Monday, October 18, 2010

Christians and Conspiracy

Recently on a Christian forum I have received a little flak because I questioned some of the “conspiracy theory” claims being made.
Too often some of the world’s wildest conspiracy speculation is swallowed by Christians because it “fits” with their ideas about end time events.


Before we fall for (and even worse) promote unsubstantiated speculation here are some facts that need to be considered:

1) Extreme claims need to be substantiated with much more than rumour and/or baseless “facts”.

2) It is up to the maker of extreme claims to provide EVIDENCE and not merely pass on what they have heard/read..

3) Christians should AVOID promoting wild and baseless speculation. It does nothing for our credibility.

4) The previous three points are saying the same thing: Christians should be FAR MORE diligent than the world with regard to extreme claims because we follow Jesus who IS the truth. The "truth" we promote reflects the Jesus we follow.

5 comments:

BILL HUNT said...

How true! I hate to say it. But one hears this too much. It's sort of like sleeping with your mouth open, and catching every fly that comes along!

Anonymous said...

I agree. Remember Y2K. The church I went to at the time had people hoarding food and buying generators. Everyone knew the end times were here. We cannot fall for every conspiracy theory or dooms day scenario.

Onesimus said...

Yes God thinker.
While we are napping and catching flies (as per Bill’s illustration) the termites are coming in unnoticed eating the house from around us.

While we become engrossed in speculation, the REAL thing sneaks up unnoticed.
For example, while we look for the antichrist in the revived Roman Empire of Europe (as per one popular view), he’s likely to sneak into power from a totally unexpected direction.

Also, by promoting unsubstantiated and wild speculation as if it is true - we can undermine perception of what IS true (God's word).

When our speculation is proven wrong it brings everything else we say into equal doubt in the minds of our hearers/readers.

SLW said...

The Accuser of the Brethren's fingerprints are all over the accusatory speculations of conspiracy theories. I think the Devil is well served, even when folk are fixated on trying to figure out who's on his side and what their plan for world domination is.

Onesimus said...

SLW,
It is ironic that satan doesn't actually need to create a genuine conspiracy.
As the deceiver he can succeed merely through rumour and false report.