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DENNIS POLLOCK Hello, folks, this is Dennis Pollock, speaking for Lamb & Lion Ministries. I greet you in the name of Jesus, our blessed hope and wonderful redeemer, and it is great to be with you for this edition of "Christ in Prophecy".
Well, folks, I never cease to be amazed at some of the bizarre things that people believe. There’s a lot of nutty stuff out there (starts laughing). I guess you realize that, but it just amazes me what intelligent people believe these days. One of the strangest sets of beliefs there is that’s gaining respect these days is the religion of Scientology. I was watching some, uh, biographical special on TV about the family of Elvis Presley the other day and it was interviewing Priscilla Presley and the daughter, Lisa Marie, and they’re both Scientologists and they both talked so highly about what Scientology has meant to them and how meaningful it is in their lives. They had one of the relatives who is a Baptist evangelist, believe it or not, and he was trying to excuse them a little bit, saying, "Well, I’m glad they, they have a spiritual side to them and I’m glad that this is helping them." Well, folks, I’m not glad at all! Don’t try to me that it’s helping them at all in any way because it’s keeping them from the savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. After seeing that, it just--I just marvel because I am aware of what these Scientologists teach. I’ve done a little research into the religion and it it--it is absolutely crazy what they believe.
Then shortly after that, I saw a magazine advertisement for Scientology, has a picture of a--of a young man on the advertisement, and it has a quote that’s supposedly by an actor. It says this: "With Scientology I regained my self-respect. It saved my life." He says, "The Scientology religion enabled me to regain many lost abilities. Through Dianetics and Scientology principles I am now able to communicate better with others, to listen to them and to love them. L. Ron Hubbard says ‘What is true for you is what you have observed yourself.’ To me, this religion has enormous value. In short, it has given me what I was looking for." Well, fellow, I’ll have to tell you you’d better keep on looking because you haven’t found what you need yet. It goes on to say in the advertisement, "Why do people like Scientology? The Scientology religion provides practical answers to the spiritual mysteries of life. A person of any background, of any race or opinion can use Scientology principles to make their own life better in the here and now. Scientology enables people to be well and happy. It addresses you as a spiritual being and enables you to fully know who and what you are and what you’re truly capable of. Scientology has grown by more than 25 times since its inception" (starts chuckling) I had to laugh when I read that; well, of course, that makes a lot of sense, you could start a church with two people and if you got 50 people in a year you’ve grown by 25 times, that doesn’t mean anything! But they do have quite a few people, I’m not saying that, but that particular statement, uh, doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. It is used, they say, in more than 129 countries throughout the world, it helps in reversing the downward spiral of illiteracy and drug abuse, it helps people find--to help one another, it strengthens people’s ability to think for themselves. It makes you wonder what kind of people would oppose Scientology, doesn’t it? (starts chuckling) What kind of people would oppose Scientology? Well, here’s one right here in the radio studio!
Well, I wrote an article, and I think I’ve shared this once before with you all, but it doesn’t hurt to repeat it and this is something that, um, I think we need to be aware of. The article, it’s in a pamphlet form called "Scientology: Cult of the Elite", got a picture of John Travolta on the cover because he’s one of its biggest proponents, and you can get this by writing to us, it’s free, just ask for the Scientology pamphlet. Let me just share a few thoughts from the pamphlet. It happened during the filming of a quickly forgotten horror film called "The Devil’s Rain" in 1975. John Travolta had come down with a severe (coughs)--excuse me--a severe cold and sore throat. Actress Joan Prather told young Travolta she could help him using a technique known as a Touch Assist. Travolta later declared, "The sore throat went away so then I knew something was really working here, I needed to find out more about it." Wrong--just because something has some temporary help doesn’t mean it’s good. The Devil will be happy to let you off a sore throat if he can snare your soul for eternity. Such was John Travolta’s introduction to the doctrine of Scientology. It turned out to be more than a passing fad. Over 20 years later, Travolta is still holding to the doctrines enunciated by science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard. "I don’t know why people are afraid of it," he says. "It’s given me a better quality of life and a hope for mankind." Scientology has received a lot of free publicity in recent days with the proportionately high incidence of celebrity converts. They list among their converts John Travolta, of course, Tom Cruise, his wife Nicole Kidman, Sharon Stone, Mimi Rogers, Shirley MacLaine, Kirstie Alley, Demi Moore, Priscilla Presley and daughter Lisa Marie. They’ve all been said to be involved in this mysterious so-called church. They did an ad to protest the German--the, the German nations’ crackdown on Scientology, and this was signed by even more Hollywood, Hollywood stars and bright lights such as Goldie Hawn, Dustin Hoffman, Oliver Stone, Aaron Spelling and a whole bunch of other Hollywood luminaries. Everybody in Hollywood wants to protect poor little Scientology from being picked on.
Well, what is it? Well founder Ron Hubbard was convinced that the answer to all life’s problems and pressures could be found in the principles of Dianetics. This was a word he coined first in a science fiction novel; then he decided, maybe it’s a real word. Dianetics is a type of therapy which weaves pop psychology with Eastern mysticism. One of the primary means of applying the principles of Dianetics is to get yourself hooked up to an e-meter. This consists of a small box with two electrodes that patched--that passes a current of about one and a half volts through your body. It registers the result on a needle that swings all over the place in a manner similar to a lie detector. You’re asked questions and you get to talk and your responses are registered. An experienced Scientologist listens as the participant is encouraged to discuss their past failures and problems. When the subject can talk about the problems without causing the needle to careen all over the gauge, they are then said to be Clear, free from all bondage.
Now that’s crazy enough, just the, the practice of it. When you get to the theology behind the practice, it’s crazier still. The theology is almost too incredible to be believed. According to Ron Hubbard, 75 million years ago there was a tyrant named Xenu. How did Ron know about Xenu? I don’t know, I guess Xenu left him a note somewhere! Xenu ruled a galactic confederation, which is an alliance of 76 planets including Earth. To control overpopulation and solidify his power, Xenu instructed his loyal officers to capture beings of all shapes and sizes from the various planets, freeze them in a compound of alcohol and glycol and fly them by the billions to Earth in planes that looked a lot like DC-8s. These beings were deposited or chained near 10 volcanoes scattered around our planet. After hydrogen bombs were dropped on the volcanoes, the spirit beings that had been chained up--these were called body thetans or engrams--were captured by Xenu’s forces and implanted with sexual perversion, religion and other notions to obscure their memory of what Xenu had done. Soon afterward, however, a revolt erupted and Xenu himself got imprisoned within a wire cage inside of a mountain where he remains today. Now the body thetans, all these spirits of all these planetary beings that had been chained up to the volcanoes and have since been perverted and given all kinds of weirdness, have been running around attaching themselves to human bodies and bringing about all sorts of misery and bondage. So if you’re depressed, why you’ve got one of these body thetans, these creatures that is kind of stuck to you and if you get a needle attached to you, an e-meter, they could check it out and get you free from all these little weirdos that have attached themselves to your body. Thus, in the gospel according to Hubbard, all our problems have to do with these twisted little spirit critters that attach themselves to us. By means of Dianetics we can be free from these engrams and join the enlightened ones. Well, that anybody could believe such nonsense is surprising, but that sophisticated Hollywood types who are, we would think, relatively intelligent people would buy this garbage--well, it’s just amazing.
When many of their secret writings got posted on the Internet, Scientology leaders went ballistic. Lawsuits flew in every direction along with dire warnings that anyone reading some of their deep teachings without proper training could die! (chuckles) One fellow on the Internet made a little joke about their threats that you could die from reading their deep theology, he said, "This may be true. While reading their advanced technology, I almost died laughing!" (chuckles) Well, I can understand that!
Ron Hubbard might be considered one of the more unlikely men to start a world religion. He was a rather chubby science fiction writer, he made some fantastic claims, most of them had been called into question. In 1948 he reported to have remarked to a colleague that the best way to make money would be to start a religion. And lo and behold, some time after that, he did. The naval authorities that were over him when he was in the Navy had this to say about Ron Hubbard, his report said this: "By assuming unauthorized authority and attempting to perform duties for which he has no qualifications, he became the source of much trouble. He is garrulous and tries to give impressions of his importance." Boy, that pretty much says it all. He still--although I think he’s dead now, but, uh, dead or alive, he’s still, by his writings, assuming some unauthorized authority. I don’t think he has any authority to start a religion. Well, listen to what Hubbard had to say about Christianity--some people say, "Oh, this doesn’t conflict with Christianity, you could be a good Christian and a Scientologist" and that they all like to say things like that--here’s what Hubbard said: "The whole Christian movement is based on the victim, but a Scientologist is not a victim. We can win by converting victims." Another quote: "It’s despicable and utterly beneath contempt to tell a man he must repent, that he is evil." Well, according to him, Jesus must have been despicable, John the Baptist must have been despicable, and every other great Christian leader. Another place, Hubbard said, "Nobody but the individual can die for his sins" and in another place he says, "Hell is a total myth, an invention made to make people unhappy, and it’s a vicious lie."
Well, I think you get the idea. Scientology--crazy stuff! And yet we’ve all kinds of sophisticated, nice looking, intelligent people that come on our screens and tell us how important it is in our lives and how it could benefit us all. The article is called "Scientology: Cult of the Elite", it’s in a pamphlet form, you can have it free, there’s no charge, just write and ask for the pamphlet called "Scientology" or just the pamphlet about Scientology, and we’ll be glad to send it to you. If you can, send us a contribution; this is the time of the year when we need you sending us contributions. Much of our inco--income comes in in this month of December and we need your generous gifts and donations to keep us carrying forth the good news that Jesus Christ is coming soon. Until next time, this is Dennis Pollock from Lamb & Lion Ministries saying look up and be watchful, our redemption is drawing near.
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