Fake News vs. Good News

With all the recent controversy surrounding fake news, biased news, and bad news, the Bible still has good news for us. The word “news” is found only once in the King James Bible (Proverbs 25:25), but the idea and concept of “good news” is found dozens of time in the original Greek language of the New Testament.

In English, the Greek word for “good news” is usually translated “gospel.” The gospel is literally the good news. What is the gospel? 1 Corinthians 15:1--4 says: “Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; by which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.”

The gospel is the good news that God loves us, despite the fact that we are sinners. We have rebelled against God, and yet He loves us, pouring out His love on us by pouring out His wrath on Jesus. The gospel is that Jesus took the punishment we deserve, and if we will trust Him, we can have His righteousness put on our account, and our sins placed on Jesus.

The good news is that when we trust Jesus as Savior, He makes us into a brand new person who is able to do right, empowered by God’s Spirit to do good works. The gospel is that if you are “born again,” you have the right to become a child of God and thus have a home in heaven when you die.

This news is not slanted, manipulated or fake. It is the undiluted truth of God’s working through Jesus, and the only way it can ever be seen as bad news is if you don’t take advantage of it!

—Joshua Hawn