Sometimes we must take a step back from everything, especially the so-called news, whether national or international, everything that surrounds us and bombards us on a daily basis with so much information that ‘info overload’ is nearly impossible to prevent, or even avoid. During this step back, the time should be used to thoroughly review what we truly believe, and why.
Absolute Truth
The people connected to the mainstream media, as well as many who claim to be ‘alternate news’ sources, and who purport to provide us with ‘the news’ are no longer journalists, for the most part, but are actually highly-trained and motivated ‘propagandists.’ Thomas Sowell said: “If people in the media cannot decide whether they are in the business of reporting news or manufacturing propaganda, it is all the more important that the public understand that difference, and choose their news sources accordingly.”
Therefore, we must use extreme caution when reading, or listening to, any news from these sources. It is becoming more and more apparent that they are not there to provide us with an honest account of what passes as ‘the news’; they are there to influence our thinking and decision-making based on what they tell us is the news. Knowing this, as we listen to or watch these sources, we should be ready to closely examine every word and compare it to the only true ‘news source,’ which is God’s Word. The propagandists will turn themselves inside out to prove there is no such thing as ‘absolute truth.’ They fail to realize that, simply by stating that absolute truth doesn’t exist, they have made an ‘absolute truth statement.’
The problem these propagandists have with the existence of absolute truth is that it would also prove the existence of a God from whom all absolutes come. The two main Merriam-Webster Dictionary definitions of ‘absolute’ are:
- a) free from imperfection: PERFECT
- b) free from mixture: PURE.
These are two of the main characteristics of God and His Word, and reading the other definitions given by Webster are an education in the descriptions of God that He Himself has provided in His Word. So, whether the propagandists believe in absolute truth or not does not influence its actual existence, since to do so would make God non-existent.
The Formation of a ‘Belief System’
I have found that one of the things new Christians often fail to do is to establish in their hearts and minds exactly what they believe. Unless they get deeply into God’s Word, and spend enough time there to let it settle in and form the foundation for what they should believe, they will be easily led astray by Satan and the evil people who follow him in this evil world, some of which are the best seat-warmers in churches. Until a Christian has settled the question of what to believe, and why, he or she will not be an effective voice for the gospel.
In order to accomplish anything lasting for the Lord in this life, everything we do must be done in faith while being led by God’s wisdom.
James the half-brother of Jesus, speaking of wisdom as being a free gift from God, states that anyone asking for God’s wisdom must ask in faith, otherwise he is a ‘double-minded man’ who will receive nothing from God (James 1:5-8).
When we are born, we are like a new hard drive on a computer that has only been formatted to receive and process data, but with none having been provided as yet. Our parents are the first to provide data that we will eventually use as the basis for a belief system. As we grow and interact with other people, especially other children, teachers and then adult peers who have also formed their own belief systems, what we receive and store forms our individual personalities and becomes the basis of what we believe in our hearts. This then becomes our own personal belief system, whether founded on the Word of God, or what is input from worldly sources.
As children, we naturally take our parents’ input at face value, without questioning its validity, or whether their input is based on a genuine love for us. But, history shows that many people who produce children are not capable of providing the information that will create the basis of a sound belief system, since they do not always possess the kind of love that is required to do so. The children of those people then are faced with a very difficult situation, a true conundrum. Unless they were taught to carefully examine what they are told, and what they see, they may start their adult lives with a seriously flawed belief system; and many of them may struggle with contradiction, or what seems to be contradiction, between what they have been taught and what is truth.
They may not know it, but they do have a belief system since every person believes something. But, unless they have a sound belief system based on ‘absolute truth’ – a belief system built on the foundation of God’s Word, which is absolute truth – they will likely lack the ability to separate ‘facts’ (think propaganda) from truth.
If a person tries to get through this life without a foundation of truth, he or she will eventually fall victim to the propagandists’ deception and will end up seriously deluded, believing anything they hear from any so-called ‘news source.’ They may then actually resist real truth when they encounter it because it is so opposed to the propaganda they previously accepted as being true.
They are then like some people described by Bradlee Dean, ordained minister and host of the “Sons of Liberty Radio Show,” who said: “Most people don’t really want the truth; they just want a constant reassurance that what they believe is the truth.” They have then become the victims of the propagandists’ attack; and unless they are reached with real truth by a believer in God who has the truth living in him or her, they may never recover from such an attack.
The World’s Version of ‘Truth’
On an almost daily basis, we are being hammered with what the unsaved world calls ‘truth.’ They truly believe theirs is the only voice that should be heard; and when they are met with resistance to their version of the truth, they brand all such resistance as bigoted, hateful and racist. Unfortunately, they have had considerable success with their tactics, proving what was said by Joseph Goebbels, Adolf Hitler’s Minister of Propaganda:
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”
He also said, “The essence of propaganda consists in winning people over to an idea so sincerely, so vitally, that in the end they succumb to it utterly and can never escape from it.”
It is becoming easier every day to see why the world has no idea what Truth is, having spent many years, and for some, all the years of their lives being bathed in a constant shower of lies, deception and anti-God propaganda.
Judgment on the World’s ‘Truth’
Paul spoke of such people in the first chapter of Romans when he said:
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.
“For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things.
“Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
“And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenant-breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them” (Romans 1:16-32).
The words “hold the truth in unrighteousness” in verse 18 above would be better translated as “who unjustly suppress the truth.” This is a perfect description of the propagandists’ clever plan to keep the truth hidden from the masses by cloaking it in their own version of truth.
Those pushing the current propaganda that espouses not only an acceptance of homosexuality, along with the entire LGBTQ agenda, but an approval of all who partake in it, might as well have been taught in a classroom by Goebbels himself. They would also be at home in that classroom with those who deem human life so unimportant as to promote the ending of life in the womb as not only acceptable, but as a ‘right’ to be afforded to every woman on earth. If they are successful, then murder, condemned by God as a soul-damning event (Revelation 22:15), has now become a ‘right.’
The ‘Step Back’
When we find ourselves so deluged with the frustrating, overabundance of ‘stuff’ that doesn’t actually provide any solutions to the problems it presents, it is then time to call a personal timeout, time to regroup and try to make sense out of the turmoil and chaos that constantly surrounds us. That time should be used to check one’s own personal belief system and make sure it is still founded on the only absolute truth: God’s Word.
It is all too easy to get caught up in so many issues which, in the long run, are only smoke and mirrors hiding the real issues we should be addressing. In essence, they are distractions, working to keep us focused on them rather than on God’s settled Word.
The very important ‘shadow decisions’ being made that now, and in the future, will affect the lives of all the people on this planet are not made in the White House, the Halls of Congress, or in the parliaments of democratic societies, but are actually made far back in the shadows, hidden as much as possible from public view. These decision-makers strive to get people focused on their created distractions, the multitude of minor events that consume so much of the news programs on TV and online. They want to get us bogged down in the micro-view when we need to be searching out the macro view, the view that oftentimes provides a glimpse into the shadowy world where the big picture is being drawn and planned.
One important part of the ‘step back’ is to realize that, unless we get our eyes and ears off the daily minutiae, we will easily miss the real action taking place. Also, even though so many people become programmed to see only the minutiae, we need to realize that we have little to no chance of changing anything there. To do so would be to fight against flesh and blood, when Paul said the ‘real battlefield’ is in the heavenlies, a battlefield that is mostly spiritual. And it is there, when we realize what is going on there, that we can have the most impact.
Even the human people hidden who work mostly in the shadows, who pull the strings that move governments and financial institutions, creating the events that have the most impact on people, have their own masters as well, pulling their strings. These are the fallen angels, the spiritual beings spoken of by Paul:
“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12).
These are the real string-pullers who do not rest in their quest to destroy us all, doing the bidding of Satan. Every empire mentioned in the Old Testament had a major fallen angel, called in Daniel, a ‘prince’ residing over it in the heavenlies, working to control the events of that kingdom or empire that would benefit Satan the most (Daniel 10).
Use Your ‘Belief System’
I think most people, in varying ways, are problem-solvers, as am I; I never met a problem I didn’t want to tackle and fix. In most cases, this is not a bad thing, especially when the problem is solvable and will make life better for one’s self, one’s family, or the world in general. But, the problems threatening to engulf the entire world in turmoil, chaos and fear have all been addressed long ago by the God who created the universe. He knew, before the world began, everything that would occur from the first day in Genesis to the day that sees a new and perfect heaven and earth in place.
Anyone who thinks God is surprised or overly concerned about any of the crises, wars and general evil occurring now would be seriously wrong. Jesus, the Great Prophet, told His disciples about everything we now see taking place. They too were very concerned and fearful about the prospect of a chaotic, unsettled world, but Jesus told them constantly to “Fear not.”
If we can wrap our heads around the fact that God has already solved the problems that seem to overwhelm us, we can rest in faith that He will take care of us through them all, no matter what.
The enemy of our souls works hard to try to get us so involved in current issues that we can easily lose sight of the value and power of our belief system. If we succumb to his plan, we become easier to manipulate into making decisions that solve nothing, but instead make us less able to be of assistance to others. Staying focused on the Word and the belief system will see you through any problem.
Our belief system, or ‘what we ardently believe in our hearts,’ and more importantly, why we believe it, is the one thing that we must never allow Satan to pull us away from. Our beliefs are to be based solely on what God has said in His eternal, unchangeable, forever-settled Word. That is the first step in making sure our system will not fail us when needed most. But just as important as ‘what’ we believe is ‘why’ we believe it, and both the what and the why must align with absolute truth.
If we build our system on absolute truth, we must also know that, because God IS truth and there is no lie in Him, we can then rely on Him, through our belief system, to provide for us no matter what comes our way, no matter how vile and corrupt the world becomes. This reliance is no more than a simple, childlike faith in the God of Creation, that He is in control, that He is never caught off-guard, and that we can utterly trust Him in any situation. This is why we must hold on tight to the belief system we build.
God knew, as we all should, that the time we are living in would become very dangerous for believers. In fact, Paul said these exact words in his second letter to Timothy:
“This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
“For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith. But they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as their’s also was” (2 Timothy 3:1-9).
It may seem that Paul is talking about the people described in these verses as being ‘of the world,’ but actually, Paul’s letters to Timothy were a personal teaching to the man Paul called “my beloved son in the faith,” a man who would go on to become the Bishop of Ephesus. In these letters, Paul is telling Timothy how to deal with problems he would face when leading a large flock of believers. Here, Paul is describing to Timothy the state of apostate Christians who have been led away from their original belief in Christ.
The description is relevant to us today since we are witnessing the greatest apostasy, or falling away from the faith, ever seen. Whole denominations are buying the world’s (Satan’s) lies and approving abominations that should never be either accepted by, or acceptable to, a Christian, at least not one with a well-founded belief system. Whole groups of believers are being led astray because they fail to see what is taking place in the shadows, or in the heavenlies, where Satan and his minions are working so hard to “steal, kill and destroy.”
Conclusion
If you often, or even sometimes, find yourself being overwhelmed with the blast of worldly ‘facts/propaganda’ being fed to you by the MSM, or even some alternate news sources, taking a step back periodically is absolutely critical for the Christian since it provides the needed time to review our established belief systems and examine whether we are truly doing the work that Jesus commanded of all believers.
Jesus, Paul and Peter, among others said that we would be persecuted if we are living godly lives. Paul stated in his second letter to Timothy:
“Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution” (2 Timothy 3:12).
The step back should afford the opportunity to see if this is the case in our lives. Catherine Booth, the woman who co-founded The Salvation Army with her husband William Booth, said:
“When the church and the world can jog comfortably along together, you can be sure something is wrong. The world has not compromised—its spirit is exactly the same as it ever was. If Christians were equally as faithful to the Lord, separated from the world (2 Corinthians 6:17), and living so that their lives were a reproof to all ungodliness, the world would hate them as much as it ever did (John 7:7). It is the church that has compromised, not the world.”
For those who would choose one of these churches over one, regardless of size, where earnest prayer, sound doctrinal preaching and teaching, and a true reverence for God is found, a ‘step back’ is exactly what is needed, together with a serious review of the belief system that drives all our decisions.
If a Christian strives diligently to always operate by the wisdom of God, asked of God, in faith, and freely given by Him, while spending enough time in God’s Word (His wisdom) to allow the wisdom to take up permanent residence in the heart, he or she will be well-equipped to deal with all the stupid propaganda that Satan is now using to destroy the effectiveness of the Church, the Body of Christ, that is supposed to be the “salt of the earth” and the “light that shines in darkness.”
One thing that should concern the entire Body of Christ in this dangerous time is the changing face of what passes as ‘worship’ in many churches. True heartfelt worship – with humble, broken hearts and a true reverence for the God of all creation – is now replaced with multitudes of cultural ‘programs,’ loud rock-type bands, and watered-down teaching on how to be successful in life, how to become prosperous rather than how to become an effective voice for salvation and repentance. This is exactly what Satan wants, a ‘comfortable’ church, loving the excitement of live entertainment, intent on pleasing the pastor rather than pleasing God.
Charles Spurgeon, the renowned 1800’s British preacher, must have been privy to a brief look into the future when he said:
“A time will come when instead of shepherds feeding the sheep, the church will have clowns entertaining the goats.”
Sadly, that is exactly what we now see happening in some of the largest churches in the United States.
If you are fearful, bewildered and frustrated by the crazy, stupid things happening in the world, check your belief system and let it assure you that, no matter how bad things appear, God is still in control. If you do not get this assurance, you should make the time to go back and search God’s Word again to see what He has already said about the times we live in.
I would not want to give you the impression that bad times are not coming to the US, but I would like to assure you that, if you belong to God, He can and will guide, direct and protect you through all the chaos coming, no matter what the world says or does.
The people who are living in that darkness, with no real light to guide them, and who have none of the ‘real salt’ to preserve their lives, are depending on us – founded on a sound, Biblical belief system – to be their hope for salvation. Do not be afraid to take that critical step back and, if needed, give your belief system an upgrade, or possibly even a complete rebuild. It will be some of the best time you will ever spend.
Blessings!