Fake news and lies now dominate so much of our culture that many people cannot even believe the truth.

As they do not know how to distinguish truth from error they will believe neither.  Scepticism has become the order of the day in our post-truth society.  This is the price paid for dealing in lies and tolerating them.

Jesus said: “If I say the truth, why do you not believe Me?” John 8:46.

Such was their prejudice that He said: “Because I tell you the truth, you do not believe Me” John 8:45.

Jesus diagnosed their problem: “But I know you, that you do not have the love of God in you” John 5:42.

After a dumbed-down EU (Brexit) referendum campaign based on soundbites (because these are all that the public will pay attention to), some people woke up to a result that they did not like, and then blamed the politicians for not giving the information they think the other side needed, but more especially blaming the other side for lies in their campaign.  If the result had gone the way they wanted, I suspect that they would care little about the lies.

So it is little wonder that such people pay so little attention to Christianity.   Similarly they will wake up too late to discover that they are on the wrong side of history and of eternity.  Then they will blame God for not telling them more forcefully about the truth.  God knows how to answer them, but in the meantime don’t waste your time and use it properly.

Jesus also said: “But now you seek to kill Me, a man Who has told you the truth” John 8:40.  This ungodly behaviour is so well-known that it is proverbial to ‘kill the messenger for bringing the message’.

This shows the inherent wickedness as well as the folly in human beings.

It is a basic principle of Christianity to teach critical thinking by promoting the truth and belief of the truth.  Christians learn to distinguish truth from error.

Yet, for some people, the prospect of eternal life in heaven is ‘too good to be true’, so they will not believe it, nor will they examine it.

Possibly this is explained by their thinking that Jesus Christ is ‘too good to be true’. So they will not believe in Him either.

So Jesus says: “If you do not believe that I am the Messiah, you shall die in your sins” John 8:24.

The angel of the Lord told Joseph: “She (Mary) shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call His name Jesus: for He shall save His people from their sins” Mat 1:21.  Jesus came to save His people from their sins, but if you die in your sins then you will spend eternity in your sins without any escape from them and their consequences.

Thankfully, there is hope for sinners.

Update

23 Dec 2017: BBC’s Andrew Neil on the campaign trail against fake news.

16 Mar 2018: Fake news is more popular than truth.

19 Mar 2018: targeting individuals with deals that are “too good to be true”.  Betrayal of trust is part of the current ungodly culture, for which secularism has no solution.  Facebook shares fell by $37 billion today; advice on protecting your Facebook data is here.

18 Aug 2022: there are technological solutions for a better society and experience has shown us that technology has improved human wellbeing in spite of the contemporaneous sociological regression through false religion and partisan worldviews. However, technology alone will not solve the partisan and personal greed in human beings that manifest itself in addictions of various kinds. Sin is an addiction that holds human beings captive, and Jesus came to “save His people from their sins” Mat 1:21.