Photo and Commentary ©2024 by Maylan Schurch
Friday, January 19, 2024
A couple of days ago, the invoice above popped into my email box. Its subject line asked me (literally) to “Rejoice” that I had been billed for a bit over 700 dollars for some variety of Norton anti-virus software. Being an old and cynical hand at suppressing my boyish glee at such things, and furthermore, being someone always on the alert for any entities from Nigeria and elsewhere wishing to relieve me of some of my cash, I started mentally ticking off the reasons I knew this was a scam.
First, I don’t use Norton Antivirus, preferring another brand. Second, I do not use PayPal. And anyway, why does the invoice say “BILL TO” Paypal? Shouldn’t I be the one billed? Because if you drop straight down to the lower right-hand corner, you see that supposedly my “direct debit” account is what will be soaked for the amount.
But the most glorious idiocies show up in the address line just below the word “PayPal.” Please study this carefully, and learn wisdom from a South Dakota farm boy (me), who was born there.
First, there is no town named Philadephia in South Dakota. When I went to Google and double-checked this, the first responses eagerly fell over themselves to offer me airline rates from Philadelphia TO various SD towns (think 800 bucks or so), but the arid landscape of this prairie state is totally devoid of Cities of Brotherly Love.
Second, the zip code is ‘way off. Where 77728 is, I don’t know, but all South Dakota zip codes start with “57.” For example, the zip for my home town of Redfield is 57469.
Okay, where am I going with this? You’re probably ‘way ahead of me. Don’t believe everything you read, or hear. Slow down and verify. As you see by my own experience, this wasn’t hard to do.
And when someone, in order to persuade you about something, quotes or alludes to the Bible, don’t immediately bite. Just because Scripture is quoted doesn’t automatically make the persuader legit. As a pastor of many years, I have heard persuaders use the Bible in gruesomely fallacious ways.
How do you combat this? You need to know your Bible very, very well. You need to read large sections of it, relaxing, letting your mind flex with the different genres, allowing the facts and principles to enter your mind. Within the last couple of days I’ve been re-reading Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5 – 7. It’s surprising what new things you can learn about that famous oration each time you revisit.
Check out the following link to review what the Bible says about itself. And please, make a plan to read widely in the Book this year.