-
We were talking during the meal
-
about the issue of lying,
-
and is there ever a reason for a Christian
-
to lie, like to save a life
-
or things like that, because there's situations
-
in the Old Testament like Rahab or
-
other people lying and it seems as though
-
good things happened as a result of that.
-
So is there ever a reason
-
or would it ever be ok for a Christian to lie today?
-
Well, first of all, the fact that good things happen
-
because of something doesn't mean anything
-
about whether it's right or wrong.
-
There are a number of passages
-
in the Old Testament that raise questions.
-
I think that it's a very risky thing
-
to start talking about lying being right
-
in a situation because it has to do
-
with my integrity and my character.
-
Would God lie to me?
-
If it's acceptable, then God might lie to me
-
in order to accomplish a greater good.
-
I don't think we have to take it
-
that God condoned Rahab's lie,
-
but rather that He condoned her faith.
-
And so, I'd be very cautious about that.
-
You get into all kinds of issues
-
because you have things like
-
you leave a light on in the house,
-
you're trying to make people think you're home,
-
but you're not.
-
A general does a diversionary tactic
-
trying to make the enemy think that he's
-
doing such-and-such;
-
actually, he's deceiving them.
-
And when a soldier's taken in battle,
-
is he under obligation to tell the truth?
-
Some argue that wherever
-
there's a covenant of truth between people,
-
that's where there's an
-
obligation to tell the truth.
-
So in other words, I ought to expect
-
an enemy soldier not to have to tell me the truth.
-
So I don't know if there's any validity to that or not.
-
It seems to me that in light of the character of God,
-
that He is a God of truth.
-
Most of those questions where you bring up
-
is it right to lie...
-
and that comes up in ethics classes
-
and stuff like that;
-
almost always those classes are designed in
-
such a way not to help you to understand better
-
what you should do, but to undermine your faith
-
in right and wrong entirely.
-
And they never bring in the vertical of God being there,
-
they always are on the horizontal level.
-
And a lot of times whenever you see the Lord's answers
-
to questions, somebody will ask Him a question
-
and they'll set up the ground that the battle
-
is to be fought on,
-
and if you do that you're going to lose.
-
And the Lord would answer -
-
it said Jesus answered and said,
-
and it's clear over here somewhere
-
that doesn't even seem to relate to the question.
-
A lot of times the devil tries
-
to set us in situations where,
-
you know, well, look you've got to sin.
-
No, you don't.
-
There are many, many things like that.
-
Do you have to tell the Germans about the Jews
-
hiding in your house and things like that.
-
I think probably what would happen to me
-
is that I'd be killed before too long,
-
because the idea of lying about something,
-
you might be able to say something like
-
search and see or something like that.
-
You know, Corrie Ten Boom's sister strongly believed
-
that you should not lie.
-
They had a trap door under the table,
-
and her brothers hid in that trap door
-
when the Germans came.
-
They had a rug over the trap door
-
and then a table sitting on it.
-
And they said, "where are your brothers?"
-
She said, "They're under the table."
-
They looked under there and said,
-
"don't play games with us."
-
Well, actually, they were under the table.
-
God protected them.
-
But it's not always that way either.
-
I'm not going to be much help on that one.
-
I think there are times when we can avoid
-
saying everything.
-
I don't think we have to say everything.