False Prophets

When officials saw Dustin Nehl pull up to one of the burned-out areas from the Los Angeles Palisades fire, they were tempted to wave him through. Nehl was driving a full-size red fire truck with California plates and American flag decals, and was wearing bright yellow fire gear.

But a firefighter at the checkpoint noticed something amiss, and urged one of the sheriff deputies to check his identification. A background check quickly revealed Nehl’s criminal history, which included a five-year stint in prison for arson. A check of his truck revealed tools that could potentially be used in a burglary. And according to a source within the department, the truck had since been decommissioned from service from a Northern California fire department 30 years prior.

Nehl, along with his wife Jennifer, were arrested on suspicion of impersonating firefighters and unauthorized entry of an evacuation zone. Nehl was not alone in his attempt to impersonate emergency personnel. The week prior, police arrested a man wearing a yellow firefighter’s outfit and carrying a radio. Prosecutors later announced charges for receiving stolen property, impersonating a firefighter, unlawful use of a badge, and unauthorized entry of a closed disaster area.

LAPD chief Jim McDonnell said, “We have people who will go to all ends to do what they do.”

Have you ever heard about "The Ant Death Spiral"? A fascinating NPR article describes this phenomenon. A particular species of army ant is utterly blind, so they get about by sniffing trails left by the ants in front of them. They, in turn, leave chemical trails of their own.

But, as the article notes, "the system works smoothly when everybody's going in a straight line in one direction. But when the lead ants start to loop, bad things can happen …. If the ant-in-front loops and intersects with its old trail, the whole crowd then turns in on itself and everybody gets caught in the endless circle." Another researcher wrote, “this circle is commonly known as a ‘death spiral’ because the ants might eventually die of exhaustion. It has been reproduced in laboratories and in ant colony simulations.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

Theodore C. Schneirla, the scientist who first observed this behavior, was quick to point out "that ants get stuck in ways that we humans never do." I'm not so sure Schneirla is right about that.

The alleged prophet Nostradamus is more popular than ever in these troubled times. Books about him and his prophecies are high on the best seller lists even today. His predictions are fraudulent not because they contradict Scripture, but by pure logical reasoning.

The British daily paper the Guardian recently exposed the prophet's devious methods. The reader can read into Nostradamus' vague words whatever he or she wants:

Circumlocution and evasion of directness play a large part. He usually waffled in his astrological datings, since conjunctions are repeated. He invoked obscure Latin words to create possibilities of double meanings; he omitted prepositions, articles, reflexives, and connectives, and favored the infinitive as a timeless, personless form that can be read many ways.

Nostradamus has the virtue of vagueness combined with apocalyptic fervor. That’s not unusual. Many sayers of sooth, from Merlin and Geoffrey of Monmouth onwards, have done the same. This vagueness lends itself to what we now know as confirmation bias. In desperate times, soothsayers have a ready audience for their insane nonsense. It’s the meeting point of cynicism and gullibility.

When life seems chaotic and the future uncertain, people look for patterns, narratives and meaning. At moments of great change or social anxiety we do tend to go looking for explanations. We want the past and the future to make narrative sense.

LifeWay Research and Ligonier Ministries have once again examined the theological awareness, or lack thereof, of American evangelicals. This time, instead of defining “evangelical” by whether participants identify as such, they used a definition endorsed by the National Association of Evangelicals. Below are the areas where believers have most gone astray in their theology:

People have the ability to turn to God on their own initiative. 82% Agree

Individuals must contribute to their own salvation. 74% Agree

Jesus is the first and greatest being created by God. 71% Agree

God knows all that happens, but doesn’t determine all that happens. 65% Agree

The Holy Spirit is a force, not a personal being. 56% Agree

God accepts the worship of all religions, including Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. 48% Agree

My good deeds help to earn my place in heaven. 39% Agree

God will always reward faith with material blessings. 37% Agree

A media provocateur known for spreading outlandish lies recently reported that his friend’s home was raided by the FBI. The seriousness of his claim, combined with photos and video footage, merited interest from local investigative journalists. But in an effort to publish quickly, they failed to discern an essential detail--the raid was staged.

When contacted by a Washington Post reporter, Jacob Wohl gave corroborating details about the supposed raid on his friend, conservative lobbyist Jack Burkman. What he left out was that the men creating the commotion outside Burkman’s residence were actors, hired under the guise of a TV pilot.

The story triggered more investigation from Post metro editor Mike Semel when he noticed there was no other confirmation from FBI or other law enforcement sources. This resulted in a mea culpa from the Post, in the form of a statement:

The Post earlier today published an erroneous story about a purported FBI raid on the home of conservative operative Jack Burkman. The FBI has since said that the raid did not take place. Our story was published because we failed to obtain appropriate confirmation.

When given the opportunity to retract, Burkman doubled down on his story, warning the Post thusly: “You have to remember in journalism you have to be careful—I’m not saying you did this—creating your own reality and ensnaring yourself in those realities.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

Those who are motivated to spread the truth shouldn’t need to use lies to prove their point. Deception is inevitably revealed as fraudulent and discredits the work of anyone who uses it.

The Wall Street Journal reported a story about how fake news stories and photos can have a powerful impact on shaping our minds and hearts. The story quoted Randi Romo, a female photographer whose photograph at an immigration rally had been manipulated by a Russia-backed account. The fake photo conveyed an anti-immigration message while the original photo clearly conveyed a pro-immigration message. Ms. Romo had a powerful warning for all of us: "We are living in the greatest era of information access. People will watch cat videos endlessly, but they won't take a minute to ascertain whether what they are being told is true or not."

Possible Preaching Angles: Of course this clearly applies not just to fake news stories in mainstream media. It's also a powerful reminder about being discerning with false doctrine and false teaching.

Most people have heard of the "five second rule"—that if food spends just a few seconds on the floor, dirt and germs won't have enough time to contaminate it. Parents sometimes apply the rule to pacifiers (after their first child of course). The history of the five-second rule is difficult to trace. One legend attributes the rule to Genghis Khan, who declared that food could be on the ground for five hours and still be safe to eat.

But a 2016 experiment should permanently debunk the five second rule. Professor Donald W. Schaffner, a food microbiologist at Rutgers University, reported that a two-year study concluded that no matter how fast you pick up food that falls on the floor, you will pick up bacteria with it. You can check it out for yourself in his journal article "Is the Five-Second Rule Real?" found in the always exciting journal for Applied and Environmental Microbiology.

Professor Schaffner tested four surfaces—stainless steel, ceramic tile, wood, and carpet—and four different foods: cut watermelon, bread, buttered bread, and strawberry gummy candy. They were dropped from a height of five inches onto surfaces treated with a bacteria. The researchers tested four contact times—less than one second and five, 30 and 300 seconds. A total of 128 possible combinations of surface, food, and seconds were replicated 20 times each, yielding 2,560 measurements. So after those 2,560 drops they found that no fallen food escaped contamination, leading Professor Schaffner to conclude, "Bacteria can contaminate instantaneously." In other words, they debunked the legendary five second rule.

Possible Preaching Angles: False Teachings; False Doctrine; Doctrine—We suggest a tongue-in-cheek retelling of this study (after all, the five-second rule is kind of a joke anyway) and then asking, What other biblical, theological, cultural, or lifestyle legends we've adopted without critical study.

Nothing boosts the prestige of a food or beverage like the perception that it is traditional, hand-picked, fresh, or otherwise limited in production. But in a world full of manipulative marketers, the truffle is the real deal. A type of fungus that grows on tree roots, a few truffle varieties found in France, Spain, and surrounding areas are esteemed as a decadent addition to pasta and steaks. And these fickle cousins of mushrooms have proven impossible to mass produce; they are still dug up individually by dogs that track their scent.

Admirers contend that the truffle begins to lose its flavor as soon as it is pulled from the ground, and fresh truffle season really only lasts a season. The rarity and temporality of truffles has made them the most expensive food in the world. In 2007, a Macau casino owner set a record by paying $330,000 for a 3.3 pound truffle unearthed in Tuscany. The combination of these two trends—the desire for a convenient, ever-ready supply of an ingredient, and a hunger for the traditional, the rare, and "real food"—led to what would seem to be a remarkably successful scam on foodie culture: truffle oil.

But most truffle oil does not contain even trace amounts of truffle; it is olive oil mixed with 2,4-dithiapentane, a compound that makes up part of the smell of truffles and is as associated with a laboratory as Californian food is associated with local and organic ingredients. Essentially, truffle oil is olive oil plus truffles' "disconcerting" smell. Despite truffle oil's poor source, though, it has been used and praised by both average joes and renowned chefs. Truffle oil has been a remarkably successful con.

Possible Preaching Angles: Are we Christians in name only? Jesus warned against wolves in sheep's clothing or a "devotion to God" that involves no obedience to God.

In April 2016, Harper's Magazine published a fascinating report about a man named Jay Miscovich, who found what he claimed were hundreds of emeralds from a Spanish shipwreck that went down in 1622. The Florida Keys have long been a hunting ground for sunken treasure. So many vessels were wrecked among the islands and reefs, loaded as they were with billions of dollars' worth of gold, silver, and jewels being shipped in countless Spanish armadas as they sailed from South America to Spain, that they still attract hundreds of seekers after true treasure. Jay's samples and claims that he'd found masses of emeralds that were still out there were estimated to be worth a half billion dollars.

With the advice of a partner, lawyers, and jewel experts, millions of investment dollars were collected from private individuals, wall street managers, and a company specifically set up to protect this enormous find. The article paints Jay as a sympathetic character. He is likeable in ways that make you end up rooting for him. Most of those who contributed to his project were individuals or companies who only cared about what monetary value could be gained from owning or selling the priceless jewels for themselves.

In the end, the world discovered that Jay Miscovich's entire story was manufactured. He made it all up, including deliberately "seeding" the ocean floor with emeralds he'd bought on the market. Exactly as he hoped, his false claims drew the interest of treasure hunters. But down the road as unaccountable discrepancies surfaced, such as the Belgian jewelers finding an epoxy resin on the surface of the emeralds that could only have been added in modern times, and as one by one the investors pulled out, the entire story unraveled. Along with investigations came lawsuits, loss of friendships and family, and a poisonous atmosphere of distrust and anger.

Possible Preaching Angles: All of us are searching for "treasure," the pearl of great price. We are all treasure hunters. But are we on the trail of true treasure or a fake treasure?

Retired minister and author Bob Russell told the following account to illustrate how Christians today often go along with the moral pace of those around us, and that by comparison we feel safe since "Everyone is doing it," therefore, we're okay. Russell writes:

Two months ago my wife and I were visiting our son Rusty and his family. One day Rusty was test-driving a foreign-made car and was frustrated because he couldn't figure out how to change the speedometer reading from kilometers to miles.

That evening he suggested we take the kids and all go out for ice cream. "We'll need to take two cars," he insisted, "so you and mom just follow me." I followed him … and was surprised when a policeman whizzed up behind us with his lights flashing. I couldn't imagine he was after me because it didn't feel like I was speeding. And besides, I was going the exact same speed as the guy in front of me.

The officer came up to my window and said, "Sir, you were going 58 miles per hour in a 45 miles per hour zone. But wait right here, I'm going to deal with the car in front of you, and I'll be right back." When he went to my son's car, Rusty quivered, "Officer, I know this is going to sound like a line, but this is the first day I've driven this car, and I can't figure out how to change it from kilometers to miles, so I had no idea how fast I was going. The guy behind me is my dad, and he doesn't know what he's doing either!"

Possible Preaching Angles: (1) Conformity; Disobedience; (2) Discipleship; Lordship of Christ—We're all following someone or something, even if we aren't thinking about it. Who are you following?

In The Story of Christian Theology, theologian Roger Olson writes:

A popular misconception—perhaps a Christian urban legend—is that the United States Secret Service never shows bank tellers counterfeit money when teaching them to identify it. The agents who do the training, so the legend goes, show bank tellers only examples of genuine money so that when the phony money appears before them they will know it by its difference from the real thing. The story is supposed to make the point that Christians ought to study truth and never heresy.

The first time I heard the tale as a sermon illustration I intuited its falseness. On checking with the Treasury Department's Minneapolis Secret Service agent in charge of training bank tellers to identify counterfeit money, my suspicion was confirmed. He laughed at the story and wondered aloud who would start it and who would believe it. At my request he sent me a letter confirming that the Secret Service does show examples of counterfeit money to bank tellers.

I believe it is important and valuable for Christians to know not only theological correctness (orthodoxy) but also the ideas of those judged as heretics within the church's story. One reason is that it is almost impossible to appreciate the meaning of orthodoxy without understanding the heresies that forced its development.

Seatbelts can be a hassle. Some people just don't want to be bothered even when the law requires them to buckle up. According to the Associated Press, a New Zealander named Ivan Segedin took it to an extreme. The police ticketed him 32 times over five years for failing to use his seat belt. Even though this was costing him big money, Segedin refused to buckle up. Finally, instead of obeying the law, the man decided to rely on deception. He made a fake seat belt that would hang over his shoulder and make it appear that he was wearing a seat belt when he was not.

His trick worked for a while. Then, he had a head-on collision. He was thrown forward onto the steering wheel and killed.

Discussing the accident, the coroner described the fake seat belt: "Though his car was fitted with seat belts, an extra belt with a long strap had been knotted above the seat belt on the driver's side, providing a belt to simply sit over the driver's shoulder."

When truly tested, what is fake will fail you.

A new, highly efficient system is being used by San Francisco and New York City to detect the presence of toxins in a city's water supply, a possible sign of a terrorist attack. They have found that the best tool for monitoring such threats are bluegills, those little fish so many catch on a lazy summer afternoon.

According to an article by the Associated Press, a small number of bluegills are kept in a tank at the bottom of a city's water treatment plant because they are highly attuned to chemical imbalances in their environment. When a disturbance is present in the water, the bluegills react against it. If the computerized system of the treatment plant detects even the slightest change in a bluegill's vital signs, it sends out an e-mail alert.

Bill Lawler, the co-founder of the corporation that makes and sells these bluegill monitoring systems, said, "Nature's given us pretty much the most powerful and reliable early warning center out there."

Scotland Yard recently conducted a private exhibition of forged paintings for art dealers. The objective was to send a warning to their select audience about the sale of forgeries, which some experts estimate make up 40 percent of the art market. The sale of these fakes can undermine the value of the genuine articles.

The forgeries at the exhibit were created with remarkable proficiency. Reliance on documentation alone won't solve the problem because even that is often forged! Fiona Ford, of the Association of Arts & Antiques Dealers, said the level of skill displayed by the forgers was "terrifying." She added, "If every dealer saw this exhibition, it would further impress on them how careful they have to be."

Kathy was one of 13 children raised by a common father and three mothers in a polygamist community in Utah. [The community was a part of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a sect that split from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in the 1890's.]Growing up, she was burdened by the unrealistic expectations of the cult: "We were constantly told to 'keep sweet,' and that 'perfect obedience produces perfect faith.' Behind these sugary slogans lay the impossible duty of living in complete obedience to the Prophet."

This prophet was a man named Leroy Johnson, and Mormon belief stated that he was the earthly leader of the community and mediator between God and man. "We called him Uncle Roy," says Kathy. "He was a feeble old man who prophesied that he would never die—that he'd become young again and be lifted up to heaven. If I kept sweet, I'd be taken with him. I looked forward to that glorious day with hope and fear."

But that day never came. Instead, Johnson passed away at the age of 93, and was succeeded by a new Prophet. These events shattered Kathy's faith in the Mormon way of life. In an act of rebellion, she ran away with a young man named Matt at the age of 18. The two were married and moved to California, but Kathy found that physical distance was not enough to separate her from her former life.

"I was ashamed I grew up in polygamy," she says. "I worried people would find out about my past, so I over-indulged in drinking, smoking, and drugs in an attempt to appear worldly. My thoughts mocked me. You're an idiot for leaving! You didn't stay sweet and obey the Prophet! You're going to hell! I sought therapy, but couldn't express my feelings. I wanted desperately to believe in God, yet what had he ever done for me? I tried to read the Book of Mormon, but I didn't believe it anymore."

After two years of marriage, Kathy and Matt divorced. Years later, she met a man named Brian at work. Brian was a Christian and stood out in Kathy's circle of friends. What happened next is a miracle of grace:

We began attending church, and Brian and I spent more time together. He had a purpose to his life, a steadiness I wanted. When I told him all about my past, he shared how Mormonism differed from the truth of the Bible. We began praying together. God seemed real and different than I'd ever expected.

One day, Brian's mother talked about a baptism. Confused, I asked many questions: What did a person need to do to be baptized? Did he say a vow or go through a ceremony? How much did it cost? She assured me baptism was free, that it was an outward statement of an inward commitment to Christ. I admitted I wasn't sure I'd made that commitment. How did I get this faith? Did you have to keep sweet and be perfectly obedient? She explained good deeds don't save us. Mormonism teaches you must work to earn your way to heaven. The Bible teaches that trusting in Christ's finished work on the cross saves us.

I was amazed at the simplicity of the gospel message. I cried as I realized I could come to Christ just as I was. He didn't require perfection. Sitting there talking with Brian's mom, I prayed to receive Jesus as my Savior. Several weeks later, following counseling sessions with the pastor to make sure I fully understood, I was baptized.

By God's grace, I am now a woman of faith.

Imagine eating at a restaurant devoid of light. Hard as it is to believe, some people are choosing to dine that way. Following a growing trend, sightless restaurants are opening up across Europe. What is a sightless restaurant? John Bohannon experienced it firsthand. Bohannon plunged into the "inky blackness of Unsicht-Bar, a restaurant named for the German word for invisible." To get to his table, it was necessary to place his hand on the shoulder of Magid the waiter, then allow his dining partner to put her hand on his shoulder. In single file, they carefully maneuvered to their chairs, with the waiter as their guide. Magid needed no light. Like most waiters in these restaurants, he is blind.

Bohannon felt panicked by the utter darkness and the inability to see his own hand while waving it in front of his face. He heard a glass crash to the floor from a nearby table. The reaction was "more desperate than the situation would merit under normal (well-lit) circumstances."

Since no lights of any kind are allowed in the dining room, a staff member must lead patrons to a candlelit bathroom when the need arises. Bohannon's unease over the situation began to build to the point where he wanted someone to lead him to the bathroom, just so he could see something again. He pushed aside the nervousness when Magid arrived with the food and Bohannon soon discovered the difficulties of using a fork you can't see.

At the end of this unique dining experience, the waiter arrived to lead Bohannon and his guest back out of the restaurant and into the light.

Whatever the pluses or minuses of sightless dining, one thing is clear. When choosing darkness over light, your best guide is blind.

How do you react when people talk about the end of the world, or about Christ returning to earth? Here is how one columnist felt about it:

During a taxi ride one day in February, a driver in Baltimore asked how I was doing. I told him my plans for the near future.

He turned around, gave me a very strange look, and said: "I don't want to scare you, but the world is gonna end in seven months."

Hundreds of taxis, and I get this guy. But nothing about him seemed dangerous, so I engaged him in conversation. Apparently a disciple of a certain radio preacher, this cabbie could expound at length on why the world was expected to end that September. Drawing on my meager knowledge of eschatology, I asked, "Isn't the antichrist supposed to reign for several years before the world ends?"

"Oh, he's already here!" the driver assured me. "People just don't know it!" At my destination, he left me marveling at the vagaries of belief.

That was in 1994. But now, the world is still here. How that driver explained its survival, I have no idea. If he truly trusted that seven-month countdown, then he must have been disappointed at the dawn of October 1.

When is red snapper not red snapper? When a DNA test declares it otherwise.

Species of fish like sheepshead, porgies, and grunts are similar to red snapper but less desirable, and therefore less expensive. Students at the University of North Carolina accidentally discovered these second-class fish while doing DNA analysis on what the package said was red snapper. In addition to their course on recognizing the DNA patterns of certain types of fish, the students received a bonus lesson on mislabeling fish for profit. The local fishmonger had dressed up a grunt to look like snapper, slapped a label on it, and raised the price.

These tricks aren't new. During the years I lived in an ocean-side community, I learned some of the code words for seafood variants. The skate is a bottom feeding fish with human shaped lips, and it looks like a stingray. They are about the size and shape of a garbage can lid. When I hauled in my first one, it was very disquieting until I was able to identify it. Later, I discovered that the meat from the skate's stingray-like "wings" is often sold as scallops, or clamstrips. It tastes fine, but it's not what the customer believes he or she is paying for.

Consumer advocate Tim Duffy described finding some Atlantic cod labeled as a product of China. "I wasn't great in geography," he says, "but I don't think the Atlantic Ocean goes to China." While some misidentifications could be honest mistakes, there is great financial incentive to make the switch.

When the apostle John reminds us to "test the spirits," it is a reminder not to take things at face value. There are false prophets masquerading as true ones, and greed is often the motivating factor. Just because the label says it, doesn't make it so.

After a relaxing, week-long summer vacation in Florida with their 10-year-old son, Robert and Angela Barry of Grove City, Ohio, left for the airport to return home to Ohio. Just before they left, a young girl staying at the Barrys' hotel showed up at their room and gave their son a teddy bear as a gift. As they went through security at Orlando International Airport, the teddy bear went through the x-ray machine like the rest of their luggage, and the Barrys learned that appearances can fool you. A Transportation Security Administration worker noticed the outline of a gun inside the bear. Opening up the bear, airport security workers found a loaded .22 caliber handgun stuffed inside.

The Miami Herald later reported that the gun had been reported stolen in California. Robert Johnson, a TSA spokesman in Washington, D.C., said the incident "underscores the need to screen everyone and everything no matter how innocent the people or their belongings may appear."