My Inner Adolph

My Inner Adolph

Bryan Hupperts

Mar 31, 2003

No, I am neither a Nazi nor skinhead sympathizer. I love the Jewish people and pray for them to come to know Jesus. Adolph Hitler is instead the perfect poster boy image of a monster I am attempting to describe, hence the phrase, My Inner Adolph.

Psychology is a set of conflicting disciplines that attempt to explain the human mind apart from the knowledge of God. It's like getting a bike kit for your kids ominously marked Some Assembly Required. You confidently open the box in your best mechanical bravado only to discover to your shrieking horror that the instructions are written in Chinese, or worse, technical speak! Likewise, the workings of the human mind cannot be grasped without plain instruction from our Emmanuel.

So, as I don my best Freudian slip, and with Dr. Dobson smiling his most saintly smile down upon the faithful, I present direct from the shrink's kitchen an astonishing array of psuedo-scientific pabulum known collectively as pop psychology. I'm OK, You're OK? But I know me. Codependent No More. So how come I have to read your book to know this? Self-Esteem? Back to my first objection: I know myself very well. Amid the competing concepts grappling for recognition standing out like Dumber among the Dumb, I give you my favorite, My Inner Child.

Personally, if I had an inner child, and I don't, I'd like to think he kinda runs the place, but I'm regressing.

Each of us has an Inner Adolph wanting to manipulate, control, whine, mesmerize, be worshipped and admired, and to ultimately dominate the will of others. Ever hear some expert from a shrink tank espouse the message that you cannot love others until you love yourself first? Think in terms of practical application, and you'll go out and buy a handgun, and put extra locks on the doors. The Marquis de Sade held to a similar philosophy. Well, the concept actually is found in the Bible, not in the teachings of Jesus, but in end-time prophecy. 2 Timothy 3:2, "For men will be lovers of themselves…"

God gives this philosophy two thumbs down, Way Down!

I could have been less offensive opting for terms like Inner Thumb-Sucking Brat, the Troll In My Soul, my Inner Scallywag, or even my Lil' Bin Laden, but such terms do not do justice to the utter depravity that lurks in men's hearts. The only difference between you, me, and recognized super-villains like homosexual cannibal Jeffrey Dahmer is that he yielded, acting on the impulses of his Inner Adolph.

But, you argue, I am a good person, and am probably better than most, and most certainly better than some slimy serial killer; surely not I. If the term My Inner Adolph is a tad offensive, then let's opt for a more biblical term, The Flesh.

The flesh is that part of we human beings that is devoid of the Spirit of God, dominated by its own lusts and appetites, and is willfully aligned against God. It is the bent of the will to challenge, defy, and quite literally wage war against God in favor of self-rule. Is any of this you? Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like. These are the works, the fruit, of the flesh.

Modern psychology is rooted in the assumption that people are basically good, not evil. While most of us do not yield to the full depth of our depravity, like Hitler or Dahmer, yet the impulse is always there. So do I have an Inner Adolph clamoring to rule my members? Yes. Every day I am invited to pick up my cross and crucify this beast. Galatians 5:24, "And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires."

The Good News is that if you have been born again, the Spirit of God now dwells within you. Curiously, you have a new nature living uncomfortably along side a corpse who won't admit that he is dead. So every time this walking corpse, this old man, My Inner Adolph, or worse, my own Inner Bryan, a la my stinking, defiant flesh, rears his ugly head, I must send it back to the Cross to die! Galatians 6:8, "For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life."

I'd rather be a grace-stepper than a goose-stepper any day!

Bryan Hupperts

www.SheepTrax.com

http://www.sheeptrax.injesus.com