Fake News

Today I was reading Acts 24 in my daily reading through the Bible, and came upon verse 5, where a lawyer hired to help the non-Messianic Jews get rid of Paul, the Messianic Jew, who had a different worldview than they. This lawyer, Tertullus, said that the Jews had found Paul to be a “troublemaker” who had stirred up riots all over the Mediterranean world. That really got my attention, because it was totally fake news! It was absolutely false, but shows how things get distorted and turned around in this world. Paul went around the Mediterranean world preaching the gospel. The gospel was and is a message of love, and a message that is absolutely opposed to violence. It is a message that teaches people to submit to government and other authorities. Jesus taught that we should turn the other cheek. He told His disciples not to fight and resist His arrest. He submitted to Pilate’s authority, even when it meant His crucifixion. Paul taught people to honor those in authority, to submit to governing authorities, to pay taxes, to live in peace as much as they humanly could.

And yet, he was called a troublemaker who stirred up riots! Riots and troubles definitely occurred frequently wherever Paul went, but did he cause them? Uh, no! The Book of Acts is a carefully recorded history, and it shows us how, every time there was trouble, it was because of people who didn’t want to hear Paul’s message. It was caused by people who were either ignorant of what he was really about, or were deliberately trying to thwart what he was doing and keep people from the truth of the gospel.

It reminds me of the cute story of the father and son who were going to several places in their hometown community to take care of some errands the father had to do. In their travels that day, it just so happened they passed by three separate places where fire department trucks were on scene fighting a fire. The boy, not understanding the true state of affairs, just came to what for him was a logical conclusion, and asked his father, “Dad, why are these men in the red trucks going around starting these fires everywhere?” Well, they were there, whenever something was burning!

These Jews said Paul was stirring up riots. The truth is, they were the ones stirring them up, because they were offended by the truth and didn’t want it to spread! They even had people among them taking oaths that they wouldn’t eat or drink till they’d killed Paul! (Acts 23:12) They were so opposed to Paul that they twisted and distorted news about him (created fake news), blaming him for what they themselves were causing!

This kind of thing happens a lot in both the Bible and life! Remember when Elijah told king Ahab there would be no rain until he said so? (1 Kings 17:1) God brought drought upon Israel because of their disobedience and refusal to obey Him and remain true to the covenant He’d made with them. It was all their fault, and especially their king’s fault. Yet in 1 Kings 18:17, when Elijah finally confronts Ahab again, Ahab calls him, “the troubler of Israel.” Fake news! A complete lie! A complete distortion of the truth!

Did Ahab really believe what he was saying? You know, we can’t be sure, but I kind of think by this time he was so off track with God’s truth he may have actually believed it! He may have actually convinced himself that Elijah was the reason for the drought and the troubles Israel was facing. Lots of people blame others for things that happen which they themselves have caused. Alcoholics tend to say they drink because others have done them wrong! I’ve had various people come to me as a pastor and tell me how all their woes have been caused by other people. None are their own fault. My boss fired me, not for anything I’ve done wrong, but just because everyone’s against me. My spouse left me, but I was a perfect husband/wife and never did anything to cause it. It’s really amazing, but all too common.

The prophet Jeremiah, a faithful man of God who was shy and didn’t even want to prophesy in God’s name when he was first called, he’s another example for us. He told his people they were breaking God’s covenant and were going to be judged for it. He loved Israel, was as patriotic as could be, and was only warning his people to turn from sin so they could be forgiven and restored. And yet, many people of his day called him a traitor who was discouraging the people and was loyal to their archenemies, the Babylonians. They said he was not seeking the good of his people. (Jer. 38:4) This was fake news! The absolute opposite of the truth!

Jeremiah wanted his people to be saved, but was accused of being against them?! What a pack of lies! What a distortion of the truth! Did the people who spread these lies know they were lying and distorting? We can’t be sure. Maybe they’d been going the wrong way so long, they could no longer even tell truth from falsehood. But probably they did know, and were determined to silence the voice of the truth, Jeremiah, so they wouldn’t have to face their own guilt and error, or change their ways.

It’s happening all over today. If we want law and order, and finally get some people elected to office who promise to bring it, we’re told we hate immigrants. In fact, we’re filled with hate! We hate immigrants, and we especially hate LGBTQ folks. When we say it’s sinful and harmful to go against God’s established order, and we want people to know the truth, we are intolerant bigots who are filled with hate. If we say sin is like a disease, and Jesus is the cure, and simply want to share that good news, it’s because we’re intolerant and judgmental!

If we say people must work for a living, must pay for health care, for education, can’t be given a free ride in life, we’re told we’re unloving, hard-hearted and mean-spirited. We have no compassion. If we say we need to close our borders and not have unlimited immigration, allowing the world to come to our welfare state for a free ride, we are so hateful! If we say men should use men’s bathrooms and women women’s because we want to preserve decency and protect women and girls, we are trying to reverse progress and take us back to the dark days of the past.

If a young thug attacks a police officer, and the man desperately fights for his life, culminating in the shooting death of the thug, we’re told we’re all racists for believing that! If we say the “hands up, don’t shoot” narrative is totally false, we’re told we’re not facing reality and being honest; we’re distorting it!

We see young anarchists dressed in black, smashing windows and lighting fires, while people around them hold up signs saying, “Love Trumps Hate” and we’re told they are the reasonable and loving ones. They are fighting fascism! Really?! I thought the fascists went around smashing, burning, using violence to intimidate? It seems rather unloving to do things like that. But no, the people who quietly obeyed the laws of the land but voted for something these people didn’t like, who wanted a return to common sense, they are the fascists!

The other side can elect a socialist who does everything by executive order, politicizes and weaponizes the IRS, the FBI and the NSA, stirs up racism, does unethical and unconstitutional things that go against all we believe in, and we don’t riot or smash and burn, or put up resist signs. But when the tide turns and we get a candidate in to do what we believe in, we’re genocidal fascists who must be stopped “by any means necessary.”

You know, some people said Jesus was a lunatic or demon-possessed, and was deceiving the people! (Jn. 7:12, 20; Jn. 10:20) They said He was fomenting a revolution against the government. (Lu. 23:2) Wow! Talk about fake news!

If they said such things about Jesus, about Elijah, Jeremiah, and Paul, I guess I’d better get used to being called crazy, a fascist, a racist, retrogressive, un-American, and a hateful person! Jesus is the Prince of peace, love incarnate, the most wise and reasonable Person who’s ever walked this earth! I guess I shouldn’t be surprised at the fake news and distortion going on around us today!

It still makes me mad, and I feel frustrated by it, for sure. But it’s been going on for a long time and will continue until Jesus finally comes back, brings the truth to light, and finally exposes all the lies, all the darkness, and all the fake news! I pray He helps us to just keep proclaiming the Good News, ignoring or overcoming that news which is fake.