Fake News!
All this last week the BBC has been exposed as the purveyor of fake news. The organization which, for a hundred years and more, has prided itself as being the gold standard of truth and the totally impartial source of world news, has been caught out in at least three different ways.
President Trump is incensed at how the BBC’s editing of one of his speeches has made him say the opposite of what he actually said. Israel is incensed at the way the BBC’s reporting of events in Gaza and the Middle East has ignored the reality on the ground, and reported things in such a way as to reflect negatively on Israel. And the BBC has had to admit that its reporting of transgender issues has been one-sided, editing out the deep concerns of those who oppose such distorted gender ideologies. The Director General of the BBC had to resign as the accusations were exposed for what they are – institutional bias or, as President Trump calls it, fake news.
Bias is a serious issue, wherever it appears. Bias is the presentation of facts and information in such a way, that their interpretation favours one side’s beliefs and objectives and deceives the hearers. When journalists interpret facts in order to favour a particular political objective, they are not giving the public the opportunity to assess the truth for themselves, but feeding them what is effectively a lie, in order to deceive. Politicians employ ‘spin doctors’ to try and put their beliefs, policies and practices in the best possible light, in order to win the support of the electorate.
We live in a world where the many layers of potential deception in the public arena are designed to camouflage the truth – a world where truth itself can be unwelcome – especially if it undermines the false reality of prejudiced beliefs. Truth is always the victim of blind prejudice.
In reality, however, this is nothing new. Two thousand years ago, the distorted beliefs and religious practices of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law had been constantly exposed as self-serving bias by the pure truth about God that Jesus taught. Jesus was offensive to them because the truth He taught had power and authority and He had a popular following that they didn’t. Only the death penalty – killing the source of Truth – would serve their purposes.
When Pontius Pilate asked that eternally significant question of Jesus, ‘What is Truth’, he was asking the question that every generation needs to ask. But, in reality, the even more important question that needs to be asked and answered is not what is truth, but ‘Who is Truth?’. Who has the untarnished integrity to be the conveyor of absolute truth? Clearly, in terms of the media, the BBC has lost its credibility. But Jesus, who declared himself to be ‘the Way, the truth and the life’ is unchanging ‘truth’. He will never lose His integrity or credibility.
A Big Question
But, here’s a very big question to ask: “Have church leaders lost the desire to tell the world the whole truth about Jesus and what He actually taught?” Or, have they fallen into a pharisaical trap in which what they tell the world about Jesus and God is no longer the whole truth as Jesus told it and it has, therefore, become fake news – religious information tainted by the prejudice of bias or socio-political comment, and devoid of the cutting edge of truth?
If that isn’t the case why are we not hearing from our church leaders the core truths of the Gospel as being vital for the healing of a broken world – teaching that is focused on repentance, for the Kingdom of God is at hand, and the need to be born again? For, as Jesus said, “no-one can see the Kingdom of God unless he is born again” (John 3:3). Without being born again it isn’t possible to know God and have a relationship with Him!
Jesus did not come to found a religion or offer a sanitized, non-offensive system of beliefs which don’t disturb the status quo, He came to offer forgiveness for sin and the reality of a new life, so that mankind may be able to know Him and enjoy life with Him for ever, living life in all its fulness. His message was one of uncompromising truth – simply stated, unless we are born again we cannot see or know God.
I have never forgotten the senior Anglican Priest who came as an observer on a Healing Retreat. At the end of the first night’s teaching he told me “I’ve been a priest for thirty five years, but I don’t know God.” He and his wife were both born again that night and the following day they were baptized as believers in the swimming pool. It was a life and ministry transforming moment.
Being born again is the most profound healing that anyone can ever experience – it’s literally resurrection from the dead. It’s the central message of the Gospel. It changes everything and has been in the very foundations of the healing ministry I have taught for these past forty years.
Recently I was thumbing through my Dad’s old Bible, bought new in 1936, and I noticed the following words, in very faded red ink:
“In full and glad surrender I give my life to thee, MY LORD. No more to serve myself, but I sacrifice all to thee – TIME, TALENTS and TREASURY. I claim thy promises: “Ye shall receive power.” “Sin shall not have dominion over you” “I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit.” “WITHOUT ME YE CAN DO NOTHING” John 15:5
And this simple, very profound, statement is signed, in the faded handwriting that I knew so well, “Fred Horrobin August 3rd 1936. It is only when every aspect of our lives is transformed in this way by the presence of the living God, that they have the capacity to be game-changers for the Kingdom. Just what is the point of playing religious games that never achieve their objective?
The very word Gospel means Good News, but if what is taught misses out the life-transforming central message that Jesus brought to a fallen and broken world, it is no longer good news but has become fake news – news that deprives people of the opportunity to hear the whole truth, as Jesus taught it, and find new life in Christ for themselves.
Lord, preserve us from being purveyors of fake news to a world that is dying outside of Christ and desperately in need of the whole truth.
Copyright © Peter Horrobin 2025.
Peter Horrobin is the Founder of Gates of Hope International (GOHI). To receive Peter’s GOHI Newsmails, please subscribe at www.gohi.world . You can also Donate to Peter’s work through GOHI by going directly to www.gohi.world/give-serve/
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