As Christians, based on I Thessalonian chapter 5, we are to "prove [test | verify | validate] all things, hold fast that which is good". On the internet at least, I can assure you, to many of us fail to heed this advice. All too often, when we get an email from one of our Christian friends we are far too eager to pass it along. We must all have a touch of news anchor in us. We want to be able to say, "remember, you heard it hear first!" Especially when it is one of those troubling emails that claim —they— are going to ban Christian broadcasting or something equally unjust. It is true, Scripture teaches us that Christians will be persecuted in ends times. And no doubt we are close enough that we will begin to see more and more of that.

But in the case of emails that announce that there's a new bill to squash the gospel, or that this preacher or that is going to be banned form the air waves, we all need to remember the warning, and prove all things before we forward even a single message! We must remember that spreading untruth is as much a sin as if we made the lie up ourselves.

I personally believe Satan helps promote these emails. Rather than originating from honest Christians concerned about real issues, I am suspicious that non-believers start these just to make unsuspecting Christians look like fools. (and frankly, it works very well, very often) But you don't have to look like a fool. There are easy steps you can take to check if the substance of an email message is true. There are many sites on the net devoted to helping us verify the thousands of stories out there. I will provide a few of them here. The first is SNOPES, found at http://www.snopes.com.

SNOPES is often criticized in conservative Christian circles as being left-leaning, and I would tend to agree. The site keepers are a tad more liberal than my personal taste would prefer. But I still consider SNOPES a relatively reliable source. Remember, if you want absolute truth, the Bible is your only source. But for day to day verification of some current news or event we can use the Biblical principle of establishing facts in the mouth of two or three witnesses. So, for a corroboration or denial of these web-based traveling tidbits I usually go to Truth Or Fiction found at http://www.truthorfiction.com.

I have others in my bookmarks, but almost never go to them because these two resources have proven sufficient and reliable time after time.

So the next time you get an email that makes some claim about Dr. Dobson being banned, or a soda company removing God from the Pledge of Allegiance on their new can design, take your finger off the forward button, and turn your browser to websites that can help you verify those stories, and maintain your witness.