Fake news is nothing new or unique. What is new and unique is the modern combination of accessibility and gullibility.
1000 years ago, even 100 years ago, there was no less appetite for information than today. However – despite that hunger – 100 years ago folks knew enough about the unreliability of strangers. Today, people engage with media outlets like a surgery patient engages with an I.V., or a heroine addict engages with a needle, intravenously injecting it directly into their bloodstream. Only in this case it’s their “thought-stream” which in some ways is even worse.
It’s worse, because drugs in ones bloodstream has a relatively limited impact. Drugs in ones mind, be it opioids or “fake news” can injure whole populations of people. It can destroy nations. It can ultimately lead to the extinction of the human race faster than any viral infection could.
Godless men seek information to make themselves feel powerful and godlike. Faithless men, seek information to balance out the inadequacies they project onto their incomplete perspective of God. Godly men seek information to…
We shared about Daniel’s Prophecy in several different posts so I’ll not delve too deeply into its implications except to remind everyone that the pursuit of “knowledge” plays a pivotal role in identifying that the end is near. Godless men seek information to make themselves feel powerful and godlike. Faithless men, seek information to balance out the inadequacies they project onto their incomplete perspective of God. Godly men seek information to evaluate the “signs of the times” (Matthew 24) and inform their prayers and decisions.
Prayers and decisions. Two inseparable concepts for the faithful believer, but prayer is so ridiculed in this society that even the upstanding are reluctant to invest much effort in prayer. Without prayer discernment descends into confusion. Without discernment even perfectly presented factual truth – non-fake-news – results in bad decisions, destructive behavior, and ultimately suffering. Even the Bible in the hands of the devil will be twisted to suit his narrative.
“If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written: “‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.'” – Matthew 4:6
So don’t be deceived. For millennia a new information peddler (salesman, propagandist, rabble rouser, gossip) has been lining up behind an old information peddler to take their turn at profiting from unmerited trust. So much so that we have become more apt to consume information based on consumerism driven ideological preference than based on factual truth. Itching ears + propagandist = deception. That layered on top of the propensity for the indiscriminate to interpret facts themselves through the glasses of alarmist and faithless fear mongering; results in an inability for humanity as a collective to avoid self-destruction.
So it’s pretty “fake news” to have headlines about “fake news.” That is the logical equivalent of running an article: “Sun sets in the West” that actually describes the daily sunset. Claims like “the president can’t kick out CNN, that’s un-American” are blatantly ridiculous based on the simple fact that any literate person with a computer can list hundreds of organizations that have never been granted access to those meetings under any president ever. So the claim that some agency “deserves” access based on its financial clout is the part that is “fake news.” It doesn’t take a journalist to deduce that America’s founding fathers wouldn’t approve of only big national corporate entities having access to press-briefings, does it?
We have entered an era where liberal, anti-Christian propaganda is considered appropriate use of the media, but a President speaking directly to the American people is considered “reckless.” In short, propaganda that past despots could have only dreamed of. These are the signs of the times.
It is tempting to optimistically hope that Donald Trump’s motto “Make America Great Again” will stave off the end. Yet the timing is already determined, the antichrist is already in the world (1 John 4:3) and the faithless are increasing as our perceived self-reliance is increasing. Believers need to pray as much now as ever because we know that the end will be preceded by powerful deceptions of global peace and prosperity.
If the end ever was near (Revelation 22:7) it’s nearest now. Nearer now than Gorbachev, nearer now than 9/11, and nearer now than the election of B.H.O. Most of us would prefer to face the days of Jesus’ return as citizens of a Country that has outlawed infanticide, that has embraced God’s laws, and exemplifies: “One Nation Under God.”
We even dare to hope that the poor can find the same happiness that we all pursue and our hearts swell with charity willing to share the shirts off of our backs with them, so long as some bureaucrat doesn’t rob them of 90% of that shirt in the process. We know that the Bible is true, and that charity does have a string of responsibility attached (2 Thessalonians 3:10). We know that attempts by government to play God and rain out “blessings” on everyone results in corruption and we want it to stop. We see potential that some of our national evil will stop, but again the end remains near!
We can’t M.A.G.A on our own, and the very thought that greatness will come as the result of “great deals” and “great ideas” is not the mantra of humble devotees to God. As so many like to say, the lesser of two evils is still evil! A “populist” will not likely please God while the gate that leads to destruction remains the “wide gate” (Matthew 7:13). The end remains near, because it remains where it has always been. Yet we do have this hope, no matter what the headlines say:
“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”
– 2 Chronicles 7:14