Fact check: "Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy" means anyone who is calling out a conspiracy is disobeying God.
Isaiah 8:12 vs Jeremiah 11:9
“Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread.” Isaiah 8:12
This Bible verse was often used during the pandemic to justify not listening to those who were calling out the many inconsistencies in the official Covid narrative, such as the cancellation of Hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin (Chloroquine, a close cognate to Hydroxychloroquine, was used with some effectiveness against the original SARS. I look at the evidence Ivermectin was suppressed here: https://firstfactcheck.substack.com/p/claim-ivermectin-was-suppressed; it is indeed a very safe medication see this article as well: https://firstfactcheck.substack.com/p/fact-check-ivermectin-doesnt-help ) And the very idea of coercing a medication that was experimental, operation Warp Speed, etc., which was not a conspiracy at all. It was real. It happened.
Isaiah 8:12 is not saying that we should blind ourselves to a conspiracy if one exists. It is simply saying that we shouldn’t call out the same conspiracies as the majority, when they are on the wrong track, and we should not fear in the midst of such a conspiracy.
Because God is in control.
In any case, belief in conspiracy theories is not confined to one side or the other of politics in the US:
Conspiracies, however, are sometimes very real: everyone believes Watergate was real. This was a conspiracy.
We have to call a spade a spade, but we mustn’t be afraid. We shouldn’t live in fear all the time. God is sovereign. Jesus is Lord. Our heavenly Father has it all under control.
What to do, though, if someone quotes Isaiah 8:5 at you? Well, you can always respond with Jeremiah 11:9-10:
Again the LORD said to me, “A conspiracy exists among the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. They have turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, who refused to hear my words. They have gone after other gods to serve them. The house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant that I made with their fathers.” Jeremiah 11:9-10
If God calls a conspiracy a conspiracy, so can we.
Kashar means conspiracy
By the way the Hebrew word seems to encompass the meaning of the English word ‘conspiracy’ quite well. Here is the entry in Brown Driver Briggs abridged Hebrew Lexicon:
7194 קָשַׁר vb. bind, league together, conspire —
Qal 1. bind:
a. lit. c. acc. rei + עַל, + ב; bind, confine, c. acc. רֵים, acc. of crocod.
b. fig., c. acc. + עַל (all of religious and moral precepts); c. ב.
c. pt. pass. vigorous (prop. well-knit; opp. עֲטֻפִים).
2. league together, conspire: c. על pers. against; c. acc. cogn. קֶשֶׁר, + עַל pers.; abs. (+ inf. purpose); c. עִם, together with.
Niph. was bound; was joined together.
Pi. 1. bind on (as ornament).
2. bind fast.
Pu. = Qal 1 c. Hithp. conspire.