Teaching Resources International

“Fake News … in the Church!” (November 2020 Update) 

We hear a lot about “fake news” today and the news and social media seem to be rife with it! Sometimes it is hard to know what or who to believe. But this problem is not unique to the modern world (even though it is compounded by the “freedom” of social media). It is not even unique to the secular world – “Fake news” can even be found in the church.  

Let me give you an interesting example from church history. Athanasius was the primary defender of the deity of Jesus are the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D. When the council was convened, three different groups were represented. One group represented Arius who was accused of heresy for saying that Jesus was not God. He claimed that God the Father and Jesus were different in essence.  Eusebius of Caesarea led the second group. He suggested a compromise – Jesus and the Father were not the same essence as Arius claimed but they were similar. Jesus might not be God but at least he was divine. The followers of Eusebius comprised the largest group at the beginning of the council. The final group, the smallest group of bishops, was led by Athanasius. He argued that Jesus was God – he was the same substance or essence as the Father because they were both God!  

Even though most of the bishops were not originally in agreement with the views of Athanasius, the arguments of Athanasius won the day. In his arguments before the council, he appealed to both scripture and reason. His arguments were basically two-fold (simplified version). He argued 

1. From Salvation. He pointed out that the scriptures made it clear that no man could redeem another (Psalm 49:7). Also Isaiah 43:10-11 says, “You are My witnesses,” says the Lord, “And My servant whom I have chosen, That you may know and believe Me, And understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, Nor shall there be after Me. I, even I, am the Lord, And besides Me there is no savior.” Arius had argued that Jesus was the savior but Athanasius rightly pointed out that God Himself said that only He was the savior. Athanasius also argued that no man could save another. That is why God became man – so that He could redeem man. If Jesus was just a man, even an exalted man, he could be a great person, but he could not be our savior. 

2. From Worship. Athanasius also reminded the council that they all agreed that there was only one God and that to worship anyone besides that one true God would be idolatry. Yet he pointed out that Arians worshipped Jesus and prayed to him in their services! If Jesus was not God, as Arius claimed, then to worship him would be idolatry. He may also have reminded the council that Jesus accepted the worship of men in the Gospels, and the apostle Paul even encouraged the worship of Jesus too. Then Athanasius made his conclusion: we worship and pray to Jesus as God for one reason – because He is God!  

These two arguments convinced the majority of the bishops at the Council of Nicaea that Jesus was indeed God, or He could not be our savior and He could not be worshipped. The Nicaean Creed was signed, and the bishops returned home to their churches. But the controversy did not end. In fact, once they returned to their churches, many bishops and priests continued to teach Arian doctrine and appointed Arian leaders. And there were numerous attacks against Athanasius to discredit him personally because they could not argue with his theology. These attacks were all “false news” – they made up false stories to discredit him so the Church would not accept his theology. In fact, he was condemned and exiled 5 times by 4 different emperors who disagreed with his theology. He spent over 17 years in exile because he refused to deny the deity of Jesus. So, they resorted to “fake news” in an attempt to dissuade people from listening to his theology. 

Some of the “fake news” would make for great TV today. In one incident, a group called the Meletians hired a prostitute to claim that he had solicited her and that they had regularly engaged in all sorts of lurid acts together. When he was called before a court of bishops to answer these accusations by the prostitute, he had a friend stand before the prostitute in front of the bishops to question her. The friend asked, “Am I the one that you are accusing of ….?” The prostitute who had never seen or even met Athanasius replied, “Of course it is you. I’d know you anywhere, you dirty old man!” That quickly ended their “fake news” about his immorality! 

But they were not finished. The Meletians devised a plot (called the Case of the Black Hand today) to discredit him by creating an iron-clad story. One of their bishops, Arsenius, agreed to go into hiding in the city of Tyre while the others had his house set on fire. They then claimed that Athanasius had sent men to murder Arsenius, mutilate his body, cut off his left hand and set his house on fire with the body in it! Then Athanasius kept the severed left hand of Arsenius and used it to perform acts of black magic against his opponents. No one could be a bishop and commit such terrible acts. Surely such a terrible deed would once and for all discredit Athanasius and his theology!  

But fortunately, during the trial, someone found out where Arsenius was hiding. When he was confronted in his hiding place, he repented, wrote a letter of apology to Athanasius and agreed to come to the court. During the trial, Athanasius asked his accusers if they would recognize Arsenius if they saw him. “Of course,” they responded. Then he motioned a hooded figure to come to the front, removed the hood and Arsenius was revealed alive! Then Athanasius, who seemed to have some sense of humor, had Arsenius show his two hands, one at a time. Athanasius then said to his accusers, “Here you see Arsenius with his two hands. Can you show me the place where the third hand was cut off?” At this, a number of the accusers quickly left the proceedings to avoid their own condemnation. Once again, the “fake news” was exposed by the truth! 

You would think that his accusers would have stopped after this attempt, but they did not. They continued concoct stories to attack the character of Athanasius in attempts to discredit him, but they all failed. Even with truth on his side, Athanasius was still exiled many times because he refused to give up his teaching that Jesus was God come in the flesh. To Athanasius, standing for the truth was even more important than his own life and reputation. 

I’m sure that many times, Athanasius felt that everyone was against him. A Latin phrase about him even developed: “Athanasius Contra Mundum” or “Athanasius against the world” because it seemed like the whole world was against him. But, even with threats against his life and “fake news” about his character, Athanasius stood firm for the truth. I’m sure at times he felt like the Apostle Paul who said he was “ready to be poured out as a drink offering” for the sake of the gospel. Perhaps, near the end of his life, he, like Paul, declared, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Therefore, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing.”  

What is your goal in life? How would you handle false accusations and attempts to force you to deny the truth? Would you, like Athanasius, stand firm even in the face of “fake news” and false accusations? Many of us are nearing the end of the “race” that Paul spoke about. Some of us will finish sooner than others, but the finish line is getting closer for every follower of Christ. I pray that we will continue to fight the “good fight,” always standing for the truth. There will be difficulties – many of them. There will be lies and false accusations. But remember, that we have a wonderful promise: “a crown of righteousness” is waiting for all who stand for the truth of the gospel and finish the race and keep the faith. There has always been “fake news” – there will always be “fake news.” But our job is to continue to share the truth of God’s Word to a world that will always be against us.  

(For an interesting book for children to read about the issue of “fake news,” get a copy of Darcy Pattison’s The Nantucket Sea Monster: A Fake News Story). 

Teaching News …  

Because of my health and the Covid19 virus, I have not been able to teach in the classroom this fall. But I have still been teaching. For each of my classes, I recorded all the lectures and then had them translated so students could listen to the lectures in class. For each class, I also had a teaching assistant that I met with and prepared for leading the classes. And then I would meet with students online by Zoom twice a day to answer questions about the lectures and about ministry applications. This took a lot of time and cost a lot of money for the translation work (see below if you want to help). But so far, we have completed three classes this way this fall, and I have one more to go! I am still working on the lectures for the final class this semester – Church History (yes, we will talk about Athanasius too!). 

The first class was the Evangelism class at Kyiv Theological Seminary. Sergey Bochko was the teaching assistant for this class, and he did an excellent job leading this class! Each day we had great discussions about biblical evangelism and about practical applications for our churches. We talked about various methods for evangelism and also about apologetics. The students also had to go out into the streets to do some survey evangelism. Most of them wrote that they were very afraid to do this and some did not even want to participate! But all of them had very good experiences and said that it helped them to gain confidence that they could begin a spiritual conversation with anyone using this method!  

The next two courses were at Ukrainian Baptist Seminary in Lviv. The Worship class was led by David Snead. Even though David is still an undergraduate student, I identified him as a potential leader for this class a couple of years ago. The Dean at the seminary also agreed. He has a lot of experience in leading worship and has written a couple of books. Most of all, he is a natural leader and he did an excellent job of leading the students through the class. Last fall, we agreed to start working with training him to become a teacher for this class at the seminary in the future. Because of my health issues, we had “to throw him into the fire” earlier than we planned but he did a great job. In addition to the recorded lectures, I met with the students every day through Zoom and we had some great discussions on topics from the lectures. 

Alexander Savich led the second section on Prayer. We used the same format of listening to my recorded lectures, followed by discussions in groups led by Alexander and then a daily Zoom session with me to answer questions. They had lots of great theological and practical questions. Since this group was made up of pastors, it was great to be able to give answers and examples from my 40+ years of pastoral experience. Theory and theology are great, but there are few things that can replace experience. I was especially glad to be able to talk and share with them from my experiences. 

Right now, I am working lectures for Church History in November. I need to finish the lectures this week so they can be translated and put into a video before the class begins in November. We have a lot of work to do and would appreciate your prayers for myself, Oksana Pros who is translating, and Sergei Tereschenko who is putting all the translations and PowerPoints together into a video format. I also have to finish grading papers from the Worship and Prayer classes as well as finish creating the Church History Class for online use. I will also be doing daily Zoom sessions to answer questions and further explain the events from Church History from each day’s lectures. This takes a lot of time and the cost to produce online lessons is very expensive, but they will be useful for many years to come. If you’d like to help us pay for the translation work, see the section below about Financial Needs. 

Family News … 

At the end of September, I had to travel to Lviv to do some training to go over the classes with David and Alexander for teaching classes in October. Since we had not been able to travel anywhere for over 6 months, we decided to make a family trip out of it. The girls especially loved travelling by train and being able to sleep in the train. While it might not be the most comfortable way, it is the cheapest way to travel in Ukraine. And it made for a special adventure for Kristina and Nadia. 

After the training sessions, we spent 4 days just enjoying the various sights and restaurants in Lviv. The girls got to play some dress up and make some soap at the Soap Factory! 

At home, the girls are continuing to learn about American History. They both know the Pledge of Allegiance now and they are understanding about the different settlers in early America. They especially love reading the stories about early settlers. We are now reading Take Courage, Sarah Noble about a young girl and her family settling in New Milford, Connecticut before there was a town there. They love going outside and creating their own games and drawing and decorating are two of their favorite indoor hobbies. Nadia takes her drawing very seriously and Kristina loves to clown around! 

Also, in October, Katya and I celebrated our 10-year wedding anniversary. We began our “celebration” with a trip for me to have laser surgery to remove and biopsy the growth on my neck (details below). After surgery, we went to one of our favorite little restaurants for a late lunch together. Then we headed home, built a fire and got to bed early because the girls stayed the night at her mom’s. We were too tired for anything else! But it was a wonderful way to relax together for our anniversary. It is amazing how quickly 10 years have passed and how much has happened in those years! We are hoping for many more years just like these! 

Health News … 

I have good news and bad news about my health. My heart issues and my gastro issues are almost completely resolved. I haven’t had any difficulties with either one for nearly 2 months now and my medicines are reduced to less than 1/3 of what I was taking 2 month ago. I have felt better than I have for over a year now. I am grateful for all your prayers and for the doctors here in Ukraine. 

However, I also received some bad news. A couple weeks ago, I noticed a rapidly increasing growth on my neck. I had the growth removed and biopsied and the biopsy came back showing cancer cells. So, I immediately had what they call a “radical neck dissection” done to remove additional cancerous growth. Over the next few weeks, we will monitor the results and see if I will be needing any radiation or chemotherapy treatments. I’m sore and tired from the surgery but otherwise feel normal and I am continuing to work on my classes. I’m glad that we were able to catch this so quickly and that the health care services for this procedure were available here in Ukraine. For both procedures, doctor’s visits and pathology reports, we paid just a little over $1000 dollars. I can’t imagine how much this would cost in the US! I know we have more visits and potentially more treatments down the road, but I am glad we caught this early. Be praying for my healing for the surgery and from the cancer and for our finances to pay for the treatments. 

Financial Needs … 

As I mentioned above, our translation costs for these online classes are significantly more than normal because of all the extra work involved. Translation costs for each class usually costs me about $200-300. Because of the extra work, these classes are costing between $600-700 each! We received a gift last month to help cover $300 for the first class and we are praying for provisions for the classes from Lviv (they cost $1000 for translation work) and also for the upcoming class in Church History (since we are still working on these, we don’t know the final costs yet. But probably about $600-700 also). If you would like to help us with these costs, simply designate a gift (in the memo line) for “Translations.” This will help us tremendously because we pay for these costs out of regular salary unless we receive special gifts for translations. 

Also, pray for our finances regarding my health issues. We have spent a lot over the last year with doctors and medicines and we are seeing some good results. But now we are also facing some additional financial challenges for the surgeries, follow-ups and other treatments that might be needed. If you want to help with our medical needs, you can designate a gift for these needs by writing “Ehrhard-Medical” in the memo line. We have been tremendously blessed through the years with all the gifts that enable us to minister here in Ukraine! God has been good to us in every way and we are especially grateful for your prayers and support through all these years! 

Pray for Ukraine, Belarus, Armenia … and America  

Continue to pray for the people of Belarus. We have students who are pastors in Belarus – pray for their protection and for their ministries during the conflict there.  Also, continue to pray for the war between Armenia and Azerbaijan. This war is an unusual one with Azerbaijan using primarily inexpensive drones to bomb areas in Armenia. So far, Armenia has not found a way to counter these “robot missiles.” Many have predicted that this might be the future of wars fought primarily with robot drones. Scary stuff! Pray for peace but also pray for our students who are ministering there.  

We also continue to pray for peace in Eastern Ukraine also where the war there continue (even though we supposedly have a cease fire) and 2-3 soldiers are dying each week. Pray also for our students who serve as pastors and chaplains to many from the war-torn areas. Russia has finished its wargames now, so it seems like the major fear of escalation during these exercises is over. But we are never sure what steps Russia might take in the future. 

Be praying for America especially this coming month as people place their votes, not only for the Presidency, but also for many other government representatives. Pray that people will not be falsely led in their voting decisions based on “fake news” but will take an honest look at party platforms and policies of all candidates. And be praying for America post-election. No matter who wins, there could be some very difficult days ahead for American democracy, especially with the problems that have become all too evident with news media and social media “censoring” and controlling information. What we have seen in “fake news” might become even worse in the days ahead. Pray that people will elect leaders who will stand for freedom and for justice regardless of threats against them and their families. Pray that America will continue to be “one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” And pray that America might look up and realize that the ultimate solution is in no man – but only in Jesus Christ alone! 

By His Grace, 

Jim, Katya, Kristina and Nadia