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Who are You Going to Believe?
By J. Jeff Toler for Shenandoah Christian Alliance j.toler@sca4christ.org
- But I did not believe these things until I came and saw with my own eyes. Indeed, not even half was told me; in wisdom and wealth you have far exceeded the report I heard. (1 Kings 10:7 NIV)
When honest debate is no longer possible, tyranny is already in place.
People will debate honestly if they hold defensible positions. They will argue effectively if they want to learn more than they want to win. Winning a debate is a result of being persuasive with the facts we know and fully understand. In this way we can be comfortable and listen carefully.
In our present day, because we have become very tribalistic—with one tribe in a perpetual state of war with another. This prompted Dennis Prager to say this is “civil war without any serious bloodshed.” I submit that this civil war is very serious, with bloodshed still possible. Because some people are especially susceptible to the chaos, they will live in fear, fortifying their defenses only in dialog—refusing to debate as their antagonists hope they will.
This is a shame because for many, they were never encouraged to learn what the other tribe is actually saying, what they are actually thinking, without understanding what they are attempting to do. We’re being deceived, and this is the truth of biblical proportions.
Contained in what is known as the Olivet Discourse, Jesus tells His disciples this, “Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains.” Matthew 24:4-8 (NIV)
In New Testament Greek, “nation” is translated from έθνος which is pronounced ethnos. We can say then, one ethnos—one ethnic people group—is warring against another ethnic people group. It’s happening now all around the world. It’s become obvious it’s affecting elections throughout Europe and the British Commonwealth. There is ethnic conflict in the war in Ukraine. Sadly, America has been drawn into it without calculating the cost.
But, if we want to be honest, in 2020, America was already experiencing—for all intents and purposes, an ethnic uprising of its own. This was a time of chaos.
For the Marxist, chaos breeds opportunity. If we examine the current events of our day, Marxism is the prime suspect.
But something unexpected is happening now. The enemies of liberty may have overplayed their hand. It’s become too hard to ignore such a blatant show of incompetent tyranny.
This is the new face of chaos: a panicked Democratic Party, sold out to their radical leftist base, looking around for a way out of approaching disaster. They are becoming increasingly emboldened in their effort to stem what appears to be a turning tide of public opinion—and showing up in the public opinion polls,
This present age features large helpings of disinformation on all the crucial issues from sources who didn’t deserve our trust just because we were so willing to give it to them. It’s a natural progression from the overblown claims made by advertising and marketing firms. American consumers have been increasingly susceptible because truth claims are not all that easy to distinguish from the hype.
The loss of Truth is not merely collateral damage. It’s always been the target.
Mike Rowe, (pictured) former host of the very popular “Dirty Jobs” has produced a new documentary, “Something to Stand For” premiering June 27, and running through July 4. In an interview with the Daily Wire, Rowe, revealed that the new film is pulled from nine episodes on his podcast, “The Way I Heard it.”
Rowe then quotes Travis McGee, a fictional character of the John D. McDonald novels of the 60s, who said, “I am wary of a great many things in this life, but above all, I am wary of all earnestness.”
Later, when questioned as to where he decides to point the camera, he answered, “Well, it’s not complicated, but it’s ephemeral and it’s always very fluid in the same way the times are fluid. Going back to that “earnestness” beat, I’ve always been wary of it, because that’s the quality that allows soap salesmen to succeed; it’s the quality that allows news anchors to be believed even when they’re dead wrong; and narrators to be believed.”
This is a sharp observation to describe why America has found herself so easily fooled. Because yes, we are fooled by salesman and news anchors; but also by doctors, lawyers, podcasters, neighbors, our kids’ teachers, even famous pastors, and frankly anybody who can look you in the face, and not just lie, but lie with earnestness.
Paradoxically, reality has only become harder to distinguish from earnestness in this age of increasing technology. The smart phone, whose ubiquity has made recording videos exceedingly easy by anyone who has one in his pocket, has rendered us slack-jawed by the endless tsunami of online videos we have to guess which ones are true.
You have to marvel at the earnestness of a White House press secretary telling us the candid videos of a declining president you are watching every day, are “cheap fakes”… manufactured by the conservative news media. Is this an admission that the conservative news media is that good at faking reality?
The presidential debates are to be scheduled for June 27 and September 10—provided both candidates will be able to participate in September. There has never been a presidential debate scheduled this soon before. Always the debates followed both party’s nominating conventions. Also, these will be the first debates where there will be no studio audience. Wll everybody be watching? Will we be able to believe what we see and hear?
There will be no excuse for failing to vote according to our Christian principles, after we watch these debates. There will be no excuse if we choose the candidate who refuses to advance those principles, and who relies on disinformation.
Bear this in mind when we read Jesus saying: “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)
The truth born of this world will never stand up to Truth born into it.
