Fake News In The Gospel

No matter what side you’re on or how you look at it, we’re living in a world that’s filled with “fake news” and with lots of people who believe it. How do Christians fits into this world? In this book, Kenton Sparks argues that certain approaches to biblical authority, which assume that the Bible is a perfect book, make Christians especially susceptible to the deceptions of “fake news” and cause us to embrace false understandings of the Bible and, because of this, about natural science, social science, various academic disciplines, politics, morals, ethics, and loads of other things. The resulting damage to faith and Christian witness is significant. Is there a better way to understand and honor biblical authority? Yes. We must restore God as the final authority over our interpretations of Scripture. The path forward for this theological agenda was modeled by Jesus Christ in his interpretations of Scripture. Whereas his contemporaries often followed the “letter of the law” or something akin to it, Jesus taught that love for God and neighbor provided the proper foundation and destination for healthy readings and applications of the Bible. If love required more radical, internal commitments to the law, Jesus demanded this of his audience; where love required that we set aside the law’s violent judgments, he pointed his audience in the opposite direction. In modeling this approach to Scripture, Jesus taught “as one with authority” and thus showed us that, when we interpret Scripture through the lens of divine love, we give ourselves the best opportunity to read Scripture under the authority of God.

Gerd Lüdemann and other Gospel scholars debated the question of the resurrection with William Lane Craig and failed to show that the story of Jesus’ burial by Joseph of Arimathea was not historical, and that there is another burial story in the Gospel of John (19:31–33). Joseph Codsi invites them to read this book and discuss this question all over again. In addition, the second part of this book is about repressed memories in the Gospel of Mark. So far, scholars have discussed what is said overtly in the sacred texts. They did not notice the existence of enigmatic texts that “do not mention what they know, hide what organizes them, and unveil solely by their form what they erase from their content.” What those texts reveal is that, in the last phase of his life, Jesus received special revelations concerning God’s plans for Israel. According to those plans, the temple sacrifices will become obsolete and the Passover meal will be celebrated anywhere in the world, not just in Jerusalem. When Jesus revealed this to the five and four thousand people, they recognized in him the prophet who was to come, and they wanted to make him king.

"Fake News! That's Fake News!" In a few short years, the phrase "Fake News" has earned a place in dictionaries, in national discourse, and in our daily lives. But Fake News is not new. Fake News began when people first interpreted the Bible to advance their own agenda. Commonly-held beliefs about what the Bible says regarding women, LGBTQ folks, slavery, immigrants, and Jews trumpets Fake News that is destroying people's lives. What is the best way to counter Fake News? With the truth. To do so, Episcopal priest Elizabeth Geitz turns to the #1 bestselling book year after year--the Bible. Sexism, racism, anti-Semitism, and heterosexism are experiencing an alarming resurgence today. It is time for an accessible book that sets the record straight on what the Bible really says regarding the many "isms" affecting all of us. It is time for the Fake News about the Bible to come to a screeching halt. The 101 eye-opening reflections in Spiritual Truth in the Age of Fake News are a call to action for people of different faiths or no faith at all. This a must-read for anyone exhausted by the daily barrage of Fake News who is seeking the relief of the authentic.

What if the biggest danger to the church of Jesus Christ is not blatant heresy, the moral failures of church leaders, persecution, the rise of Islam or the loss of our rights? What if the biggest threat is counterfeit gospels within the church, ways of thinking and speaking about the good news that lead to a gradual drift from the truth of Scripture? The gospel is like a three-legged stool. There’s the Gospel Story – the grand narrative of Scripture (Creation, Fall, Redemption, Restoration). Within that overarching framework, we make the Gospel Announcement about Jesus Christ (His perfect life, substitutionary death, resurrection, exaltation). The gospel announcement then births the Gospel Community: God’s church – the embodiment of the gospel, the manifestation of God’s kingdom. A counterfeit gospel is like a colony of termites, eating away at one of the legs of this stool until the whole thing topples over. This book exposes six common counterfeits (Therapeutic, Judgmentless, Moralist, Quietist, Activist, and Churchless) that would get us off track. The goal of Counterfeit Gospels is to so deepen our love for the unchanging gospel of Jesus Christ that we would easily see through the many counterfeits that leave us impoverished. So come, love the gospel, recognize and overcome the counterfeits, and be empowered for ministry!

A guide to fake news which deals with the subject effectively, through a careful analysis of the techniques used by fake news generators and false news spreaders.How does fake news originate? Who generates it? How does it become viral? Which technologies are being used?Hoaxes, clickbait, conspiracy theory, pseudoscience, storytelling, shitposting, satire and entertainment are only but a few of the main categories the book closely investigates.An in-depth search into the reasons why fake news is generated, either to influence public opinion or the market and decision-makers, whether to cash in on traffic or merely for character assassination. Nowadays, to maximise results fake news spread makers largely utilise some subtle psychological techniques, often conjoined with advanced digital techniques.The last section of the book is predominantly dedicated to debunking fake news and to proposing potential solutions to fight back against this alarming threat.

Gerd Lüdemann and other Gospel scholars debated the question of the resurrection with William Lane Craig and failed to show that the story of Jesus’ burial by Joseph of Arimathea was not historical, and that there is another burial story in the Gospel of John (19:31–33). Joseph Codsi invites them to read this book and discuss this question all over again. In addition, the second part of this book is about repressed memories in the Gospel of Mark. So far, scholars have discussed what is said overtly in the sacred texts. They did not notice the existence of enigmatic texts that “do not mention what they know, hide what organizes them, and unveil solely by their form what they erase from their content.” What those texts reveal is that, in the last phase of his life, Jesus received special revelations concerning God’s plans for Israel. According to those plans, the temple sacrifices will become obsolete and the Passover meal will be celebrated anywhere in the world, not just in Jerusalem. When Jesus revealed this to the five and four thousand people, they recognized in him the prophet who was to come, and they wanted to make him king.

No matter what side you're on or how you look at it, we're living in a world that's filled with "fake news" and with lots of people who believe it. How do Christians fits into this world? In this book, Kenton Sparks argues that certain approaches to biblical authority, which assume that the Bible is a perfect book, make Christians especially susceptible to the deceptions of "fake news" and cause us to embrace false understandings of the Bible and, because of this, about natural science, social science, various academic disciplines, politics, morals, ethics, and loads of other things. The resulting damage to faith and Christian witness is significant. Is there a better way to understand and honor biblical authority? Yes. We must restore God as the final authority over our interpretations of Scripture. The path forward for this theological agenda was modeled by Jesus Christ in his interpretations of Scripture. Whereas his contemporaries often followed the "letter of the law" or something akin to it, Jesus taught that love for God and neighbor provided the proper foundation and destination for healthy readings and applications of the Bible. If love required more radical, internal commitments to the law, Jesus demanded this of his audience; where love required that we set aside the law's violent judgments, he pointed his audience in the opposite direction. In modeling this approach to Scripture, Jesus taught "as one with authority" and thus showed us that, when we interpret Scripture through the lens of divine love, we give ourselves the best opportunity to read Scripture under the authority of God.

Is there evidence to believe the Gospels? The Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, John—are four accounts of Jesus’s life and teachings while on earth. But should we accept them as historically accurate? What evidence is there that the recorded events actually happened? Presenting a case for the historical reliability of the Gospels, New Testament scholar Peter Williams examines evidence from non-Christian sources, assesses how accurately the four biblical accounts reflect the cultural context of their day, compares different accounts of the same events, and looks at how these texts were handed down throughout the centuries. Everyone from the skeptic to the scholar will find powerful arguments in favor of trusting the Gospels as trustworthy accounts of Jesus’s earthly life.