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FALSE NEWS
We hear a lot about false news in the media. Such deceptive news is published as a means of gaining a desired political goal. Nothing new here: from the days of Christ there were people who believed and taught contrary to the truth that Jesus taught. In particular many people did not like what Jesus had to say about the sinfulness of mankind and men's natural inability to come to Him and be saved. Consider the words of Jesus and the reaction of many: “...Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father. From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him,” (John 6:65-66). These folk believed false news about themselves and others: they believed that man naturally possessed the ability to come in a saving way to Christ. This is false news that is still being circulated and believed today by many. Another incident when people believed false news is recorded in Luke 2:25-30 as follows: “But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land; But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian. And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong. But he passing through the midst of them went his way.” The point of Jesus' words here was that God is sovereign in whom He chooses to save. Jews were starving in the one instance and many Jewish lepers were suffering in the other, but God did not provide deliverance through His prophet to any of the Jews. Instead God chose to deliver a Gentile widow in Sidon and a Gentile leper from Syria. And today many believe the false news that men choose God and reject the truth that it is God who does the choosing of whom He will save. The true news is this: “Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth,” (Romans 9:18). Those who publish false news may just be ignorant: they may be “unlearned and unstable” (2 Peter 3:16) or they may be Satan's ministers for Paul wrote: “...Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works,” (2 Corinthians 11:14-15). Be diligent: make sure you know and believe the true news: the Word of God!
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