Yeshua Explored
5th August 2023
Fake
When does Faith News become Fake News?
“You shall not give false testimony against your neighbour.” (Exodus 20:16)
This has become …
Fake News is indeed the scourge of our times but sometimes we need to follow the narrative and take into account different interpretations of an event. Nothing is ever black and white, truth is an ever-moving target, it is not an absolute.
When does Faith News become Fake News? The malaise of relativism is not just an illness in our culture, it has also found ‘spiritual’ expressions too. Let’s face it, every spiritual expression that is not grounded in the true Gospel of Jesus Christ is ‘fake news’. And it can be of the most dangerous variety, if it has the appearance of truth.
… having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people. (2 Timothy 3:5)
The commandment, in its most basic sense, speaks of leading others astray and we can all be guilty of this, not just through the fibs, peccadillos and downright lies that sometimes escape through our lips in our daily interactions, but, more importantly, how we are communicating the Good News of Jesus Christ to others. There are problems within and problems without, because the tiniest bit of yeast can infect a whole batch, even if it got there accidentally.
Take the Jehovah’s Witnesses, for example. They are only relevant to this discussion because of their seeming omnipresence on our high streets, shopping malls, train stations, with their big smiles, smart appearance, colourful stands … and corrupt message! How many innocents have been lured into their web of deceit, delivered with earnestness but owing its origins to the darkest of places? Surely it is harder to correct subtle error received through the JWs, than to deliver the truth to an open, expectant, unsullied heart. They represent danger of the highest order because they talk our language and reference our Saviour, but their version of Christ is not the Son of God but a created being and therefore powerless.
Here is John 1:1, using the Jehovah Witness New World Translation:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a god.
Here is John 1:1, using the New International Version:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The only difference is a single letter and a capitalisation but it’s a monumental difference. The JW’s take on Jesus, the Word, is that he is merely … a god. ‘Just one of many’, is the implication, and the lack of a capitalisation signals the low esteem in which he is held by them.
Another verse that they twist is John 14:11, where the relationship between God and Jesus is stated:
I am in union with the Father and the Father is in union with me. (New World translation)
I am in the Father and the Father is in me. (NIV)
A Jehovah Witness believes that Jesus was just a human being, despite a whole swathe of Scriptures that say otherwise, a problem they side-track by producing their own “version” of the Bible that “re-interprets” all of the difficult passages. The next time you meet a JW, ask them to explain John 20:28, as their version seems to have made a “boo boo” here, with an acknowledgement that at least Thomas thought Jesus was God, even if Charles Taze Russell (the founder of the JWs) didn’t!
In answer Thomas said to him: “My Lord and my God!”
But, seriously, their error concerning the Person of Jesus is so damaging that, by Biblical standards they are not even saved. Yet they have been promised heaven and eternal life (of sorts … if they have earned it!). They have been sold a dummy and we must pray earnestly for the hundreds of thousands of lost souls held in such a bondage.
So we have just seen an example of the danger of Christian Fake News, or Fake Faith, to which we can add the Mormons and others. But then we have the danger within, of the problems within our own camp, mainstream Christianity, that seems to have grown from a single worshipping group of believers in Acts 2, to a smorgasbord of spiritual spaghetti, with over 40,000 denominations, a number growing daily as there will always be clever chaps with bright ideas, a ready smile, a smooth tongue and a posse of gullible followers!
This is an extract from the book, Sinner’s Charter: Are the ten commandments for today?, available for £10 at https://www.sppublishing.com/the-sinners-charter-260-p.asp
