One of the things we need to accept in today’s world of news is that nearly everyone has the opportunity to reach people far beyond their town or country with the news they are writing or telling. Such information is often self-serving rather than providing the truth. The Bible urges us to be careful in what we listen to, not just acting on something before we have verified it is true (Proverbs 14:15). Deuteronomy 11:16 warns us to beware lest our hearts are deceived.

What is the news doing to you?

Jesus told us many of the things that would happen in these last days. He said He told us so we would recognize the times when we see these things happen, and we will believe Him. (Mark 13:23) God tells us that the nearer the end times, the more deceptive will be the lies we are told. That is true because the evil one has an agenda to deceive the nations into following him, just as he deceived Eve into eating the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. (Genesis 3:1-7) Check your news against the Bible for truth because there is “nothing new under the sun.” (Ecclesiastes 1:9) Do not accept the lie that Jesus has lost control and there is nothing left to live for.

When bad news brings hope

Jesus told His disciples, including us today, to pay attention to prophecy in the Bible (Matthew 24). About a third of the bible is something that is told in advance of the event. Many things we read there have already happened. A great example is God’s prophecy that Abraham and Sarah would have a son. Fourteen years after that prophecy was first told, that miracle came true.

What prophecies have we seen come true in our modern age? The first is the prophecy that Israel would return to her land and become a nation after nearly 2000 years of being scattered among the nations of the world These prophecies include Amos 9:14-15, Ezekiel 37:10-14 and 21-22, Isaiah 66:7-8, Jeremiah 16:14-15 and 31:10, Ezekiel 4:3-4 and many more. Today we see Israel back in their own land.

Another prophecy we see in action before our very own eyes is the alliance between Russia, Turkey and Iran – nations which have never before in history been in an alliance with all three – and they are in Syria just as it was written over 2500 years ago in Ezekiel chapters 38-39.  Another prophecy we can see with our own eyes is from Daniel 12:4, which says that people will “run to and fro” – rapid travel around the world – and that knowledge will increase. Travel across the globe has increased faster in the last hundred years of earth’s history than all previous history combined. Knowledge is doing the same because of computers and the internet. A hundred years ago it was estimated that knowledge doubled in about one hundred years. Today some are saying that human knowledge is doubling every day.

God has told His children, those who read the Bible with His Spirit’s teaching, many things that our news services are reporting today as news. Rather than making this an issue of fear for us, however, He intended to bring us hope and joy so we know all the rest of His prophetic promises will also be fulfilled for us.