This article originally appeared on the Premier Website blog.
Did you see the story about the pastor who was eaten by crocodiles in Zimbabwe after trying to emulate Jesus walking on the water?
The story, published in The Metro and Daily Mail, was seized upon by our secular humanist atheist friends with glee. “Words fail me” posted one secularist official. “This is what religion does to you” stated another. They could hardly contain their glee.
The only trouble is the story was completely fake.
Of course any intelligent person who didn’t have their prejudiced glasses on, would have worked out fairly quickly that it was fake. I loved the bit when the church deacon said “one minute he was there and the next all we saw was a pair of sandals and his underwear floating on the water” – as if the posh crocs undressed him before ingesting!
Why was this story spread by numerous British newspapers, (and not just the tabloids – the Independent was quick to report it as well)?
The answer is straightforward – sheer prejudice and ignorance.
Some of that prejudice is racial – ‘oh look at those dumb backward Africans.’ Of course in theory our nice liberal progressive atheists abhor the idea of racism – although in a Darwinian worldview they have no reason to. But underlying much of the Western Elitist model which seeks to impose its ‘liberal’ values on the wider dumber world, is the notion that Oxford professors who accept Harvard values are several steps up the evolutionary ladder from African peasants who still believe in God.
But most of the prejudice is anti-religious – ‘oh look this is precisely the kind of thing that religion leads to!’ This is why so many of my atheist/humanist friends posted this story on their feeds.
Speaking of prejudice – did you see that the Moors murderer Ian Brady, was a professing Christian and wants to be buried by the Catholic Church? Again the 
Thankfully for our Humanist friends, Christians are a wee bit more logical and rational. We don’t necessarily see the direct connection between supporting a particular philosophy (like Humanism) and being a mass murderer! We realise that human beings and situations in this world are usually far more complex. Because we take a bigger picture view we try to avoid those silly prejudices that come from a narrow focus that sees truth only in what we can understand and grasp.
Incidentally it has been reported that ‘no humanist celebrant is available’ – again showing the difference between humanism and Christianity. I would have buried Brady and left him to the judgement of God. For us, all human beings are made in the image of God – even the worst sinners. I sorrow for the death of any human being – it’s an indication of the broken and fallen world we live in.
But there is a fake news story going round our world. And it’s most predominant in the West – and especially among those who consider themselves to be educated and wise. It’s the news that there is no God. “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God'” (Psalm 14:1). “For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools.” (Romans 1:21)
Despite the evidence of creation and the evidence within (the moral law), the evidence of history and above all the evidence of Jesus Christ, people are so desperate to suppress and escape the knowledge of God, that they will believe anything – including crocodiles having crazy ‘walking on water’ pastors for dinner! They wanted that story to be true so that they could continue their mockery and laughter. But the last laugh belongs with God – “The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them” (Psalm 2:4).
Of course such is the predictability of human nature that I know even this will be met with scoffing and self-assured (or perhaps desperate) mockery – but you need to be aware of this. The truth will out. Just as the fakeness of the pastor-eating crocodile eventually came to light, so the truth of God and of the judgement day, and of everything we have ever thought and said and done, will come to light. Maybe instead of waiting for that day, we should take the opportunity to get ready for it, and seek the Lord while he may be found.
“For he says, ‘In the time of my favour I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.’ I tell you, now is the time of God’s favour, now is the day of salvation.” (2 Corinthians 6:2)