Hoax!

Another day, another celebrity death hoax. 

Yesterday, it was Morgan Freeman (don’t worry… he’s still alive and well). It’s always a little surprising to me how quickly these sorts of rumors spread, and how even otherwise intelligent people are the ones passing them on. It is as though, when it comes to Celebrity Mortality, Facebook and Twitter are the prime authorities, and we forget just how easy it really is to find the truth before passing along the information. You don’t even have to leave the Internet to find the real story, but suddenly, typing an actor’s name into a search engine becomes a task we don’t even consider in the face of his untimely demise. 

Or maybe, some things are just too juicy, too good, to be bothered with fact-checking. In that thirty seconds it takes to Google “Morgan Freeman,” somebody else within our circle of influence might beat us to the punch! 

Unfortunately, we can often act the same way when it comes to the Word of God. I’ve lost count of how many times the world was supposed to end last year, at least according to some supposedly Christian “prophet” or another. And don’t even get me started on the whole Mayan Calendar thing. 

But of course, false doctrine usually comes on a far less grand scale. Tiny heresies we find ourselves embracing, because they’re just too good to let go. And yet, so often, the answer – the Truth – is right in front of us, if we just open the Word of God. 

2 Peter 2:1 But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves.

Test what you hear. Does it line up with Scripture?

When you hear something on the Internet, you check it against a reliable news source.

When you hear something about GOD, however, we can check it against the Good News, and see what God HIMSELF has to say.