Liars and Deceivers

Brian Ross ABC

"Whoever would love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceitful speech." (1Peter 3:10)

Predictably, just hours after a 24-year-old man named James Holmes was identified as the shooter who committed mass murder in a suburban Denver movie theater, far-left politicians and their media lackeys tried to connect Holmes to conservative groups such as the Tea Party. ABC's Brian Ross even dug up a man named James Holmes who belonged to a Denver chapter of the Tea Party and speculated that he might be the same James Holmes who had just shot up the movie theater in North Aurora, Colorado.

As it turns out, he wasn't the same James Holmes. The James Holmes that Ross discovered was a middle-aged man who wasn't related to the much younger shooter. Ross later "apologized" for his mistake, but the damage was done; the ABC news anchor had ignited a fire that would explode into an inferno of suspicion that Holmes was some extreme right wing militia gun nut jihadist who took it upon himself to rid society of those he found repugnant. 

Brian Ross didn't make an innocent mistake--he's a veteran newsman who knows how to get information and how to check out the sources of that information to determine whether or not they are credible. He deliberately promoted a rumor knowing full well that the rumor was unfounded. He and his staff could have easily checked out the Tea Party member named James Holmes to determine whether or not he was the same man who committed mass murder. But Ross didn't because he probably suspected that the Tea Party member wasn't the same man. Subsequently, Ross committed a sin that college journalism students and news interns are taught never to commit--he promoted something as truth before he had any facts to prove it.

Liars and deceivers have always existed since the dawn of history. When the Lord confronted Cain who had just murdered his brother Abel, he denied knowing his brother's whereabouts. (Genesis 4:9-10) When the apostle Peter confronted a man named Ananias and his wife Sapphira about how much money they had earned from land they sold, they lied to him and were immediately struck dead by the Lord.(Acts 4:1-11) When Peter was recognized as one of Jesus' disciples after Christ was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, he denied he ever knew Christ. (Luke 22:54-60) Sadly, lying is a malady that's part of mankind's fallen sinful nature, but it is still unacceptable to God in any form. In fact, the Bible declares that "all men are liars." (Psalm 116:11)

The apostle Paul prophesied that the end-time world will see a proliferation of liars, many of whom will persecute God's true people: "In fact, anyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil men and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived." (2Timothy 3:13) Brian Ross is but one of those deceivers. He may truly believe that there are no eternal ramifications for his deception. But there are. Some will argue that he sincerely apologized for his recent "mistake." But only time will tell us whether that's really true or not.