Post-Truth

"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?" - Jeremiah 17:9

Oxford Dictionaries’ Word of the Year 2016 is … (drum roll please) ... "Post-Truth." The word, an adjective, is defined as "relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief." The word was chosen because "the Oxford Dictionaries has seen a spike in frequency this year in the context of EU referendum in the United Kingdom and the presidential election in the United States." Oxford continues to explain that the meaning of the prefix "post-" has expanded to mean more like "belonging to a time in which the specified concept has become unimportant or irrelevant." The word accurately explains our culture today where emotion and personal belief replace facts. Despite many fake news and hoaxes, social media has become the source of truth to many Americans, including Christians, because they affirm our feelings and emotions. As we continue to use our internet devices and binge-watch television shows, we are conditioning our brains to become more passive in our thinking and rely more and more on our feelings. When emotions and feelings dictate how we live, we certainly drift away from what we have heard, the truth recorded in Scripture (Hebrews 2:1). I believe that we need to move away from our tendency to be passive and start fact-checking our culture by turning towards the truth - our Bible. When Jesus was tempted by Satan, he responded to the tempter with the phrase, "It is written." He went to the Scriptures to fact-check the lies of the enemy and did not rely on emotion nor feelings. Brothers and sisters, in this post-truth era, let us not be swayed by our emotions, but let us stay focused on Jesus Christ and his promises recorded in Scripture. As it is written, "Let not your hearts be troubled ... I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:1, 6).