Covid, Christians and Conspiracy theories – part 1

 

During this Covid crisis there’s been a rise of conspiracy theory type posts spread by Christians. I understand some of the reasons behind it. These are strange times – most of us have never lived through a pandemic of world-wide proportions – and, as movement is limited, there’s also a growing fear that other things could be limited, especially freedom of speech or freedom of worship. It makes us believers collectively wonder (at least in our minds if not aloud), “could these really be the last days? Is Jesus coming soon?” And, if these are the signs of the times, then isn’t it our duty to get the news out and warn people?!

But before we spread any more viruses viral social media posts, let’s pause and reflect on things from a Biblical perspective.

 

Whatever is True

First, is what we are sharing true? As people who follow the One who is the Way, the Truth and the Life (John 14:6), truth is of central importance. We are clearly told to think upon “whatever is true” (Phil 4:8). We know the Old Testament command not to bear false witness, which of course is also repeated in the New (Matt. 19:18; Eph 4:25; Col 3:9, etc). As Ed Stetser wrote in Christianity Today, bearing false witness – including by sharing unproven conspiracy theories – is still a sin, and something to be repented of. And so we must look at these theories and judge for ourselves: how much of it is true and how much is false or mere conjecture? (A pastor friend of mine posted some helpful tips on how to do this).

 

What are you a witness of?

Many of the posts and videos I see Christians sharing are based on what “might be,” or on unproven theories. So I ask, Should Christians be spreading mere conjecture? I would answer, No! Discernment is one of the gifts of the Spirit – and one we need so much right now. One of the things it comes down to is this: are we to be known as the people who can’t be trusted? The people who share falsehood? Again, the answer is no. We are to be people of utmost integrity, people who “speak the truth in love” (Eph 4:15), not conspiracies born out of fear. We are called to point people to Truth – to Jesus Himself. Christians should be recognized as people who don’t peddle mere theories, but instead preach truth. Not “might be’s” and “possiblies,” but certainties. The apostles never preached what “might be” true, they preached what was one hundred percent true. And they did this by keeping their witness and evangelism centered on Jesus, his death and resurrection. They focus on what was sure – not on spreading possible end-time scenarios. Our conspiracy theories and “may-be’s” most often serve to distract people from Him who is True. Let’s remember that in Revelation the first and continual image of Jesus is that He is the “Faithful and true witness” (Rev. 1:5; 3:14; 19:11). So let’s imitate Him and be faithful and true witnesses in all areas of life. This does not mean we can’t wonder about current events or discuss questions we have with friends. Of course we can. But when we share something on social media for the watching world to see, they will take it that we believe and support what we are posting. And so we turn from being a witness of Jesus to being a witness of whatever theory we are pushing.

 

What is Truth?

But some are saying “I am for truth! I’m trying to uncover truth that the forthcoming one world government is intent on hiding! If we are to be for truth, then I must speak even if Facebook censors me!” Ah, yes, this does present a bit of a dilemma doesn’t it? As Pilate asked two thousand years ago, “what is truth?” (John 18:38). Everyone is asserting that they are really for truth. Despite these claims, I would suggest that is not what the Scriptures mean when they encourage us to speak truth. They don’t mean trying to uncover government secrets or supposed deep state agendas. They mean, on one level: promoting Jesus who is Truth. And on a secondary, very practical level, speaking things that are not false. Scripture does not mean that we are all to consider ourselves amateur sleuths in an effort to uncover the antichrist’s agenda. Nowhere do we see the apostles trying to dig up ‘truth’ of what the very anti-Christian Roman government was doing. Instead, they were concerned about promoting Him who is the Truth.

 

Crisis Christians and Crying Wolf.

Like that boy that cried wolf a few too many times, the end-time watchers have made a bit of a mockery of themselves, unfortunately. First it was 1988 (remember that?), then it was the end of the world during the Gulf War, then Y2K….and there’s been a bunch more since then, like the time the world was supposed to end in 2011. Every new crisis brings out a new conspiracy theory. Non-Christians, caught up in fear and paranoia, may join you in it for some time. But over time they see that the world has not (yet) ended and they turn their backs on Christianity as a whole, as something made up of fear and conjecture. We’ve lost generations of kids who saw their parents hopes dashed again and again…and so gave up on Christ our Hope altogether. “If they were wrong about the End-times” they think, “they’re likely wrong about the rest of it too!” You see when we present theories as facts, we really begin to lose our witness. Our trustworthiness begins to disintegrate in the eyes of a watching world and our credibility plummets. The bottom line is, if we want people to trust what we say, we need to stick to that which is certain. Unfortunately, when it comes to end-time theories, we have more often floated ideas from novels than truth from Scripture (and this, even from the pulpit). As leaders and believers we really need to do a lot better with our eschatology!

 

On Fear as a basis for Evangelism.

For example, nowhere in the apostolic writings do we see “fear of tribulation,” or “fear of missing the rapture” used as a basis for evangelism. Look through Acts and all the Epistles…you won’t find it. Paul and the apostles did not use end-time rapture or tribulation theories in their evangelism. Rather, we find Paul and the other apostles often using fear of the final judgement as a basis of evangelism (check out Acts 10:42; 17:31; 24:25, etc). Why? Because everyone – great or small, republican or democrat, vaccinated or not – will have to stand before the judgment seat of Christ (Heb 9:27). So let’s follow their lead. Not everyone who has ever lived will go through the tribulation, but absolutely everyone will stand before God and be judged. This focus on trying to figure out when the tribulation is coming, has skewed our evangelism and turned it to something not seen or modeled in Scripture. So my encouragement is this: let’s not speculate about those times and dates or even speculate whether this is the end of time. Rather, let’s lovingly remind people that whether Jesus comes back in this generation or not, we must all stand before him and be judged for what we’ve done during our days on earth.

My dear and godly grandfather, who recently passed to his heavenly reward, never saved up for retirement because Jesus was “coming soon.” Yes, that is our hope. But ‘soon’ to an eternal God is different than soon to a finite creature. My grandfather found out the hard way as he struggled financially in his latter days, that his calculations regarding the time of Christ’s return had been incorrect. So while we do indeed long for Christ’s appearing (2 Tim 4:8), right now we preach and pray and focus on what we know is presently true: No man knows the day or the hour of his coming (Mark 13:32), but what we do know is that Jesus is the way, and when we die we must all stand before him.

 

Watching and Waiting

We are told many times in the Word of God to “keep watch”. Unfortunately, what a lot of people are watching these days is conspiracy videos that are stirring up fear. So what are we to watch for instead? If you look at Scripture you’ll see the motif of watching used throughout the Old and New Testaments. In the Old it was often used for “watchmen on the wall” who (literally) looked for enemies, and (spiritually) cried out to God in prayer…not giving up “day or night” (Isaiah 62:6). In the New, Jesus told us to “watch and pray” (Matt. 26:41). And Paul reminded us to “be devoted to prayer being watchful and thankful” (Col 4:2). And Peter states, “The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray” (1 Peter 4:7). The command to watch is to watch and pray. Not to speculate, but to intercede. And as we pray we are to keep in mind Paul’s words: “pray for those in authority” (1 Tim 2:1-2). We are not called to tear them down or belittle them, but to intercede for their salvation. And notice what this praying also results in: Christians living “peaceful and quiet lives” (v.2) – not ones of dissent and protest. If anyone had a right to tear down those in government it was Paul – alive during the dreaded Nero years. But we don’t hear a word of negativity or conspiracy theories regarding lost freedoms or one-world governments from him. Rather, it was encouragement to pray, to witness and to live godly lives. That’s what a watching world really needs to see. That in the midst of a pandemic, we are people of peace. That in the storms of speculation we have an Anchor and a Hope.

 

What are we to do?

In times like these, then, what are we to do? I cover this more in the second post, but for now I would suggest one simple thing: preach the Gospel! Focus on Jesus, not on conspiracy theories and fearful possibilities. Again, take Paul as an example. He lived during the time of Nero and the Roman Emperors, leaders who would make those in government today look like Mother Theresa. They were power-hungry, lust-filled, murderous men who killed at whim, made a sport of gruesomely killing Christians (and anyone else they wanted for that matter) and set themselves up as gods. When Paul wrote those words regarding prayer to the Colossians (“devote yourselves to prayer”), he was stuck in prison – persecuted for his faith by his fellow people and by that godless Empire. But nowhere do we see him speculating about who might really be behind it, or trying to uncover if the emperor was the antichrist, or what the mark of the beast was. What do we see him doing? Focusing on JESUS, preaching Jesus, speaking of Jesus. He wasn’t driven by fear, or hype, or speculation. Rather, he was driven by one motive: preach the Gospel.

 

On Losing our Freedom

The great apostle wasn’t worried about losing his “freedom,” – he’d already willingly given it up!  As he said: “I’ve counted everything a loss for the sake of Christ” (Phil. 3:7,8). This echoes what Jesus had said years earlier, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.” (Matt. 16:24). Many of Paul’s letters were from prisons where he’d lost all freedom. Yet he wasn’t there to ‘preach end time theories’ – either speculative or plausible – but preach Christ. “We proclaim Him!” he said from his cell (Col 1:28). And in this day and age that’s what the watching world needs to hear: not more theories that will be debunked in a few months or years, but more of Jesus! Writing to Timothy from prison, just a short while before he was killed by that ruthless Empire, Paul was able to write: “We have not been given the spirit of fear, but power, love and a sound mind” (2 Tim. 1:7). Oh, how we need that today! How we need the perfect love of Jesus that “drives out fear” (1 John 4:18) because we know that, live or die, we will be with Him!

Just over 100 years ago in 1918 (as our denomination was forming), the “Spanish Flu” was spreading – and at a much deadlier rate than the present virus – infecting a third of the globe and killing at least half a million in North America. Our forefathers, fresh from Azusa Street, weren’t preoccupied with whether a foreign power was behind the virus, or if the country leaders were somehow trying to take away their freedom through this turn of events. Rather, they had a new power, they had a vibrant faith, they had a fresh passion kindled for Jesus and a renewed purpose in life. Their goal was to proclaim Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit, not get sucked in to half-truths and paranoia. (Updated: here’s a fascinating link from the Assemblies of God with actual reports from 1918).

 

So I implore you, let’s get back to our first love. Not a protectionist love of self (will a one-world government take away my freedom, my home, or – God-forbid – my Facebook profile?) but a love of Christ that is willing to give up everything (freedom included – just ask the apostle Paul) to be a witness to Jesus, his death and resurrection!

And if, in some future generation a government again takes away the freedom of Christians, we’ll join our hearts with faithful saints throughout history – those that went through the Gulag, the Maoist persecutions, the Boxer rebellion, the North Korean prison system – and the list could go on and on – and looking to Jesus we’ll still sing, “He is worthy of it all!”

 

 

Related Posts:

• Covid and Christians, pt 2: What are we to do?
• The End of the World!
• How to Pray in a Crisis

 

About the Author:

This is a post by our friend John. He has his Masters of Divinity from Tyndale University & Seminary and has spent almost 20 years in overseas work, helping equip the persecuted church. Due to the restricted nature of where he lives, that’s about all the info we can give 🙂