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Conspiracy theories are sneaky things. We’re all convinced we could never be duped by the crazy theories about Elvis still being alive, JFK being an alien, or the moon landing being faked. We assume we’re clever enough to have a certain immunity to such unfounded and ridiculous ideas. Yet without realizing we, we easily get swept up in more “socially acceptable” conspiracy theories that may not seem so crazy. After all, the best conspiracy theories are either accepted by enough people we know to seem credible, or they make our religious/political/social opponents seem so sinister (or foolish) that it makes us feel even more correct in our own beliefs.
This article (and tomorrow’s follow-up) is probably long overdue. There is an entire worldview called Qanon being built up around conspiracy theories, but I always held out hope that most Chriristians wouldn’t get so swept up in something that started on 4chan. However, with President Trump entering the hospital over the weeked with Covid-19, Christians are very vulnerable to getting drawn into something that seems to answer all of their questions and bring a level of comfort and understanding.
I’ll briefly go into the beliefs behind Qanon, since that will be the beliefs most Christians will need to watch out for in the coming weeks. However, the main thrust of this is to examine why conspiracy theories in any form don’t bring us the truth they promise, but instead reveal our desperate need to be good students of God’s word.
What is Qanon?
In its simplest form, Qanon (pronounced Q-anon) is the belief that there is a secret cabal of Satan-worshippers who run a pedophelia ring. This group includes celebrities, Democratic politicians (including the Clintons), and other big names. This secret group is conspiring against President Trump, who is the only person who stands in the way of their plans and is actively working to bring about a “day of reckoning” that will destroy the group.
Qanon is shorthand for Q Clearance Patriot Anonymous. Q is an individual who claims to have high military clearance and leaks information to the world about the happenings of this secret cabal, as well as President Trump’s efforts to stop them. Q first appeared on a website called 4chan, and has been spread around the internet by websites that tend to thrive on controversy and extremism.
This should be “just another” conspiracy theory in American’s long history of them. Studying Qanon reveals little that distinguishes it from other conspiracy theories, yet it has taken off with surprising force within Christianity. With the impending election and President Trump being stricken with a virus that can be dangerous for an elderly man who has spent 4 years living under the stress of running a nation, fear has gripped many Republicans. And when we fear, we want answers. And, as we’ll discuss, we’re often willing to cast aside rationality and logic if those answers will give us a level of comfort, reassurance, or just an enemy to blame.
(You can get a bigger picture of Qanon’s beliefs from this Wikipedia article)
Why would Christians believe the Qanon conspiracies?
The language used by Q and their followers carries a heavily-religious tone, even using Bible prophecy to support itself, and regularly paints Trump, despite his flaws, as God’s ordained messiah. This scratches an important itch for Christians who would otherwise avoid conspiracy theories – it adds credibility by using our highest source of truth to prove itself.
Most Christians recognize the importance of finding our truth in the Bible. We may not do it perfectly, but we at least hope that all of our beliefs line up with what God has revealed to us. We want to be obedient to the Holy Spirit and let God’s word act as our greatest barrier as we search for truth while rejecting false beliefs.
Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. (Matthew 7:15)
Our greatest downfall, then, comes when we want to believe the Bible without knowing how to read and understand it (a topic I’ve covered here). When someone comes along with a Bible in one hand and a new belief in the other, our maturity and ability to use wisdom and discernment is put to the test. Too often we want to fall back on our emotions, perhaps telling ourselves we’ll just “listen to the Spirit” as we think about what we’re hearing.
However, God’s word is clear that a mark of spiritual maturity isn’t our ability to follow our gut instinct. Instead, spiritual maturity is marked by those who know how to accurately use God’s word to discern truth from fiction. This discernment is what keeps them from being swept up with any belief that may sound good, but isn’t rooted in truth.
And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; (Ephesians 4:11-14)
Unfortunately, the popularity of Qanon among followers of Jesus Christ reveals a tragic truth – many Christians are still spiritually immature. They are adults who have not grown in spiritual adulthood. In love, I say that many Christians are still babies in Christ.
This Ephesians passage gives us two groups of Christians. One group grows under the human tools God has provided – growing into “spiritual manhood and womanhood” by listening to biblically sound teachers and pastors. But it’s not about simply listening to them, but being equipped to think, study, and teach others just like those teachers that God used in our lives. The other group is immature, childish, and are easily drawn in by false beliefs because they don’t know how to tell what’s genuine and what’s worldly.
God’s word gives us a consistent picture of what spiritual maturity looks like and what is expected of a spiritually mature believer.
And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to infants in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able, (1 Corinthians 3:1-2)
Paul wanted to talk to this group of believers like “spiritual men,” yet was unable to because they didn’t understand the basic fundamentals of the Christian life. They did Christian things, but didn’t have a solid, biblical worldview that would allow them to hear the harder things Paul wanted to talk to them about.
Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth. (2 Timothy 2:15)
The greatest way we grow into spiritual maturity is by understanding the word of God. And it’s critical that we realize the solid line between “knowing Bible verses” and “knowing the Bible.” False teachers, including conspiracy theorists, draw Christians in by twisting the word of God and deceiving those who haven’t trained themselves to know any better.
For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil. (Hebrews 5:12-14)
Christians are expected to continue growing. There’s no “one size fits all” pace of that growth, but we should expect (and desire) to be more mature and capable of handling the truth of God in 2020 than we were in 2019. It’s only by struggling through our spiritual childishness that we can discern between good and evil, right and wrong, truth and lies.
Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so. (Acts 17:11)
We should note, again, the difference between knowing the Bible and just reading some verses as a “proof text.” This church in Berea was praised for their desire to hold all truth, no matter how good or outrageous it sounded, against God’s timeless word.
See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. (Colossians 2:8)
We often read this verse and immediately jump to an atheistic, or pagan, worldview. And yet Paul is painting with a much broader brush in this passage – he’s calling for Christians to possess the discernment to see through any false belief system, not just those that are clearly, and blatantly, opposed to a biblical worldview.
We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ. (Colossians 1:28)
The goal of all teachers, myself included, is to draw Christians closer to their Savior. We want to play a small role in the Holy Spirit’s continual work in their lives, glorifying God by working alongside Him to help others grow in the spiritual maturity (just as we also continue to grow).
This process isn’t just an emotional one, but something that takes place in the mind. We know Christ through the Bible, not in spite of it. The more we study the Bible, the more we understand Christ. The more we understand Christ, the more our spiritual maturity grows. But if we don’t take the word of God seriously, and become good students of it, all of our progress will stop, and we will consistently find ourselves in the group of Christians who are swept up in false beliefs, rather than those who are spiritually mature and able to properly read and understand the Bible.
Please understand that there’s nothing inherently wrong with being spiritually immature. We all start there, and some grow quicker than others. However, it’s not enough to merely identify that we may have a weak biblical worldview. If we realize that we still have some spiritual immaturity, even if we’ve been a Christian for decades (which is already a sign of growing maturity), we need to realize that we are easily swept up in false beliefs, and therefore need to guard ourselves from anything that tickles our ears and preys upon our fleshly desire to believe things before seeking the truth in God’s word.
There’s no end to our ability to be deceived, nor to deceive ourselves. Sometimes that deceptionis clear as day. But sometimes, perhaps most of the time, deceptions disguises itself as an angel of light, wrapping itself in Bible verses so that we don’t see the danger. The greatest danger to our spiritual maturity isn’t the wolves outside the fence, but those we’ve allowed to sneak in under the disguise of one of us.
Final thoughts on Qanon and followers of Christ
Like the Prosperity Gospel and works-based salvation, Qanon is a false teaching that has taken too many of God’s people. It takes our tribal approach to politics and magnifies it. Yet unlike those other conspiracy theories we snub, this one gains traction because it also preys on our weak grasp of the Bible. It gives us permission to become further entrenched in an “us vs them” mentality by using the Bible to support itself, and many struggle to see why it’s wrong because they don’t know how tell the difference between a biblical belief and one that just uses the Bible.
If you realize that spiritual maturity is something God is still developing in you, use that to draw you into His word. Keep seeking out teachers and other resources that can teach you how to read the Bible well. And when things like Qanon ask for you to believe them, seek the counsel of a mature believer you trust to make sure you aren’t being swept away by lies and false teachings.
In the coming days, it will be critical for all of God’s people to fight the temptation to be deceived. Our emotions and intellect can help, but only an accurate and mature handling of God’s word will truly protect us.
Don’t just fall for anything that sounds good. Don’t accept a worldview as truth simply because you want to believe it. Instead, be like the Bereans in Acts 17:11 by examining the Scriptures daily to see if someone’s use of the Bible is true to what our God has revealed.
