“Bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.”

(II Corinthians 10:5)

Newspapers’ accounts of what happened to captured American soldiers who perished behind the communist lines in Korea make us alternately weep and burn with hot indignation. But there is a more horrible and widespread tragedy of captives of which we are taking little notice — the tragedy of the capture of men’s thoughts by alien, destructive forces.

The truth which Jesus taught long ago — that out of the heart are the issues of life — that the citadel of man’s personality is his mind — that capturing that fortress is tantamount to capturing man’s body and soul — this ancient Christian doctrine, the world, the flesh and the devil has learned and is now applying with devilish determination to accomplish man’s complete destruction.

See how the communists have laid hold of it! They know that there is a force in the world mightier than the force of armies and that force is the force of ideas. Their propaganda ministry holds priority over their military ministry. Communist zeal outstrips Christian zeal in teaching the illiterates of the world to read. Why? So that the eyes of the down-trodden masses of the world may be opened to read all the world’s great literature? Not on your life! — so their minds may be opened to the flood of propaganda flowing from the Kremelin and their thoughts be taken captive to communism. To control a man’s thoughts is to control him.

See how the commercial world has laid hold of this insight into human nature — that if only man’s thoughts be captured he can be controlled and forced to act in obedience to the one who has captured his thoughts. The mind of modern man is under constant bombardment by the siege guns of scientifically aimed stimuli: the radio, the press, the motion pictures, television, billboards, beautiful magazine advertisements — all beamed at him in round the clock regularity with the avowed purpose of attracting his attention, capturing his thoughts, and so controlling his actions in the matter of what commodities he buys, what amusements shall claim his time, what investments he will choose for his savings.

All this stems from a Christian insight. St. Paul stated the overall objective of Christian evangelism perhaps better and more succinctly than anyone else has ever stated it when he said that the Christian aim is to: “Bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.” The church too, is in this battle waged for the control of man’s mind. And while commercial and political interests are in the battle to capture man’s mind with a purpose to use him or amuse him — only the Christian church is fighting to capture man’s mind to transfuse him with eternal life and transform him into a child of eternal God. “Be ye not conformed to this world,” says St. Paul, “but be ye transformed by renewing of your minds that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable will of God.”

But of late the church has not fared so well in the battle for man’s mind. We’ve lost ground. “The children of darkness are in their own generation wiser than the children of light.” We could learn some lessons from our enemies on how “to bring every thought into captivity.”

How to capture the thoughts of men’s minds and win the battle? Some have taken a defeatest attitude and assumed “that there is something elusive in thought, something so wayward, subtle, and intractable, that it lies quite outside the control of man’s will. Professor Huxley once defined genius as a mind under perfect control — a servant always at heel, ready at any call to do its duty, and quick to respond to any demand that the will can legitimately make upon it. The process of education is nothing more nor less than the art of controlling and disciplining thought.” (W. J. Dawson)

The commercial, the scientific, and the political world has discovered and developed definite techniques for capturing men’s thoughts and so gaining control of them. The church should appropriate more intelligently these proven techniques, and the individual Christian should use them more diligently for his own self-defense and salvation in the battle now being waged for man’s mind, lest he, himself, be ambushed and captured by the enemy unawares.

The first technique successfully used in capturing thoughts is the sensational. Come out with the startling, the unexpected, the out of the ordinary, the brilliant color, the loud noise, the unprecedented, and astonishing statement and you will capture man’s thought.

Col. Francis Pickens Miller says that one of the most appalling phenomena of our times has been the intrusion of the lie in public life as an instrument of deliberate policy — not only the lie of Mussolini and Hitler and Communist propaganda, but the lie used close at home. We’ve witnessed its use in political programs and campaigns either, to promise to produce the desired impossible through legislative fiat, or to defame the character of an opponent by circulating lies about his beliefs and behavior.

Of course, the sensational, striking statement without foundation in fact used simply to capture attention can never be used by the Christian who aims to bring every thought into captivity to Christ — for Christ is truth and something which is opposed to Him can never be used for Him.

But the forces of Christendom cannot afford to pass up the use of this proven technique in capturing the mind of man through legitimate sensational appeals. Surely there is such a thing as the sensational which is in good taste and yet striking in its appeal. A great laymen’s convention in Essen, Germany, last month attracted 180,000 Protestant men. Spectacular sensational appeals such as parades, mass meetings in Europe’s largest outdoor arena, etc., were employed. Top figures of the number expected ran from 50 to 60 thousand, but 180,000 turned out to consider the theme: “Save the Man” with its four subdivision seminars on “Save his family,” “Save his faith,” “Save his freedom,” and Save his homeland.”

We are living in the days of mass man — when powerful mediums for shaping and forming the minds of thousands of men en masse are constantly in use. The Christian church, into whose custody has been placed the sacred gospel of Jesus Christ and whose ultimate goal is to bring every thought of every man into captivity to Christ, must make use of every available, legitimate means of capturing the mind and soul of man.

The second principal which has proved amazingly successful in the modern world for capturing man’s thought is the application of the saturation method. Adolph Hitler, that clever political propagandist, claimed that if you say anything long enough and shout it by enough different voices, the public will eventually believe it. And Hitler almost proved that in Germany. The Coca Cola Company believes that one principal of good advertising is to keep ever before its public the ubiquitous picture of the familiar coke bottle. By the power of subtle suggestion, piled on to the saturation point, thought is captured and sales secured. Marcus Aurelius said long ago: “As are thy habitual thoughts, so will be the character of thy mind, for the soul is dyed in the color of its thoughts.”

We must see to it that the winsome beauty of Christ and His amazing sufficiency for all of life’s needs are placarded before men’s attention and shouted in their eyes and dinned in upon their consciousness above the roar and rumble of all the world’s clamoring campaign for their minds.

The third successful technique applied with amazing success in the modern world to capture the thoughts of man is to discover and secure the key spots of attention. Every advertiser knows that all the spaces on a page of newsprint are not of equal value in capturing attention. A billboard on New York’s Time Square has more advertising value, more potential for capturing attention, than a billboard on the Kernersville road. The spot commercials on the radio are worth more just before and just after some popular programs than they are at other times. There’s a reason the television rights for the World Series brought the unparalleled figure of $800,000. What was the reason? Here was an unprecedented key spot to capture the attention of Mr. America.

And what’s the significance of this for us who should be attempting to bring our every thought into captivity to Christ? Why the way to do it is to stake off, claim for Him whom we say is the Lord of our lives, the key spots of our days and keep them inviolate for Him.

Finally, there is that most important of all techniques for capturing man’s thoughts, employed with amazing success in our modern world by commercial and political interests — and which the Christian should note and use in his campaign to bring every thought into captivity to Christ — just this: to capture, and keep for good, man’s thought — thought must be captured by captivation, by an attraction which holds a lasting emotional allure. Psychologists have proved that in every contest between emotion and will, emotion wins out. The only captivity which thought long endures is the captivity of the ideal.

David Walthall was a chaplain of our church in the last Great War. Before the Invasion of Normandy, Walthall went for a visit to St. Paul’s cathedral in London. At the tomb of Admiral, Lord Nelson, the chaplain paused to read the prayer Nelson wrote before defeating Napoleon’s fleet at Traflagar, saving England from Invasion. While standing there, thinking about Nelson and England’s greatness, an English mother and an English lad came up close beside him at that famous English shrine. Then the American chaplain heard the English mother whisper to her little son: “What was Nelson’s great saying?” The little boy’s head went up and his chin out as he whispered proudly back: “England expects every man to do his duty.”

Oh, the power of a great ideal to take thought captive and hold man’s mind in a glad, proud obedience! And David Walthall says that as he stood there before Nelson’s tomb with the hushed whisper of that mother and her son ringing in his ears he understood how a few hundred R.A.F. fliers could hold off the mighty Luftwaffe, how the evacuation of Dunkirk’s beaches were possible — how when again England might be threatened this lad and countless like him would once more rise up and make her great.

We Christians, too, are heirs of a great tradition. We, too, are under the sway of a captivating ideal. Ours is the superb leader of them all in time and eternity and we proudly, gladly are bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.

• Scripture Reference: 2 Corinthians 10:4-6 • Secondary Scripture References: n/a • Subject : Battle for man’s mind, The; 680 • Special Topic: n/a • Series: n/a • Occasion: Church Paper Week — Crusade for Freedom • First Preached: 10/8/1950 • Last Preached: 4/22/1956 • Rating: 3 • Book/Author References: , W. J. Dawson