Fake News Part II

Today's post should hopefully stand on its own but it is Part II in relation to the post yesterday. You are welcome to click below and read Part I if you need to catch up. I am not in a hurry so I will wait right here on you.

Yesterday's post, Fake News Part I

I ended yesterday with the conclusion that in my opinion lazy reporting and preconceived ideas and bias clouds most news stories and gives them all an element of fakeness.

In recent years several high profile reporters and respected news anchors have been caught red handed "massaging" the so called facts they were reporting to support their mindset and prejudices. They spin the story so that it points to their viewpoint as the only sensible conclusion.

By the time they finish manipulating the narrative it is obvious that anyone that believes contrary to their proven conclusion must be a low life, right wing, gun toting, Bible thumping, uneducated, narrow minded, bigoted, imbecile that should not expect to be heard or even breathe free air.

The list of honest heartfelt opinions that will earn you that kind of hate and venom from the "enlightened" ones is growing every day.

If you dare to believe that 


-Marriage is intended for one man and one woman until death parts them or
-Homosexuals are not born homosexuals or
-Life is sacred and unborn babies of all races are precious in God's sight or
-Global warming is not man made or

-Guns are not evil or
-God created the world in six days or
-Jesus is the only way to Heaven or
-The Bible is God's Word 

Or... The list goes on and on and on. If you dare to believe any of these things and more, then you are lower than pond scum and totally undeserving of expressing your depraved opinions.

That silences all debate in the minds of the liberal elite and confirms that their side of the story is the only logical thing to believe. Therefore if they massage the facts or make up stories to support their narrative then the end justifies the means.

If I were a touch more cynical I would believe absolutely nothing I read! But hold on to your hats, there is one source I believe completely. That source predicted that fake news would be believed more than truth. 

It warns us that the lies of fake news would seduce us, cause us to depart from the faith. People will not hear the truth and will rather believe fables. 

This source encourages us to not be shaken by deceivers and lies and smooth words. It charges us to shun lies, know the truth, grow strong with words of faith and doctrine and turn a deaf ear to fables.

Examples? Read some for yourself and then I will conclude below.

II Timothy 4:2 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.
 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
 4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.

I Timothy 4:1 Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;

 2 Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;

II Thessalonians 2:1 Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him,

 2 That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.

II Timothy 3:13 But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.

 14 But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them;

II Timothy 2:14 Of these things put them in remembrance, charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers.

15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

 16 But shun profane and vain babblings...

I Timothy 4:6 If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained.

 7 But refuse profane and old wives' fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness.

II Peter 3:3 Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,

 4 And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.

 5 For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:

One of the biggest lies of all is above in II Peter. It is the fake news that says Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.

They say, where is the proof the Lord is coming back? All things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.

What? Seriously? All things continue as they were? There has never been a more fraudulent fake story in the world. For this they are willingly ignorant of! Things are not the same! 

We do not live in the garden of Eden any more! We were cast out because of sin! Man has devolved into sin and because of sin for 6000 years. Generations of sin has damaged the world and the human race.

All things are not the same! That is fake news.

All things are following the exact path predicted in the Bible. Sin is reigning, morals are declining, the world is shaking and man is self destructing!

But God is still saving, the blood is still cleansing, the cross is still redeeming, the stripes on Christ's back are still healing and the Lord is still coming!

Reject the fake news and receive the good news!

I Thessalonians 4:16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

 17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

 18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

The world is falling apart. Nations are being destroyed. Churches are being attacked. Morality is being persecuted. Evil seems to triumphing in many areas.

All of the bad news is being promoted but it is exaggerated. It is fake! It will drive you crazy. It will give you a nervous breakdown. It will cause you to lose hope. It will compel you to lose hold.

But comfort one another with these words! The Lord is coming back for His church! Hallelujah!

And God is still reaching for humanity and redeeming those that come to Him!

I John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he (God) is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

That is the good news that you can count on! That is good news you can tell your neighbors! That is good news you can share with your family and friends! That is good news that will help you sleep at night in a world of bad, fake and destructive news!

Tell and sing the news, friends! We are not without hope. If we had hope in this world only, we would be most miserable! But we have hope in Christ! We have hope in eternity. We have hope of peace here and rest there!

Hallelujah! Tell and sing the good news.

Thank you for reading and for sharing.

Davy

Fake News Part I

This post started germinating in my mind after two text conversations. 

Bro. Scott Morris text me about the multitudes of "prophecies" concerning the end of the world or the coming of the Lord. His thoughts were that all of this may be an evil plan to cause people to grow numb to the message that the Lord IS coming back again although we do not know when.

My brother Steve and I had a conversation about fake news and how that everything looks like fake news now days. Do we swallow it all? Do we even know what is real and what is fake?

What about "Fake" news? Is it a real thing? My opinion is that most news has been partially fake for a long time. It has become a "thing" to point out now, but it is not a new thing or a surprising thing.

First, most stories have at least one inaccuracy and sometimes many inaccuracies in them. We have been in a position several times to know about various events that were later reported in the news. Some of those stories were reported locally and some nationally.

Absolutely every time a story was reported that we had previous knowledge about, there were real known facts that were reported completely wrong. Every time. Whether it was a story about a family, an accident, a fire, a church, a special event or whatever. They always get some fact askew.

Most of the time the blunders were relatively minor. The city was incorrect, the age was wrong, they were mistaken about a hometown or name, the color or make of the car was inaccurate or the dates were erroneous.

At times it seems that a reporter made things up out of thin air but most of the time it could obviously be attributed to lazy reporting. The facts that were misstated were very easily verifiable IF someone had tried to verify them.

That is the second thing about news. Do we even have any real reporters? I am sure they are out there some where doing their job but here is the way a bunch of stories read.

"It has been reported else where..."
"A reputable news service is reporting..."

"The Facebook post has been deleted but here is a screenshot of what they posted this morning..."

"They tweeted moments ago..."

"An anonymous source said..."
"A police source that was not authorized to speak said..."

What about a reporter getting up out of his/her chair and actually going down to the scene of the tumult and investigating, you know, gathering facts?

Here is an absurd example:

One report says that twelve people were shot multiple times with a gun, probably an assault rifle, purchased undoubtedly at a gun show. Witnesses tweeted that the bearded gunman escaped in a Chick-fil-A van with a "I Love Dobson, Duck Dynasty and the Duggars" bumper sticker. He was wearing a blond wig and stiletto heels and shouting "Put Hillary in jail and Trump in 2020." 

That report is blasted on ten social media platforms and 439 lazy reporters Google the story and write their own versions of the tale complete with all the "facts" in the original.

Soon all the 24 hour news stations are breathlessly interviewing congressmen, senators, gun control "experts", animal rights advocates and vegans that are screaming about the gun show loophole, crazy president Trump, Rush Limbaugh working right wing gun nuts into a frenzy and the horrible evils of Chick-fil-A. 

The talking heads desperately hope the attacker is a white male Christian republican homophobe and life time member of the NRA. They are most irate because the mention of the bearded gunman escaping wearing stiletto heels and a blond wig was insensitive to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender community. 

Only the facts are wrong every time. When the dust settles the gun man was a disgruntled ex-employee that shot his boss with a stolen gun and was stopped by a good guy with a gun before he was able to kill a bunch more. 

The only time they mention the good guy with the gun is when they point out it is never a good idea to confront an active shooter. That is what 911 is for. They refuse to mention the many lives were saved by a well trained, armed good guy.

Most likely the bad guy never listens to Rush Limbaugh, hates Trump, believes in outlawing guns, hugs trees, is anti coal, anti oil and anti fracking and maybe even voted for Hillary Clinton for president. Yeah, I made those facts up too, but my made up facts are as fair and accurate as their made up facts. Plus, I admit my facts are made up.

I am convinced that many stories are written in front of a computer by a "reporter" that understands nothing more about the story than you do. They are only regurgitating what they read on social media or in other news reports.

No wonder news is so fake. We have come to accept whatever we read as fact and since we readily accept it, that is what we are fed each and every day.

As I said before, news reports about events that we know about personally always have inaccuracies in easily verifiable areas.

Yet, when I read a story about which I know nothing, I forget that most stories have inaccuracies and I am quick to believe everything the story says. I know nothing about the facts so I assume the writer is writing facts.

The endless repeating of biased supposition mixed with preconceived ideas along with lazy reporting lends itself to creating fraudulent news. It all has an element of fakeness. 

If I were a touch more cynical I would believe absolutely nothing I read! But hold on to your hats, there is one source I believe completely. 

I have rambled on long enough. I will get into that source tomorrow by His grace.

Thanks for reading.

Davy

Weekend Woundup and Weview #40

The last full weekend of September is now behind us and what a great weekend it was. We finished revival in Richton Friday night with another good service. It was tough to say goodbye, but we do have a few pictures of the Richton folks and visitors.

We visited way, way too late Friday night after church with Pastor Scott Morris and his family but we were having a great time. We did not have to travel a full day Saturday so the late night did not hurt us as bad as it normally would have. After all was said and done, it was a super great way to end our wonderful week with dear friends in Richton.

Saturday morning we visited some more before pulling out a little before noon. It is only about an hour and 20 minutes from Richton to the Tanner Williams church by car. The bus takes longer but we still arrived with plenty of daylight to get parked and settled in.

The Apostle Donald C. Williamson and his wife, the Epistle😆, were at Tanner Williams Holiness Church to welcome us back home. We have been preaching for Bro. Donnie and his folks for several years and they have embraced us and loved us as family. We love being here.

About dark we loaded the sound equipment in the church and set up. This is a picture of the bus and car as we came out of the church.

This is Sunday morning on my way to church.

We had two wonderful services Sunday to begin revival. These folks love to have church and that makes me love them and love to be in church with them!

We met Penny and Mike at Tent Revival in Richton a year or two ago. They came to Richton revival one night last week and Sunday night at Tanner Williams. It was very nice to have them and to get to visit with them a little more. May God bless them for driving to be with us.

That wraps up our weekend. If you are any where near Mobile we would love to have you join us this week. You can click HERE for service times and the address. I know you will enjoy being with these fine folks.

Thanks for stopping in to sit a spell. Be careful out there.

Davy