You might recognize the slogan above, at least the first part of it, from the masthead of the New York Times. It was created by then-owner Adolph Ochs in 1896, as a way of distinguishing that paper from the tabloids. The Times was trying to reach the cultured, intellectual class as opposed to the uneducated masses (shades of John 7:49), so they attempted to set a high moral tone with this slogan. It got them into trouble a time or two, enough that they actually ran a contest to find a better slogan, but none of the ones submitted made the cut, so there it sits, right at the top of the paper, as it has for over a century.
Keith and I have not had the best relationship with journalists. After an event he was involved in that made the news and rocked our lives, four local papers covered it, and none of them got it correct. In one it was made to sound like something out of a crime drama, and in the best of them, they couldn't even get his age right—and that is a matter of public record. Then I had a reporter call me while Keith was still incapacitated. Naïve and trusting as I am, it took a few minutes for me to realize that his questions were designed to elicit a comment from me that would give him a scoop and make his story more sensational. As it happens, the powers that be got hold of him and squelched the story, while I learned the value of that two word phrase, "No comment."
So pardon me if I don't believe much that I read on the internet, or in the papers, or on the television news, during this virus outbreak and do not get as alarmed as people think I should. I am a skeptic, and it's the media's own fault. For example, I am not stupid so I had been following the directions that a real, certified doctor put out about how to clean the produce from the stores, only to have another story come out a few weeks later telling me that was the worst thing I could do. That second story even had the first doctor backtracking as fast as possible in his advice. At least the garden is coming in now, and we know not only where it comes from but who has handled it.
My advice to you is, don't believe everything you read. Except for one thing: the Word of God. People have tried their best to discredit it, but the facts keep getting in the way. "All we have are copies," they say, completely ignoring the fact that is all we have of many ancient writings. Then come the numbers. While they have changed significantly since the first apologetics scholars counted, the Bible still wins by a huge margin. According to Dr. Josh McDowell and Dr. Clay Jones in "The Bibliographical Test—Update 8-13-2014" we have 96 copies of Thucydides' History, 109 copies of Herodotus' History, 193 copies of Sophocles' Plays, 210 copies of Plato's Tetralogies, and a bit over 1800 copies of Homer's Iliad. Sound impressive? Well, we have 66,362 copies of Bible manuscripts! No one ever questions the accuracy of those secular manuscripts, so how in the world can they question the accuracy of the Bible and be logically consistent?
In addition, the Bible was written by about 40 different authors over a period of about 1500 years, and yet it hangs together as a unified text with no contradictions. Those who think they have found one usually wind up just showing their ignorance of that Book and embarrassing themselves.
This just scratches the surface of the evidences for the infallibility of the Bible. Josh McDowell is an excellent source, by the way, as well as others, including my own son Nathan, one of whose degrees is in Biblical evidences.
So yes, I will believe what I find in the Bible a whole lot sooner than I believe what I read or hear in the news. I learned the hard way on that one, but God I can stake my life on, and already have.
For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. (Isa 55:10-11).
Dene Ward