(intriguing music)

- Conspiracy theories havebeen around for a long time,

and in this Internet age,they've moved from the fringe

to the mainstream, and haveeven infiltrated the church.

One source is QAnon.

What is it, and how has ithoodwinked so many people?

John Jessup explains.

(whooshing)

(eerie music)

- [John] From aliens.

- Did you ever see such ajerky-looking creatures?

- Typical earth men.

- [John] To area 51.

- Why not just shootKennedy coming up Houston?

- To JFK, 9/11, and thedeath of Jeffrey Epstein,

conspiracy theories abound.

The most recent ones

swirling around electionfraud and martial law,

all courtesy of a source, known as QAnon.

This Washington DCrestaurant was the subject

of a disproved conspiracy,known as Pizzagate.

Twice targeted most recently in 2019,

set on fire by a man with ahistory of mental illness,

three years before an armedgunman from North Carolina

stormed into the building to free kids

from a purported international sex ring

that supposedly wasoperating from the basement.

When he got there, hefound no victimized kids,

no basement either.

Though now rejected by some

who've brought it into the mainstream.

- I want our viewers and listeners to know

that we regret any negative impact

our commentaries may have had

on Mr. Alefantis, CometPing Pong, or its employees.

We apologize.

- [John] QAnon joins acollection of conspiracies

seeking to expose a globalring of political elites

who abuse children.

- [Crowd] Fight forTrump, fight for Trump!

- [John] And the champion of the cause,

President Donald Trump,who despite the election

is still viewed by Q adherenceas a man on a mission,

a belief reinforced on social media

where he's depicted as a superhero.

Or as in this video, Moses.

- Who is on freedom'sside, let them come to me.

- [John] Separating thegodly from the ungodly.

That comparison and QAnon'ssprinkling of Scripture

and codes have troubled a growing number

of Christian leaders.

- There are probably people

in just about every evangelical church

who aren't sure what to think about it.

That's one of the reasonswhy I think we need

to talk about it.

I'm Albert Mohler, andthis is The Briefing.

- [John] In a summerpodcast, Albert Mohler,

president of the SouthernBaptist Theological Seminary,

joined other prominentChristians denouncing QAnon

as it gained a foothold in some churches.

- The mainstream media had failed us.

- [John] Mohler blames a liberal bias

for sending people toquestionable sources.

- But our response tothat has to be even truer

than the mainstream media.

It has to be more based in objective truth

and verifiable truth.

- [John] Karl Johnson, aretired Marine Corps pilot

who now leads a Christiandiscipleship program,

says the information Q claims

to have through high-levelgovernment security clearance

would never be shared in the way it has.

- These posts are alsointerspersed with Bible verses

and things like that.

So it's not just straightletting information out.

It's sounding an alarmand it's actually a bit

of campaigning and reminds memore of PsyOps and propaganda.

- [John] For Mohler, it allboils down to two issues.

First credibility.

- We want to speak of the gospel as true,

not true-ish, but true.

And thus if we are foundto be communicating things

that turn out not to betrue in other arenas of life

it weakens our witness to bearto the truth of Christianity,

to bear witness to thegospel of Jesus Christ,

the only message that saves.

- [John] He also points to history,

highlighting a rift in the early church

when some claimed salvationthrough secret wisdom.

Mohler notes the apostleJohn called that heresy.

- He speaks of JesusChrist, whom we have seen,

whom we have touched with our hands,

who we have heard in theflesh, it's public truth.

But you know, if you have secret knowledge

that's at the expense ofbiblical Christianity.

- [John] Now filling online message boards

with personal stories of family breakups.

- [Group] Christ is King. Christ is King.

- [John] And linked to multiple reports

of vandalism and violence, Darrell Bock,

a professor at DallasTheological Seminary,

warns of other issues atodds with biblical teaching.

- So if I'm making chargesthat are actually false

that deal with someone'sreputation, that's slander.

- [John] Even so, these leaders agree

most to follow QAnon havethe right motivation,

just chose the wrong path.

- We don't wanna villainize or demonize

people who hold these views.

Most of these people arereally, really good people.

There's maybe some realgood political instincts

coupled with a realdesire to live out Christ

in this world and be thoroughly biblical

in everything they do.

And sometimes when you mixthese elements together

they don't mesh as neatlyas we probably think.

- I do solemnly swear.

- [John] When it comesto waging the battle

between good and evil, Bock says believers

should take a page fromthe early Christian church.

- The church in the firstcentury had no social power,

no political power, no ideological power,

but what it did have was spiritual power.

And that spiritual powerwas the authenticity

of their lived-out faith

in the way they relatedto those around them.

And I did quite well in that period.

I think we could affordto learn some lessons

from the first century church.

- Not an FBI warning, a social media ban,

or even the outcome of theelection has tamped down

QAnon's hold, bothabroad and here at home.

And though clues fromthe person, or people,

behind the conspiracyaren't nearly as frequent,

there's growing chatteramong QAnon followers

waiting and watching to seewhether their convictions

will come true.

For followers of Christ,

the Christian thought leaders we talked to

say the only place tosecurely put their hope

is in Christ alone.

John Jessop, CBN news, Washington.

- Well, if you've ever wondered

how can the elect be deceived,

and that's the concernof the apostle Paul.

And he wrote about it,

that even the veryelect could be deceived,

Looked no farther thanwhat's currently going on

in our culture, and QAnonis just one of them.

The number of differentconspiracy theories

that are taking off on the Internet,

a lot of those based onthe traditional sources

of news media and media in our culture

have been rightly tagged as places

where you can't really get unbiased news,

that everybody's got some kind of bias,

there's some sort of ax togrind and favorable coverage

if you're of a particularparty and unfavorable coverage

if you're not of a particular party.

And so we're into a mess, but with QAnon,

this is getting very serious.

The FBI has labeled thisa domestic terror group.

And all you have to do

is look at what happened on Wednesday.

We've got a picture for you,

and this is, you know,the famous bison man.

On the left is a croppedphoto of him at a protest,

a Black lives matter protest, in Arizona.

And people are currentlyusing that cropped picture

to somehow claim that he's part of Antifa

and that the peoplethat invaded the Capitol

weren't really Trump supporters,

but they were agitators paid by communists

to try to disrupt our democracy.

Let's get the next picture up.

When you look at it uncropped,this guy is Q Sent Me.

So he's part of QAnon.

He's not part of Antifa.

And QAnon has been alive with Trump,

and you get into theactual photos of the people

who were inside the Capitol,

many of them are leaders ofeither white supremacist groups

or white nationalist groups.

And this is the type of peoplethat invaded our Capitol.

And we need to recognizeit and not try to say,

well, that wasn't usor it wasn't, you know,

a representative, thatit was somehow some kind

of communist conspiracyor there's some cabal

of pedophile cannibalswho were trying to control

the government, all of these crazy things.

And we need to come together.

I'm very concerned abouthow polarized we've become,

the dialectic that's been created.

And currently we're seeingon the Democrat side,

well, all Republicans shouldbe removed from office,

but on the Republican side andon the Trump supporter side,

all these conspiracy theories

trying to excuse whathappened on Wednesday,

none of that is true.

How can we come together as a nation?

How can we be one nationunder God, indivisible?

It seems hopeless, but withGod there's always hope.

So, please pray for our republic.

Please pray for America.

Please pray that we can come together.

And please pray forour new administration,

for President Biden andfor Vice President Harris.

Let us pray for them

that God would heal ournation through them,

that we could finally come together

and be one people again.