How Should We Respond to Christian Conspiracy Theories?

Ask Pastor John

Desiring God

John Piper, Unknown, 163859, Pastor, Ask, Theology, Desiring God, Religion & Spirituality/christianity, Christianity, Religion & Spirituality, Questions

4.8 • 3.8K Ratings

🗓️ 23 April 2021

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Conspiracy theories — Christian or otherwise — are nothing new. But how can we talk to friends who find themselves gripped by them?

Transcript

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0:00.0	Christian conspiracy theories. That's today's theme. We need to address them as we hear from
0:09.3	Lindsay. I'll listen to her with today's question. Hello, Pastor John. Thank you for this podcast.
0:13.6	I have a friend who is convinced that the new COVID-19 vaccines are the mark of the beast.
0:20.1	Anyone injected is given over to Satan and is thereby lost forever per revelation.
0:26.4	I'm very much unconvinced of this, but how would you respond to Christians who are given to these
0:31.2	types of spiritual conspiracy theories? And then if possible, what exactly is the mark of the beast
0:37.8	in Revelation 162 in 1920? My concern with this question relates mainly to the first thing that
0:48.4	Lindsay asks about, namely, what should we think and do in response to people who gravitate
0:55.7	to what Lindsay calls spiritual conspiracy theories? And that's not a new question.
1:03.3	In every generation, there have been predictions of the end of the world and speculations about
1:10.7	world leaders as the Antichrist and calamities which definitely signify the soon end of the world
1:20.4	political events that definitely fulfill last day biblical prophecies and bizarre sequences
1:30.3	of events which cause the spinning out of conspiratorial webs which have an uncanny way of being
1:39.6	self-confirming and then peter out in the end and are forgotten for a few decades until they start
1:47.4	all over again. So that's not new. What's new is not the alarmist mentality,
1:55.5	his or conspiracy theories or vocal doom sayers. What's new is the presence of social media
2:03.2	and the speed and ease and extent to which these theories spread. So how should we respond now,
2:13.1	especially personally? If we know someone who is given to this kind of speculation and intrigue,
2:22.2	what should we do if we know someone who always seems to be sniffing out something other than
2:29.6	what is plainly there? And my answer to this is based on a certain diagnosis of what's going on
2:37.9	in their mind. What I've seen over the years is that there's a certain kind of
2:46.6	personality or more seriously we could call it a certain kind of spiritual condition
	...

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