Fake News

 

Then they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran at him with one accord; and they cast him out of the city and stoned him.  And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul.  And they stoned Stephen as he was calling in God and saying, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." 

Acts 7: 57 - 59 NKJV 

The people of Israel had had enough of the apostle Stephen so it seemed.  After listening to him throw down some pretty heavy charges against them, they rose up and rejected him and began to stone the apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Perhaps these Israelites didn't appreciate being called "stiff necked" and murderers.  Of course, all which Stephen had accused them of was true.  The people of Israel had rejected the prophets as well as the prophesy of coming Messiah.  Not only that, they crucified the one sent by God to save them from themselves.  Honestly, I have sat through many a bad sermon and have never once had the reaction these Israelites did.  But the message from Stephen to Israel that day was not so much a sermon as a warning.  Stephen laid it upon the hearts of Israel that they had done wrong in the Lords eyes.  The closest I have ever come to this was the few times a Christian brother would approach me to tell me that he had noticed something different about my attitude or behavior, something I needed to change.  I'm sure that many believers have seen this situation at one time or another.  We approach a fellow believer in confidence, with the intent of leading them back to the flock.  I believe that this was part of Stephens plan that day.  Through showing the Israelites the wrongs they had done, I believe that he hoped that they would repent from what they had done.  No such luck.  For the Israelites didn't appreciate the words of Stephen, and they let him know their displeasure.  We can assume that the message which the Israelites were not rejecting was the one which was counter to that which Stephen and the apostles were teaching.  That Jesus is indeed the risen Christ and Son of God.  This doesn't surprise me.  To this day there are sects of Judaism who believe that the Messiah is yet to come.  

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.

2 Timothy 4: 3 - 4 NKJV 

The term fake news has become more and more common over the past few years.  Former President Donald Trump used it a lot when describing the mainstream media who were constantly against him.  The truth is, since Trump left office we have seen that he was right all along about the biased media.  We see the tanking ratings of CNN and MSNBC and know that their message is being rejected by many.  However, there are those hardcore liberals who continue to hang onto every last word of these media outlets as if their word was gospel.  I can see the similarity here in the loyal viewers of mainstream news and those Israelites who stoned the apostle Stephen.  Each were presented with the truth yet each rejected it as well.  How would the mainstream media have described the apostle Stephen?  Agitator?  Domestic terrorist?  I'm thinking that todays news media would have gone out of their way to disparage all which Stephen and the apostles were teaching.  Does this make the message Stephen spoke any less important?  Not in my opinion.  Christ Jesus is still the Son of the living God.  Not only that, it is definitely true that the Israelites mistreated the prophets sent by the Lord to tell of the arrival of Jesus.  The Israelites, for all intents and purposes, were buying into the fake news of the day.  This is evident today as different churches speak different messages.  Some of these messages are, at times, not too scriptural.  So how do we as believers decipher that which is the gospel and that which is just fake news?  When I speak to what I believe in my heart, that Christ Jesus indeed lives in me, I base this on the words of the apostle Paul {Galatians 2:20}.  The scripture tells me that Jesus lives in me.  Jesus isn't just a dead guy which we use as a backdrop for our religion.  You might hear that in church some Sunday, but it's fake news.  

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirts, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.  By this you know the Spirit of God:  Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God. 

1 John 4: 1 - 2 NKJV 

~Scott~