
by Tad Lindley
Did you ever hear that eating the candy, Pop Rocks, while drinking soda could kill you? When I was in high school, the word on the streets was that the Life cereal advocate, Little Mikey, had come to a young and very tragic end by making the aforementioned dietary choice and literally exploding internally. In those days, we had no means to verify the truth on stories like that. Fast forward to today and the internet provides us with fact checking websites. If you still believe that Little Mikey died from candy and soda, I suggest that you check with the fact checkers.
Are you a fact checker?
I have lived long enough to know that the one who states his case first seems right, until the other comes and examines him. (Proverbs 18:17 ESV) Just because someone has told me something, does not necessarily mean that it is true. Especially if they stand to benefit from being right and their claim is against another person. Did you ever notice that on Facebook when someone blows up another person many commenters without ever checking the facts will jump on board and begin throwing stones at the accused? Then later on you find out that it was fake news?
Facts are not always popular
When the apostle, Paul, would go to a new town or village to start a church, he would first go to the Jewish synagogue and preach to the people the facts about Jesus. He would show them through the Jewish scriptures (which we commonly call the Old Testament) that Jesus was in fact the Messiah, God manifested in flesh. It was often the case that some would believe him and others would not. In fact, in one case, the Jewish leaders actually tried to kill Paul, because they were afraid of losing the people to the message of Jesus (see Acts 14:19-20). They declared Paul to be bringing fake news and not the Good News.
The Bible shouts out the fact checkers at Berea
When Paul and Silas went to Berea to preach, they noticed something special about these people, they were fact checkers. They did not tune out something just because it was different from what they heard from their rabbi or their grandfather. They were open to new ideas as long as they were true. And the people of Berea were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica, and they listened eagerly to Paul’s message. They searched the Scriptures day after day to see if Paul and Silas were teaching the truth. (Acts 17:11 NLT) When Paul preached to them, they didn’t believe it just because he said it, nor did they reject it just because it was different from what they grew up with. They compared what was being preached with what was in the Bible. They were fact checking the preacher.
You better fact check your preacher
Reader, you better fact check your preacher. If human history is any indication of the present, even preachers need to be fact checked. There was once a time when the Church of England declared it sin to eat salt on Friday (unless you gave an offering to the church to get a salt eating permit). No matter how many times we fact check that against the Bible, it will always come up false. Hopefully you were able to spot the no salt on Friday rule as completely false. But are there other beliefs that are more modern that you hold that are not true?
How does fake news replace the Good News?
Once upon a time a preacher said, “Accept the Lord, Jesus Christ, as your personal savior and you will be saved.” Nobody bothered to go home and check their Bible to see if that was in there. It sounded so good, that another preacher said it the next Sunday when he was preaching. And then another preacher said it, and nobody fact checked him. People liked hearing that more than they liked hearing, “whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Matthew 16:25 ESV) It started to spread from town to town until it was being preached all over the country and then the world. It sounds so familiar now, that many people believe that it is in the Bible. It’s not. But don’t take my word for it, fact check it for yourself, search your Bible.
What are the facts?
The fact is that John Gilchrist, the actor who played Little Mikey in the cereal commercial, is still alive. If you don’t believe me, check the facts for yourself. The fact is that there is much more to salvation than making a mental acceptance of Jesus. Here are some facts that I urge you to look at while you check me on this: Mark 16:16, Luke 13:3,5 Acts 2:38, and Matthew 7:21-23. The facts are not always as convenient as fiction, but they lead us to truth, And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. (John 8:32)
Reverend Tad Lindley is a minister at the United Pentecostal Church in Bethel, Alaska.