Jordan Chamblee
AFA Journal staff writer
October 2018 – The apostle Paul was not one to cower in the face of an angry crowd. However, at the theater of Ephesus, his message was met by possibly the angriest outburst he ever encountered. Called together by a pagan silversmith named Demetrius, the Ephesians heard false rumors about the Christians visiting their city and worked themselves into a frenzy, opposing the proclamation of the gospel with the cry “Great is Diana of the Ephesians!” (Acts 19:21-41).
It was neither the first nor the last time the Christian worldview would be censored by the world.
Power of social media
Today, anyone who has access to the Internet probably has at least one social media account. People all over the world can be instantly connected to each other. You can share experiences, learn from one another’s unique perspectives, and, most importantly, share the truth of the gospel. But along with these positives come challenges.
Censoring by social media platforms has become a hot button issue. There have been many, many instances of censorship by social media, and a number of these have been censorship of Christian material. For example, Facebook banned Christian author Robert A. J. Gagnon for 24 hours because he criticized a Canadian children’s video celebrating gay pride and LGBT icons.
A legal battle between conservative Prager University and liberal YouTube erupted in October 2017 over YouTube placing age restrictions on Prager’s videos. Judge Lucy H. Koh, U.S. District Court in northern California, ruled in favor of YouTube and Google, stating “[YouTube and Google] are private entities who created their own video-sharing social media website and make decisions about whether and how to regulate content that has been uploaded on that website.”
A quick glance at the terms and conditions of any platform (Facebook has 27 pages of censorship guidelines) will confirm that social media businesses operate with the rights of a private company. If you invited a group of friends to your house, and some began acting in a way that made you uncomfortable, you are within your rights to tell them to stop, or “censor” them.
In the same way, social media platforms are within their rights to censor anything they wish. They are private companies with their own set of standards – and a very liberal worldview. If a post falls out of line with what they deem acceptable to their worldview, they will take it down.
Power of the gospel
Jesus said, “If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you” (John 15:19). Social media groups are a microcosm of the world. The challenges the gospel faces in the real world will be mirrored in the virtual one.
However, this is no reason to fret. The city of Ephesus was once the site of a great pagan temple and one of the most famous censorings of the gospel. It is also the city of a prominent New Testament church, a church worthy of Paul’s letter of encouragement. The world may drown out the truth momentarily, but God’s word is never spoken without result. 
UNtrending
Social media platforms are not as necessary to modern life as it may seem. According to Origin, a Boston-based market research group, 34% of Gen Z’ers (born 1999-2015) are saying goodbye to social media while 64% have decided to take a break from it.
The trend now is to detox from social media as people are looking for a quieter, in-the-moment way of living, surely a more fertile field for the truth of the gospel.
