Signing to be safe

The scam was so convincing I had to check it out.

On Monday I received a WhatsApp message, apparently from the very hotel in Bergerac where we’re heading this morning. The administrator, “Christine Schmidt,” claimed she had been trying to phone me. Unless I verified my credit card details, our reservation would be cancelled.

That in itself is a giveaway—especially when there’s time pressure. Anyone demanding your card details in a hurry is almost certainly a scammer.

Yet this one felt different. The message included not only my name and the hotel’s name but also our check-in details—information only the hotel and Booking.com should know. The text was well written, without the usual spelling errors, and the design copied Booking.com’s style. And being on WhatsApp, there was no easy giveaway in the sender address—just a phone number.

So to be sure, I emailed the hotel directly. The reply came back quickly:

“Hello, this is not us and it is a scam. We are assuming Booking had an issue with security. We have received many messages like yours. Please ignore them and stay safe. Your booking is fine.”

That’s life today. The internet is the Wild West, and scammers are getting ever more sophisticated. Think M&S, think Jaguar Land Rover—no one is immune. We have to be hyper-alert: checking strange messages, verifying payment demands, pausing before we click.

 And sadly, not just online: the terrible stabbing at a Manchester synagogue just yesterday shows again how hatred and lies can erupt into real life with devastating effect.

And this, in fact, is the world of the New Testament.

The apostle Paul knew all about religious violence and about the scams which could so easily trigger it, even through letters falsely sent in his name, teaching supposedly from him. So he warns the Thessalonians:

“We ask you, brothers and sisters, not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by the teaching allegedly from us—whether by a prophecy or by word of mouth or by letter—asserting that the day of the Lord has already come.” (2 Thessalonians 2:2)

And again: “Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way.” (v3)

Paul takes basic security measures. He closes one letter with these words: “I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hand, which is the distinguishing mark in all my letters. This is how I write.” (2 Thessalonians 3:17). His own handwriting is the watermark of authenticity.

Often he would also send his letters with a trusted emissary. Tychicus, for example, carried the letters to Ephesus and Colossae, and quite possibly 2 Timothy and Titus. Paul explains: “I am sending him to you for the express purpose that you may know about our circumstances and that he may encourage your hearts.” (Colossians 4:8). In other words, a living, breathing guarantee of the message.

Why the caution? Because false teaching was—and still is—a real threat.

Today, we tend to shrug it off. After all, in our culture each person can “choose their own truth,” decide their own morality, shape their own lifestyle. But the New Testament will have none of that.

At the centre is the cross and resurrection of Jesus—historical events that actually happened. As Paul put it: “We preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.” (1 Corinthians 1:23).

And again: “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9). This gospel is good news precisely because it is for everyone: “Jew and Greek, slave or free, male or female—we are all one in Christ.” (Galatians 3:28). To deny this is to hollow out the gospel itself.

There is no need for any extras, such as circumcision, dietary rules and festival observance, even worship of angels (Colossians 2:18)!  The cross of Jesus is not just necessary but entirely sufficient.  However, because God's truth so often clashes with so-called 'common sense' , it is easily distorted.  

No wonder Paul guarded the message so fiercely. Writing to the Galatians, he says bluntly: “If anyone, even an angel from heaven, preaches a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse.” (Galatians 1:9). Strong words—but then the stakes are high.

Jesus too warned against false teachers “in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly ravenous wolves” (Matthew 7:15). They look plausible, sound persuasive, even perform signs (Matthew 24:24). But their fruit exposes them.

Here we need clarity. As theologian Os Guinness insists, truth is not created by us, nor dependent on our feelings: “Truth is not what we make it; it is what it is. Truth is true even if no one believes it, and falsehood is false even if everyone believes it.”

So be alert—not only for scams in your inbox, but for scams of the gospel. John puts it starkly: “My dear friends, don’t believe everything you hear. Carefully weigh and examine what people tell you. Not everyone who talks about God comes from God. There are a lot of lying preachers loose in the world.” (1 John 4:1, The Message).

In both everyday life and faith, the call is the same: be watchful, be wise, and hold fast to the truth.