Almost every person can remember an occasion as a child when no amount of persuasion from our mom or dad could convince us to change our opinion.
Our peers had told us what was true, but nothing was going to change our belief—only to discover later on what we had believed was misinformation or worse, we had believed a lie.
Accurate reporting and a free press are critical to the well-being and the sustaining of liberty for an individual and for a nation. There is no greater bondage than someone living in deception, thinking themselves to be free when they are in fact slaves. Darkness has become their light. What they believe to be true is, in reality, misinformation or disinformation.
What they assume to be accurate is distortion.
Distortion is changing the shape, the characteristic or the design of an object or a fact. Misinformation is the unintentional reporting of inaccurate facts. Disinformation is the purposeful dissemination of inaccurate information with the intent to distort the truth.
The consistent reporting, teaching and publishing of a lie will ensure it becomes the new “truth”—disinformation.
The mission of the church is to bring the message of truth to the world: “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free” (John 8:32).
The church has been given the amazing responsibility of ensuring that every generation has access to the truth so they can live in true liberty. The apostle Paul wrote a solemn warning to his spiritual son Timothy on two different occasions.
“Now the Spirit clearly says that in the last times some will depart from the faith and pay attention to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their consciences seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods, which God has created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth” (1 Tim. 4:1-3).
“For the time will come when people will not endure sound doctrine, but they will gather to themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires, having itching ears, and they will turn their ears away from the truth and turn to myths. But be self-controlled in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, and prove your ministry” (2 Tim. 4:3-5).
Why would anyone actually choose to accept deception over truth? It makes no sense. Or does it?
A person’s morality will always determine their theology.
When people make the choice to follow Christ casually and to loosen their moral standards, they must adjust their theology accordingly.
We are living in such a time.
Many professors, pastors and church leaders are teaching and publishing that the infallible Holy Bible “contains God’s words.” According to them, many of the facts are inaccurate and many of the principles are cultural ethics of ancient times. Such compromise on the infallibility of the Living Word of God will make the church vulnerable to misinformation, disinformation and distortion.
Historical rewrite and moral compromise will become the accepted norm, and the church will have a form of godliness but she will be stripped of her power to make a difference in a lost and dying world.
Dr. F. Dean Hackett has served in full-time Christian ministry since October 1971. He has ministered throughout the United States, Canada and Europe, serving as pastor, conference speaker and mentor. He has planted four churches, assisted in planting 15 others, and currently serves as lead pastor of Living Faith Church in Hermiston, Oregon. Dr. Hackett founded Spirit Life Ministries International in 2001 to facilitate ministries in Croatia and Bosnia Herzegovina and to open a training center for workers in those nations. You can find him at F. Dean Hackett – Foundational, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.
