Do As Your Told
By: Steven
Dobbs
raptureready.com
Linsly-Chittenden Hall on Yale’s old
campus was the site of a ground breaking and in more ways than one a shocking
experiment in human behavior in regards to authority. In
1961 a psychologist by the name of Dr. Stanley Milgram who received his PhD in
social psychology from Harvard, performed a study the purpose of which was to
gain insight into why the German population and more specifically members of the
German military willing went along with or directly carried out acts of inhuman
barbarism during WWII.
The study for those of you who are
not familiar with the case involved an actor playing a person known in the study
as a “learner”, a psychologist functioning as the authority figure running the
session, and the subject of the case study average everyday people playing the
role as the “teacher”.
The gist of the study goes as follows:
The “teacher” would ask the “learner”
a series of questions.
For each question that was answered incorrectly
the psychologist would instruct the “teacher” to administer an electric shock to
the “learner”.
The learner was situated in another room and the
teacher would press a button that would administer the shock. The
voltage was increased after each wrong answer to the point where the voltage
could be deadly.
Often throughout the process the teacher would
comment to the psychologist that the learner may be hurt, and the psychologist
would instruct the teacher to administer the shock anyway and to continue the
testing. Even when the voltage was great enough to cause harm or
possible death the teacher was instructed to continue. The
learner while being shocked would sometimes yell out or say they wanted to
stop. All the while the psychologist would urge the teacher to
continue regardless of his or her wishes or the wishes of the
learner. Of course there were never really electric shocks occurring,
however as far as the teacher knew the shocks were real. Prior to testing colleagues of Dr. Milgram’s general consensus
was that only 1% of subjects would administer the possibly lethal voltage, and
that 1% would be psychopathic individuals. Unfortunately the consensus
was wrong.
In fact they were extremely wrong. The
results showed that roughly 65% of individuals administered the
shocks.
This series of tests occurred in the
60’s and was repeated in the last 5 years and the results were nearly the
same. The results were that nearly 2/3 of individuals would willing
inflict this pain on another human being. What do these results say
about people?
Well for those of us born again in CHRIST we
should not be surprised with these results since we understand the state of
fallen man.
Nonetheless the results are quite
disturbing.
It shows that those Nazi’s and average Germans
living under Nazi authority were in fact more willing a participant than we may
have once thought.
At the Nuremberg trials often the answer given
for why they would commit such acts was that they were just following
orders. The study shows how influential an authority figure can be
when it comes to the decision making process of the individual. We
will return to the ramifications of this result in a moment, in the meantime we
will take a look at another study.
The second body of research involved
a small group of people being asked questions by a teacher. The
group was in fact just acting as if they were trying to answer the
questions.
They would purposely give the same wrong answer
out loud, while one individual the actual subject of the study would then give
his answer.
Remarkably when the others gave the wrong answer
the subject would more often than not go along with the group and give the wrong
answer as well even when he knew the correct answer to the question. When he could give his answer in written form not read aloud
before his peers he would answer the question correctly. Clearly peer pressure and go with the group mentality was
markedly displayed in this case study.
Various researches have been done in
regards to social interaction. As psychology was my main
field of study in college this type of research is very interesting to
me. As a Christian the results of these studies reinforce my
belief that man is certainly a fallen creature without the redemptive power of
the only begotten Son of GOD. So what does all this
psycho-social behavioral study have to do with us as Christians?
From an everyday aspect it certainly
has valid correlation to the way we minister to the lost. Does the way the world acts, the way the world perceives you
affect your witness to the lost. We are no longer of this
world yet we still live in this world and must go as sheep amongst
wolves.
Do you allow what the world thinks of you interfere with your
trying to bring the message of CHRIST to those who desperately need
salvation?
Do you conform to the ways of this world when you
are around your non-Christian friends? Do you allow what they may
think of you change the way you act when you are around them? I’ll be the first to admit I have made that very
mistake. There have been times that I should have brought up the
message of salvation to a lost individual but allowed the group to dissuade my
witness. It happens to most if not all Christians at one time or
another. The lateness of the hour should behoove us to worry not what
the world thinks and reach those who need the message of JESUS the
most. They may think us peculiar. They may even hate us for it.
“But ye are a chosen generation, a
royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth
the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous
light;” PETER 2:9“If the world hates you, you know
that it has hated Me before it hated you. 19“If you were of the world, the world
would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of
the world, because of this the world hates you. JOHN 15:18-20
The world or people of the world
especially in Middle Eastern nations do hate Christians. The
Christian church is persecuted by those in authority in many nations of the
world. We in America have been fortunate to be able to live freely in
our faith.
Those days may be numbered. The
bible clearly foretells of a time when admitting to being a Christian will be a
death sentence.
It is at that time that these studies in social
interaction will become much more important and much more valid.
If
people who were under no real pressure chose to follow orders and chose to
follow the crowd, can you imagine what their actions will be when part of a
world dominated by the anti-Christ system.
There has been much debate
and speculation as to the role our military and police will play in a time of
crises. When they are asked to go against the 2nd amendment and take
away citizens right to bare
arms. When they are told to round up dissidents or Christians or to
fire upon their own populace, many believe that those soldiers will refuse.
From the data that I have presented to you does it seem likely
they will go against orders?
There are many GOD fearing
individuals in our military and they may very well refuse to do such a
thing. However the data shows otherwise, and if it is after the
rapture then I’d imagine the number that follow heinous orders will be closer to
100% than the 65% that the studies have shown.
I am a veteran. In
my time in service we were always taught that it was our duty to disregard an
unlawful order.
I believe that good men and women who make up our
armed forces are taught the same thing and it is my sincere hope that if or when
such orders come to pass that they will do their duty not what they are
told.
Are you a closet Christian?
“Ye are the light of the world. A
city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.” MATTHEW 5:14
Time is running out and there is so
much work yet to be done. Worry not if the world hates
you. Worry less what the world thinks of you. Preach the word and reach the lost. As
soldiers of CHRIST it is our duty.
There is so much darkness in this world let your light
shine!!!
