Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world. [1 John 4:1-3, NIV]
Do you ever see something on the internet or get one of those e-mails forwarded from a friend making some outlandish claim? Here's some of the latest: Picture of President Bush and his father fishing in the streets of New Orleans; Gas Rationing is Planned in the Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina; Strange Sea Creatures Washed Up From the Tsunami. Obviously these are all quite intriguing - some even plausible - but are completely and totally false.
It pains me to see people - even the intelligent ones - believe everything they see on the internet. Why do they do it? Do they believe everything they see on TV? Of course not! (at least I hope they don't) Dan Rather proved you can't even believe everything you hear on the news!
The internet is a wealth of information - a tremendous source of reference and facts. I also see it as a microcosm of society in general. There is a lot of good to be had out there. But Satan - the Great Deceiver - uses it, too. As far as he's concerned, the internet is the superhighway to your soul - especially when you consider all the crap out there in cyberland.
We who read the Bible on a regular basis are given the armor of truth to fend off Satan's arrows. Armed with Bible knowledge, we can "test the spirits" against the Bible to discern whether someone is telling us the Gospel truth (literally) or trying to deceive us away from the Gospel with their snake-oil sales pitch. Jim Jones and David Koresh come to mind - those trapped in their web got trapped because they didn't know their Bible. I can name other examples that are considered more "mainstream" and I would be labeled (correctly) politically incorrect if I did so. But the point is that no matter how insignificant or harmless it may seem, or the intent of the messenger, - that leads away from God is just that - it is intended to lead you away from God. Sadly, more and more people don't know the Bible.
What floors me are Christians who won't help someone who is down and out because "they don't believe their story" yet they'll believe all the crap they read on the internet. Just because it came from the internet doesn't make it true. And just because your best friend forwarded it to you by e-mail doesn't make it true either (by the way, I don't blame my friends - it just means that the originator of the message "got to them").
My suggestion to you is that before you forward any story to others, just check it out first. One really great resource is TruthOrFiction.com, a link that I have placed permanently on this site under US/World News. Hey, I've been "gotten to" before. It's not fun begging for forgiveness when I should have checked out the story first.
Some of the amazing stuff on the internet really is true! Also consider this wonderful Creation that God made for us and the amazing Grace He offers us (though we certainly don't deserve it, it's free for the asking). Why make stuff up when the Truth shall set you free?
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