I want to take you on a rather Spiritual level particularly in connection to what is happening during these times. I cannot help it but I’m drawn to the mysterious realm of Biblical prophecies particularly the end of days. There is a passage in the Book of St. Matthew of the Holy Bible that I found intriguing in relation to today’s recent events. It is not as intriguing as a conspiracy theory you normally watch in thriller movies but I fear it is somehow connected to Biblical prophecy that could probably be coming true in our lifetime.
I really am fascinated by what they call, the last days or end of the world and the like. We have heard of wars, rumors of wars, frequent earthquakes, pestilences, increase of lawlessness as signs of the end times. Of course, these signs are all found in the Bible. Mind you, there a lot of discussions on that subject if you dare tread on these things. So, leave that to the experts and Bible scholars.
During this quarantine period, I had time to do some Bible reading myself at the urging of some other writers and other readings of publications on such topic. Now, there’s a thought that came to my mind. With our increasing dependency on the internet as a source of information, we are sometimes being fooled by fake news published as true in the internet. Then I realized why there is a proliferation of fake news with such frequency. What I can’t understand is the unrestrained nerve of people to spread information that they know it is as lie without regard to morals, decency and ethics. There is a great damage fake news is causing to a lot of people and it is fine with these fake news makers.
Now I know why the first thing that Jesus Christ mentioned in Chapter 24, is a warning to His disciples about being deceived. It was His first statement in His discussion about the signs of the last days. Why would Jesus emphasize about deception? Because of fake news, I believe. Fake news makes us believe anything. Jesus was firm when He said that we should not be deceived.
Deception is no longer the game of the spies. It is now being used by ordinary people, companies and even governments to a certain extent to whatever purpose they seem fit. Fake news is packaged in such a way that it is passed as true. This is why many will be deceived. If they tell you that banana is the cure for the corona virus and post in social media, bananas will be emptied off the shelves in a flash. That’s what fake news do. It becomes a marketing strategy.
What Jesus meant when He said, “do not be deceived”, He encouraged us to seek the truth and believe only in the truth. We would be deceived easily if we don’t know how to seek the truth. Jesus even issued a stern warning about individuals claiming to be the Christ because that is not true. During these times, we should be truth seekers, not fake news spreaders.
The danger about fake news is that, they ride it on mass hysteria during some special or extraordinary occurrence such as the spread of COVID-19. Now being mindful of the reminder of Jesus about being deceived, when there are a lot of information circulating about this COVID – 19, where it came from, I don’t know what to believe anymore.
