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But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived (2 Timothy 3:13, ESV).
There is a small dining room in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia. In this room, the leaders of the Provisional Government of Russia (in charge after the Czars left power) were arrested.
During my visits to the Hermitage, I have been inside this room dozens of times. On the mantle of a fireplace is a clock stuck at …
2:10 a.m.!
On October 26, 1917, the Bolsheviks stormed the Winter Palace (now the Hermitage Museum) and took over the government at exactly 2:10 a.m.!
For 100 years, from 1917 to 2017, the clock was stuck. The clock was again rewound and allowed to function at the one-hundred-year anniversary of the Communist Revolution in Russia.
The two dominant socialist political parties seeking to oust the Czars in Russia were the Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks. Vladimir Lenin was a member of the Mensheviks but, after a disagreement with the leaders of the Mensheviks, left to start the Bolsheviks.
Which brings me to the title of this Interruption – Lessons Learned From The Bolsheviks.
Lenin was brilliant with propaganda and deception.
“Mensheviks” means “minority” political party, but when Lenin left the Mensheviks, he called his party the “Bolsheviks,” which means “majority” political party. Lenin’s party wasn’t in the majority and, in fact, was rather small.
But who’s counting? Lenin called his party the “majority!”
They also won the revolution and then imprisoned, exiled, or executed the leadership of the Mensheviks and former supporters of the Czars!
Words can influence world-changing events.
The “Bolsheviks” began as the minority party but, through Lenin’s genius in wordplay, became the majority revolutionary force in Russia.
Evil wins through deception.
I recently heard that a Christian author couldn’t read his Bible-belief-based children’s book in a public library. The reason: constituents might be offended. The constituents weren’t named.
Who knows if they even exist? Battles of the Bible, culture and good versus evil are fought and won today through the “Bolshevik Deception” …
Act like a thought is the opinion of many, overstate the case, while inflating the numbers of supporters, and the opposition backs down.
The statement, “Somebody might be offended,” is a ferociously deceptive argument.
It can eliminate true but difficult Bible truths from pulpits and public discourse because we might offend someone. But then – somehow – those who might be offended get to keep talking.
The minority becomes the Bolsheviks.
I am not promoting majority or even minority rule. I do support the Biblical teaching that we must speak the truth in love no matter who is offended.