Urban Myth Definition: A story or statement that is not true (is a lie), but is often repeated, and is believed by many to be true.
We already know that Jesus called satan the ‘Prince of this world’ and the ‘Father of Lies’, as in:
“Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.”
John 8:44 KJV
The Mounce translation says ‘when he lies, he is giving expression to his own nature’, just as a natural father expresses his nature in his children.
“Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out.”
John 12:31 KJV and “Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.” John 14:30
“And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness.”
1 John 5:19 KJV
“wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:”
Ephesians 2:2 KJV (Note he is the power of the air…..THE MEDIA….which circulates and perpetuates his lies.
Distinction between the creation and the systems of the world:
The conclusion of these scriptures is that while “The earth is the LORD’s, and the fulness thereof; The world, and they that dwell therein’, as stated Psalm 24:1 KJV; for this present dispensation, according to St Paul, satan is the God of this world:
“But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.”
2 Corinthians 4:3-4 KJV
and so, where we see evidence of ever-increasing amounts of lies, we can conclude that satan is behind this and that he is on the rise, which is what is foretold in scripture before the coming of the anti-Christ.
The song on YouTube by Julie Miller ‘Any Lie’ is very true and revealing. One verse reads:
“He (satan) loves religion as much as crime
Right or Left either way will be fine
As long as you miss walking on that narrow line
All that matters is, in the end your his”.
The Power of the Lie:
“I am come in my Father’s name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.”
John 5:43 KJV
It seems that in our nature, we are hard-wired to find it easier to believe lies than we do the truth. The evangelist Billy Sunday once said:
“The lie can be half-way around the world, before the truth gets its boots on’.
This is particularly true in the area of Theology, so much so that we need a ‘refit’ before we can even receive truth. Scripture clearly states that:
“But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God (which are true): for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”
1 Corinthians 2:14 KJV
Note there are 2 reasons given. This is why we need a new nature, and why Jesus said we MUST BE BORN AGAIN. If we went underwater to hear and record whale or dolphin speech, we would need to have a whole set of specialised equipment to pick up those sounds; so in the New Birth we are given the new antennae to understand spiritual things, which previously we could not understand.
We frequently hear testimonies of people who prayed for Jesus to reveal himself, and then when they opened the Bible the words seemed to be jumping off the page at them, words which previously didn’t make sense. This shows the Holy Spirit is at work. Religion, on the other hand appeals to the natural man, as it is based on self-effort. Satan makes his appeal to the natural man.
Jesus warned us about false prophets and false teachers. Yet today, over 1 billion people follow Islam despite the fact that Muhammad (if he existed at all) was a cruel warlord who kept sex slaves; was a paedophile, and that he plagiarised many passages for his Qur’an from the stories he heard as he travelled up and down the Arabian peninsula. He did no miracles, yet claimed a conveniently unwitnessed night visit on a donkey to Al Aqsa (the far place) to the temple in Jerusalem, when historically there was no temple, as it was destroyed in AD 70 by the Romans. Note the Artefactum YouTube channel. It’s revealing that Muhammad is currently the most popular male name in the UK; 5,000 new Mohammeds per year are appearing.
So, let’s have a few urban myths and compare them to the truth:
(1) Islam is a religion of peace, because the Qur’an says that he who kills a man, kills the whole of mankind’ (Surah 5:32).
This verse was quoted by Barack Obama when he was president. This is abrogated by Surah 9:29:
Fight those who do not believe in Allah and the Last Day, nor comply with what Allah and His Messenger have forbidden, nor embrace the religion of truth from among those who were given the Scripture,1 until they pay the tax,2 willingly submitting, fully humbled.
(2) Evolution is an established scientific fact.
Well it depends what you mean. Natural Selection, such as changes in finch beaks or the various dog breeds can be seen, but not macro evolution where 1 species becomes another. Scientists have been experimenting with many thousands of successive fruit fly generations for decades but they are still only producing fruit flies. Amoebae are still amoebae (see Answers in Genesis on YouTube).
(3) Scientists have created cell life in the laboratory:
This is untrue, though widely believed by the public in a ratio of about 2:1. The tremendous complexity of the cell makes this extremely unlikely. (See Dr James Tour on YouTube).
(4) There’s a man-made Climate Crisis and we have very little time to act.
This statement is regularly made by King Charles and Prince William. Yet Genesis 8:22 says that while the Earth lasts, summer and winter and heat and cold will continue.
“And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done. While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.”
Genesis 8:20-22 KJV
God has the final say not man, even though it is well-established that humans are deliberately messing with the weather (chem trails and DAARPA).
(5) “If God is a father and he sent his son to the cross, that’s child abuse”. . I could never serve a God like that.
Truth is that Jesus said: “No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.”
John 10:18
(6) Who are you to judge another believer? The Bible tells you not to judge.
This is usually said about judging Christians persisting in sinful lifestyles, who attend ‘Inclusive Churches’, and who generally regard us as bigots and homophobes. I had this said to me in Leek recently by a middle-aged Christian lady. This is a half-truth and therefore a full lie. If this was the case then Paul must have been in error, because he tells the Corinthians to judge sin within the church.
“But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat. For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within? But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.”
1 Corinthians 5:11-13 KJV
(7) Antisemitic lies: ‘Israel’s committing genocide in Gaza’.
We’ve seen the pictures on the news of emaciated Gazan children, their appearance claimed to be due to starvation, but in reality who were kids with prior serious, often congenital conditions, dragged out and photographed in order to vilify Israel, and to achieve an end goal (now achieved) of the West declaring statehood for the ‘poor Palestinians’ (Behold Israel; Amir Tsarfati).
“Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake.” Refers to Jews and Christians.
Matthew 24:9
So, what’s the solution for us as Christians?
Well, as Adrian Rogers has said: We don’t say, “what’s the world coming to; we say look who’s coming to the world”.
We need to ‘buckle up’ in expectation of a rough ride, as there is an increasing convergence of events, a ramping up, and a rapid unfolding of the things prophesied, most notably antisemitism and the ever-growing apostasy. For example, who would have thought that the Church in Wales would very recently appoint a lesbian archbishop; the urban myth here being that because Jesus never SPECIFICALLY condemned homosexuality, then God is not just OK, but pleased with this. All this despite the scriptures describing the character of a bishop as:
“A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach;”
1 Timothy 3:2 KJV
https://bible.com/bible/1/1ti.3.2.KJV
“For a bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God; not self-willed…………holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers.”
Titus 1:7, 9 KJV
Going back to the character and nature of satan, we can see from the words of Yeshua that satan did not ‘abide in the truth’, so since we are on the opposing side, we do need to abide in the truth, the written Word of God, and in Jesus our saviour, however unpalatable at times that may be. If we do, we will find ourselves increasingly out of step with the world’s ways and attitudes. The word of God is like the North Star, it’s a sure guide as to which direction is ‘North’. In the same way, the Bible is our only true moral compass, the only true mirror in our current House of Mirrors, which accurately shows us reality as it really is.
If you speak to these so-called Woke! Christians, God is ‘inclusive’ and changes his mind, despite scripture stating:
“For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.”
Malachi 3:6 KJV
Yeshua said: “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.”
John 17:17 KJV
The word of God is not fluffy or frilly, but is described as:
“For the word of God is……….quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”
Hebrews 4:12 KJV
We might liken it to a laser beam. Apostasy comes when people will not endure its teachings: We have a very good example of this:
“Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it? When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you? What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before? It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him. And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father. From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away? Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.”
John 6:60-69 KJV
“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.”
2 Timothy 4:3-4 KJV
“So do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord. Remember the great reward it brings you! Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God’s will. Then you will receive all that he has promised.”
Hebrews 10:35-36 NLT
We need to ‘endure sound doctrine’, because those who apostasise will not:
The Americans call this someone ‘deconstructing their faith’.
We need patient endurance as we wait for the rapture and see the events which are happening. This is emphasised in these scriptures:
“And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end: that ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.”
Hebrews 6:11-12 KJV
“Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine…………Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all. Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.”
1 Timothy 4:13-16 KJV
No wonder Jesus said:
“But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.”
Matthew 24:13 KJV