Dr. Phil   –     This Ministry Update highlights several stories of Good News. In contrast to the Good News, of late we have been hearing a lot recently about fake news. I find this somewhat ironic, particularly in societies that pride themselves on being open to anyone’s version of the “truth.” It is true as long as you believe in it.

Tolerance seems to mean that everyone can have their own version of truth. And yet there continues this time-tested notion that there is truth and it is knowable. Kind of ironic when you think about it. Pilate’s classic question is still relevant, “What is truth?” Jesus of course answered that he was THE Way, THE Truth, and THE Life. There was only ONE way to the God and that was through him. A pretty exclusive contrast to a tolerant anything-goes-as-long-as-you-are-sincere attitude.

In spite of all the effort made to paint those with exclusive views of God and a relationship with him as intolerant, it seems that the current discussion about fake news takes us back to a time when most folks recognized the need for truth and the ability (albeit flawed) to ascertain it. The age old axiom seems to still be true. . . two things that are opposite cannot be both true at the same time…the very nature of truth is that is it rather exclusive.

So in a society that has championed tolerance above all other virtues, this seems to point to an innate desire for truth. With regards to the Gospel (literally, the Good News) those who paint it as fake news, may just be struggling with the implications of believing that truth. When it comes to the Gospel, perhaps fake news means whatever someone does not want to accept as truth.  Again, not necessarily because it has been vetted and found lacking, but because someone does not want to be accountable to the person who says that He is the only Way, the only Truth and the only Life.

What this points to is the fallacy of a relativism that prides itself on a tolerance that all information (even what we may invent in our own intellect) is truth. Like it or not, that just ain’t so (good point, bad English!). None of us really have  the option of creating our own truth. For truth to have any validity it means that there must be untruths. A truth that it seems even the media is having to admit. While everyone tries to squeeze the truth into their agenda (usually called spin), at some point something is either a truth or an untruth.

Now most of us don’t have all the information, so are often at a disadvantage in evaluating all of the information that we are bombarded with daily as true or untrue. But that there is even a conversation and aspiration for truth I see as a positive development! Of course, when it comes to God’s truth, we are not at a disadvantage. .. He has provided us not only with the written verifiable truth which has been proven for several thousand years (the written Word), he also sent the Truth embodied in the form of his Son. Real good news.

To the best of our abilities, we are committed here to sharing with you the real news from the field in our Updates, positive and negative. For the lovers of truth and the Good News there is no need to perpetuate fake news here!