My dear readers,

What are Fake Spiritual News?

Fake news is a common suspicion in everyone’s minds nowadays. It is getting more and more difficult not to be sceptical about what is seen and read on the internet, and what is told to us, even by people we know. The world is so full of lies. It used to spread at a snail’s pace before the discovery of electricity and modern flight. Today’s modern technology has helped this deception along very rapidly. At the click of a mouse, the news is thrust instantly into the virtual world that almost all the world is plugged into. Once it spreads it is impossible to withdraw even if one changes one’s mind. It spreads faster than the mind can think, into the airwaves and into the minds of all who are exposed to it.

Now one has to decide to believe it or reject it. One’s life is impacted by it immediately by whichever decision one makes. This in turn impacts one’s family and their livelihood. Take, for example, the mandate to be vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus. All types of resistance have arisen all over the world with many governments having to mandate vaccination to protect their citizens. Conspiracy theories have arisen all over the virtual world to confuse and to confound. What is right and wrong has been blurred in the minds of many. The basis of both arguments is that lives are put at risk. Those who are against vaccination believe they are saving lives by warning of the dangers. Those who are for vaccination believe they are saving lives by warning of the pitfalls of not being vaccinated!

Almost everything we believe in has an alternate view. This has spawned a generation of sceptics who do not believe in anything outside of what they have experienced and seen with their own eyes. This kind of life is what the devil planned for all to have, a life of no, or minimum, faith. It breeds people who are not only sceptics but also extremely cynical about everything and everyone. Their influence on the people around them is toxic. Their mouths are sepulchres of death and destroy all forms of belief. They have absolutely no faith in anyone, not even God!

In this spiritually dark world that we live in, there are some fake spiritual news that every believer needs to beware of. They include the following:

• Neo-evangelical (NE) doctrines – One of the doctrines propagated by the NE is theistic evolution. It is a belief propagated by professing believers who marry the science of unbelievers with the Bible of believers. They desire to please man and God. They teach that God used the evolutionary process to bring the world into existence. In the evolutionary process, death is a by-product; whereas, in the Bible, death is the result of sin committed by Adam who was the representative man. The gospel is destroyed when death is said to precede sin; and when sins are forgiven, man should still die!

Some of the other unbiblical doctrines that the NE hold to are: the Bible is errant and fallible; biblical infiltration instead of biblical separation; miracles in the Bible are not true; prophecies do not exist; there was no global flood but only a local or regional flood. This list is not exhaustive. These are fake doctrines that are based on man’s interpretation of evidence rather than on biblical faith where “Thus saith the LORD” rules supreme.

These unbiblical doctrines spawn a kind of theology that is both man-centred and God-centred, very much like in the days of the kings when they hyphenated the worship of Jehovah with the worship of Baal. One of their strategies is to “talk” only and not to have anything on paper especially concerning controversial issues. In this way they cannot be pinned down on a battle-line position. They like to straddle on both camps. They say what both camps wish to hear so that they are liked by both sides. In short, they have no written conviction on a so-called controversial biblical issue that has come under attack. But if they were forced to take a stand they would lean on the side of the enemies of God and be against the Bible. They are like cowards who hide their position until forced to take a side.

These are dangerous wolves in sheep’s clothing. It is easy to spot the wolf-like behaviour of the ones who believe in many of these false doctrines. However, it is harder to spot the ones who believe in one or two of these doctrines, like a counterfeit hundred-dollar bill with the least mistakes that it is easier to pass off as genuine. To be wise and discerning today, believers need to beware and watch out for the differences in doctrines instead of comparing similar doctrines, just as the detector of counterfeit bills will always look out for minute differences and not similarities.

Another Gospel – This is the most nefarious falsehood of all falsehoods, and it comes with the warning of a curse from God! Galatians 1:8-9: “But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.” The sinner who believes in the false gospel is walking on earth in living death. He is living with a false hope of entering heaven. When his life ends, to his horror of horrors, he will find himself cast into the depths of the burning flames of hell. He will be tormented day and night with gnashing of teeth! It is no wonder that the one who preaches the false gospel is cursed by God. The warning is stated twice to emphasize the certainty of the curse!

Examples of false gospels today:

-- The false gospel of the Roman Catholic Church teaches salvation by faith and works which nullifies the finished work of Christ that teaches that a sinner is saved by grace alone.

-- The false gospel of the Charismatics promotes health and wealth which Christianizes the lusts of the flesh and the eyes and the pride of life. It basically makes merchandize of whoever believes their false gospel. The result is “the latter end is worse with them than the beginning” (cf. 2 Pet 2:1-22) because they think they are going to heaven when in fact they are still heading toward hell.

-- The Neo-evangelicals believe that the Bible has mistakes, which implies that the gospel they preach has mistakes. It also means that the God they believe in makes mistakes. How can a God who is like sinners who make mistakes (even though He makes fewer and smaller mistakes) save anyone? This “gospel” that originates from a Bible with mistakes casts doubts on all the doctrines of the Bible.

All believers need to make sure of their salvation with fear and trembling by believing in the gospel according to the perfect Word of God.

• Man can change the world – It is true that the world is dying. All who live in it will suffer greatly. But what is the cause of its slow death? The slow death is caused by man’s sins. When the sins of man are full, the holy LORD God almighty will judge this sinful world. He created this world perfect but man turned it into a deadly world because of their sins. Why did God allow this world to be so problematic to sinful man? These deadly climatic changes are meant to slow down man’s sinful ways. Sinful man needs to turn their eyes away from the physical world and believe in Christ to be saved from their sins.

What can man do to save the earth? Man is helpless. There is absolutely nothing they can do to stop the world’s decay except to go on their knees and accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, which they will never do. The world will be restored by her Creator the God of the Bible to her former glory when all of God's children are glorified at the Second coming of Christ. This is taught in Romans 8:19-21: “For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.”

But sinful man needs to give himself some semblance of hope. So he grasps for straws regardless of how futile and foolish it is. Imagine if mankind does not try to delude himself into thinking that he can reverse the decaying world, he will probably go mad as he will be reduced to a state of hopelessness. Advanced sciences allow man to study the world and project its death. But man refuses to acknowledge his helplessness. He would rather live in a delusion. Believers need not jump into the bandwagon of saving the world as it is a world that God has reserved for destruction by fire. God says in 2 Peter 3:7: “But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.”

Why is the Christian world filled with fake news? The answer is that Satan is the father of lies. Lying has been his most effective ploy throughout the ages. Christianity stands in his way of lies and deception. What better way to cloud and muddle the truth than to plant poisonous doctrines in the midst of Christianity! Furthermore, God prophesied that in the last days Christianity will fall away, i.e. into apostasy. Sinful man rejects the love of God for them in Christ. Therefore, God would give them over to their rejection and self-condemnation and send them a strong delusion that they would believe a lie, fake spiritual news. 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12: “And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”

May God help us to discern and open our spiritual eyes to see the Christian world for what it is, and make sure of our salvation, and live in holiness so that others will see our good works and glorify our Father who is in heaven. Amen.