We live in a time when the mainstream media is in the hands of a select few, these people take great pleasure in shaping public opinion. They care little about informing the public compared to how much they want to control public opinion. You don’t have to be a genius or a conspiracy theorist to figure this out.

What is “Newspaper Exegesis” ?

Its the process of looking at current events and trends from the news and then mistakenly forcing them on Scripture. It is basically reading Scripture through the lens of the news. Sadly because of a lack of sound biblical grounding, even among leadership, this is fast becoming the preferred hermeneutic approach to study biblical prophecy.

As the author of blog Pousto puts it

• The US president becomes THE anti-christ.
• Computer chips and barcodes are seen as the mark of the beast.
• Helicopters become the locusts from Ezekiel.

What are its dangers ?

The primary and foremost danger of engaging in this type of exegesis is that one becomes woefully misinformed and goes out of sync with God’s plan for the season and time. Soon when they do realize how wrong and misguided they or the people engaging in this type of activity are, they get disillusioned with real biblical prophesy.

I believe God (Holy Spirit) put prophetic passages in Scripture to warn and alert us on what to expect in the times to come for a very good reason. The reason I believe, is primarily so that we as a body of believers don’t fall prey to fear mongers, self proclaimed prophets or misinterpreting natural events as having eschatological significance. It is a joy to watch this prophecy fulfill if done with the right spirit and methodology, even a brief overview of fulfilled prophesy can show you this. Newspaper Exegesis is the fastest way to extinguish this purpose.

How to stay protected ?

Stand on the Word of God, take it seriously and don’t even bother interpreting current trends until you have a reasonable mastery of The Bible. ALWAYS rely on guidance from the Holy Sprit in prayer and supplication before making statements in this area, especially if you are in a public setting. Also keep in mind whenever biblical prophesy gets fulfilled it is very very precise, with almost no room for doubt. There is absolutely no need to bend passages to suit trends and vice versa.

Test all revelation against scripture and don’t take anything other people or newspapers tell you without diligently searching the word of God to check if its true like the Jews from Berea did.