THE BIBLE AND FOX NEWS

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


I have got hooked on Bill O’Reilly and Glenn Beck. Fox News has become a given.


That means in the past months I have spent a lot of brain cells deciphering the precise logic of conservative newsfeeds.


That means also as a mortal I have been trying to fix the nation, the world in fact. Not doable, of course.


However, I have found that a lot of my biblically believing friends have been doing the same.


The outcome has been much angst. At the same time, thinking caring believers know that part of their commission under Christ is to do His will in this world, hence we labor.


Nevertheless, personally I have concluded that I need a news fast. So I have taken that for about two months.


The outcome is that I feel much refreshed in soul and mind. I am enjoying the day as the Bible states: “This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it.”


I have also realized that though conservative newsfeeds are helpful in providing truth in events’ analysis, it is not my responsibility to solve the world’s problems, beginning with America.


In place of scrambling about for planetary answers, I have spent more time in the Bible. That has been a most positive, healthy move.


I think too many biblically based believers have spent too much time in the newsfeeds and not enough time in the divine newsfeeds. We need the divine messages more for our own souls to keep fit. We need them also to receive from the Holy Spirit His logic concerning world happenings.


I am becoming more and more convinced that what the true church can give to the present state of affairs is biblically-true prayer. And more prayer. And still more prayer.


I don’t mean fretting prayers. I mean faith-filled, hope-laced prayers for there is much going on that is the obvious divine working.


For instance, Christ disciples are becoming more sensitive to their frailty. That in itself compels us to rely more on God. As a baseline in doing anything for the eternal, that must be ever forefront in our consciousness.


Further, though there are pockets of apostasy within today’s church structure, there is a tightening of the righteous remnant. That remnant is realizing that it cannot afford to be lax in anything. Believers are to be on guard, totally surrendered to the moment-by-moment directives of the Holy Spirit.


Remaining on the news fast, I ponder more about America’s founding disciples of Christ. They were earnest in their faith.


They read the Bible. They lived the Bible. They honored the Bible. They taught their children the Bible. They used the Bible as a tool in the public school education. The Bible was preached as unerring truth from our first colonies’ pulpits.


That Bible loyalty is what brought down the divine blessings from coast to coast in molding this nation. The Bible as central to all that was called “America” is what has yielded the fruitage we now enjoy.


Therefore, I would recommend that biblical believers who have become mesmerized by conservative newsfeeds slice off more time for the Bible and less for the newsfeeds. In doing so, the newsfeeds will surely continue, but the genuine believers will strengthen their tethered souls.


It’s a time not for tethered souls but for robust prayer warriors who have their faith grounded solidly on the Scriptures.