[b]Devilish Deceptions?[i]by MLJ trust
An Increasing Challenge
One of the great challenges of modern life is to know what to believe as true and what to dismiss as error. In what has been called 'the Information Age', the total amount of information available to most people in the Western World is overwhelming. It comes to us through dialogue, printed media, radio, television, and the Internet.
Not only is the quantity of information overwhelming, but the quality of it varies enormously. With the Internet, a huge number of people have the ability to publish information and there are few checks on the accuracy of much of what is published. But even with more reliable sources of information it can be very difficult to know what is true.
This can be extremely frustrating with major issues such as the global recession and climate change. When there are strongly held differences of opinion, news organisations often adopt the approach of simply presenting both sides of the argument - interviewing people from the opposing groups. It seems less common for anyone to come out with a strong analysis of truth and error on any important topic.
The Need for Discernment
Thus with the recession, people in Britain are left wondering whether to believe the Prime Minister when he says that our country is well-placed to handle the recession, or whether to believe economists who say that our country is one of the worst-placed to cope with it [1]. The situation is similar with climate change (or global warming). Do we believe the scientists who repeatedly report that 'this is happening faster than we thought,' or do we believe others who say that the problem is not that bad? [2]
We live in a time when it is increasingly important to be able to evaluate information in terms of its source and the motivation of that source. The crucial question has become:
‘Does that person, or group, have any reason to distort or hide the truth?’
If they do have such a reason, a second question becomes vitally important:
‘How successful is that person, or group, at presenting their deception as the truth?’
One Russian appears to have been quite successful at this. He used to be a traffice policeman, but in 1991 was 'reborn', claimed to be Jesus Christ and has drawn more than 5,000 followers to himself [3]. This is astonishing when the Scriptures are very clear about the way in which the real Jesus Christ will return!
A Crucial Time
For British and American people, these questions have become more important than ever in recent years. A CBN News report on 8th August 2009 highlighted a fundamental issue when it described Britain as being in a state of war with the Christian gospel - despite its constitution as a Christian country [4]. In a short video report they present strong evidence of increasingly powerful moves to present Christian beliefs as wicked, and to make it illegal to do a number of things that God wants Christians to do - like telling others about our faith in Jesus Christ.
A particularly interesting feature of this report is that it highlights Tony Blair as responsible for many of the current anti-Christian policies in Britain. They identify the former Prime Minister as the man who has led one side of this war. Tony Blair is someone who has a strong ability to convey ideas in a very sincere manner, and to present them as both valuable and correct,
That he should be identified in this role is all the more intriguing when we consider that Tony Blair claims to be a Christian, and that since he stepped down as Prime Minister he has formed a Faith Foundation with apparently commendable objectives. These include the aim: '... to encourage people of faith to work together more closely to tackle global poverty and conflict.' [5] Such an objective seems entirely reasonable and is probably one reason that Tony Blair was one of the speakers at the Willow Creek Leadership Summit on 7th and 8th August 2009 [6]. But an objective like this only seems reasonable until people perceive that the major religious faiths have directly conflicting beliefs right at their very centres.
Christianity is totally based upon the belief that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God, the one and only Saviour, the utterly unique Christ (or Messiah) the only way to God. In contrast, Islam states that Jesus of Nazareth is not the Son of God, but is simply a prophet and that he is not even the greatest prophet. Judaism rejects Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah and still awaits the arrival of the Messiah. Hinduism also rejects Jesus of Nazareth, as it embraces many Gods rather than just one. In encouraging people of different faiths to work together, is Tony Blair now subtly condoning the view that there are many routes to God?
Important to Americans
Why should this be of concern to the American people - that great nation in which there appears to be a much larger proportion of Christians? Well, the report highlights that the man many Americans hope will be their saviour from economic recession - Barak Obama - is introducing many reforms similar to the ones introduced by Tony Blair. These reforms will make it much harder to be a Christian in the USA.
A video report provides a fascinating insight into the life of such a senior politician. For in awarding the Presidential Medal of Freedom to 16 different people on 12th August 2009, Barak Obama commended people for totally different approaches to life [7]. One was a Christian, the Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who was commended for "... a readiness to take unpopular stands without fear." Another was the actor and film director Sidney Poitier, who’s purpose was "... to make himself a better person.” A third was the physicist Stephen Hawking, who through his battle to continue living way beyond the time his doctors gave him "... has stirred our imagination and shown us the power of the human spirit here on earth." Yet Stephen Hawking is also the man who was so delighted with the progress of his research into the beginnings of the universe, that he openly asked the question "Do we need God anymore?" So both he and a committed Christian were commended on the same day, at the same event.
Truth and Deception
So where is the truth in all of this? Is Britain at war with the Christian gospel? Is the USA embarking upon the same path, being led by a very sincere, very popular politician? The answers to these questions call for great discernment. We would all do well to remember the warning in Scripture that '... Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light' (2 Corinthians 11:14). Not every person who presents themselves as doing good, is actually doing good.
from: http://www.mlj.org.uk/mlj.nsf/0/F8C1F3D8DBBA804480257612004FB107?opendocument