Friday; January 5

One of the more interesting phrases that has come into the public spotlight in the last few months is “fake news”.  While it appears that this term has been bantered about by people hoping to deflect information they might not want disseminated, it does appear that there have been outside influences who have tried to sway public opinion by publishing information that actually is false.  Some, with their own agenda, have intentionally planted false stories in hopes of getting people to believe them and act a certain way.  Whether it was to impact an election or sway public opinion, lies have been published. 
While I see the danger in this approach I also seen another troubling issue – there are people who are swallowing the fake news hook, line and sinker.  Some are so gullible that they will accept whatever is dangled in front of them.  Now, it might be easy to blame our society, but the truth of the matter is that this is an age old problem.  Do you remember Eve … she may have been the first victim of “fake news” when satan told her that she would be okay if she ate the forbidden fruit. 
So how do we deal with fake news … in our nation and in our religion?  The answer comes straight from the Bible – test the sources.  When it comes to national issues, let’s do our due diligence to research an issue from multiple sources, but in our spiritual lives we must go back to the single, absolute Source.  When the Apostle John set out to defend his friends from religious lies he wrote, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”. (I John 4:1) 
Are we willing to invest our time in determining the accuracy of information? We’d better because it might cost us our eternity.
Think about it! 

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