With the endless supply of information, it is sometimes difficult to know what is true and what is untrue. It is commonly said that Generation Z, those born between 1995 and 2010 have grown up with endless information at their fingertips. Some even call it information overload. I’m not sure how much is retained, but you can literally search just about anything on google.
And with all this information you are left wondering the actual level of accuracy of it all. Readily, information is reposted all over the internet and social media platforms. I have been guilty of it myself where you don’t even check the accuracy of the original source (not just tag the last person who posted the quote you liked). Like many others I was taught in university that you always had to go to the original paper if you were to cite it somewhere in your work.
A cry for truth
Although we are being supplied with all this endless and good information, the greatest cry I hear is that, what is actually wanted is the truth. Not all information is bad information but not all information is truth. And what is needed/wanted is the purest version of the truth to be sifted out amidst it all.
Over the last couple of months, we have seen this information overload outplayed with the outbreak of the devastating fires here in Australia. I mean, despite your political opinion and the media-fuelled agendas, we’re left asking—did we do enough to help in the aftermath? What will we do differently next time?
An overconsumption of information can be confusing and misleading. But an accurate presentation of the facts brings clarity. What we actually need more now than ever before is the truth and people who carry the truth into conversations and to their platforms. Funnily enough I was recently viewing someone’s social media platform who openly shares from a biblical perspective on different topics. Suddenly this particular social media platform banned them from gaining any new followers.
This was a person just trying to carry the truth and speak up about it but was contained.
CNN recently reported that Dr Li Wenliang, a Chinese Doctor who gave an early warning about the potential devastating effect of the Coronavirus was reported to have become a target for police for “rumour-mongering.” According to reports he was later apologised to by authorities. Unfortunately, however, in trying to treat people with this virus he later died as a result of contracting it.
So what is the Truth and how can it be found?
John chapter 8, verse 32 “Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.”
John chapter 14, verse 6 (NIV) says Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
Jesus is the truth and in Him there is freedom.
In John chapter 4, verse 24 it says that God is spirit and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.
Of course the enemy then would like nothing more than to persuade, pervert and dilute the truth, but the truth is pure/clean it has no agenda, there is no bias. Praise God for people who stand up for the truth, but even more so, those who carry the real Truth into their world.
Elise Pappas is a Pastor and together with her husband pastor a church on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia. They have a son, Jonathan and a daughter, Sophie. Elise is a former clinical drug trial research coordinator and business owner. She writes about life and ministry experiences.