(Cosmic) Information Warfare

Featured image: Virus Animation. Credit: NYT Opinion

Do you have a good hour to see this documentary from the New York Times? I really enjoyed and became very concerned after watching this piece. Disinformation, a.k.a. fake news, is crumbling American democracy and society. We have to understand it and know how to counteract against it.

Do yourself a favor and watch it.

Much in the same way, did you know there is also nothing new about this tactic? It is also something that is very old. And I’m not talking about 60-70 yrs old like the video but an information war is described in the bible right on chapter 2-3 of its first book. If you have never read it, to you it might sound like the word of fiction with imagery of a talking serpent luring a woman but symbology was widely used in the ancient world to explain reality. Think of animations and infographics of today.

The story reads as follows:

“The snake was the most intelligent of all the wild animals that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say that you shouldn’t eat from any tree in the garden?”

The woman said to the snake, “We may eat the fruit of the garden’s trees but not the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden. God said, ‘Don’t eat from it, and don’t touch it, or you will die.’”

The snake said to the woman, “You won’t die! God knows that on the day you eat from it, you will see clearly and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

The woman saw that the tree was beautiful with delicious food and that the tree would provide wisdom, so she took some of its fruit and ate it, and also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.”

‭‭Genesis‬ ‭3:1-6‬ ‭CEB‬‬

The serpent planted fake news in the mind of Eve about what kind of God she naively believed in. Immediately at the start of the conversation the serpent plants the fake news, “Did God really say that you shouldn’t eat from any tree in the garden?” As the NYT video shares, every disinformation story has to have an element of truth but be so outrageous that it can’t just be made up. The serpent asks her to confirm that God restricted them from eating from the whole garden at all, which was only partially true. God had made a prohibition to eat from the one tree where the serpent was apparently restricted to. In the previous chapter God had actually said:

“The LORD God commanded the human, “Eat your fill from all of the garden’s trees; but don’t eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, because on the day you eat from it, you will die!””

‭‭Genesis‬ ‭2:16-17‬ ‭CEB‬‬

The serpent’s attack on truth continued:

“The snake said to the woman, “You won’t die! God knows that on the day you eat from it, you will see clearly and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.””

‭‭Genesis‬ ‭3:4-5‬ ‭CEB‬‬

When the serpent has the engagement of the woman and her attention he goes on the attack to immediately slander the character of God by calling him a liar. And the woman believed the lie and the rest is a very sad history.

This ancient serpent has been the mastermind behind the slander against God’s character and government for thousands of years. The stories found in the bible, one after another are portraying a God who constantly demonstrates under a variety of circumstances (especially challenging ones) that he could be trusted.

Had he flat out silenced the opposition, not only would Adam and Eve wonder if the serpent was indeed telling the truth but the whole creation would have done the same.

The narrative of the Scriptures and the stories are the evidence that God uses to disprove the lies and clear His character.

Also, to believe that people had always accepted God’s word at face value over their doubts is to dismiss stories like Abraham, Moses, Job who all had conversations with God like friends and wanted to know why and how God’s own reputation was at stake.* God had to prove to the universe the truthfulness of his character and government.

The bible bookends its narrative with a description of the same serpent (now also described as a deceiving dragon) making war in heaven against God and his angels.

“Then there was war (πόλεμος – polemos) in heaven: Michael and his angels fought the dragon. The dragon and his angels fought back, but they did not prevail, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven.

So the great dragon was thrown down. The old snake, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world, was thrown down to the earth; and his angels were thrown down with him.

Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say, “Now the salvation and power and kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ have come. The accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them day and night before our God, has been thrown down.”

‭‭Revelation‬ ‭12:7-10‬ ‭CEB‬‬

The war appears to be related to Satan accusing/deceiving which are words listed 3 times in the passage. And the text provides the answer that now comes the salvation, power and kingdom of God and the authority of Christ which ultimately throws the serpent down for good.

It is only through Jesus revealing the Father (John 14:9; 17:3-4, 25-26) that we know who is telling us the fake news and who is telling the truth. His authority comes from his personal testimony which was demonstrated in actions. Besides his miracles, his love for and treatment of sinners, critique of fake religion and subversive non-violent attack on imperialism and inequality was a tangible demonstration of his character.

The ultimate dismantling of the evil lies came when he let humans and satanic agencies have a go at him as if he was a sinner worthy of death as described in Genesis and they crucify him as a criminal, except he was fully innocent. This sham, this ultimate fake news crumbles when on Sunday morning He climbs out of the tomb alive and glorified, leaving the Roman guards and all satanic agencies astonished.

In conclusion, believing lies that are actual fake news and dismissing truth can and will dismantle democracy and society. Our due diligence is to investigate the sources of where we gather information about and from our government and not to disseminate or inflame situations using or believing fake news. True journalism, freedom of speech and of the press are being attacked in this country and it will get worse. We must fight against it. Only the truth can dismantle the lies.

Much in the same way, the fake news about God, His character and government are being disseminated today from pulpits, books, articles, videos and many times from people with no intention of propagating fake news.

The answer to combat it is the truth as revealed in Jesus. Whatever way we see God portrayed that differs from Jesus is fake news for He and the Father are one (John 14:9).

Jesus ultimately calls us to bear witness to Him and share this good news that he is not as Satan has portrayed him to be. We must expose the fake news of darkness and share the truth. You in?

* (See Gen. 18:16-33; Ex. 32:7-13; Job 42:7 but the entire book is proof Job wasn’t out of line questioning God)