In most cases, coagulated lies lead to the prevalence of specific sinful activities amongst people groups like families, tribes, nations, generations, etc. Other times, they may not necessarily lead to sin, but to subtle negative human traits like gullibility, lack of purpose, laziness, skepticism, loss of hope, etc. The bottom line is that if a lie you believe goes unchecked, it grows to become a monster you are not equipped to deal with. 

Let’s take, for example, Postmodernism as an intellectual movement. I am no expert on the topic, but it is a philosophy that I find interesting, especially because of its prominent yet discreet presence in the trendy ideas of today. 

• Postmodernism is a movement that is characterized by skepticism, relativism, and a critique of grand narratives and universal truths. This philosophy indicates that there are no absolutes; everything about human reality is subjective. It has influenced disciplines such as architecture, art, and literature, creating unconventional approaches and non-uniform interpretations. By its name, it is obvious that it is a reaction to the earlier prevalent philosophy of Modernism. 
• Modernism is an intellectual movement that holds to grand narratives such as objectivity, rationality, historical progress, and identity. 

I would like to go on to share two postmodern ideas, and perhaps we can see how they play out in our world today: 

1. According to postmodernism, objectivity is dead. This is a very serious idea that has severe implications. The death of objectivity implies the death of truth. It means everything is subjective; ideas find their basis in the perspectives of individuals and not in this grand, imposing reality that we call the TRUTH. Postmodernism centers the individual’s feelings and view of things as the major driving force of their life. You can imagine the kind of chaos that this will generate in public discourse, education, life, and co-existence with other humans. Before I go down the never-ending rabbit hole of this postmodern idea, let me point out its impact on humanity today. I believe this idea has both catalyzed and radicalized the atheist movement in our world today. Atheism, itself, holds to the idea of subjectivity, especially regarding morality. To the atheist, the idea of an objective moral standard that all humans are supposed to submit to is non-existent. The truth is, objective moral reasoning points back to the existence of God, who is the objective and ultimate Moral Lawgiver. So, it is no news that atheists the world over will subscribe to this. The philosophy of the day also influences the language of the day. Hence, today, you will hear a lot of people using the term “my truth” or “your truth” in their speech. This personalization of truth is often a direct reference to the individual’s perspective or opinion. But truth, by nature, cannot be personalized; it is objective. Therefore, it should be classified as “THE TRUTH”; truth should always be preceded by the definite article “the”, not the indefinite article “a” or by any personal pronoun. Opinions and perspectives can be preceded by personal pronouns, but not the truth. All this is indicative of how pervasive and influential the postmodern philosophy can be. 
2. Postmodernists do not believe in dialogue (according to Jordan Peterson). This implies that they are often unwelcoming of divergent views on a topic. Hence, they tend to only entertain ideas similar to theirs or those that affirm theirs. I believe that this gave rise to the “cancel culture” we see pervasive in our world today. Where individuals are stripped of their credibility and credentials, sometimes because they shared an idea that is not in tune with the trendy philosophy of the day. Some speakers have been banned from speaking at some universities for this reason, and public figures have been ‘cancelled’ for things they said or shared on their social media pages. To be cancelled in this generation is to be boycotted; you, your person, anything that concerns you, and anything you produce will be disregarded by the masses. 

This is what I mean by untruths coagulating into something far more dangerous than the base lie. Postmodernism is only one of such philosophies. You can imagine how deadly this reality of coagulated lies and their impact on humanity is. My focus in this write-up is on the mob mentality of most people who hold to such philosophies. Usually, you will find that they act and serve the community of people who think like them without necessarily interrogating issues. So long as they identify with an idea and the community that is pushing it, that is always ample reason to act in the interest of that group without seeking the truth. 

Moving on, I will illustrate the above-stated argument from the bible. The biblical case study for this write-up is found in Acts 19, which tells the story of Paul’s missionary work in the city of Ephesus. I won’t bore you with the details; I will only highlight the aspects relevant to this article’s theme. 

By the power of the Holy Spirit, Paul achieved great things in his ministry. Entire cities turned to God, forsaking idolatry; case in point, the city of Ephesus. Not only in Ephesus, but throughout the whole of Asia, according to Acts 19:25. This alarmed Demetrius, a silversmith and astute businessman, who made and sold silver shrines of the goddess Artemis. He gathered the craftsmen and others in the city and stirred them up against Paul’s ministry for the following reasons: 

And there is danger not only that this trade of ours may come into disrepute but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis may be counted as nothing, and that she may even be deposed from her magnificence, she whom all Asia and the world worship. Acts 19:27

We can draw a few conclusions based on the bible verse above, but the most outstanding claim here is that the worship of Artemis was widespread in all of Asia and the ancient world. Paul’s message seemed to draw people away from it and rather towards God. In verse 26, Demetrius states that Paul taught throughout his ministry in Asia that “… gods made with hands are not gods”. This is very consistent with Paul’s teachings, seeing that he speaks against idolatry in 1st Corinthians 8, where he said: we know that ‘an idol has no real existence,” and that “there is no God but one”. And even in 1 Corinthians 10:20, Paul states that when pagans offer sacrifices to idols, they do so to demons instead.

The point here is: Is it true that gods made with hands are no gods? And is it true that idols are just props with demonic backing? I believe these questions are legitimate. The people of Ephesus, especially the business community, should have been preoccupied by these questions and a quest to find answers, instead, they thought of the decline in the demand for their products and the waning interest in the worship of Artemis. 

Demetrius’s campaign threw the whole city into an uproar. I would like to emphasize two interesting characteristics of the riots that accompanied it. 

1. The people were enraged, and they came together chanting “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”. The chants went on for 2 hours (v. 34).
2. Now, some cried out one thing, some another, for the assembly was in confusion, and most of them did not know why they had come together. Acts 19:32.

I would like to stress the second point here because it relates to the mob mentality point I made earlier. When a lie grows to become a philosophy, religion, worldview, or even church doctrine, sometimes it tends to be a strong movement that fuels a lot of disorderliness and chaos. People often subscribe to it without knowing the full implications of their choice. Especially in the story of the revival in Ephesus, many joined in the religious chant of “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” who knew nothing about the origin of the riots. Yet they joined in the riots. The chaos is proof of who is behind the riots: the father of lies. He is behind the idea of men worshipping man-made artefacts and serving them as gods. This is why Paul refers to idols as mere props with demonic backing. Demetrius was a businessman who played on the religiosity of the people. he had selfish reasons for doing so and knew how to incite the masses to his advantage. He was looking out for his business, and presented it to the people in a way that made it seem like he was standing up for the worship of Artemis. The belief in idols had grown to the point where it was a coagulated lie in Ephesus that even influenced the kind of thriving businesses being done there. This is another testament to the pervasiveness of coagulated lies; they permeate every sphere of life and occupy every little space if allowed to. As a Christian, of course, I don’t believe idol worship is a true pursuit of GOD. The way, the truth, and the life is Jesus.

I would like to conclude by answering two salient questions:

How do you dispel coagulated lies? 

1. The GOSPEL: (So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily, Acts 19:20). This was the impact of Paul’s ministry in Ephesus.
   1. “… the gospel functions as a critique of all temples, whether the Parthenon in Athens, the temple of Artemis in Ephesus, or even … the Temple in Jerusalem itself”.  (According to NT Wright)

2. Spiritual warfare: For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion (philosophies) raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ. 2 Corinthians 10:4-5

How do you guard against coagulated lies?

By being vigilant, keeping your eyes on Jesus, always keeping watch over your faith, and doing an inventory of your core beliefs to ensure that you are still holding strong to the core tenets of Christianity. I put the responsibility on the believer because the bible says in Colossians 2:8 that “See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ”.

It is already established from the previous article who the father of lies is. In this one, we will explore, from the biblical perspective, how Satan employs all manner of devices to spread lies. 

At the center of the Christian faith is the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Paul says in 1st Corinthians 15:16, “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.” Furthermore, belief in the resurrection differentiates Christianity from other faiths and world views. The historicity of Jesus Christ is not often disputed. In Islam, he is seen as a Prophet and Messenger of God and according to renowned secular (read agnostic-atheist) New Testament historian Bart Ehrman, Jesus did exist. Often, the bone of contention between Christianity and other worldviews or faiths is the resurrection of Jesus from the grave. According to scripture, as early as the very day Jesus was resurrected, the father of lies attempted to employ his greatest weapon to cover up the resurrection. This scheme of Satan, aimed at the very heart of Christianity, would have ended the spread of the gospel in the ancient world. According to the account in Matthew 28:11-15, the resurrection was indeed reported to the Chief Priests of the Jews by the soldiers guarding the tomb. But what was their reaction to this news?:

And when they had assembled with the elders and taken counsel, they gave a sufficient sum of money to the soldiers and said, “Tell people, ‘His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep.’ And if this comes to the governor’s ears, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.

The devout religious leaders and elders of the land took counsel to bury the truth of Jesus’ resurrection by silencing eyewitnesses with money and binding themselves with the commitment to defend them before the governor. All of this constitutes the hatching of the plan to spread a lie instead of the truth having its free course. But was it successful? To an extent, yes, it was! According to Matthew in verse 15 of the chapter under consideration, the soldiers did take the money “and this story has been spread among the Jews to this day”.  The phrase “… to this day” implies that the false story was still circulating when Matthew was penning his gospel.  Historians differ in their estimations of the dates the gospels were written. However, it is widely believed that Matthew was written around AD 80. Some scholars estimate a later date. Now, whatever the case may be, it points to the fact that the lie that Jesus’ body was stolen by his disciples was spread for 80+ years. Even though there were eyewitnesses of the resurrected Christ, the lie still traveled for 80+ years. Even to date, some people still believe this lie; it is called the stolen body hypothesis.

One thing you should always remember about lies is that they spread! Indeed they spread swiftly like wild fire. Lies spread by the agency of people; I call them agents of falsehood. Of course, the father of lies is at the helm of affairs. Remember from the previous article that Jesus referred to the Jews as children of the devil because of their opposition to the truth. In this case, the Jews served as Satan’s agents of untruth and the spread of lies. Agents of falsehood often disseminate a lie or oppose the truth so that lies spread. We must endeavour to know them, expose them, and do everything possible not to imitate them. 

Below I have characterized the agents of falsehood according to their intentions and flaws. 

• Evil-intentioned people – these are individuals who either spread lies by themselves or facilitate the spread of lies to fulfill the will of the father of lies. Sometimes, their greatest contribution to the spread of lies is to oppose the truth. People who fall into this category spread falsehood to promote the agenda of Satan and this is what makes them evil. In the context of this series, a typical example would be the Jews and religious leaders of Jesus’ day. In John 8, Jesus describes them as children of the devil because of their murderous intent towards him and the fact that they don’t stand in the truth. Again, from the resurrection story discussed earlier, the Chief Priests and the elders of the Jews fall under this category as well, especially because of their strong opposition to the truth of the resurrection. They bribed the guards at the tomb and even fed them with a contrary story to spread. From my earlier estimation, this story was passed on for nearly a century. The impact of this lie, probably, is that some people heard it, accepted it, and denied the resurrection based on it. That is evil!
• Ignorant and lazy people – these are people who hold to the poor work ethic of not fact-checking the information they receive. They tend to spread lies without doing the necessary due diligence. They spread lies with no evil intent only that they lack the discipline of fact-checking the information they receive before spreading it. Other times, such people are way too confident about the assumptions and conclusions they draw about others. They tend to observe a person and draw heavy conclusions based on very little evidence. This kind of agents of falsehood can be seen in the story of Demetrius (Acts 19) and how he influenced people in the city of Ephesus to oppose the truth of the gospel. What fascinates me about this story is the fact that Demetrius’ influence caused a riot in Ephesus and the bible says in Acts 19:32 that most of the people involved in the riot, chanting “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians”, did not even know why they were there. Simply put, they joined in the chorus to oppose the truth of the gospel and spread the lie of the worship of Artemis but they didn’t bother to find out why the riot was happening and to what end. At some point, the bible says the riots continued for 2 hours (Acts 19:34). These are lazy and ignorant people who will not do due diligence before contributing to opposing the truth or spreading a lie. 
• Greedy People – these are people who stand to gain a lot when lies spread. In most cases, they either start the fire of deception themselves or support its spread. A typical example of this is Demetrius. Paul’s ministry was influencing people in the city of Ephesus to desist from idolatry. This was affecting Demetrius’ business as a silversmith who made silver shrines of the goddess Artemis. He opposed the truth of God’s word for selfish gains. He started the riots by joining forces with the craftsmen of Ephesus to oppose the truth of God’s word because his business was being affected by the spread of the gospel in Ephesus.  
• Fearful people – these are individuals who happen to either know the truth or doubt the lie however, they spread the lie anyway because they are afraid of the repercussions of doing otherwise. Sometimes they do not spread lies intentionally, but fear grips them causing them to disassociate themselves from the truth. This facilitates the spread of lies. A biblical example of this category is the story of Peter and the number of times he denied knowing Jesus. Interestingly, Jesus had already told Peter this would happen. However, Peter still failed to uphold the truth or defend his association with the truth even before a little girl, the servant of the High Priest, according to Mark 14:66. In a situation where it felt like there was a mob running on the energy of the lie that Jesus was blasphemous and deserved to die, anybody who was found associated with him or defending him would have faced a similar punishment. Hence, Peter, and we can include the rest of the Apostles except John, did not associate himself publicly with the truth because of the fear of losing his life. 

I have found that, on a personal level, you will encounter people who fall into any of the groups listed above or a combination of two or more of them. These individuals might be your friends or close family members and relations who will facilitate the spread of lies about you either by their actions or inactions. Again, at the helm of affairs is the father of lies but he needs human agents to facilitate his schemes. And at any given time he can use anybody who avails himself to him. Anytime I hear complete falsehoods being propagated about someone to tarnish their image or for whatever purpose, I almost always attribute it to the father of lies. Yes, the individuals involved must be held responsible for spreading untruths, half-truths and fake news, but behind the scenes is the great liar. In such cases, I have found that prayer is a more potent attempt at saving your reputation than actually trying to employ PR tactics. Sometimes, the extent to which the lies are spread is beyond your reach hence there is very little you can do. You can explain yourself over and over again but it will not suffice. I suggest you spend time praying about it and trusting God to allow the truth to come out so you can be vindicated. It is not easy to seek to nullify the impact of a viral lie about you with the truth. But God is able to do all things.

Looking back at the analogy I made about lies and truth in the opening paragraph, I will say that although lies spread faster, the truth is more majestic, hence its seemingly slow pace in catching up with the lie. But when it eventually does, it disintegrates the lie into nothingness. God has a way of exposing the folly of lies and liars by introducing or confirming the majesty of the truth. There is no hope for the lie when the truth catches up. Liars and agents of falsehood often suffer bigger dents to their credibility and reputation than the subjects of their lies. If you find yourself battling the spread of lies about you, no matter the virality or coverage the lie seems to have received, take it to the LORD in prayer. He will vindicate you and redeem your image because you are his child.