‘Holy Bible’ Allows Lying – Deception?

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Kaleef K. Karim

Note: This is article is by no means to disrespect Christian or Judaic brethren/sisters or their Faith. I only endeavoured to write this article because of some extremist Christians and Jews who charge the Islamic faith with deception – that Islam as a religion sanctions lying in all circumstances, a claim which has no backing from Islamic scripture. I have already responded to these claims in the following Link: Response To ‘Taqiyya’ Deception – Lying.

I have carried out a thorough examination on verses in the Old Testament and New Testament on whether lying is allowed. The verses I encountered shows that deception and lying is permitted in certain situations. The circumstances in which the verses show that one can utter falsehood are the following:

– Lying in order to save innocent lives from being killed
– Using deception in war so as to get the upper hand
– Lying in order to conceal your motives
– Lying so one can escape persecution
– Deceiving so you don’t get harmed
– Advancing the Christian faith by means of deception

It is evident from reading the Bible that it does give permission for one to lie, to save innocent lives, to use deception in war and to shield people from being harmed, persecuted and other examples. Do click on the following links (below) where I have made a brief statement on the verses and have provided Bible-commentaries to get a better understanding of the passages.

Old Testament & New Testament:

1. Exodus – Midwives
2. Exodus – YHWH & Israelites
3. Joshua – Rahab
4. Kings – Elisha & YHWH
5. Judges – Jael
6. Samuel – Spy
7. Samuel – Samuel & YHWH
8. Kings – Spirit & YHWH
9. Samuel – Michal
10. Samuel – David
11. Samuel – David
12. John – Jesus
13. Mark – Peter
14. Corinthians – Paul

Past Church Fathers who endorsed Lying – Deception:
Church Fathers Who Endorsed Lying – Deception

Commonly Misunderstood Bible Verses: Clear Explanations for the Difficult passages – Ron Rhodes

…scriptures indicate that under certain circumstances, lying is not condemned. The midwives found themselves in a moral dilemma. Would they obey God’s higher law of saving lives or the lesser obligation of submitting to the dictates of Pharaoh? The midwives chose to obey God’s higher law. The saving of innocent lives a higher obligation than obeying and telling the truth to the government. God thus did not hold the midwives responsible for what they did. In fact, the text tells us that God blessed them ‘because the midwives feared God’ (Exodus 1:21). Their fear of God caused them to obey the high law of saving lives. [1]

Professor Robert W. McGee

Finally, the reader should realize that Jewish law considers the prohibition of lying as only relative iniquity. This means that under certain conditions one is allowed to lie in order to prevent a larger injustice from being perpetrated. For example, in regards to taxes, a person is allowed to lie regarding his/her income to an illegal government. Under this circumstance, he/she is not considered to have violated the Biblical prohibition of keeping away from falsehoods. Evidence that lying is permitted under this circumstance is found in Tractate Nadorim (62b). It is described how a Rabbi allows a congregant to say that he was a servant of a priest in order to avoid paying a tax which the government did not have a right to collect. [2]

References:

[1] Commonly Misunderstood Bible Verses: Clear Explanations for the Difficult passages [Copyright 2008] By Ron Rhodes, page 29
[2] The Ethics of Tax Evasion: Perspectives in Theory and Practice by professor Robert W. McGee, page 155

Tagged as: Bible, Christianity, deception, Jesus, Judaism, lying, Takiya, Taqiya, Taqiyya