Right or Wrong?

You are surre up early UM.

My gut response is no, God hates lying. I want to say that we should ALWAYS tell the truth and leave the results up to God.

Good question, worth mulling over.

 

Anyone heard of Corrie Ten Boom? Her family hid Jews from the Nazis via a hidden room behind a closet in their house in the Netherlands. Doing so was illegal. The enemy was deceived, but it clearly wasn't wrong.

If Corrie Ten Boom sinned, may I be cursed with the courage to sin so boldly as she.

 

Erm... OK I'm not sure about this, but where did you get the bit about the believers at berea deliberately deceiving his persecutors?

The way I read it, the guys in berea knew that Paul was in danger, so they sent him away. Silas and Timothy stayed behind (why? we don't know exactly)... but I don't read anything about a deliberate deception?

 

John, this was brought up before: Corrie was later known to have said she wished she hadn't lied.

There are oh-so-many verses in the New Testament that exhort us to speak the truth.

When one starts engaging in situational ethics, where does it stop?

 

People,

Doesn't it say somewhere in the Bible that God sent a deceiving spirit upon someone ? Sure thats God but perhaps deceit is not always inappropriate.

Where does it end ? A Christian in military counterintelligence would spend a lot of time deceiving potential foes as to capability / extent.

I heard a story re a concentration camp Dr who aborted 3000 odd babies because being found pregnant the mother would go to the gas chamber. Was he wrong ? No I don't think so. He saved 3000 odd people by deceiving the Nazis and performing abortion. ( For the record I'm 99% against abortion ! ).

Its not all clear cut is it ? The where does it all stop needs to be seen against the slippery slope fallacy.

My 0.02$ worth.
best wishes to all

Doug_mmm

 

Yes and it one of the strangest if not the strangest accounts of God dealing with men in the Scripture (IMO).

1 Kings 22

20 And the LORD said, Who shall persuade Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead? And one said on this manner, and another said on that manner.

21 And there came forth a spirit, and stood before the LORD, and said, I will persuade him.

22 And the LORD said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, Thou shalt persuade him, and prevail also: go forth, and do so.

23 Now therefore, behold, the LORD hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets, and the LORD hath spoken evil concerning thee.

HankD

 

Of course, that's the moral dilemma. This only displays how high her moral character was. But when faced with the choice of being deceptive or turning over a person to be butchered, she chose to save people. It's not a right/wrong issue, it's a moral issue, that we hopefully will never have to face in our lifetimes.

BTW - I live near Corrie Ten Boom's gravesite. Her grave is marked with a simple headstone that reads, "Jesus is Victor". The woman inspires, even in death.

 

1Sa 16:2
And Samuel said, How can I go? if Saul hear it, he will kill me. And the LORD said, Take an heifer with thee, and say, I am come to sacrifice to the LORD.

Exodus 1:15-21
And the king of Egypt spake to the Hebrew midwives, of which the name of the one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other Puah: And he said, When ye do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them upon the stools; if it be a son, then ye shall kill him: but if it be a daughter, then she shall live. But the midwives feared God, and did not as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the men children alive. And the king of Egypt called for the midwives, and said unto them, Why have ye done this thing, and have saved the men children alive? And the midwives said unto Pharaoh, Because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women; for they are lively, and are delivered ere the midwives come in unto them. Therefore God dealt well with the midwives: and the people multiplied, and waxed very mighty. And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, that he made them houses.

Joshua 2:3-6
And the king of Jericho sent unto Rahab, saying, Bring forth the men that are come to thee, which are entered into thine house: for they be come to search out all the country. And the woman took the two men, and hid them, and said thus, There came men unto me, but I wist not whence they were: And it came to pass about the time of shutting of the gate, when it was dark, that the men went out: whither the men went I wot not: pursue after them quickly; for ye shall overtake them. But she had brought them up to the roof of the house, and hid them with the stalks of flax, which she had laid in order upon the roof.

Jas 2:25
Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way?

but

Re 21:8
But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.