Fake News

Fake News

5/31/17

This is a phrase that has become an ear tickler over the past year or so that has riveting effects on most of the ones who are exposed to its content.  Of course, there are two sides to this issue with each side claiming the opposition planting such information.  While it is a frustrating setting that we must now endure we must take into light that this type of information has also infiltrated the Church with a vengeance.  Just as the world has formulated a false atmosphere of what occurs around us the spiritual realm is not immune to such antics, for remember the father of lies is the one who initiates such actions and shall not cease until everyone is fooled.  In order for us to discern the spiritual truth from a lie we have only one source of information and for us to know what is the truth we must bury our hearts, eyes, and ears into the God’s Word every day, for if we do not we shall fall for such spiritual antics and place us in the same category of failure as the physical.

I remember growing up as a kid that I would not be very eager to sit down in front of the television and turn on the evening news.  I found it boring and unrelated to the events in my own world.  Yet, I could not figure out why my parents would be very interested in what was going on around us and would even spend a great deal of time reading the newspaper in addition to watching the news on television.  While this setting confused me a bit, my secure and sheltered American upbringing was not really affected by any the terrible news that was given but at the same time, it seemed like each day some new tragedy was occurring.  This view of mine changed one day when I was a senior in high school when over the radio it was announced that the space shuttle had blown up as it was exiting the earth’s orbit, an event that hit home because it was ours, American, and lives had been lost.

At that time, I also found out that there were many people who believed in conspiracies against the NASA program and all that it entailed including how the government planted devices on the shuttle to blow it up along with numerous other antics that sounded minds to think and tongues to wag but none that actually had any merit but they did their damage and for some proved to be a discredit to this nation.  I also did not realize at that time that popular newscasts and journalism was changing and with the faster technology and spread of information this type of activity was gaining power as well.  Money began to drive this industry and the investigative journalist became an evening suppertime conversation.  Little did most of us know that this era was the beginning of fake news and one-sided journalism that had political overtones so that more money and higher ratings could be made.  As I look back at this period of time I cannot help but also see that at the same time this popularity of news and journalism was growing so was the popularity of the church and being a Christian, two organizations that have now become intertwined with each other and quickly escalating to interdependence with each other as well.

The divisional and the adversarial occurrences between the two major political parties in this nation began to increase and become vocal leading to mistrust and distrust between long time friends and on the personal level, families.  The popularity of the church held many friendships together during this time, trying to heal from the political disasters of the 1960s and 1970s but many knew that this cohesion would soon be broken because politics would visibly rear its head in the church, just it had ever since the Early Church had been established.  A heartbreaking condition that God watched develop and at the same time give our eternal enemy an opportunity to salivate as he mowed down hurting people.  It was through this indoctrination of pain and torment that gave rise to the fake news within the church, a personal interpretation of God’s Word so those comforting beliefs could be administered and prescribed instead of fighting the true disease.

If we as individuals do not understand what exactly is going on around us there is no way possible that we can adequately make a judgment call about any situation that matters.  I have mentioned this next example a while back but given the fact that we just finished celebrating Memorial Day in this country it is more relevant today than ever.  I was talking with one of my young coworkers a couple of years ago and the subject of history came up, more specifically World War II.  As I stood there and quietly listened to the ongoing conversation, I felt compelled to ask a single question and while I was hoping that it could be answered I quickly found out that it could not which disappointed me thoroughly on the level that simple history could not be answered and in this case rationally thought about in order to skip a repeat of such event.

Do not get me wrong, I am not out to embarrass anyone or to give schools a bad name but it disturbs me that young graduates cannot answer the simple question of this: “can you name me any one of the major nations that were involved in World War II?” When this person could not name one country involved in the greatest event during the 20^th century, I was amazed and concerned at the same time.  This person could not name our own country, Germany, Russia, England or any of the other many nations that suffered tremendously during this time.  The crucial point here is not to embarrass anyone as I said above but to make known that we have a serious issue that we have not recognized about our existence and therefore cannot fix when times of need arise again. For if we do not understand exactly what occurred on ALL SIDES of past issues, we are doomed to repeat such activities in our future because those who recognize the fact that the majority of the people around them do not know history they can distort it according to how they wish and then promote it long enough to bring their interpretation to the public as the truth.  This is what leads to fake news on our screens and it is also exactly how our enemy works to acquire our hearts to believe lies about God and His Word.

In 2 Timothy Chapter 2, we have a perfect example of how important it is to know exactly what God and His Word says because if we do not we shall be subject to the lies that our enemy wants us to believe.  If is a great shame that the majority of the news that we see scrolling across our screens cannot be trusted even on the basic foundational levels and the truth must be told that we as the Church have fallen for the identical lies from those who believe such lies and have actually provided some of these lies as well.  The Word of God is NOT a book about feeling good or having it your own way, but it is a Word that defines God and how His love for us requires obedience to His Ways at all times so that we do not get sucked into the web of deceit that Satan is spinning around us.  It is this lack of knowledge about God and His Word that connects the concept of physical fake news and the Bible for God’s Word is the absolute truth and cannot be changed but if one does not understand its meaning completely, biblical fake news can and shall destroy a person even quicker than the physical kind, and for a lot longer time I am afraid.

We must not forget that fake news is not a new concept at all for it has been around since the Garden of Eden.  Adam and Eve fell for its lie way back then and people are still falling for its devastating news today.  When self-overtakes and becomes the number one issue about anything, fake news has arrived in your life.  This type of news can stay individually or it can grow to the global scale and I believe we have reached that global scale once again.  Adam and Eve had every opportunity to understand exactly what God was saying to them without hesitation or question for they walked and talked with God every day.  God Himself was Adam and Eve’s Bible, for God was living then and He lives today not only through His Word but He is still alive and always shall be as well.

But as with any physical news story, if one does not understand the exact truth about what is going on, people will fall for a lie without knowing or even considering that the story is fake.  If the source of the news is trying to grab attention to their point of view then it is safe to say that the story is fake on some level, and if some part is fake all of it is fake.  It is easy to get caught up in a story and believe it as the truth for we as humans want to believe everything we hear, but we cannot afford to do this for it will skew many of our judgments and could lead us down a dire path of destruction.  The spiritual aspects of fake news have a far greater consequence than the physical news, for eternity itself cannot be defined in time which is a lot longer than twenty-four hours in a day or over eighty years in a physical lifetime.

2 Timothy 2:15-16 provides us with the perfect example of fake news and how to be prepared for such events when they cross our lives.  These verses are as follows: “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.  But shun profane and vain babblings: for they increase unto more ungodliness.”  Can there be any other verse that gives us such an exact picture of our world today?  First off, it addresses God the Father as the source of all things true, then it provides us the truth about our ongoings through God and then gives us what occurs if we do not heed to this righteous standard of God’s.  These two verse paint the exact setting that our societies have come from, are presently in, and currently speeding towards as well, a grave initiative that most are failing to see the scenes whip by our eyes.  The reason for this inevitable upcoming disaster is because we have personalized God’s Word for our own pleasure and beliefs and have voluntarily believed in this lie which has turned it into a hyped up fake news of contingency instead of an active and living plan for our spiritual protection and eternal positioning. 

At any time we turn the Bible into a hen-pecked text we have made the Word of God into a fake news source.  We must remember that if we use just one letter of God’s Word for our own justification to sin or to disobey God then we have successfully made our own spiritual and eternal fake news, not only for ourselves but to anyone else who you might get to agree with you on such matters.  This is why 2 Timothy is so important to our lives and that we fully grasp the contents of God’s Word and what it means to our lives, both physically and most importantly spiritually.  Through these two verses alone God gives us the proof that He is the only way to eternal life and through His Word draws us a clear map of how to live in the desolate world that continually provides us with lies.

However, if we do not continually study God’s Word and apply it, completely, to our lives we will be subject to fake news on the spiritual side of our existence.  Sadly, we are witnessing such fake news occurring today and it is coming from many of the pulpits, books, cathedrals, and meetings that claim to be coming from God.  This procession of fake news is a great timing for it tells a huge story about the condition of our heart when it comes to the knowledge of God.  If a nation’s heart is steadfast on God and knows His Ways like the back of our hands, fake news could not be flourishing as it is today for it would be called out and dealt with quickly.  But if we do not know God, even though we may claim to know Him, fake news according to “God” shall abound abundantly, and folks, hard truth is this, that is exactly what we have going on today.

Another truth about believing and then living through biblical fake news is that it means we have lost and given up our dominions to our enemy.  It occurred in the Garden of Eden and it is moment by moment occurring today.  Our society is allowed to promote some of the most gruesome tactics eve known to mankind and the Church has no authority to stop this procession of devastation. In fact, the Church has been so drawn into this deception that she has combined forces with the world and promotes some of these death portrayals.  We have fallen so far from God that we cannot see our own sin and what destruction it is having on our lives, and I am referring to just the Church right at this moment but this statement is true for our entire world as well; what other direction should the world take if the ones who are supposed to be the light walks in the same direction as the world?  Talk about our own Bataan Death March.  Oh wait, many people do not even know that part of human history either.

It breaks the heart of God for Him to have to watch His children fall for such lies that would cause us so much pain and agony. God has given us the perfect resources to hear His voice, and to read His Word and through the wonderful gift of our minds to have the opportunity to understand Him and His Ways.  Spiritual fake news is the exact reason why God’s Word says for us not to lean on our own understanding for when we do that means we have bought into the lie of spiritual fake news.  I find it so intriguing that current events and concerns have already been addressed in the Bible and through God’s Word we have the perfect defense against such lies but because we do not understand the Bible and the REAL reason God provided it to us.  Fake news tickles our ears and makes others angry, with our using of the Bible for personal gain represent anything different?

Church, and that means YOU and not some building!  We need to place our eyes and hearts back into the Word of God and then open our spiritual ears so that we may understand what God is saying to our lives.  The world is in bad shape and so are we and it is time for us to turn our lives around and to return to God.  It is our responsibility to shed light on fake news, not promote it.  We have forgotten that fake news can be spiritual as well for we have forgotten that our enemy knows God’s Word as well and shall distort His Word to promote a lie for our stumbling.  Repent, Church and allow God to once again fill our hearts with His truth and guidance for God is the ONLY way to eternal peace and purity and if we do not understand God in this capacity then we shall have no hope for any future.  God asks that we return to Him before He has to drastically grab our attention.  He loves us and we need to obey His Word again so that we may live under His protection and not out exposed to the fake news that surrounds us. The Bible is the Good News, not fake news, let us return to this truth.

DLB