Niccolo Machiavelli And Dr. Rubel Shelly

Review of the FOL. Subject: The Hardest Sell Date: For the Week of November 8, 1999 GBCIII@aol.com

Rubel Shelly: Refrigerators to Eskimos. Isn't that supposed to be the paradigm hardest sell? Well, I can tell you one that beats it by a mile.

Have you ever worked in a place where everybody dressed alike, talked alike, and thought alike? Ever been part of a group or company where everyone else was a "yes person" to one dominant character? Ever offered a new idea and been shot down immediately for daring to think outside the box? The hardest sell of all is a new idea.

Jesus castigated the Pharisees because they sought to change the Words of God specificially because they didn't want to hear God and because they wanted to impose their own rules. They had a mouth religion but their converts were not Spiritual. Jesus quotes both Isaiah and Ezekiel where God warned about dominant characters who minimize the Word of God and actually POLLUTE Him ("play the flute, pollute or prostitute"). Here is the MARK of those who thought OUTSIDE THE BIBLE BOX:

Also, thou son of man, the children of thy people still are talking against thee by the walls and in the doors of the houses, and speak one to another, every one to his brother, saying, Come, I pray you,

and hear what is the word that cometh forth from the Lord. Ezek 33:30

And they come unto thee as the people cometh,

and they sit before thee as my people,

and they hear thy words,

but they will not do them:

for with their mouth they shew much love, (erotic praise songs)

but their heart goeth after their covetousness. Ezek 33:31

a very lovely song

of one that hath a pleasant voice,

and can play well on an instrument:

for they hear thy words,

but they do them not. Ezek 33:32

And when this cometh to pass, (lo, it will come,)

then shall they know that a prophet hath been among them. Ezek 33:33

Daniel pronounces a prophecy which will also be fulfilled in the end-times by those DOMINANT CHARACTERS try to take over:

And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings. Daniel 7:24

And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time. Daniel 7: 25

But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end. Daniel 7: 26

And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him. Daniel 7: 27

The clergy-induced BURDEN laded on the Jews like pack animals is defined as "spiritual anxiety created by religious rituals." In Daniel it is:

Bela (h1080) bel-aw'; corresp. to 1086 (but used only in a mental sense); to afflict: - wear out.

Throughout the Bible the most emotional wearing activity was singing or making music: that is why it is enjoyable. Like the runner's high, music induces a morphine-like drug which DRIVES you into the feeling of FIGHT, FLIGHT or SEXUALITY. That is why they tried to TRIUMPH OVER Jesus by piping and trying to make everyone sing their song and dance their dance.

Rubel Shelly: Businesses, families, and individuals grow faster and stay healthier when they explore new options and take calculated risks.

Albert Einstein once said that the significant problems confronting us cannot be solved at the same level of thinking and ingenuity

we were at when we created them.

And Jesus said that the "doctors of the Law" who took away the key to knowledge and destroyed the whole nation COULD NOT contain any role in the new, spiritual, kingdom. The OLD had contained the poison of FERMENT which added more and more strange elements into the FRESH JUICE OF THE WORD. Therefore, you must not PAY for those who spoiled the Word as a FOOD PRODUCT to TAKE CALCULATED RISKS for a higher price.

And Jesus warned against putting new wine in old skins or trying to patch old clothes with bits and pieces of new fabric.

In Machiavelli's famous "The Prince", he wrote: "It ought to be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things. Because the innovator has for enemies all those who have done well under the old conditions and lukewarm defenders in those who may do well under the new.

This coolness arises partly from the fear of the opponents, who have the laws on their side, and partly from the incredulity of men, who do not readily believe in new things until they have had a long experience of them." He was right!

That is why the CHANGE AGENTS are reconciled to taking a decde just to force everyone to eat the Lord's Supper with BACKGROUND MUSIC. Lynn Anderson understands that to paganize the church and TAKE AWAY THE KEY TO KNOWLEDGE you have to take risks: "Prayerful Brinkmanship." You might have to spend huge sums and spend years to acclimate a fraction of THEIR church to "raising holy hands." That is a CALCULATED RISK when everyone knows that their is NO RETURN ON INVESTMENT but deliberate SOWING OF DISCORD.

Machiavelli - The Most Famous Change Agent

"Reduced to poverty, Machiavelli sought refuge in the little property near Florence that he had inherited from his father. There he employed his leisure in writing, between spring and autumn 1513, his two most famous works, Il principe (The Prince) and a large part of the Discorsi sopra la prima deca di Tito Livio ("Discourses on the First Ten Books of Livy")

"This "redeemer," to whom he sought in vain to give a face and a name, would have had to overcome superhuman difficulties; nor could there be much choice of means in attaining such ends. Machiavelli, in Il principe,

attempted to indicate to the prince those means that were

compatible with the conditions of the time and with human nature.

"Even religion--for which he had a deep feeling though he was not outwardly pious--was subordinated by him to the state's iron necessity and made into a tool of power.

Our Review of the Machiavelli Method

Because most religious writing relies upon the "proof-text" principle of taking what it wants and leaving the rest unsaid, it is important to look where Rubel Shelly points as he favorably quotes Machiavelli to instruct those within churches how to make changes to meet the needs of a changing world which God, apparently, did not anticipate.

The first advice is good advice: those who stripped the wealth of the widows and orphans and those on wellfare to create the problems by stubbornly refusing to "go into all the world" are the soft ones who created the problems. They can defeat a lot of people whose "elders are asleep at their watchtowers" but they cannot become Princes.

They cannot, by this highest authority, be part of the solution.

Therefore, why not obey Jesus and get out of the office and "go" -- begone, the early Restoration leaders would plead and the church will pay you for obeying Jesus and imitating Paul to take the battle to the lost.

Secondly, Bible 101a knows that Jesus demanded that we leave the "pure juice of the Word" in the "earthen vessel" where He left it. If you put pure juice in an old skin the leaven will cause it to ferment and it will blow up in your face.

Thirdly, Rubel Shelly puts Machiavellian "wine" (they often poisoned it back under the medici popes) into the church "paradigm" as a suggested means of forcing fresh breezes by those who presume to be new Navigators of these fresh, self-blown, winds.

I love that. While great damage is done by agents of forced change trying to establish a new fatherland, the seeds or leaven of their spiritual destruction are consumed like wine as a second order truth (not core) and just pour out the secrets key to their defeat.

What The Machiavelli Method Meant - The Rest of the Truth

Rubel Shelly quoted just enough of the Prince to make his point. However, To say "machiavellian" is to say that you can lie, cheat, steal and murder those who keep you from becomming or remaining a PRINCE. Let's listen to the paradigm being preached to create a new wineskin:

"I say, therefore, that in entirely new principalities, where there is a new prince, more or less difficulty is found in keeping them, accordingly as there is more or less ability in him who has acquired the state. Now, as the fact of becoming a prince from a private station presupposes either ability or fortune, it is clear that one or other of these two things will mitigate in some degree many difficulties. Nevertheless, he who has relied least on fortune is established the strongest.

Further, it facilitates matters when the prince, having no other state, is compelled to reside there in person.

But to come to those who, by their own ability and not through fortune, have risen to be princes, I say that Moses, Cyrus, Romulus, Theseus, and such like are the most excellent examples. And although one may not discuss Moses, he having been a mere executor of the will of God, yet he ought to be admired, if only for that favour which made him worthy to speak with God.

But in considering Cyrus and others who have acquired or founded kingdoms, all will be found admirable; and if their particular deeds and conduct shall be considered, they will not be found inferior to those of Moses, although he had so great a preceptor. And in examining their actions and lives one cannot see that they owed anything to fortune beyond opportunity, which brought them the material to mould into the form which seemed best to them. Without that opportunity their powers of mind would have been extinguished, and without those powers the opportunity would have come in vain.

It was necessary that Romulus should not remain in Alba, and that he should be abandoned at his birth, in order that he should become King of Rome and founder of the fatherland.

It was necessary that Cyrus should find the Persians discontented with the government of the Medes, and the Medes soft and effeminate through their long peace. Theseus could not have shown his ability had he not found the Athenians dispersed. These opportunities, therefore, made those men fortunate, and their high ability enabled them to recognize the opportunity whereby their country was ennobled and made famous

"Those who by valorous ways become princes, like these men, acquire a principality with difficulty, but they it with ease (Those who recognize the opportunity)

"The difficulties they have in acquiring it arise in part from

the new rules and methods which they are forced to introduce to establish their government and its security.

And it ought to be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success,

than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.

Because the innovator has for enemies

all those who have done well under the old conditions,

and lukewarm defenders in those who may do well under the new.

This coolness arises partly from

fear of the opponents, who have the laws on their side, and

partly from the incredulity of men,

who do not readily believe in new things until they have had a long experience of them. (i.e. test the spirits)

Heredotus notes of the advice to Cyrus about a Second Incarnation for the UTTERLY DEFEATED:

"Grant, then, forgiveness to the Lydians, and to make sure of their never rebelling against thee, or alarming thee more,

send and forbid them to keep any weapons of war, command them to wear tunics under their cloaks, and to put buskins upon their legs,

and make them bring up their sons to cithern-playing (Kitharizein), singing (psallein), and shop-keeping (Hucksterism).

So wilt thou soon see them become women instead of men,

and there will be no more fear of their revolting from thee."

Machiavelli -- The Rest of the Story

Thus it happens that whenever those who are hostile

have the opportunity to attack
they do it like partisans,
whilst the others defend lukewarmly,
in such wise that the prince is endangered along with them.

It is necessary, therefore, if we desire to discuss this matter thoroughly, to inquire

whether these innovators can rely on themselves
or have to depend on others:

that is to say, whether, to consummate their enterprise,

have they to use prayers
or can they use force?

[Jubilee was the FORCED return to the tribes of the common lands.]

In the first instance (prayers) they always succeed badly, and never compass anything;

but when they can rely on themselves and use force,
then they are rarely endangered.

Hence it is that all armed prophets have conquered, and the unarmed ones have been destroyed.

Besides the reasons mentioned, the nature of the people is variable, and whilst it is easy to persuade them, it is difficult to fix them in that persuasion.

And thus it is necessary to take such measures that, when they believe no longer,
It may be possible to make them believe by force.

Fra Girolamo Savonarola, ... was ruined with his new order of things

immediately the multitude believed in him no longer,

and he had no means of keeping steadfast those who believed or of making the unbelievers to believe.

Therefore such as these have great difficulties in consummating their enterprise, for all their dangers are in the ascent,

yet with ability they will overcome them;
but when these are overcome,
and those who envied them their success are exterminated,
they will begin to be respected, and they will continue afterwards powerful, secure, honoured, and happy.

Ah Yes! This sounds like Promise Keepers or Crossroads or the Boston Church or the International church of Christ. Or, it sounds like Navigating the winds of Change by "prayerful brinkmanship" which is really the use of force to break the spirit of those who rely upon the Old Paths.

Back to Rubel Shelly

Rubel Shelly: If your company is experiencing an extended decline, somebody is going to have to think outside the box and challenge the institutional group-think that says, "But we've always done it this way." And the same thing is true about your family, church, or personal well-being.
If things haven't been going well for some time now,

somebody must undertake the difficult -- but critical and life-saving task -- of putting some new ideas on the table.
Opening windows to fresh breezes. Getting creative.

The irony is that many entities sincerely

believe they are preserving their integrity by resisting change,
but they are actually committing suicide.

The message is that unless you CHANGE from your "business and risk-taking" and HIRE a change agent to fixe the mess HE produced you are SUICIDAL.

It is a fact that Christianity is counter-cultural. You take a calculated risk when you decide to follow Jesus. You know that your numbers will shrink under Satan's attack until God has weed out the chaff and there is only a handfull of "grain" as the prophesied remnant.

Rubel Shelly:Businesses and individuals, churches and families -- all must be true to the original commitment that called them into being.

But they must also be smart enough to recognize
that changes around them require insight, adjustment, and unconventional strategies.

If you care enough to have thought deeply about some less-than-ideal situation, you likely have some ideas for improving it. It will take a little courage and a lot of patience to get them heard. The intolerable alternative may be to watch while something you value dies a slow and agonizing death.

Don't be afraid of failing. Be afraid of refusing to try to make things better.

Beginning in heaven Satan was not afraid to try to BLEED OFF worship for himself. In the garden of Eden as "satan" he is identified as Lucifer. She came equipped with wind, string and percussion instruments. Her goal was to SEDUCE Eve so that she was ready to TAKE RISKS. As a result of this musical seduction she brought death on the race. In Sodom:

And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: 2 Pet 2:7

(For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;) 2 Pet 2:8

The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished: 2 Pet 2:9

But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, selfwilled, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities. 2 Pet 2:10

In the Babylonian tablets already ancient when God had Moses write rules to help them resist the CHANGES the Canaanite Baal worshipers would face, and in dozens of other ancient documents THERE IS NO OTHER TRADITION but that Satan taught God's people how to form mixed-sex choirs, play instruments, seduce with clothes and intice the Holy Sethites into Sodomy.

Peter and Jude point us to the Book of Enoch to show that adding these SEEKER-SEDUCING activities are NOT taking a risk: one knows beforehand that the PURPOSE of taking the risk is bound up in "seeing godliness as a means of financial gain."

Using words quite similar to Rubel Shelly, a reviewer of the Promise Keeper's second incarnation notes. Trying to bring Promise Keepers back to life for a season by involving every church in America. Note that the air or winds speaks of the Holy Spirit blowing and we are refusing to NAVIGATE:

"Damazzio stressed the belief that revival must come through the pastors or it wouldn't come at all. This self-important arrogance is also characteristic of the ecclesiastical and liturgical "clergy-laity" foundation upon which most churches are built.

"Having failed the first time to garner sufficient support for his method Damazzio gave further instructions on how the churches need to enter into the revival atmosphere:

"How many of you right now would say, "I tell you what, Brother Frank Damazzio, my church could use a new atmosphere lift"? Come on! Lift your hands!

"How many would say, "Right now my church can use some new, clean air, charged air, electrified air, expectation air;

we need a new breath of God to come into our church"? Your church needs to know you're preaching for that and believing for that. Changing the air of the church is part of revival building. Source.

The problem with the charismatic approach is not the desire for revival but the belief that revival can be brought about through a methodology of expressive worship and praise - by raising one's hands and demonstrate. Such attempts to conjure the presence of God, or to attempt to get Him move on one's behalf are akin to witchcraft. The difference between true revival and false revival is the source of the power. If God moves it doesn't take agitated efforts to make people respond. Such efforts are psychological manipulation characteristic of shamanis hysteria.

See Signs of Cults

Other Signs of Cults

Our conclusions: We believe that all para-church groups have lost the old "water of the Word" and have lost faith in the Divine Writer. Nothing is so refreshing as getting into the Word below the dry-onion-skin level. And yet churches which are failing "go to any lengths" -- including the use of force -- to prevent the Word from being understood.

The result is "hunger and thirst for the Word" and people die spiritually and literally (Amos 5, 6, 8).

All of the ancient change agents knew that "practice" (praxis) is necessary in order to force changes. Therefore, you must spend huge resources to gather the critical mass and then "pattern" or take the little hands of the assembled clergy and actually use emotional force to get them to raise their hands, lay on hands or actually experience what the agent of change wants you to do without thinking. Again, Dr. Shelly agrees with Machiavelli:

Rubel Shelly: Men.. do not readily believe in new things until they have had a long experience of them." He was right!

Wouldn't it be a mortal sin to endure a LONG EXPERIENCE with some NEW THING they didn't believe in? Isn't this the old story of "walking, standing and sitting" in sin until it FEELS GOOD. That isn't hard to force onto people. For instance MUSIC induces a very addictive drug. If you have a great "musical performance" in "church" the people will just suck in anything the preacher says because he has deliberately shut the door to rational or spiritual discernment. After a short period people will LUST FOR the musical performance which they Bible and their once-enlightened spirit saw as sin. The young cannot wait to get back to the CHURCH TURNED SPIRITUAL CRACK HOUSE to get another fix.

This is high pressure salesmanship. If you want to change to conform to the world's religions around you rather than return to the Words of Christ, you should be able to change simply by reading the old Words in the quiet of your home. If people want to put you under the spell of that Psychology attack, just listen to Jesus and Nancy: "Just say no."

The Prince succeeds like beasts of the fields because:

All ye beasts of the field, come to devour, yea, all ye beasts in the forest. Isaiah 56:9

His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber. Isaiah 56:10

Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter. Isaiah 56:11

Come ye, say they, I will fetch wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink; and to morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant. Isaiah 56:12

See the CORE by Dr. Shelly here

Our Recommendations: Listen to Einstein and don't trust the "soldiers" and new wineskin merchants of watered wine: trust Jesus and let Him be your Pastor, Shepherd or Teacher and you won't need any man to teach you.

How about planting, watering and allowing God to give -- or not give -- the increase. When the "church" turns into a para-military group and spends all of its time trying to navigate the fresh breezes it will surely be blown into a whirlpool and sunk.

Those who "wish to know the truth will find out." We cannot force people to be friendly to the quiet spirit of Jesus. All we can do is tell them the truth and point people to Him and not engage in military conflict as Change Agents using worship teams (the Levites were military) to try to force spirit in through the "feel good" parts of the body.

Saavedra Fajardo, Diego de Spanish diplomat and man of letters, best known for his anti-Machiavellian emblem book, the Idea de un príncipe político cristiano (1640; The Royal Politician), which urged a return to traditional virtues as the remedy for national decadence.

James Madison wrote that: national shepherding network,

"There are two methods of curing the mischiefs of faction: the one, by removing its causes; the other, controlling its effects.

"Again, there are two methods of removing the cause of faction: the one,

by destroying the liberty which is essential to its existence;
the other, by giving to every citizen the same opinions, the same passions, and the same interests.

"It could never be more truly said that of the first remedy that it was worse than the disease. Liberty is to faction what air is to fire, an aliment without which it instantly expires. But it could not be a less folly to abolish liberty, which is essential to political life, because it nourishes faction than it would be to wish the annihilation of air, which is essential to animal life, because it imports to fire its destructive agency.

"The second expedient is as impracticable as the first would be unwise. As long as the reason of man continues fallible, and he is at liberty to exercise it, different opinions will be formed." (James Madison, Number Ten, The Federalist Papers)

It is clear that changes are made out of Jubilee 99 and will be made out of Jubilee 2000 carefully following the rules of Machiavelli as we have seen.

See some Promise Keeper's notes on winning through warfare.

See the parallel method of Hitler in Mein Kampf

I have added links to Machiavelli's Prince to assist you in understand the "Volkish" revival and the universal methods of change:

Machiavelli Prince Ch3-Ch6-Ch7

For comparison we will note some of Hitler's message about how to organize the "human" material (emotional) to be used by the elite (the rational) with music being important:

Hitler: Völkish State: Supporters (emotional) and Leaders (Intellectual)

Mein Kampf Vol 2, Ch5, Ch8, Ch11

Reviewed by Kenneth Sublett

Rubel Shelly Sermon Reviews

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Niccolo Machiavelli and Dr. Rubel Shelly