Post-truth and Fake News

Every year the Oxford English Dictiounary introduce a new word to their word dictionary.

Back in November, Alison Flood wrote an interesting leader in The Guardian about post-truth, she wrote,’ In the era of Donald Trump and Brexit, Oxford Dictionaries has declared “post-truth” to be it's international word of the year. Defined by the dictionary as an adjective “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief”, editors said that use of the term “post-truth” had increased by around 2,000% in 2016 compared to last year. The spike in usage, it said, is “in the context of the EU referendum in the United Kingdom and the presidential election in the United States”.

Oxford Dictionaries’s word of the year is intended to “reflect the passing year in language”, with post-truth following the controversial choice last year of the “face with tears of joy” emoji. The publisher’s US and UK dictionary teams sometimes plump for different choices – in 2009 the UK went for “simples” and the US for “unfriend”; in 2006 the UK went for “bovvered” and the US for “carbon-neutral” – but this year teams on both sides of the Atlantic chose the same word.’

My simple understanding of post-truth is that when a person or society depart from a position of truth to an alternative position based on untruth this can be disastrous.

When a boat is safely secured by its rope to a mooring, it is going nowhere, it is safe, but if that rope is slackened by the pull of the tide it can slip its mooring. For a while the boat may stay close to the mooring but the tug of the tide will carry it away into deeper water, and what then? Will recovery take place or will it be wrecked?

The call from this article is to leave the doomed boat and get aboard the life boat, Jesus Christ is the Master of this Heaven bound vessel, so get on board before it is too late.

In Donald Trump’s first 100 days in the White House he has used the expression ‘Fake News’ in a number of reports, accusing the media of propaganda based upon leaks from Government sources, allegedly involving Russian email hackings.

The media has fed on Fake News for years. Don’t let the truth get in the way of a good story! Politicians,celebrities and sports people have been subjected to fake news, scandalising some in order to sell more newspapers.

I have been told by a Jehovah Witness that on any Saturday there will be over 8 million of their members throughout the world, calling on people with their fake news contained in their literature and New Translation of the Bible, saying that Jesus is not God. They say in John 1:1 ‘that the Word was a god’, small ‘g’. The King James version of the Bible says correctly, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Christ is co-equal, co-eternal in the Godhead.

The Bible records an incident in Matthew 28:10, “Then said Jesus unto them, Be not afraid: go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee, and there shall they see me.  Now when they were going, behold, some of the watch came into the city, and shewed unto the chief priests all the things that were done. And when they were assembled with the elders, and had taken counsel, they gave large money unto the soldiers, Saying, Say ye, His disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept.  And if this come to the governor’s ears, we will persuade him, and secure you.  So they took the money, and did as they were taught: and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day”. Large lies often receive large money as was the case of the soldiers being bought by the priests and elders, who wanted to supress the truth that Jesus had risen from the dead.

The death and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ is the bedrock of the Christian Faith. Paul said in 1st Corinthians 15:19, “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive”. 

This is the truth and totally trustworthy, many people have bought into post-truth and swallowed fake news. Don’t be one of them. If you believe the gospel (good news) that Christ died for your sins and was raised for your justification, you can be saved this very moment by praying to Him and asking Him to forgive all your sin.  God bless.

Written by a Guest Blogger for FTMP

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