Umm, I’m a little bit mad. Truth is important to me, I believe there is truth. It’s not always clear and there can be subtleties and all that. But fundamentally some things are true and some are not. Jesus said, “Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice“. (John 18:37) He said that He was the truth.(John 14:6) He said the Holy Spirit is “the spirit of Truth”. (John 16:13) If you’re a Christian (or perhaps just a believer in the God of Abraham), then truth really should be important to you.
Emmanuel Church; Charleston, South Carolina
Here’s why this has come up for me. At the moment, one of the main things in the news is the murder of 9 African-Americans in a historic church in Charleston, South Carolina. But in the last few days, numerous web sites and articles are popping up to tell us “it ain’t necessarily so.” “Those murders didn’t happen at all. It was all staged by sinister forces. Actors were used!” This was also said in the same way at the time of the murder of the 20 children and 6 adults in Connecticut in 2012.
The Bible says, “God is not the author of confusion.” (I Corinthians 14:33)
One thing I believe about this: either those murders happened or they didn’t. If the main stream media is being used to deceive the multitudes and the hoax-callers are right, then I firmly believe that some grass roots reporter for a local newspaper or TV station could be able to sift out the evidence on this pretty easy.
Folks, truth is not that hard to find out. Nine people were killed a few days ago. You say that didn’t happen? Someone go interview the relatives. Go to the morgue. This truly isn’t rocket science. Will the caskets be open at the funerals? Come on!
It just gets my goat that someone is really telling us a whopper. And sadly very many Americans are likely to be affected by this. Very many now feel that the main stream media has zero credibility. They say they don’t believe anything they see on the main media outlets anymore. I’m certainly not unsympathetic to some of those views. So much is just tripe and hogwash, “brought to you by” unscrupulous mega-powerful folks with agendas that are not for the best of society.
But then, what are you going to do? Are you going to believe the plethora of websites that have sprung up offering you what they say as “really the truth”? And you think those sites are going to tell you the truth? They don’t have an agenda? My experience with many of those sites is that they’re actually usually worse than the main stream media that they’re supposed to be the alternative to.
Do you know how easy it is to set up a web site and then suddenly become some acclaimed pundit? All you need is Microsoft Word, maybe a little Photoshop experience, the basics of a WordPress web site and… presto! You are an international commentator! And if you’re sensational enough, you’re articles will go viral and you’ll really be making believers of people, no matter how loony and “out there” your ideas are.
May God truly help us all. The Bible says, “Be not carried about with every wind of doctrine.” (Ephesians 4:14) How very much so many people here are exactly in that condition. They don’t know what to believe. “There was a mass murder!” “No, there wasn’t! It was all staged!” “There is a crisis!” “No, there’s not! It’s just a fiction made up by the folks on the other side!” Like the Bible says of the days of old, “Truth is perished.” (Jeremiah 7:28)
It’s heart breaking. It’s infuriating. “If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” (Psalms 11:3) But when we don’t even know what the truth is anymore, we don’t know who, if anyone, we can believe, then we are ripe for the picking of the Grim Reaper, in whatever fashion he may come.
Our local newspaper here has what they call a “truth-o-meter”. It seems to be something nationally syndicated and it investigates what’s being said by noted figures, usually politicians. The worst rating is “pants on fire”, just something that is utterly false, like the saying, “Liar, liar, pants on fire.” But then they do find some things to be true. Certainly we don’t have to be thrown into confusion by a question of whether or not this recent mass murder in South Carolina actually happened.
For me, I’ve come to find that just because the main stream media say something, I can’t just utterly discount that. And when some two-bit, fly-by-night website tells me some alarmist, extremist “news”, I certainly should take that with a huge grain of salt, if at all. I sure hope other people are doing the same. Actually a lot of times we should be calling a solid “BS” on some of these extremist sites that are just disseminating alarmist, often racist or some other hate-filled screed. May it not be said of us, as it was said of Israel of old, “My people love to have it so” (Jeremiah 5:31), when falsehood and deceit were loved and they ruled so rampantly that Israel back then was ultimately destroyed for her sins.
And just to be clear, I’m certainly not saying the main stream media is always right. At times some “voice in the wilderness” tells us the truth that others won’t. Like with Watergate, the Pentagon Papers or Edward Snowden. Or John the Baptist.
Demand truth. Resist confusion. Get to the bottom of the thing. Don’t be “carried about with every wind of doctrine” (Eph. 4:14) but “speak the truth in love” (Eph. 4:15) . Don’t let these false websites play to your prejudices, your fears and hatreds. When we lose our love for, and recognition of the truth, there really isn’t much left before our final surrender and defeat, as an individual or a nation.
I got a lot out of your well-put-together article, Mark. Sort of checked me in spirit, to be more discerning in this info-flooded world. Perhaps that is what the Lord was trying to get across in the book of Revelation where He said, “…and the serpent cast out a flood of water after the woman… that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.” (As in, carried away in the confusion, or away from real truth, or carried away to Babylon, meaning total confusion). At times like these, we must always retreat into the pure truth of HIS Word or we will end up being swallowed up whole!
Thank you for this article. At times, I do get confused when right after a tragedy happens, several alternative news sites are immediately debunking it, then I wonder “which is true?” Unfortunately, there were some people even saying that the ISIS didn’t really decapitate people, discrediting the martyrs who died for their faith. This is so sad as there are so many Christians dying for their faith in the Mideast, including children, and they need to be seen as heroes, not something created in Photoshop.
This article sways heavily toward trusting the mainstream media and disregarding any alternative media sites as “looney” and “out there.” I don’t mean to be rude here but it seems like a bit of a sweeping statement to assume that all the alternative media sites are somewhat whacky. The big question remains, after reading your article, as to just where do we go to get the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, concerning current events? One thing that does appear to be true concerning the said shooting incident, is that there was an “Active Shooter Threat Training Program” scheduled for Charleston at the very time of the shooting (strange coincidence!). When there is a training drill in alignment with an event then people should look further into the event; the problem with looking further into the event is that you have to look further than the mainstream media, so where are you suggesting we go to find the truth? I go along with the fact that a lot of alternative media sites have hidden agendas and should be classified as “BS” as you put it. But then again, I have the same view of the mainstream media. At least some of these sites offer people an alternative view and apparent alternative facts but it’s up to people to develop critical thinking of their own and pray and read between the lines on all as the devil is often in the details.
Back in the days of Jeremiah there was a definite theme of “Peace Prophets” going through the whole thing. A peace prophet might tell us that things are not that bad and “Oh, they wouldn’t do that!” The problem I have with reading this article is that I find myself thinking just that – that things just aren’t that bad and they wouldn’t go that far. The mainstream media certainly appears to be more sound minded but isn’t this just a mask to mask their true inner intent of divide and conquer? We are warned to be aware of the subtlety of the serpent “Lest Satan should get advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices (2 Corinthians 2:11)
I second that motion entirely, Karen. “My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge” may not be speaking about true reporting, but it sure tells us that true knowledge of the Word is useful, in that it also leads to proper discernment! I understand that the writer is perhaps ministering to a not-so-well-informed audience whom he is trying to not alienate. But perhaps it is better then to not broach the subject at all.
I agree that as priests of God (acc. to Luther) true believers have a responsibility to guide the weak (in perception) gently by the hand and bring them along, but not to nanny them with a notion that the main stream media are factual reporters, because they are not. In fact deceptions are and have gotten far worse than the days of the deceptions concerning the Lusitania, Pearl Harbour, Tonkin incident, JFK, RFK, MLK, JFK jr., 9-11, and lots of false terror attacks. Especially in America!
I am from Asia and we clearly see how Americans still live under the impression of being the “city set on a hill” and therefore are entitled to be “policeman of the world”, and to sow death and destruction in many sovereign nations, ever since both world wars, on a grandiose scale. One and a half million people in Iraq alone, murdered all based on a state-sponsored lie of WMDs? Surely we cannot be as gullible as Americans in these life and death matters, to be so swayed by government propaganda, especially when that government is led by the most unsavoury forces in the world? (I am mincing my words)
So it behooves us to indeed be more like Jeremiah-s than Pashur the govt priest’s son who put him in jail. I’d say don’t broach the subject if you have a different weaker audience. But regardless, so were the People in Judah at the time. Weak! And destroyed for a lack of knowledge, having itchy ears that couldn’t handle the bare facts that they were about to be destroyed by Babylon and would not survive. Jeremiah spoke mainly to warn the rulers, but he did warn the people as well! Even IF they were too weak to hear about their own imminent destruction. But of course the price to pay, is rejection, which is tough.
Anyhow, regardless that Sandyhook was also a hoax for gun control, does not take away from the fact that your Daniel classes are impeccable. Keep up the good work! (And perhaps Indonesia is calling again? Many there have NO problem doubting Western media! Chuckle!)
Love & Peace
Lu
Taiwan
Thank you very much for this article, I was meditating on what you said about not being “carried away with every wing of doctrine” (Eph 4:14). But the verse- “Pray without ceasing”- (1The.5:17)came like a flash to my mind.
I believe the main issue here is how easy is to be distracted from praying, with things like- “Was it or wasn’t it a shooting?” I believe this is a warning; the main issue here is the war of the Spirit, good versus evil, Love versus Hate.
Also many conspiracy theorists are people who discovered that they were lied by the media, so they don’t believe in that source. And when someone comes with a alternative point of view whether true or false they accept it. How many have found the real news? How many have been given disinformation that they may be an untrustful source as well? God knows.
We as God’s children should pray for those who seek the truth as well as for us -“Ask and it shall be given you seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be open unto you” Mat 7:7. And if we want the truth to be known, we have to pray(ask) for it- God Bless, love your posts and pray that you keep being an inspiration to so many.
PS: The term “conspiracy theorist” is a Cultural Marxist politically correct term to squelch true information or true questions. We ought not to subscribe nor submit to such Orwellian Newspeak.