Question 2 in the DIMES framework:

I – What INFORMS me most?

We’re living in the Information Age. International travel has never been easier (or for many, more affordable) and knowledge is at our fingertips, fulfilling Daniel 12:4: “… many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased”. As of February 2025, almost 68% of the world’s population use the internet – that’s more than 5.5 billion people!

Yet with the monumental advancements in information technology over the past 150 years, truth is harder to find than ever. The advancement of AI puts a huge question mark over much social media content. News organisations no longer report – they promote their political bias. Education systems are manipulated by pressure groups, most of whom have an antibiblical agenda. Even religious content (broadly speaking) has never been as accessible, not all of it good (from a biblical perspective).

A whole heap of teachers

The years since COVID in 2020 have seen an explosion in the volume of online religious content, including “Christian” content. I believe this is the time Paul spoke of in writing to Timothy:

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears.
2 Timothy 4:3

Even believers have itching ears, devouring online sermon from many varied, often contradictory, sources. With an astonishing lack of discernment, they are drawn to the charismatic personalities, the eloquent and humorous preachers, the exciting life stories, the large congregations. Meanwhile those churches seeking to remain true to the Word of God often suffer because they don’t have the profile or ‘pizzazz’ of the big-name celebrity preachers.

People want comfort, not conviction. They want something soothing, not spiritual; funny, not faithful; exciting, not exhorting; emotional, not expository; devotional, but at the expense of the doctrinal. And to get it, they gather up their online teachers: a church that denies the godhead in the morning, a charismatic prosperity gospel preacher in the afternoon, a music concert in the evening that has as much spiritual depth as a children’s Bible colouring book, and a devotional at night that tends to take verses out of context. But that’s all okay because it’s nice, easy, soothing!

On top of that, we have an epidemic of butterfly Christians who flit around from church to church, never settling, never serving, attending only if it suits, moving to another congregation on a whim. That whim may be driven by the sermons: it’s too hard to understand, it’s too confrontational, it’s not giving what the people want (even if it’s what they need). There are those who rarely make a contribution, arriving late, leaving early, not mingling, not getting involved, and then they accuse the church of being unfriendly, and that’s their excuse to move on. Or maybe they just feel like a change.

All of this has led to a society of believers who have few convictions about what they believe, flitting between denominations because they’ve used up whatever else was available, and switching doctrines as easily as changing wallpaper.

But along with a lack of conviction comes a lowering of standards. It starts small. First there’s discomfort, but they just decide to say nothing. Then it’s resignation – this is just the way it is, I’m a lone voice so there’s no point. Then there’s acceptance – it becomes a secondary issue, and sure we agree on the gospel and that’s all that’s important. Then eventually there’s agreement – after all, we’re still believers, and we’re friends now, so don’t you dare say anything bad about my friends.

Our 21^st century environment does not help the situation. The media almost feels omnipresent. If the TV isn’t on, it’s the radio. If not the radio, it’s YouTube or TikTok. If not that, it’s social media and instant messaging. It’s overwhelming! One of the hardest things for a Christian to practice today is “Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10).

The Monkey Principle

One of my GCSE subjects at school was Computer Studies, back in the days before Windows 95. My teacher constantly reminded us that computers are thick, quick machines that only do what you tell them to do, or as he put it “Monkey see, monkey do”, or “Garbage in, garbage out”.

That’ll preach! What we put into our minds will come out, one way or another. That’s why we need to be on our guard.

Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
Colossians 2:8

This is no new thing. John Bunyan understood this. In The Holy War, first published in 1682, the city of Mansoul has five gates, corresponding to the five senses: Ear-gate, Eye-gate, Mouth-gate, Nose-gate, and Feel-gate. The gates can never be breached from the outside – they can only be opened from within, and so the enemy, Diabolus, assaults Ear-gate and Eye-gate with flattery and deception. When these tactics work, the gates open and Diabolus enters the city.

David wrote about the importance of guarding what we set our eyes on:

I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes …
Psalm 101:3

And regarding the hearing, we read:

Cease, my son, to hear the instruction that causeth to err from the words of knowledge.
Proverbs 19:27

On the contrary, our eyes and ears ought to be tuned into the Word of God and the teaching of the Holy Spirit:

Mine eyes prevent the night watches, that I might meditate in thy word.
Psalm 119:148
I will meditate in thy precepts, and have respect unto thy ways.
Psalm 119:15
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches …
Revelation 2:7

Our whole environment will feed into our worldview and moral understanding. So it’s very important to ask the question, “What INFORMS you most?” What has the biggest impact on our beliefs and standards?

Whatever that is, it will set the context for the information we consume. It will become the filter by which we choose whether to accept or reject the views we see and hear. We need therefore to set a guard over what we allow in to influence us:

Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.
Proverbs 4:23

If, for example, personal emotional satisfaction is the focus of your life, your morality will be shaped by what makes you feel good. If your focus is humanistic, that man is the author of his own destiny, then your morality will be determined by the general consensus of society.

If the Lord is our focus, then morality is determined not by opinion, but by His unchanging Word. His character and attributes will inform our actions and beliefs on these issues. If He is immutable (unchanging), then what He has declared to be sinful 2-, 3-, or 4000 years ago will still be sinful today.

The God who is revealed

Our understanding of who the Lord is, His attributes and morality, and what He has revealed to us through His Word, work together to give us a foundation upon which to view the world.

How we perceive the Lord determines how we perceive His creation. It will determine whether we consider morality to be fixed and unchanging or dynamic and flexible.

There is an interesting parallel to this tension in the form of the US Constitution.

There are those who say that the Constitution needs to be reinterpreted with each new generation so that it remains current and relevant. Others disagree and say that it should be understood as read, that the text is clear and unambiguous, and if it needs to be adjusted or amended, then there is a mechanism in place to do that, as seen in the 26 amendments already ratified.

Similar arguments are made concerning the moral law as revealed in Scripture. The so-called “Progressive” Christians reinterpret the Bible according to modern societal standards of morality, not taking the face-value meaning as correct, but re-imagining and reapplying Scripture according to a societal context. More conservative Christians are opposed to this contextualisation of morality. They say that this is God’s moral law and God never changes, therefore His moral law never changes, and so it is society that must conform to Scripture, and not Scripture to society.

The Word of God is our first, final, and only authority for truth. It is our standard measurement for truth, and unlike the standard for the length of a metre, it is unchanging and eternal.

Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.
Matthew 24:35

That answers the question about the relevance of the moral law of God. Everything else must be measured up against these Scriptures. Where the “facts” and Scripture are not in agreement, the Scriptures must always be assumed as truth, and the “facts” must be re-examined.

What INFORMS you most? Is it really the one true and living God revealed through the Scriptures? Or have you let other things cast doubt on the Word of God? If so, your morality and worldview is being gradually moulded and formed by something other than the Lord.

It is time to silence the world’s voices and return to the first, final, and only authority – the Scriptures – so that God, not the world, INFORMS us.