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The temptation to believe we have special knowledge others don’t is as old as Eden. But Christians must pursue what’s true, and stop mistaking suspicion for wisdom and conspiracy for courage.

There is a curious thing happening in parts of the Christian world.

People who pride themselves on having escaped the lies of the culture are increasingly falling for lies of their own.

They reject the mainstream narrative — which can certainly be a healthy instinct — only to embrace an alternative narrative because it feels more satisfying, more rebellious and, crucially, more secret.

And Christians should know better.

Calling September 11 an “inside job” is not spiritual discernment.

Blaming Israel for the murder of Charlie Kirk is not spiritual discernment either.

It’s conspiracy theory dressed up as revelation.

The Christian Calling for What’s True

There’s a difference between asking difficult questions and inventing answers.

There’s a difference between scepticism and suspicion.

And there’s a particularly important difference between possessing genuine wisdom and simply believing you possess secret knowledge that everyone else is too stupid, compromised or brainwashed to understand.

The latter is intoxicating.

It makes you feel like one of the elect — the people who have figured it all out while the rest of humanity remains asleep.

But Christians have been warned about this particular temptation since the beginning.

The serpent didn’t approach Eve offering ignorance. He offered enlightenment…

Satan suggested there was hidden knowledge available to those clever enough to reject what God had said.

Eat this, he implied, and your eyes will be opened.

They were.

And what they saw was death.

That should give Christians pause whenever somebody arrives with a thrilling new revelation about who is secretly controlling what, which government is really responsible for what atrocity, or which ethnic or religious group is supposedly hiding the truth.

Not every official explanation is true.

Governments lie. Institutions fail. Journalists get things wrong. Powerful people sometimes conspire.

But none of that makes every conspiracy true.

And Christian discernment doesn’t mean automatically believing the opposite of whatever the mainstream says.

That’s merely allowing the mainstream to determine your beliefs from the other direction.

The Christian calling is harder.

We are commanded to bear true witness.

That means loving truth even when the truth is inconvenient. Even when it embarrasses our political tribe. Even when it destroys a narrative we have spent years constructing. Even when admitting “I was wrong” costs us the approval of people we admire.

The trumpet of Heaven does not need embellishment from the serpent’s whispers.

So perhaps it is time for Christians to stop mistaking suspicion for wisdom and conspiracy for courage.

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Republished with thanks to The James Macpherson Report. Image via screenshot of YouTube.