Every day, I get a stream of information via the web. Much of it comes from friends and well meaning Christians who have heard my talks or broadcasts. Unfortunately, a high percentage of what comes through is just fantasy. I sometimes knock this back to the sender saying: please don't circulate things you have not checked. It does our case and cause no good. Today, for example, a Christian friend sent me some material about Obama. (This was written before the Kenyan conman fiddled his way into office.)

Now, I happen to think Obama would make an appalling president, and some articles showing why are on this website, if you scroll down. However, we must be careful not to make up ridiculous stories about people just because we do not like them, or their beliefs. Furthermore, we must always, ALWAYS check things out before passing on a right load of old rubbish. I spend thousands of hours checking and re-checking.

You need several sources, often from those with conflicting views and interests, before you can safely start to say “this may be true.” Before I speak Pat and I check every statement I plan to make, usually from official websites such as the State Department, The EU websites, the White House press office and so on. I like verbatim official reports. For 21 years I was a newspaper editor, responsible for a number of titles including, with Pat, a business newspaper. Prior to that I was a full time freelance journalist, working for all the main newspapers of Britain, TV and radio stations and news agencies. You will have read many of my stories although they didn’t have my name on them.

Prior to this I was a Chief Reporter for ten years, running a team of reporters. The only way you survive this long in a demanding profession is to get your facts right. You would only send duff information through once to a major newspaper before you become an ex-correspondent. So when Pat, who is a fine journalist, and I came fairly late in life to faith in the Lord Jesus we were astonished at how gullible Christians were. Many of these innocent souls would believe anything they were told! We didn’t know whether to fall about laughing or cry, such was the gullibility of these folk.

You see this in the popularity of so many obvious shysters on "Christian" TV channels today. So now, a quarter of a century later, we are incredulous at the nonsense forwarded to us by Christians who should know better. Prince Charles the antichrist? Wow, really? Er, no. Maybe then its King Carlos of Spain? Or, perhaps, one of the Hashemites of Jordan? The late evengelist Barry Smith was convinced it was Henry Kissinger, although I tried to tell him that antichrist will not be Jewish. Incidentally, and I say this although I was a friend and supporter of Barry, he also had some odd beliefs about AIDS, none of them backed up by any evidence. This detracted from the really fascinating and important things he did find out and teach.

Guess on about Mr. Antichrist, I say, because nobody will know for sure who the man of sin is until a world leader steps forward to sign a seven year peace treaty with Israel. THAT will be the man. I will not be here then to verify it, as true Christians will have been raptured by then. So, is Barrack Obama a secret Muslim who will swear an oath of office on the Koran? Surely even the most credulous would see that in a country with as great a Christian heritage as America such a plan would immediately preclude anyone from high office. Obama may be wrong about much but he’s not nuts.

This is what I sent today to a dear Christian friend who sent me some of the Obama make-believe. D - whoever put this together is not a friend of the truth. We must be careful to only circulate what is provably true. It is NOT true that Obama is a Muslim, nor has he ever pledged anything on the Koran, not being insane and also wishing to be elected. Of far more interest is the liberal "church" that Obama belongs to and which does influence him. If you scroll down our website you will find several true articles on Obama which are enough to raise doubts. The fact that the document forwarded to me is so illiterate and poorly put together tells me all I need to know. You need to do what I repeatedly tell people - check, check, check.

One easy way to do this is to put this site http://www.truthorfiction.com/ into your favorites. They check out all these outlandish rumors and plain lies that fly round the web all the time. Most are fantasy. None of the authors would survive the first question a news editor would ask: How do you know this? The second question: Who said it and what are their qualifications? Have you checked their credentials? The third, When? The fourth: What was the occasion and what was the standing of the reporter? By this time all these idiots who fill the internet with make-believe would be whimpering and rushing out the door. Those are things I would like all of you who rush to circulate material round the internet to ponder on. Remember, the hallmark of the end times is DECEPTION. Don’t be one of the deceivers.