The Devil's Newsroom

Trust in American media is at its lowest point in five decades while rates of depression and anxiety have increased by 25% since COVID. All the while, more Christians are deconstructing their faith as they lose trust in religious institutions that have been rocked by scandal.  Dr. Jeff Schreve reveals in his new book, The Devil’s Newsroom: Muting Satan’s Fake News & Tuning into God’s Truth, how the original fake news content creator—Satan—has distorted truth and twisted words from the very beginning; in much the same ways it's happening to us today.

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Episode Transcript

S1 (00:04):
Tom, one of the things that I have said more
than once is that we seem to be lacking in
discernment as, uh, as the days grow darker. Uh, God's
people are wondering what's going on. Sometimes we're like saying, Lord,
show us the truth. Let truth arise because we really
can't see. And there is an agenda. It comes all
the way to us from from the original attack of

(00:27):
Satan towards Adam and Eve. And he still got deceptive
tactics going on in the world. And we need help
discerning God's truth. And there's a new book out called
The Devil's Newsroom.

S2 (00:41):
The Devil's Newsroom. Can't wait to hear from Jeff Shreve.
He's the senior pastor of First Baptist Church Texarkana. It's
a position that he's held since February of 2003. And
then in oh four, he founded from his Heart Ministries
with the mission of spreading the Word of God and
reaching people across the nation and around the world. And
you hear him weeknights at 9:30 p.m. eastern, right here

(01:02):
on 88.9 Moody Radio. Jeff, great to have you with
us on mornings with Tom and Toby.

S3 (01:07):
Hey, thanks so much for having me. It's a pleasure.

S1 (01:10):
All right, so, Pastor Jeff, you know, I was talking
about just that need for understanding and discernment. And one
of the things that I think has boggled many of
our minds is why there is so much division and unrest, um,
in the world today, and it seems to come in
waves towards us, and it seems to be even stronger

(01:31):
than maybe some other times in history. Um, where does
all this come from, this division and unrest that we
see in the world today?

S3 (01:40):
Yeah. So the devil is at work, that's for sure. Yeah.
The Bible says in first John 519 that the whole
world lies in the power of the evil one, and
he comes to steal and kill and destroy. And we
see his work on display, uh, every day as we
read the news and see what's going on in our world.

(02:00):
And so I think things are ratcheting up. Um, it's
getting more and more, uh, intensified as we get closer
and closer to the return of Christ. So Paul told Timothy,
in the last days, difficult times will come. Well, difficult
times are definitely here. And, uh, the devil is at
work trying to squeeze the world, as it says in

(02:22):
Romans 12 two. Uh, squeeze the world into its mold.
Don't let the the world do that. The Bible tells us,
don't be conformed to this world. And so I think
we see that taking place. And the devil, who is
a liar and the father of lies, he is pumping
out lies, and people are believing the lies. As you said, Toby,
we have a serious lack of discernment today, even among

(02:45):
God's people, and they can't tell the difference between good
and evil.

S2 (02:49):
Yeah, that is the scary part of it. I've heard
that the difference between like, good and evil. I mean,
you can just be one degree off and it's off.
So you've got to be very careful about what you
listen to. And we hear these words all the time, Jeff. Misinformation,
fake news. And. But how does the enemy actually use
that against us?

S3 (03:09):
Well, he, as you said, one degree off. He he
loves to give us lies, just like you saw with Eve,
as he has that encounter with Eve in Genesis three.
He he gets her to start questioning God's goodness and
God's trustworthiness. You know indeed has God said, you shall
not eat from any tree of the garden. So he
takes what God says, and he twists it just a

(03:31):
little bit. It sounds good, but it's a little off. And, uh,
you know, if the devil comes at us with some wild,
you know, lie that's so preposterous that anybody can see
it a mile away, we'd say, well, that's that's a lie.
But he doesn't do that because he's a master liar.
Jesus said he's a liar and the father of lies.
So he he tells lies. That sound good to us?

(03:54):
They sound plausible. They sound right. And once he gets
you going just a little bit off, uh, he can
he can start really messing with you. And that's what
he did with Eve in the garden. So he comes
with this subtle lie, and then it's a blatant lie.
Ye shall not surely die. And then it's this twisted lie. Hey,
you eat of this fruit, you'll be like God. And, uh,

(04:16):
the twistedness is. God wants us to be like him.
You know, he wants. We shall be like him. As
John says in first John chapter three, but not independent
of him. We're always going to be dependent on the
the Lord, because apart from him we can do nothing.

S2 (04:31):
Toby, it seems like fake news is everywhere, and it
just seems like the evil one is truly working overtime
to get us to really buy into the lies.

S1 (04:38):
Yeah, to get confused about truth. And there was a
recent study that stated that over 50% of Christians were
actively deconstructing their faith. Also, 70% of the nation was
wide open to spiritual things. And I put that in air. Quotes. Um,
there's so many things that we have seen in the
headlines concerning pornography and sexual ethics, and we've seen leadership

(05:03):
scandals increasing. Even universalism is gaining traction this year, according
to Barna. These things are highlighted in the book The
Devil's Newsroom by Pastor Jeff Schreve, and he discusses this,
and he talks to us about how to cut through
all the noise and come to God's truth. God's truth

(05:25):
is the only truth.

S2 (05:26):
And Jeff, I just wanted to ask because deception and
media and culture, even within the church is growing. So.
So what makes the devil's Lies so believable?

S3 (05:38):
Yeah. Great question. So the the devil because he's a
he's not just a liar, he's the master liar and
the father of lies. Um, he tells us things that
sound right. They're very plausible. Um, I have a chapter
in the book. I talk about Peter and Peter's great failure.

(05:59):
And when we fail, we can all relate to Peter,
you know, failing in the Christian life. And the devil
really moves in when you're doing poorly in your Christian
life to tell you that God doesn't love you anymore,
that God is done with you. And we latch on
to that because that's how we feel. And so our
feelings really get in the way. You know, the Bible

(06:20):
says we walk by faith and not by sight. Uh,
it's so easy to walk by sight. But the scripture
tells us things that we can't see. Faith is the
assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
So we have to stand on the word. God does
love us even when we're doing poorly. God hasn't. He'll

(06:41):
never leave us and never forsake us as believers. And
so we we have to cling to what is foreign, uh,
foreign to our feelings and foreign to our sight at
the moment and say, yes, but this is what God says,
and this is this is how I'm going to walk.
I'm going to trust God, even in the midst of
circumstances that seem so contrary to that.

S2 (07:04):
Pastor Jeff Schreve is our guest. We're talking about the
devil and what he does. And what an interesting book
title you've chosen, The Devil's Newsroom. And I just wanted
to just put this out there right now. We're not
talking political, right? I mean, Satan isn't a conservative or
a progressive, but neither side is really immune to being
used to spread lies. So so how do we actually

(07:26):
discern through all of this? Because we are so divided,
even within the church, in dealing with issues like that,
how do we get to the truth?

S3 (07:35):
Yeah. Very important. So Hebrews chapter five talks about, um,
the people that couldn't they were they were still on milk,
they were babies in Christ. And they hadn't grown and
they hadn't progressed. And it says that solid food or meat,
the meat of the word is for the mature, who,
because of practice, have their senses trained to discern good

(07:57):
and evil. And so you have to spend time in
the Word of God. One thing I've noticed, guys, is that,
people tend to look at God, the Deconstructors do this.
We're going to look at God through the lens of
culture and, uh, and see, you know, with our with
our eyes of culture, we, we inspect God, you always
want to look at culture through the eyes of Scripture.

(08:19):
That's what it means to have a biblical worldview. It's
fine to ask questions, but you have to know as
as it says in Hebrews 11, uh, the one who
comes to God must believe that he is, and that
he is a rewarder of those who seek him. So
if you're questioning God's existence, uh, Genesis one one, in

(08:39):
the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. So
you have to look at culture through the lens of Scripture.
You can't look at Scripture and God through the lens
of culture that will get you all fouled up.

S2 (08:52):
Pastor Jeff Schreve is our guest. You hear him weeknights
at 7 or 9:30 p.m. eastern here on 88.9 Moody
Radio on from his heart. We're talking about something very
important about the way we see life as followers of Christ.

S1 (09:06):
Yeah, we want to see the world, the culture, everything
through the lens of Christ, through God's Word as well.
And so, Pastor Jeff, I just have to ask this
question because so many people are bound up with sin
and with addiction, and yet we're supposed to be able
to live free and to overcome sin. Why? Why is that?

(09:29):
Why are some Christians addicted to drugs or alcohol or porn?

S3 (09:34):
Yeah. Great question. Well, I think the Bible is very clear.
Romans six seven and eight. You know, Romans six says
we're dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
That's true for every believer. But Romans seven tells us
that we still battle the flesh, that residual from our
Adamic nature that wants to rebel against God, that the

(09:57):
flesh wants to do what it wants to do. It's
really just selfishness and self. And then Romans eight says, well,
here is how you do. You conquer that you walk
in the power of the Holy Spirit. So as Paul
said in Galatians five, but I say, walk by the spirit,
and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.
For the flesh sets its desire against the spirit, and

(10:19):
the spirit against the flesh. For these are in opposition
to one another, so that you may not do the
things that you please. And every true Christian knows about
that battle within, and the Christians who live in victory.
It's not that they don't have a battle, they do.
But they're walking by the power of the spirit. They're
living by the power of the spirit. And those that

(10:40):
have gotten addicted to different sins and keep falling in
different areas, they're really just believing a lie because Jesus said,
you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set
you free. And so when we walk in the truth,
God really does love us. He really does have a
wonderful plan for us. Uh, he his ways are right
concerning everything. When I yield to that, then I can

(11:04):
see his overcoming power in my life. Uh, but if
I start believing a lie that, you know, this drug
is going to really make me happy, this sexual immorality
is going to make me happy. This selfishness is going
to make me happy. And I go that route. Well,
it always ends up in the same place. It goes
to the pigsty. Because there is. There's God's way and

(11:25):
there's the wrong way. And so we have to choose
every day and fill our minds with the truth. That's
what's so critical. This is the way. Walk in it,
as the Lord says. And I have to say, yes, Lord,
and yield myself to that.

S2 (11:38):
You're hearing from Jeff Shreve talking about just some of
the lies that we still swallow as followers of Christ.
You started talking about how Satan came in the garden
and started with a little lie. Just a little bit
off the truth, and then moved to a blatant lie
and then a twisted lie. And so we need to
be aware of all of these different lies that the

(11:58):
Master Liar is sharing with us. Let me ask you this.
What is the the world's most believed lie.

S3 (12:06):
Yes, the world's most believed lie. That's one of the
chapters in the book. And what I say in that
chapter is the most believed lie is that good works
get you to heaven. And it can be a combination of,
you know, what Jesus did on the cross? Plus my
good works equals salvation. A lot of people who go

(12:27):
to church have that that formula in their head. And
the Bible is so clear, it's not salvation is not
as a result of works, lest anyone should boast. It's
all by grace through faith. And Titus three five not
by works of righteousness which we have done, but according
to his mercy he saved us. And so anytime you're

(12:50):
going to trust in yourself and your good works to
get you to heaven, you're not trusting in Jesus and
Jesus alone for salvation. And so I think, you know,
when Jesus came in the first century, The religious leaders.
It was all about works. It was all external. They
trusted in themselves that they were righteous and viewed others

(13:11):
with contempt, as it says in Luke 18. And so
we easily fall into that camp where we think, well,
I'm going to make if I get to heaven, it's
going to be because I'm such a good person. And
we have to come to the realization that there is
none righteous, not even one. And no one can get
to heaven by his or her good works. We can

(13:32):
only get there by the grace of God and trusting
in what Jesus did on the cross and through the
empty tomb.

S2 (13:38):
There are people that are listening to you right now
that have bought the lie for a while right now.
We've been talking about the father of lies. We've been
talking about lies. But I would love it if you
would just share the truth. Invite somebody to understand that truth.
Receive that truth in their life and really understand what
it means to be a follower of Christ.

S3 (13:56):
Yes, I'd love to. So the Bible makes it clear
that all have sinned and fall short of the glory
of God, and that the wages of sin is death
not only physical death, but spiritual death, separated from God
forever and ever and ever. And God doesn't want that.
He doesn't want that for you. He doesn't want that
for me. He doesn't want that for anyone. And that's

(14:18):
why he sent his Son Jesus. And Jesus healed the
sick and raised the dead. But the main reason he
came was to die on the cross for your sins
and my sins, and the sins of the whole world
to pay a price we we couldn't pay a price
he didn't owe and a price we couldn't pay. And
he willingly paid that on the cross. He died for
our sins. He said, it is finished. That means paid

(14:40):
in full. And on the third day he rose again.
He conquered death, hell and the grave. And he offers
salvation to anyone who will do two things. Number one repent.
Turn from sin. And number two, believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. Trust him. Trust him with your whole heart.
And the moment that you do that, and you give
your heart and life to Jesus, he gives his heart

(15:02):
and life to you, and your life will never be
the same.