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Is hitting the share button too quickly damaging your witness?
The link can be found here.
The text is as follows:
How can we expect people to believe us on major claims if they can't believe us on minor claims? Let's plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.
So yesterday, a news story is going around all over Facebook. Now this is in light of my writing about the scandals caused by the blood moon hysteria so this is just more of the same. This time, it's a claim that Facebook is about to charge for something and this was on the news so now it's official. This was being shared by so many people and it was a cut and paste job regularly. Sadly, a lot of people I knew who were sharing it were Christians. I have written about such things before, but I always get concerned when this happens because it has a direct impact on how the body of Christ is seen in the world.
If you're not in the field of apologetics like I am, you might not be aware that to the world of unbelievers, we're a bunch of gullible and superstitious morons who believe something bizarre just because we read it in a book. Now unfortunately, there are too many Christians who will believe something just because they read it in a book or they heard it from their pastor. Of course, on the other hand, there are a lot of atheists who will believe something because they read it on the internet as well. People going with something because it fits with what they already believe is nothing new and it happens on both ends.
And to be fair, if you're not a Christian, what we believe can easily strike the world as odd. In fact, it is. We believe something simply incredible and we hold this up as the greatest fact of all. Do you want a claim like that to have credibility? People you are telling this to, and that includes people on Facebook, can't jump in a time machine and go back to the tomb and watch Jesus come out and say "Yep. He really rose again." Here's what they can do. They can look at that post that you just put up on Facebook and see that you didn't bother doing any checking on it whatsoever and then decide that if you are that gullible, they don't really need to pay attention to your major claims such as that Jesus rose from the dead.
Can you blame them? If you can't be trusted on something that can be checked on in a couple of minutes, why should you be trusted on something that requires months and years of research?
This also includes when we spread information about those who we see as our opposition even on the religious front or the political front or both. Many of you know I am a conservative in politics. I have seen people spread claims about Obama, who I do not care for, that are simply false and I always have to point them out and say "Don't spread these claims." Why? Because even if someone is my opponent, I want to take them down honestly. If I think someone is a threat to the greater good, then I should be able to demonstrate that by using honest material and not fake material. Again, this isn't just a Christian thing as all sides do this, but Christians are supposed to be people who claim to care about truth and walk in the truth and serve Christ who said He is the truth. If truth is not a priority to us, why should we be taken seriously?
Now of course, if you want to share something and you haven't found any verification and you just want to ask if it's true or get thoughts, then go right on ahead, but if something could possibly be shown to be demonstrably false, then please do not just blindly share it. Take the time to check the claims. If the world cannot believe you on earthly things, why should they believe you when you speak on heavenly things?
In Christ,
Nick Peters
The link can be found here.
The text is as follows:
How can we expect people to believe us on major claims if they can't believe us on minor claims? Let's plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.
So yesterday, a news story is going around all over Facebook. Now this is in light of my writing about the scandals caused by the blood moon hysteria so this is just more of the same. This time, it's a claim that Facebook is about to charge for something and this was on the news so now it's official. This was being shared by so many people and it was a cut and paste job regularly. Sadly, a lot of people I knew who were sharing it were Christians. I have written about such things before, but I always get concerned when this happens because it has a direct impact on how the body of Christ is seen in the world.
If you're not in the field of apologetics like I am, you might not be aware that to the world of unbelievers, we're a bunch of gullible and superstitious morons who believe something bizarre just because we read it in a book. Now unfortunately, there are too many Christians who will believe something just because they read it in a book or they heard it from their pastor. Of course, on the other hand, there are a lot of atheists who will believe something because they read it on the internet as well. People going with something because it fits with what they already believe is nothing new and it happens on both ends.
And to be fair, if you're not a Christian, what we believe can easily strike the world as odd. In fact, it is. We believe something simply incredible and we hold this up as the greatest fact of all. Do you want a claim like that to have credibility? People you are telling this to, and that includes people on Facebook, can't jump in a time machine and go back to the tomb and watch Jesus come out and say "Yep. He really rose again." Here's what they can do. They can look at that post that you just put up on Facebook and see that you didn't bother doing any checking on it whatsoever and then decide that if you are that gullible, they don't really need to pay attention to your major claims such as that Jesus rose from the dead.
Can you blame them? If you can't be trusted on something that can be checked on in a couple of minutes, why should you be trusted on something that requires months and years of research?
This also includes when we spread information about those who we see as our opposition even on the religious front or the political front or both. Many of you know I am a conservative in politics. I have seen people spread claims about Obama, who I do not care for, that are simply false and I always have to point them out and say "Don't spread these claims." Why? Because even if someone is my opponent, I want to take them down honestly. If I think someone is a threat to the greater good, then I should be able to demonstrate that by using honest material and not fake material. Again, this isn't just a Christian thing as all sides do this, but Christians are supposed to be people who claim to care about truth and walk in the truth and serve Christ who said He is the truth. If truth is not a priority to us, why should we be taken seriously?
Now of course, if you want to share something and you haven't found any verification and you just want to ask if it's true or get thoughts, then go right on ahead, but if something could possibly be shown to be demonstrably false, then please do not just blindly share it. Take the time to check the claims. If the world cannot believe you on earthly things, why should they believe you when you speak on heavenly things?
In Christ,
Nick Peters
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