Fake News is all of the rage in the American culture today. In fact, it is an issue that we have been dealing with at least since the 1960’s. To paraphrase Ronald Reagan, the problem is not so much what Americans believe, but that so much of what they believe simply is not true.
Lies rule the day. We are truly in the days where the Scriptures warn us “everyone is doing what is right in his own eyes.” It is not than we are uninformed…but that we are miss-informed. So much of what we believe simply is not true.
There was a day in America when it was considered dishonorable to tell a lie. The almost universal sense of right and wrong used to demanded honesty in all of our dealings. Those were old-fashioned days with old-fashioned values…you know…when people were actually identified by their sins. Liar, thief, adulterer, crook, were commonplace terms bantered across America’s dinner tables as our parents instructed us on what types of behaviors would not be accepted in our family.
“You remember Bill Jones who opened the grocery store, don’t you? He didn’t stay in business long because word got round town that he was not an honest business man. He was putting his thumb on the scales when weighing the ground beef. Folks in this town do not take kindly to crooks.”
That simple statement from my Dad carried a very valuable life lesson. Crooks would not be tolerated and the certainly would not have the support of the townspeople.
Today, using those adjectives to describe people are no longer acceptable. We have exchanged those diabolical descriptions for nice sounding words like “miss spoke”, “ladies man”, and “public servant.”
Heck, today even baby murder is called choice, those who kill the babies are called doctor, and the murder itself is called healthcare.
Fake words. Fake words lead to fake behaviors. Fake behaviors lead to fake laws. Fake laws lead to fake justice. Fake justice leads to fake liberty. Fake liberty leads to a fake God. A fake god leads to a fake Christians. Jesus said that people have eyes and ears yet they can’t discern reality (Truth).
We are in the mess we are in today because most of what you hear from your local churches is fake. The Fake Gospel has lead to the destruction of this once-Christian nation.
I am not so worried about the Fake News being reported in the news media today. Fake news is nothing more than the bastard child of the Fake Gospel. I am far less worried about the lies of CNN than I am the lies of the pulpit that make the act of lying more palatable to the masses.
Permit me to expose five lies (there are more) that have given cover to the miscreants in our midst and has given us churches full of Fake Christians.
1. We are all God’s children. I have no idea where this dastardly lie came from but nothing could be further from the truth. Although we were CREATED in the image of God only those who carry the name of Christ are His children. In fact, in more than one place in the Scriptures we are told that the Devil has children and many of us are in the Devil’s ancestral tree. Nowhere in Scripture will you ever find the lost being called God’s children. Google it.
2. Jesus loves everyone. This one always makes me want to gag. Although the most famous Scripture in the world John 3:16 tells us that God so loved THE WORLD, you will have a hard time finding a verse that says that the love of Jesus is universally applied. It is universally AVAILABLE…but the love of Christ is conditional. WHOSOEVER is not a term that INCLUDES everyone, but rather is EXCLUSIVE in nature. Jesus loves HIS CHILDREN…not the Devil’s children…although HIS love is available to them. “God hates all workers of iniquity.” WATCH. I think that refers to those who actively and purposefully engage in disobedience to God…which is called sin.
3. Christians are not supposed to judge. One of the first things Michele and I tried to teach our children was the ability to judge between good and evil. All people, if they have a lick of sense, make thousands of judgments a day. That is why we are often told that we used “good judgment” or “bad judgment”. Judgment is nothing more than the ability to differentiate between good and evil, right and wrong. When we point out BAD BEHAVIOR we are judging the ACTION not the person. Homosexual behavior is bad. Getting an abortion is bad. “Woe to those who call good evil and evil good.” That comes from the Bible. How can you determine good from evil if you don’t judge?
4. Jesus accepts you just the way you are. Sorry. Not true. You can come to Jesus “the way you are” but you cannot remain in relationship with Him if you continue to live in the condition in which you came to Him. Jesus requires confession, repentance, and a turning away from your evil ways. Accepting Jesus gives you “the power to become children of God”…it doesn’t automatically MAKE YOU a child of God. “Not everyone who saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” Only those who “do His Will” become His children. Jesus transforms you into a new creature…he crucifies the old one. You die and He lives. You are no longer you…but CHRIST takes up residence in you. He loves you so much he commands YOU to die.
5. Jesus died for your sins. Well…sorta. I John 3:8 tells us that “FOR THIS PURPOSE was the Son of God manifest that he might destroy the works of the Devil.” Jesus died to destroy sin…the Devil’s work…and sin’s power in the world. Your, and my, salvation is a result of Him destroying the power of sin over the world. Because Jesus died, and because I have received Him as Lord, sin, death, hell, and the grave no longer have power over me. Sin, death, hell, and the grave are the works of the Devil. Jesus destroyed their power over me.
I have accepted His finished work at Calvary and have applied His blood to my sin-sick life. He redeemed me…paid my price…and rescued me from the “law of Sin and death”…the soul that sins it shall die. Jesus died to destroy the power of sin in the world. My salvation is the fruit of that death, but He didn’t, as the song says, “Have me on His mind” when He went to the cross. “It IS FINISHED” He declared as he hung on the tree. What was finished? His purpose for coming…the destruction of the Devil’s works.
Watch out for the Fake Gospel. It leads to Fake Christians. It is far more dangerous than Fake News.
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© 2017 Dave Daubenmire – All Rights Reserved
