Do not be fooled!

There’s good news and there’s fake news: it is important to discern which is which!

Christmas commemorates the messengers from heaven announcing “good news of great joy that will be for all people” (Luke 2.10). The incarnation of the Son of God was – and is – “good news”. And it is universal truth, “for all people”. And it’s a source of “great joy” – deep happiness and human fulfilment.

Though “fake news” seems to be a modern concept, there have always been purveyors of falsehoods, and their fake news is folly that leads people astray. Fake news is actually bad news because it’s false, so people believe a lie.

In previous blogs I have insisted that only God knows all truth; only he can communicate that absolute truth to us; he sent his Son into the world to tell us the truth that he wants us to know; and that hearing Jesus’ teaching “you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free” (John 8.31-32). There alone is the source of real truth, good news, not fake. 

It is not polite to call another person a “fool”, but twice in the Bible God uses this word to describe two types of people. Two of our perplexing questions are: “Does God exist?” and “What happens after death?” It’s vital to obtain true and reliable answers to these fundamental questions. God himself both gives the answers, and condemns as “fools” those who think differently. Concerning the existence of the Creator God, Lord of the Universe, Maker of all things visible and invisible: to deny his existence is a big mistake: “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God’” (Psalm 14.1). This is a foolish belief-statement for several reasons: first, it would require an exhaustive research of the entire universe to be able to make such an affirmation. As that is impossible, the statement merely expresses one person’s belief, or lack of belief. Secondly, it fails to consider seriously all the pointers to God’s existence in the amazing creation we observe all around us with its glorious beauty, the mathematical precision of its physical constants, and human beings themselves who, despite our fall into corruption, still reflect much of the personality of the God in whose image we were created.

So don’t draw the hasty and false conclusion that “There is no God”; if you haven’t found him yet, that’s no proof of his non-existence. Study the life and teaching of the One who came down to earth from Him at that first Christmas: you will see he is believable.

The word “fool” is also used in one of Jesus’ parables concerning the second big question – life after death. A farmer gets richer and richer until he no longer had enough space to keep all his goods. He decides to tear down his barns and build greater ones, saying to himself, “I have plenty of good things laid up for myself for many years; I will take life easy, eat, drink, and be merry”. Then Jesus adds: “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your soul will be demanded of you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’” (Luke 12.16-21).

Here is the folly of not preparing for eternity and the Day of Judgment that we must all face. Don’t believe the fake news that “when you’re dead you’re dead”. The Bible warns us: “Man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment” (Hebrews 9.27). 

Please, for the sake of your eternal soul, don’t be fooled!

Clive Every-Clayton