Why do we teach our children to Lie?

Didn't you mention the donkey and the Christmas skit some time back?

 

Yes. Are you going to show up all 4 nights to play that part?

 

Hey, RB! :tonofbricks: :laugh:

 

Since you know the hard and fast fact, give the exact time that "playing" becomes "lying". What time period constitutes "shortly revealed". A minute? Hour? Day? Week?

 

Aaron, stop trying to cloud the issue with common sense!:thumbs:

 

So, do you have the outlined time period where "playing" becomes "lying"?

 

Read Aaron's posting very carefully.

Pretend is when you do something like play dress up or act in a movie and all participants and viewers know and agree that it is all make believe.

Lying is when someone or many try to convince someone else that something untrue is true (or vice versa). There is no pretending here because the recipient of the information deems it as correct and therefore believes it to be true and lives his life according to that false premise. That person has therefore been deceived into believing a falsehood.

 

Not much of a fine line, eh?

Pretend

transitive verb1: to give a false appearance of being, possessing, or performing <does not pretend to be a psychiatrist>2 a: to make believe : feign <he pretended deafness> b: to claim, represent, or assert falsely <pretending an emotion he could not really feel>3archaic : venture, undertakeintransitive verb1: to feign an action, part, or role especially in play2: to put in a claim <cannot pretend to any particular expertise — Clive Barnes>

 

lie

1. A false statement deliberately presented as being true; a falsehood.
2. Something meant to deceive or give a wrong impression.


It probably depends upon how it is presented to the child. Some may lean more to pretending, others to lying.

 

Dog, I'm assuming that you're allowing your boy to believe in Santa. If you think it's harmless fun, this Christmas Eve tell him Santa won't be coming and that you've been tricking him all the time and see how he reacts.

 

:BangHead:

 

If you actually read my response accurately, instead of only reading it as deeply as you are willing to accept, the line is actually pretty broad.

Pretending: No one is deceived into believing something that is not true.

Lying: Some person(s) are told a falsehood with the intent of having them believe that falsehood.

For those who are willing to accept the truth and don't wish to deceive, it's not a difficult concept to grasp.

 

I don't recall anyone here that does the Santa thing trying to force and convince their children he is real.

 

Now you throw "trick" into the eqation. We are having a hard enough time discussing the differences between pretend (good according to you...if it falls under the Aaron aproved timeline) and lying.

What is this? b: to claim, represent, or assert falsely

 

Webdog,

You keep mincing words. Many factual statements have been made through this thread that can not be refutted if they are read honestly, but if one desires to maintain a lie he can twist any statement to his own purposes. It is obvious you want to maintain the lie. No, in and of itself there is nothing I can point to in the scriptures that points to decieving your child to believe in Santa as being wrong, but there are many things in this world that can't be pointed to as Biblically wrong, yet they should be abstained from:

All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not. 1 Corinthians 10:23.

 

Was Jesus deliberately misleading the two men He met on the road after His resurrection sin? What about Rahab the harlot lying about the Israelite spies? What about Johnathan and the archer while David was hiding behind a rock? Were those instance of sin?

 

Preach it brother! :laugh:

 

Jesus was not misleading the two men, for no doubt, had they not constrained Him to tarry, He would have gone on.

 

If I am not mistaken we have both stated this fact before brother. In this instance I believe the quote you have listed: A man who loves that which is sinful will not see his sin as being evil. - RW Robey is very close to the mark. A little poetic license and you have: A man who loves a part of the world will not see his part of the world as being evil.

Webdog is not going to listen to anything that contradicts what he wants to do. If it is secular he will alter meaning, if it is scriptual he will call you a legalist.

Webdog, As for Rahab, Jonathan and David, they were protecting God's servants. When someone lies to their child about Santa being real, who or what are they protecting them from, but the truth (and perhaps a part of the world that the parent just doesn't want to give up)?