So much of what we take in and assume is valid and truthful information has been manipulated. Algorithmic bots are tailoring the news and censoring opposing opinions that are contrary to the wishes of the ones doing the programming. We are being herded.
As an example, this week, the CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, admitted that a week before the last election the FBI asked him to program Facebook algorithms to ignore the controversy over Hunter Biden’s laptop that revealed family connections to illegal financial dealings in foreign nations. Our highest law enforcement agency meddled in our election process. Nations around the world are beginning to release evidence linking vaccines to unexplained illnesses and premature deaths. Pharmaceutical companies are beginning to blame shift as are the politicians who pushed compliance. If you know nothing of what I just mentioned, that is part of the problem.
Why is any of this important for people of faith to know? It is important because this kind of control and censorship is destroying relationships and dividing churches. The destruction is taking place because people blindly accept what they hear from their favorite news source and look no further. Each day millions of people sip the cool aid of deception under the shade of their intellectual front porch. They do not realize they are consuming half-truths, lies, and censored information that is forming or reforming their worldview. We have been taken captive. We are being led like lambs to the slaughter of our wills.
The programmed information we are digesting each day through social media, news programming, or printed material can only be overcome by choosing to anchor our lives in God’s word, deepening our sensitivity to the voice of the Spirit, and fellowship.
All that we believe and choose to interpret as reality must be motivated by our love for God and people, or we will devolve into clusters of disgruntled individuals who will become yet another victory for the programmers of deception.
When we accept a low standard for “truth” as a body of facts that are “generally accepted” and “not challenged” by “experts” – we lose the true meaning of Truth. Paul warns US and also describes the disappointing lives of those who embrace lower standards. They “suppress the truth” and “exchange the truth about GOd for a lie” and “do not obey the truth.”
[Rom 1:18, 25 ESV] 18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. … 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
[Rom 2:8 ESV] 8 but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury.
Thank you Garris – thought provoking as always. Yes, it is important to know that this kind of control and censorship is “destroying relationships and dividing churches.” I would suggest even further that it is important to know because the things that are taking place are designed to “rob, steal and destroy” at a global level – but this is God’s world, and He loves the peoples, and the children of this generation. And yes, people “blindly accept” what they hear – it is not just a matter of intellect and will, there is a spiritual dimension to the blindness and ignorance as well.