If you read that list, all of which is born out in Scripture, it is hard to imagine what kind of lying might be done without sin. Let me say, in response to this, that there is a place for social tact; honesty does not always demand brutality. Yet, before we start excusing any pattern of untruth on tongues such as ours — which take to lies so eagerly — perhaps we would do better to seek wisdom in our speech, seeking to be an edifying presence without being a false one. We should seek a godly truth that is no bedfellow with a flippancy about falsehood. What, then, about deceiving an enemy in war?
What if someone comes into my house and puts a gun to my head demanding to know if my wife is upstairs? The latter is the classic example of situational ethics.
Why Lying is a Such a Serious Sin
Do these and other examples not prove that no ethic is absolute; that we have to produce some hierarchy of values, a hierarchy of love as some put it? The problem with any hierarchy of values which pits, for instance, preservation of life versus preservation of truth, is that you find this nowhere in the Bible. How, then, do we handle seemingly competing values?
The answer, as usual, is that we should pay closer attention to the Bible. The Bible does not say that everybody has the right to demand information from you.
Planning on becoming a Protestant pastor or seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith. Eventually, he entered the Catholic Church. The idea of an All-Perfect Being lying involves a logical contradiction, just like the idea of a square circle.
Is lying a sin?
Scripture repeatedly affirms the truthfulness of God. As early as the book of Numbers, we read: But Hebrews goes a step further, saying not only that God does not lie, but speaking of it being impossible for God to lie: Talking Nonsense In my latest book, A Daily Defense , I take up the question of whether God could make up a stone too heavy for him to lift, which poses the same kind of challenge to divine omnipotence that we are considering here. You can say all sorts of things that amount to gibberish.
God can the helium the the an a five wooden the the the next. Taking the terms in their normal senses, this sentence is also jibberish: God can make colorless green ideas sleep furiously. The same is true of sentences like: God can make four-sided triangles. God can make square circles. By definition, a triangle has three sides, not four. And by definition, a circle is not square. Same thing goes for married bachelors, two-horned unicorns, and colorless green ideas. What Omnipotence Means This gets us to the issue of omnipotence. Hence again we find hyperbolical expressions in Holy Writ.
Suggest a Verse
On the contrary, It is written Ecclus. Now a lie is evil in respect of its genus, since it is an action bearing on undue matter. For as words are naturally signs of intellectual acts, it is unnatural and undue for anyone to signify by words something that is not in his mind. Hence the Philosopher says Ethic. Reply to Objection 1: It is unlawful to hold that any false assertion is contained either in the Gospel or in any canonical Scripture, or that the writers thereof have told untruths, because faith would be deprived of its certitude which is based on the authority of Holy Writ.
That the words of certain people are variously reported in the Gospel and other sacred writings does not constitute a lie.
What does the Bible say about lying? Is lying a sin?
Hence Augustine says De Consens. The midwives were rewarded, not for their lie, but for their fear of God, and for their good-will, which latter led them to tell a lie.
- Le bonheur dun couple de vingt à quatre-vingts ans (Points de vue) (French Edition).
- The Flute-dog Commando.
- Miracoli Sbagliati (Controvento) (Italian Edition);
- Is lying a sin? What does the Bible say about lying?.
Hence it is expressly stated Ex. Reply to Objection 3: In Holy Writ, as Augustine observes Lib.
If, however, any of their statements appear to be untruthful, we must understand such statements to have been figurative and prophetic. Hence Augustine says Lib. Wherefore Abraham himself said Gn. Jacob's assertion that he was Esau, Isaac's first-born, was spoken in a mystical sense, because, to wit, the latter's birthright was due to him by right: Some, however, are commended in the Scriptures, not on account of perfect virtue, but for a certain virtuous disposition, seeing that it was owing to some praiseworthy sentiment that they were moved to do certain undue things.