Gospel Truth: A Christian Commitment to Honesty in a World Full of Deception

Part 1: The Reality of Christian Deception

The Reality of Christian Deception

Recently I was reading the latest report from the “Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists” (you know, “fun reading.”) They warn about the imminent threat of nuclear disaster—they update a “Doomsday clock” every year, symbolizing our countdown to annihilation. The latest analysis puts the clock at “89 seconds to midnight.”

As contributing factors to this emergency situation, they mention climate change, political strife, and the collapse of a “nuclear arms control process.” All of this, they warn, is seriously exacerbated by the popularity of social media and the emergence of AI information services: this has exponentially increased the “spread of misinformation, disinformation, and conspiracy theories that degrade the communication ecosystem and increasingly blur the line between truth and falsehood.”

The battered information landscape is also producing leaders who discount science and endeavor to suppress free speech and human rights, compromising fact-based public discussions that are required to combat the enormous threats facing the world.

Christians (like myself) claim to be in the truth-speaking and truth-affirming business. We have the true and beautiful good news from God in the Bible and therefore you would think we would be the “truthiest” people on earth. Sadly, that is simply not the case. I have read numerous reports that American evangelicals (my big weird family) “are more likely than most to engage with and spread misinformation.” But why? Some say confirmation bias and an attitude of “my truthiness is truthier than yours.” Some say we are too trusting, some say we can be anti-science and anti-intellectual, because we take things on faith and according to gut-instinct.

I think there needs to be more study on why we have a hard time caring about the truth, but this Substack series is not really about how not to fall for misinformation; instead, I want to talk about how we can prevent becoming liars and deceivers.

The past twenty years have uncovered scores of pastor-related scandals, and the immediate response from the accused tends to be deception. In fact, deception and gas-lighting are tools used from the beginning of how pastors manipulate, abuse, and maintain their status. One frank confession from a pastor states: “Pastors are uncomfortable with the idea of telling the truth about themselves and their church.” They face overwhelming pressures to be entertainers, comedians, scholars, therapists, writers, and all-around perfect leaders. So they use deception to insulate themselves and protect their position.

It might seem like I am hurtfully picking on pastors and making a problem out to be much greater and more widespread than it really is. To be clear, I know hundreds of pastors and I genuinely think most of them are good, hard-working, caring people. But culturally we have put pastors on a pedestal and that platform carries a high temptation towards self-protection. But being wary of people in leadership and not taking everything they say at face value or as “gospel truth” is something that Scripture talks extensively about. This really isn’t a new problem.

Proverbs 26 warns:

24 Enemies disguise themselves with their lips,

but in their hearts they harbor deceit.

25 Though their speech is charming, do not believe them,

for seven abominations fill their hearts.

26 Their malice may be concealed by deception,

but their wickedness will be exposed in the assembly. (26:24-26)

It turns out, charming deceivers have been around for a long time, and the “assembly” is responsible for exposing falsehood.

We read in Psalm 52:

Why do you boast of evil, you mighty hero?

Why do you boast all day long,

you who are a disgrace in the eyes of God?

2 You who practice deceit,

your tongue plots destruction;

it is like a sharpened razor.

3 You love evil rather than good,

falsehood rather than speaking the truth.

4 You love every harmful word,

you deceitful tongue!

5 Surely God will bring you down to everlasting ruin:

He will snatch you up and pluck you from your tent;

he will uproot you from the land of the living.

God reserves harsh judgment for the proud deceiver, who can soothe with the tongue, but God sees what is inside. Recently, I was reading the very long book of Jeremiah, where there is a persistent theme of judgment on false prophets—and Israel had plenty of false prophets. And the way Jeremiah talks about them, it seems eerily like huckster televangelists and megachurch pastors today—widely popular, filthy rich, and completely out of touch with God’s truth and holy integrity.

The prophets prophesy lies,

the priests rule by their own authority,

and my people love it this way.

But what will you do in the end? (Jer 5:31)

The prophets told people what they wanted to hear, to tickle their ears, and the people went home more than satisfied—God was on their side, no matter what, so they believed.

“From the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gain; prophets and priests alike, all practice deceit.
They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious.
‘Peace, peace,’ they say, when there is no peace.” (6:13-14; see 8:10-11)

It’s about power and greed, in the end; it always is.

“Therefore,” declares the LORD, “I am against the prophets who steal from one another words supposedly from me. Yes,” declares the LORD, “I am against the prophets who wag their own tongues and yet declare, ‘The LORD declares.’ ³² Indeed, I am against those who prophesy false dreams,” declares the LORD. “They tell them and lead my people astray with their reckless lies, yet I did not send or appoint them. They do not benefit these people in the least,” declares the LORD. (23:30-32)

Trusting a prophet or pastors sometimes feels easy, because we take for granted that they receive their messages from God. But here Jeremiah makes clear that there are prophets (and pastors now) who only pretend to speak for God and in fact are anti-God in their messages and their deception.

“Both prophet and priest are godless; even in my temple I find their wickedness…And among the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen something horrible: They commit adultery and live a lie. They strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that not one of them turns from their wickedness.” (Jer 23:11, 14).

This is dark stuff, very sobering. Godless leaders are in the temple—THE TEMPLE—deceiving the people. They might utter pious words, but they are living unrighteous and ungodly lives. Even more—they help evildoers.

What I think is happening now in the age of deception is in fact nothing new. Jeremiah was dealing with rampant falsehood everywhere, even and especially within the leadership. What can you do, except send true prophets who dare to speak against the false prophets and priests?

In the next essay we will look at the Tactics of Deception. Then we will talk about how to be committed to the truth.

We’ll end with Proverbs 23:23: “Buy truth, don’t sell it.” A concise and clever way of saying that we must put the highest possible value on real truth; and we must not trade it in for lies at any cost.

Stay tuned for more in this series next week.