Defining The Narrative

What used to be known as an agenda or an ideology is now referred to as a narrative. Everywhere you turn people are talking about defining and maintaining a narrative. It sounds much better than ‘my truth’ and ‘your truth’ but it’s not very different. Give me a minute to make the case. It is critical to remember all narratives which are not Biblically based should be questioned and most likely rejected or redefined.

Defining the narrative has always been a cornerstone for power and control. ‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.’ Immediately, God set the narrative by clearly speaking everything into existence and defined that man could eat freely from any tree in the garden except for one. Mankind came under attack as the evil one tried to redefine God’s narrative by questioning what God had actually spoken to Adam and Eve. Satan has been trying to redefine God’s narrative ever since.

Today narratives are being redefined from the seemingly harmless to the damning. Pharma redefines the narrative for acceptable cholesterol, blood pressure and sugar levels to sell their drugs. DEI redefines diversity and inclusion with the purpose of excluding people they want to marginalize. What constitutes a man and a woman is redefined and bathrooms are no longer a safe place. A secure border is redefined as a daily acceptable number of illegals passing freely. This past weekend NORAD defined the most recent ‘spy’ balloon floating over military installations in the Midwest as ‘most likely a hobby balloon.’ No narrative is safe.

Everyone is defining their own narrative for control…and profit. If you think I’m wrong, try to remember the World Health Organization (WHO) defined when the pandemic began so they didn’t have to pay off $500mm in pandemic bonds. A guy named Fauci defined the origin of a virus to hide and benefit his financial connection with certain labs and research. Pharma redefined the narrative of what constitutes a vaccine so they could sell a shot to change your MRNA . There is profit behind defining most of the narratives today. The god of money is THE master and god of this world. The Bible reminds us, ‘No one can serve two masters…You cannot serve both God and Money.’ Matthew 6:24.

Some of us may consider this topic esoteric and boring. Some of us may simply not care or believe there is NO danger behind accepting any narrative they desire or propose. I beg to differ. Defining and pursuing a non-Biblical narrative makes one a friend of the world and puts you at enmity with God. ‘…don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.’ James 4:4.

We all know Wikipedia represents a continual free flowing work in progress. Words and narratives are defined depending on the input from various sources. In other words, the desired narrative can be sculpted to fit. Contrary to the Bible. The Bible represents a narrative defined by ONE divine being more than 2000 years ago and it never changes. Of course, these days pastors and Popes ARE trying to redefine some of this as well.

What one generation tolerates, the next generation accepts. Americans are now accepting many new narratives that have been redefined. Narratives like when the country was founded, the National Anthem and a general idea what the Founding Fathers physically looked like. The Super Bowl was evidence there are 2-3 anthems/narratives you can now choose from. And, don’t bother looking anything up on line to support or define your narrative. Last week Google revealed to the world they have chosen to redefine whatever narrative they desire by using their new AI (artificial intelligence) program, Gemini.

If you haven’t seen or heard, Google has gone full woke. The Vikings from Scandinavia now sport a narrative they were people of color. George Washington resembles the people enslaved from Africa and if you’re looking for video clips of riots and looting, it only involves fair skinned racists. ANYONE believing THEIR defined narrative should be accepted needs to wake up. All worldly narratives should now be questioned.

To keep it simple, narratives are either of this world or Biblically based. Period. Christians need to determine whether theirs or any narrative is supported by God’s Word before they define it and expect others to accept it. Biblically based narratives will always put people before profit and loving others as you love yourself. Since Christ followers have the Holy Spirit we can skip a legalistic list and just repeat what James put bluntly. ‘If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.’ James 4:17.

The world is trying to redefine Biblical narratives in every aspect of our daily lives. We can either tolerate the new narratives or reject them. I encourage each of us to inspect everything we are presented with a discipline that uses the Word of God as the only basis to define the narratives in your life.