As of the latest statistics released by wearesocial.com, over half of the world’s population or 4 billion people are now online. 75 percent of this people are active social media users with Facebook and YouTube as the Top 2 sites or apps that are being used. They are also being used as a source of news and information. And there lies the “beauty and the beast.” Everybody can become an instant newscaster, news writer, vlogger or blogger. But anyone can also be the source of fake news.
In the Bible, the other word for Gospel is Good News. The Gospel is the Good News of Salvation in Jesus Christ. If that is Good News, what then is fake news in the context of the Bible?
The prophet Isaiah already warned us about fake news. He said in 5:20: “Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter.”
First, fake news is not believing that Jesus is the Messiah.
1 John 2:22 says, “Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist…”
Second, fake news is not holding on to the teachings of Jesus Christ.
Jesus said in John 8:31 to 32 “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Third, fake news is believing everyone who can quote a Bible verse. Some are distorting it as 2 Peter 3:16 warns us, “He (Paul) writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.”
Even Satan can quote a scripture passage like Psalm 91:11–12. This is recorded in Matthew 4:6. Let us be on guard with this because there are many cults around us. Let us pray that God will open our hearts and minds as we study the Bible.
Let us share the Good News of salvation in Jesus Christ, and not the fake news that deny it.
Rev. Francis Neil G. Jalando-on
#SeedsOfFaith
#BinhiSangPagtuo
January 7, 2019