sick and many die of their maladies – even the so-called prophets who claim to be walking in Divine health – so that they may continue to sell their heresies to unsuspecting and gullible men and women. (2 Timothy 3:5-7).

She seems to believe that everyone has the mind of Christ and says so in just about every talk she gives. Yet, in the same breath, she tells her listeners and readers that everyone’s thoughts are uniquely their own.

Well it’s just in terms of physiologically, what happens is this, is that we are thinking all day long. You’re even thinking at night time. You’re a thinking being. God has blessed us with this ability to think. As you think, you think, you process this information from outside and as you’re thinking you’re making choices and you’re building thoughts. Now thoughts are real. They occupy mental real estate.

They’re real physical structural things inside your brain and they’re constantly changing. So our thoughts are constantly dynamic and changing. Now the simplest way to explain this is if there was a car accident and you had five people at the scene of the car accident or 10, or 20, every single person would report differently, because each person perceives it differently.

We each have this unique way that we filter information through the world as we think into both thoughts. So our gift of thinking filters and it builds the thought, and it’s different for every single person. That’s what the scientists have found. Physiologically, the process, and we can go into that in a moment, but physiologically it’s the same, we have the same physiological process. But the way that we use that physiological process is different for every person.

To have the mind of Christ means to think and act on God’s will in the very same way Christ Jesus thought and acted on his will. (John 4:34; Matthew 12:50). There is no room in this for uniquely differing ways of thinking. Had we all been gifted with uniquely differing ways of thinking, everyone would have thought differently about how to know and how to do the will of God.

Where is the sameness of mind in this? Paul and Peter continuously exhort their brethren to be of the same mind. (Romans 12:16; 1 Corinthians 1:10; Philippians 4:2; 1 Peters 4:1). The sameness of mind enables God’s children to walk as He walked when He was still on earth (1 John 2:6). Her so-called unique gift of thinking differently is what the Bible calls vain imaginations (Romans 1:21).

Dr. Leaf’s example of how individuals experience a car crash differently because they think differently, won’t be much of witness in court. It is not what each individual thought about the accident that will be of any value in a court; it is what they actually saw that would be of value to the judge. The judge won’t ask the witness what he thought he saw. He or she will ask him “what did you see?”

WHAT LIES AT THE ROOT OF NEUROPLASTICITY?

What is it that Drs. Michelle Strydom and Caroline Leaf want to embed in your minds? In short, it is an extension of witchcraft and shamanism. The only difference, as I indicated earlier, is that they sanctify their wizardry, shamanism and witchcraft with a few verses from Scripture, exactly the way the angel of light would want them to deceive their listeners and readers (2 Corinthians 11:13-15).

In an essay written by Roberta Lee, MD, and Michael J. Balick, PhD which they entitled “SNAKEBITE, SHAMANISM, AND MODERN MEDICINE: EXPLORING THE POWER OF THE MIND-BODY RELATIONSHIP IN HEALING” they relate how a shaman healed a Llaneros – an inhabitant of the Colombian savanna region known as the Llanos who had been bitten by a very poisonous montonosa snake –  after a medical doctor failed to heal him when he treated him with conventional medicine at the “Las Gaviotas” hospital.

The conclusion they had come to is the following.

Within the field of Western medicine, the separation of the mind and the body was established in the 17th century. Originally this separation provided those interested in the workings of the body (e.g. anatomy and physiology) the freedom to explore while preserving for the church the domain of the mind.

This case study of Guahibo ethnomedicine demonstrates what most traditional medical systems still appreciate: a healing paradigm that honors the mind, body, spirit, and community. This dramatic episode is a reminder, once again, of the importance of the mind in the healing process. (Emphasis added).

Unbelievers involved in the New, Age, Buddhism, Hinduism Christian Science, the Emergent Church and even atheists have as much an interest in the recent upsurge in brain research and its alleged unlimited potential as do many Christians.

Dalai Lama

Every year or so the head of Tibetan Buddhism invites a group of scientists to his home in Dharamsala, in Northern India, to discuss their work and how Buddhism might contribute to it. 

In 2004 the subject was neuroplasticity, the ability of the brain to change its structure and function in response to experience. The following are vignettes adapted from “Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain,” which describes this emerging area of science:

The Dalai Lama, who had watched a brain operation during a visit to an American medical school over a decade earlier, asked the surgeons a startling question: Can the mind shape brain matter? [Can you change or reshape your brain using mind over matter techniques?]

Over the years, he said, neuroscientists had explained to him that mental experiences reflect chemical and electrical changes in the brain. When electrical impulses zip through our visual cortex, for instance, we see; when neurochemicals course through the limbic system we feel.

But something had always bothered him about this explanation, the Dalai Lama said. Could it work the other way around? That is, in addition to the brain giving rise to thoughts and hopes and beliefs and emotions that add up to this thing we call the mind, maybe the mind also acts back on the brain to cause physical changes in the very matter that created it. If so, then pure thought would change the brain’s activity, its circuits or even its structure. (You can read the article here). (Emphasis added)

Forbes, the well-known American business magazine writes in one of its editions:

Change your brain, change your life

Our personalities, thought patterns and emotional responses are wired into our brains, says Richard Davidson, Ph.D., author of The Emotional Life of Your Brain, but you can change your brain. Here are several exercises that will help rewire the neural pathways to help you think more positively, become more self-aware, focus better, understand social cues, ease your emotional triggers and grow more resilient.

Richard J. Davidson is Professor of psychology and psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison as well as founder and chair of the Centre for Investigating Healthy Minds at the Waisman Center. He has done extensive research on the so-called Contemplative Neuroscience with emphasis on the influence meditation has on the brain in the development and enhancement of compassion.

Compassion is one of the uppermost thoughts in the mind of the Dalai Lama with whom Richard Davidson has a special relationship. The 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, says:

“Love and Compassion are the true religions to me. But to develop this, we do not need to believe in any religion.”

“We can reject everything else: religion, ideology, all received wisdom. But we cannot escape the necessity of love and compassion….This, then, is my true religion, my simple faith. In this sense, there is no need for temple or church, for mosque or synagogue, no need for complicated philosophy, doctrine or dogma. Our own heart, our own mind, is the temple.

The doctrine is compassion. Love for others and respect for their rights and dignity, no matter who or what they are: ultimately these are all we need. So long as we practice these in our daily lives, then no matter if we are learned or unlearned, whether we believe in Buddha or God, or follow some other religion or none at all, as long as we have compassion for others and conduct ourselves with restraint out of a sense of responsibility, there is no doubt we will be happy.”

Anyone can see shades of ecumenism coming through the Dalai Lama’s eulogy to compassion and his efforts to promote Buddhism as a major component in the spread of love and compassion. Speaking of ecumenism, some of you may be familiar with and should remember the “Seeds of Compassion” event that took place in April 2008 in Seattle where a smorgasbord of religions convened at the feet of the Dalai Lama (his [un]holiness).

In one of the boldest moves yet in their promotion of New Spirituality and ecumenism, Doug Pagitt and Rob Bell of the Emergent Church joined the Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu, and a whole line-up of New Spirituality proponents for the Seeds of Compassion Inter-spiritual Event in Seattle on April 15 to nurture “spirituality” in youth. Doug Pagitt says on his blog that he was “extremely excited” about the event.

Rob Bell and Doug  Pagitt were joined by Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists, Episcopalians, Catholics and the United Nations (UNESCO) at this event. Pagitt was “extremely excited” about this New Spirituality because he believes that the Gospel is found in other world religions.

Another well-known neuroscientist who as a non-believer has researched the brain very comprehensively is Andrew Newburg. He together with his co-author, Mark Waldman, of the book “How God Changes Your Brain” have allegedly proven that belief in a loving and accepting God actually stimulates the anterior cingulate cortex, that portion of the brain responsible for empathy and compassion. However, belief in a judgmental angry God actually damages the anterior cingulate. They wrote:

“Contemplative practices (such as meditation on a compassionate, accepting, loving God) stimulate activity in the anterior cingulate, thus helping a person to become more sensitive to the feelings of others. Indeed meditating on any form of love, including God’s love, appears to strengthen the same neurological circuits that allow us to feel empathy/compassion towards others.

In contrast, religious activities that focus on fear may damage the anterior cingulate, and when this happens, a person will often lose interest in other people’s concerns or act aggressively against them. We suspect that fear-based religions may even create symptoms that mirror post-traumatic stress syndrome.”

This is sheer Buddhism in its most basic form. This is how a blog on Buddhism describes “compassion meditation.”

Compassion meditation is an ancient Buddhist meditation practice that is designed to increase feelings of compassion and wanting to help others. In this 30-minute guided meditation, you will cultivate feelings of compassion for loved ones, your self, strangers, as well as people you have difficulty with.

Compassion meditation is like training the compassion muscle, starting with the lightest weight of a loved one and working up to a heavier weight of a difficult person.

This training was scientifically validated to show that practicing compassion meditation for 30 minutes a day for two weeks increased altruistic behavior and changed the brain’s responses to human suffering (Weng et al. in press, Compassion training alters altruism and neural responses to suffering, Psychological Science).

On page 10 of their book, they say the following.

To survive in a pluralistic society, we must evolve our spirituality and our secularity, integrating religion and science in a way that’s beneficial to all. But to do this we must overhaul antiquated religious notions that interfere with the religious freedoms of others.

Most important, we will need to devise innovative ways to promote peaceful co-operation between people, especially between those who hold different religious views.

In this respect, scientists, psychologists, sociologists, theologians, and politicians must forge new cooperative alliances in order to improve our global interactions with others. (Emphasis added)

As you can see, most religions, if not all, call for compassion to rule the brain. However, can we link Dr. Caroline Leaf’s neuroscientific research to Buddhism and meditation in particular? To begin with, we must first look at her view of compassion.

Dr. Caroline Leaf says on one of her Facebook pages,

We have been hardwired to experience powerful compassion for others!

To make such a blanket statement leaves the impression that everyone – including unbelievers – are hardwired to experience powerful compassion for others.

Indeed mankind was made in the image of God but that image was fiercely marred by sin – even to the extent that all of mankind came under the wrath and judgment of God – when Adam and Eve fell into sin. Since then mankind as a whole became wholly incapacitated to experience a godly compassion for others.

And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. (Genesis 6:3).

And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them. (Genesis 6:5-7).

Instead of proclaiming the simple Gospel of redemption through Jesus Christ’s vicarious death on the cross, she suggests that everyone already has the ability to show compassion to others. Could it be that she believes everyone already has a divine spark in them and that it can be cultivated by the manipulation of your brain?

If we should go by what Dr. Gys du Plessis of the Mosaiek Kerk in Fairland, Johannesburg said, then we may safely assume that Drs. Caroline Leaf and Michelle Strydom share the same view. He said:

Do you realize the spiritual implication? . . . Just imagine what can happen spiritually if we embark on the contemplative journey; if we really go to that stillness . . . We must become neuroplastitioners. . . . We can create new maps, spiritually as well. (Emphasis added).

My biggest desire is that you just maybe take away the fact that we have to seek the Holy Spirit in the brain because that is where the Holy Spirit, where God belongs, where mind and soul is and where God belongs. The brain is the seat of the Holy Spirit. (Emphasis added)

The concept that you can change your brain from a toxic filled container to a healthy, wholesome and happy brain is no different from Buddhism.

WHO ARE MORE INFLUENCED BY DRS. MICHELLE STRYDOM AND CAROLINE LEAFS  NEUROPLASTICITY TEACHING – MEN OR WOMEN?

If it had been necessary to undergo 21 days of learning how to detox your brain and how to switch it on, the apostle Peter would never have written these words, “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence” (2 Peter 1:3)

Women, in particular, are more susceptible to these heresies than men because they are emotionally more vulnerable. Check it out. Most of Dr. Caroline Leaf’s audiences at her talks and most of her Facebook friends are women. No wonder Paul wrote to Timothy.

Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. (2 Ti mothy 3:5-7; KJV)

Why is it no surprise that Satan targeted Eve to inject his venomous lie “You shall be like God” into her mind and not Adam? And by the way, Neuroplasticity is a far more subtle and just another way of saying – you are in the driving seat. Your brain (mind) is made in the image of God and therefore you are capable of changing your lifestyle by merely changing your brain.

Women, in particular, are also more susceptible to meditation techniques such as Yoga, contemplative prayer, and Transcendental Meditation TM. However, don’t forget that slain-in-the-spirit which is rampant in most churches is a form of mind control as well. Women may think they are in full control of their mind when they allegedly switch it on but the fact is, they’re not.

Prof. John Eccles, a Nobel prize winner for his research on the brain said: “The brain is a machine a ghost can operate.” What does the Bible teach?

Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. (1 Th 5:6)

The word “sleep” Paul used here is very interesting. He could not have referred to the common “sleep” because every human being needs to be refreshed every day. Even Jesus needed to rest and sleep. He refers to a sleep condition when the brain (mind) is bypassed or eliminated through means and ways the Bible prohibits – all forms of meditation, Yoga, slain-in-the-spirit, hypnosis, etc. It is common knowledge that brain research and meditation go hand in hand.

All the above-mentioned forms of mind control bring on a deep sense of passivity which is very dangerous. It is then when demons take advantage of your mind and very easily transmit their doctrines into your brain.

And how are people supposed to manage their minds?

Read this article for more information on neuroscience and its connection to Eastern mysticism and doctrines of devils.

What does Paul teach in Romans 12:2? – that Christians and non-Christians can wire bad thoughts out and good thoughts in? What does Dr. Caroline Leaf mean by “bad thoughts?” Surely, a bad thought in biblical terms is nothing else than sin.

If so, then she is suggesting that we can deal with sin in our lives by merely re-wiring our brains. Can this be classified as blasphemy? Absolutely, because she is very subtly suggesting that you do not need Jesus Christ to obtain forgiveness for your sins.

Oh yeah, don’t be mistaken, she often mentions his Name and – as we’ve seen – she copiously quotes verses from the Bible. Nevertheless, her teaching itself is not biblical despite her use of Christ’s Name and verses from the Bible. This is actually one of the main traits of a minister who transforms him or herself into a minister of righteousness.

It’s a real pity that Paul never knew how to rewire his brain or how to cleanse his toxic brain with a “21 Day To a Toxic Free Mind” programme by Dr Caroline Leaf. Had he been informed he would never have lamented his pitiful lifestyle in these words.

For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.

For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin. (Romans 7:18-25; KJV).

Had he known of Dr. Caroline Leaf and her “21 Day to a toxic Free Mind” he could instead have written.

O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Dr Caroline Leaf and her illustrious 21 Day To a toxic Free Mind.”

May God have mercy on their pitiful souls and all those women who blindly follow them.

Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch. (Matthew 15:14).

GOODBYE JESUS CHRIST! HELLO ANTICHRIST!