Unaddressed root causes of sin produce self-built defenses that enable further deception
Evidence
There’s a huge difference between simply defining the sin and actually pulling down the strongholds of the enemy that helped produce that sin in the first place. … If we have missed the root causes—the strongholds—of our sin, Nahum 3:19 tells us: “There is no healing of thy bruise.” Then what often happens is that we erect our own “walls of protection,” our own “truth,” to cover these vulnerabilities. These self-erected defenses can actually assist the enemy, rather than defeating him (Nahum 3:17). — Chuck Missler, The Kingdom, Power and Glory, 1394
Categorization
- DEEPTHINKING: The claim that self-erected psychological defenses can end up assisting the very thing they protect against is a dense, counterintuitive insight applicable far beyond the theological frame — a genuine recognition pattern worth sitting with.
- XREF: connects to: Claiming total self-honesty itself signals defensive self-deception — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 1813; Self-deception is a stable life-style punctuated by abrupt awakenings; Sincerity can be an active ingredient of self-deception rather than its opposite — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 1405 (+2 more)
Broader Connections
- Claiming total self-honesty itself signals defensive self-deception
#expands(0.82) — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 1813 - Sincerity can be an active ingredient of self-deception rather than its opposite
#expands(0.78) — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 1405 - Self-deception is a stable life-style punctuated by abrupt awakenings
#expands(0.75) - Psychoanalysis explains self-deception as a lie without a liar
#expands(0.75) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 283 - Self-deception grows easier through communal loyalty
#expands(0.72) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1389