You heard it here first: the end of the world — the day of Christ’s revealing and God’s final judgment — will occur on April 5, 2004. How do I know? I read it on the Internet, of course.

An 80-year-old Sanford, North Carolina man named Frank J. Potter is proclaiming via his Web site (www.2ndcomingofchrist.com) that the end of the world will arrive this year on the Preparation Day before Passover — that’s Monday, April 5, for those not versed in reading the Hebrew calendar. And Mr. Potter should know. After all, according to his Web site, he IS Jesus. (Really.) Writes Mr. Potter:

“Christianity’s Lord is alive and has been living on the earth in the flesh since February 17, 1924. I am Jesus. I am indeed God’s son, and I will be the one who guides God’s people Israel, and the Gentiles into and through the Millennium… God took 64 months to convince me that I am the Second Coming. I am advising you that I am the prophet Moses predicted in Deuteronomy 18, verse 15. That the Lord God would raise up unto thee a Prophet like unto me; unto Him ye shall hearken.”

Mr. Potter also wants you to know he’s sorry that he previously announced the date of the Lord’s return as April 16, 2003. “Now I know that I was wrong! And I apologize,” he says. (You wouldn’t think God’s son would be wrong about that — or anything. I wonder whether Mr. Potter, who quotes Deuteronomy 18:15, has ever read verse 22 of that chapter.)

Now, I know what you’re thinking. No one is going to believe the delusional rantings of some kooky old man who thinks he’s Jesus, just because they read them on the Internet. I beg to differ. People believe all manner of foolishness just because they saw it on the Internet.

And I don’t mean just ignorant, gullible folks who’ve lost touch with reality. Not a week passes that I don’t get an e-mail from a Christian brother or sister who’s all riled up about something he or she read on some Web site, or received via e-mail from a well-intentioned acquaintance, only to find that the thing is patently false — usually a hoax that’s been floating around in cyberspace for years. Just this past week I saw a note online from a brother whose work I respect and admire, passing along one of these urban legends he didn’t verify first. (He retracted his alarm when it was shown to him he had fallen for an old wives’ tale.)

We live in an age of immediate, voluminous information. The fact that we have access to unprecedented amounts of data, however, doesn’t mean all that data is valid. The Internet teems with the Frank J. Potters of the world, spewing nonsense into the ether just because a computer and a modem permit them to do so. And unfortunately, many people will believe whatever silly business they read because, after all, it wouldn’t be on the Internet if it weren’t true. Would it?

Today, more than ever, we must heed the inspired counsel: “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1). The apostle Peter warned, “But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed” (2 Peter 2:1-2).

Whatever we hear, whatever the source, we should follow the example of those wise Bereans, who “searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so” (Acts 17:11).