Brethren, the prevalence of lies in our society, driven by satan, has led to a profound inability among mankind to distinguish between spiritual truths and falsehoods. Public lying by the news media is so rampant that the term "fake news" has become commonplace to describe it, indicating a high probability that much of what we hear in news broadcasts is not true. This deception is fueled by media figures corrupted by desires for personal fame and fortune, bound by strong prejudicial opinions often nurtured in environments lacking a strong moral foundation. The absence of such character is further reinforced by liberal-progressivism in government and corporate-controlled educational systems, especially universities, contributing to a long-building distrust in the news among the American public. We are victimized by the god of this world's systems, with fake news used almost indiscriminately to shape public opinion and influence how Americans vote. The practice of fake news is not new; it is as old as the hills, demonstrating the timeless nature of deception in manipulating truth for personal gain.

Mainstream journalists cannot be trusted to deliver reliable news. A study of twenty-one journalists, commissioned by the London Press Club and conducted by neuroscientist Dr. Tara Swart, found they have less capacity than other workers to regulate emotions, solve complex problems, think flexibly, and suppress bias, and that they drink more than average. Yet they remain relentless in their belief that they are called to shape thought and opinion, and they are unbothered that 65% of people believe reporters make up fake news. Stupid people are not necessarily liars, but liars are stupid and foolish, and Psalm 52:2-5 warns that deceitful tongues come to a bad end, whoever they belong to. Machines such as polygraphs cannot reliably detect lies, but people can learn to, using principles from the Hebrew Scriptures. The Hebrew word for truth, emet, spans the alphabet from first to middle to last letter and rests on stable bases, while the word for a lie, sheker, uses jumbled letters balanced on points. Truth is consistent, single, and fits a story from A to Z, whereas lies are isolated, varied, and unstable. Test any account for context, probe it to see if it wobbles, and watch for departures from a speaker's baseline truthfulness. Question all news, place confidence only where it is earned, and absolutely trust only God's Word.

The discussion of deceptive information begins with the prophecy in II Thessalonians 2:9-12, where the lawless one operates through Satan's power with signs, lying wonders, and unrighteous deception aimed at those who reject the love of the truth, resulting in God sending strong delusion so that they believe the lie. This theme connects to Daniel 12:4, which foretells an increase in knowledge at the time of the end, a development the speaker links to the modern information age and artificial intelligence. AI research, funded initially by military interests, has pursued goals of replicating human capabilities, yet persistent limitations remain evident in failed predictions and flawed public demonstrations of robotic systems. Contemporary projections describe AI generating ultra-realistic deep fakes that flood media with unverifiable events, such as fabricated candidate bribes or calls to abolish elections, complete with fabricated eyewitness accounts and leaked documents. These outputs create parallel realities in which origins cannot be traced and no shared facts survive, shifting society from polarized disagreement to the total collapse of verifiable truth. Institutional responses prove too slow, allowing contradictory narratives to proliferate hourly, which erodes civic responsibility, hardens tribal divisions, fosters apathy, and invites authoritarian actors or tech platforms to impose new definitions of reality. Such capabilities are presented as potential instruments for the prince of the power of the air to suppress or distort truth, devalue human life, and prepare conditions for the strong delusion of II Thessalonians 2:11. The same pattern appears in warnings from Mark 13:21-22 against false Christs and prophets who produce signs and wonders to deceive even the elect if possible, reinforcing the necessity of loving the truth to avoid condemnation.