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A recent article in the Financial Times reported: "In January Vladimir Putin presided over a meeting designed to produce a new standardised history book for use in schools.
The Russian president complained that many current textbooks are 'ideological garbage' and 'denigrate the Soviet people's role in the struggle with fascism'" (Gideon Rachman, "How Wars Can Be Started by History Textbooks," March 17, 2014).
This sounds like it's straight out of George Orwell's novel 1984, wherein one of the slogans of a fictitious political party is: "Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past." Governments rewriting their own history books to stir up national pride is not something that is new under the sun.
Okay, so what if these textbooks are rewritten? What does this really do in the grand scheme of things? When government leaders control knowledge, they control the citizenry's perception of reality. This systematic misinformation can be the catalyst for future conflicts. There's not a whole lot an individual can do about that. So where do you turn for truth?
The Lord Jesus Christ said this about truth: "And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32). There is an undeniable truth, and that truth is the Word of God. No governmental systems we see around us are pure in their actions. We look to the future when Jesus will return to set up a government like no other:
"Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever" (Isaiah 9:7, emphasis added).
True judgment and righteousness is coming. Don't let the actions of governments hinder your view of what's right and the ultimate future we await. (Source: Financial Times. )
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Keywords: Russia propaganda history
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