Fake News in Light of the Bible
04-01-2021
"Fake news" means "fabricated or falsified news". This includes lies, half-truths and misrepresentations with the aim of misleading: a false image is to be created about a person or a fact.
It can be said that the originators of fake news act consciously and intentionally, while the disseminators act partly knowingly and partly unknowingly.
(Distinction: Mistakes and confusions tend to happen unintentionally).
Biblical Statements About Fake News
The Inventor of "Fake News":
"[The devil] was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.“ (John 8:44 ESV)
The first "fake news" was Satan's lie in the Garden of Eden, with which he misled and deceived Eve:
Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? [Half-truth] And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die [lie]: For God doth know [defamation] that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods [lie], knowing good and evil." (Genesis 3:1-5)
His Aim: Misleading
"And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.“ (Revelation 12:9)
The Extent of Misleading
"We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.“ (1 John 5:19 ESV)
"The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe the lie." (2 Thessalonians 2:9-11 ESV)
So:
- Satan delights in lying,
- The whole world is under his influence, without exception,
- And he is extremely adept at pulling out all the stops to create believable, complex constructs.
So, there is no discussion of WHETHER his deceptions are influencing our world, but IN WHICH EXTENT they do. Could my world view or yours could have been infiltrated by Fake News, too?
In His end-time discourse in Matthew chapter 24, Yahusha (Jesus) warned four times (!) against deception. His final warning reads:
„For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.“ (Matthew 24:24) – those who have already given themselves to Christ / God.
How do I recognise fake news?
There are several ways to do this.
- I trust the official authorities, my friends and fact-checking websites and what they call "fake news".
- I directly use my perceptual organs, as far as possible.
- I indirectly use my perceptive and discerning faculties by questioning information, researching its origin myself (do my own fact check) and drawing my own conclusions.
- I basically consider everything wrong that the authorities consider right.
Variant 1) and 4) lead to dependence, variant 2) and 3) to independent thinking.
Distinguishing Falsification From Truth – How?
"The lie and the truth come in the same garment.
What is the essential difference
between truth and lies?
THE CONTENT.
Truth has a verifiable content.
The lie is empty in itself,
and its content consists of further lies,
which are also empty in turn."
(Ulrich H. Rose,
definition-bewusstsein.de)
That sounds like hard work. Those who are stuck in their professional and family lives hardly find the time and opportunity to read books or professional articles and to research on the internet. (It is not for nothing that the internet is compared to a "heap of rubbish with a few precious pearls").
What to do?
One would need someone who has a total overview and perspective, who is absolutely truthful and can tell one what is going on.
There is someone who said about himself:
„I am the way, the truth and the life,“
(John 14:6)
and who encouraged people:
"Ask, and it shall be given you;
seek, and ye shall find;
knock, and it shall be opened unto you."
(Matthew 7:7)
Our own experience is: We prayed about 6 years ago to be allowed to know what is really happening. Since then, step by step, we have been introduced to the facts and contexts that we could cope with and make sense of. And this is not always easy fare; but the logic behind God's plan with humanity becomes much clearer and the measure of His patience and love for us humans overwhelming.