Does God Lie in the Bible? Part 1

Numbers 23:19

God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?

The premise on which Matty’s Paradigm is based is “God cannot lie,” (Titus 1:2). I have used this premise from which to deduce how the physical evidence of “science,” can be accounted for by the record we have in the Bible of the earth’s origin, history and future. The reasoning is simple:

IF God cannot lie
AND he states that the Bible is His Word
THEN the Bible is true.

This also gives us the reason why we have to investigate “science,” to find out why the story it tells of our origin is so different from that we find in the Bible:

IF the Bible is true
AND science has a rationalization of our existence which is different to the Bible
THEN science is wrong.

I have made significant progress with this approach and I believe that I have resolved some major issues, including the nature of gravity and planetary orbits, which allow a harmonization of the Bible with empirical observations. It is quite natural, then, for there to be an attack on my starting premise: God cannot lie. The following list, provided by @religulous of the Twitter community, is supposedly a list of Bible passages in which God lies.

Genesis 2:17, 3:4
1 Kings 22:6, 22:19-23
2 Chronicles 18:22
Job 1:21
Psalm 201:7
Proverbs 6:16-19
Jeremiah 4:10, 20:7
Ezekiel 14:9
Matthew 12:40
Matthew 16:28
Mark 9:1
Luke 9:27
John 7:8-10, 8:44; 14:11-14
2 Thessalonians 2:11

We will take each of theses in turn for the next three devotionals and see if these really are examples of God lying.

But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. (Genesis 2:17)
But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. (Genesis 3:4)

When Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge they did not immediately drop dead. However, the consequence of the act of disobedience was God withdrawing his physical presence from the world. This caused radioactive decay to begin and the world fell into its corrupted state. Adam and Eve began to age. In biology this is called senescence. Their cells began to die and had to be be replaced through cell division (mitosis) which is prone to errors in DNA replication. Radioactive decay caused ionizing radiation which caused mutation. The mutations were copied along with everything else. Adam and Eve’s bodies began to die.

As it turns out, this is exactly what God said would happen, but we will deal with this in a separate post during June.

Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about four hundred men, and said unto them, Shall I go against Ramothgilead to battle, or shall I forbear? And they said, Go up; for the Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the king. (1 Kings 22:6)

This is clearly an instance of false prophets lying, not God.

And he said, Hear thou therefore the word of the LORD: I saw the LORD sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left. And the LORD said, Who shall persuade Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramothgilead? And one said on this manner, and another said on that manner. And there came forth a spirit, and stood before the LORD, and said, I will persuade him. 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. 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. (1 Kings 22:19-23)

This gives us the context to understand why the prophets were lying to King Ahab. This is the prophet Micaiah speaking to King Ahab of Israel and King Jehosaphat of Judah. Micaiah reveals why, when the Kings went to the false prophets they were lied to, by revealing the truth to them. In heaven God asked how the fall of Ahab would be brought about. He had a volunteer from among the spirits who said that he would go and cause the false prophets to lie to Ahab. This is an example of God being truthful, and He is also being honest and transparent about the circumstances.

Now therefore, behold, the LORD hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of these thy prophets, and the LORD hath spoken evil against thee. (2 Chronicles 18:22)

This is a recounting of the same event as in the example 2. above. It is not an example of God lying, it is an example of an atheist lying about God.

And said, Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD. (Job 1:21)

This is not an example of God lying. Its occurrence in this list is an example of an atheist lying about God.

There is no Psalms 201. However, in case this is a typo for Psalms 120…

I am for peace: but when I speak, they are for war. (Psalms 120:7)

This is a lament of a person, such as King David, in context it is not God speaking, neither is it an example of a lie, other than being another example of an atheist lying about God.

These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him:
A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,
An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief,
A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren. (Proverbs 6:16-19)

This tells us that the Lord God hates lying. It is another example of an atheist lying about God.

We’ll cover the remainder of these passages tomorrow.

Does it look to you that God lies? Today’s image is from here.