Greg Laurie: Society Is 'Obsessed With Gossip' but God Gives Us a Warning About Slander and Rumors
Pastor Greg Laurie of Harvest Ministries says the Bible warns believers not to become people who stir conflict or spread lies, because God doesn't approve of gossip and slander.
"I have never seen a culture and a society so obsessed with gossip, innuendo and rumor. People are looking for the next juicy piece of gossip," Laurie wrote in a Facebook message on Saturday.
"This thinking has even slipped into the news media. The tragic thing today is that if someone is charged with a crime, he or she is tried and convicted in the media before even having had the opportunity to go into a court of law, have evidence presented and face the people doing the accusing."
Get Our Latest News for FREE
The pastor emphasized that God "doesn't take kindly to people who do that," and noted that Proverbs 6:19 in the Bible shows God speaking out against false witnesses, and against those who are bitter and angry for no just case.
"So much damage can be caused by our words. If only we would think first and speak later. If only we would contemplate how our words will affect someone else," Laurie added.
He urged people to let go and offer forgiveness to others, warning that a problem with holding onto bitterness is that it spreads to others. He also noted that bitter people find ways to pull others into "their web of misery."
"Let's not be people who hold grudges. Let's not be people who spread rumors. Let's not be people who gossip. It's wrong, and it's displeasing to God," he added. "May God help us to follow his guidelines."
Laurie has been speaking out about matters of great biblical importance, and late in August at the 27th SoCal Harvest in Anaheim, California, he told The Christian Post that the world might be in its "last hours" until Jesus Christ returns.
"The Bible also tells us, for instance, that there is going to be a cashless society. The Bible tells us that there is going to be global instability and excessive violence in the End Times. As we look around right now at the way the world is changing, we look at the change economically, we look at the emergence of radical terrorist groups like [the Islamic State] that are incomprehensibly barbaric in the things that they do to people," he said.
Laurie also suggested that some Mainline denominations are leading America away from God.
He explained that the Bible shows "in the last days, there would be false teachers. And, it also says that in the End Times ... there would be an apostasy. When someone gets up and says that the Bible is not the Word of God, I really don't care what their point is. That, to me, is apostasy."
