Is there any way to know that lying is a sin?

[Ben_Sinner]

It is said that whatever God does is good.

What if God lies a lot (which would make lying a good thing if he did it), and we just never knew it?

For example, what if God said “I cannot lie for it’s against my nature. Lying is a sin”…but was lying about that?

How could we know he is telling the truth and that the teaching of “lying is a sin” is correct?

 

[Trident_H]

Sins are what we call things that we do that hurt other people. Even if God lied a lot it would still be a sin. But then this isn’t my world and I’m not that good at figuring out what God should and shouldn’t be able to do. Sorry.

 

[Michael19682]

It is said that whatever God does is good.

What if God lies a lot (which would make lying a good thing if he did it), and we just never knew it?

For example, what if God said “I cannot lie for it’s against my nature. Lying is a sin”…but was lying about that?

How could we know he is telling the truth and that the teaching of “lying is a sin” is correct?

Lying is against his nature because his body died accursed and was resurrected in glory,
“Are you so stupid? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now ending with the flesh?” (Gal3:3)

 

[St_Francis]

It is said that whatever God does is good.

What if God lies a lot (which would make lying a good thing if he did it), and we just never knew it?

For example, what if God said “I cannot lie for it’s against my nature. Lying is a sin”…but was lying about that?

How could we know he is telling the truth and that the teaching of “lying is a sin” is correct?

We can tell that lying is a bad thing through the use of our minds. Even those societies which accept lying to outsiders do not allow in with insiders. Lying messes a community up, and for that reason alone, we can tell that it is bad for us.

And we can tell that God is all good through the use of reason as well. Because goodness is a positive thing, there must he a source. Clearly the source is not us, since we are not very good at being good Thus the source of goodness must be God. Therefore He cannot tell us untruths.

 

[Auntie_A]

It makes more sense that God creates truth and free will, free will gives us the option to speak the truth (rather than force us) and that Satan, rejecting free will, goes on a rampage of telling us lies in order to feel he is in control of it all. And sometimes we, in our sense of powerlessness, perpetuate those lies. God allows us freedom to mess with the truth, a higher nature or memory to learn that lies create chaos, and the grace to find our way back to truth if we will choose it…like a good parent that wants their child to learn rather than be controlled and forced to comply.

Without the concept of free will, a lot of things about God become distorted.

 

[Charlemagne_III]

Lying is a sin because we know as soon as we lie that we had better not be caught in the lie.

It’s not nice to fool mother nature, nor God, nor our neighbor.

 

[Ben_Sinner]

Ok. Interesting points.

I will ask a follow-up question…

If lying was something God did and made virtuous, we wouldn’t get “bad vibes” about it like we do now right?

 

[Trident_H]

Ok. Interesting points.

I will ask a follow-up question…

If lying was something God did and made virtuous, we wouldn’t get “bad vibes” about it like we do now right?

God flooded the whole world, but if we did that we would still get pretty bad vibes. God destroyed whole cities. Slaughtered entire nations. But doing that would give us pretty bad vibes. So if God wanted to lie all the time I still think seeing the hurt in the eyes of the person you were lying to once they discovered the truth would still give you pretty bad vibes. But who knows? I could be lying.

 

[Bahman]

Lying is against his nature because his body died accursed and was resurrected in glory,

What is the relation? He could lie to save people from harms! How could lie be a bad thing in this case? The only reliable fact is that he is dead. How do yo know that he was resurrected in glory?

“Are you so stupid? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now ending with the flesh?”

Is the balk part is the way you Christian talk with each other? I am happy that I am not Christian, I am saved.

 

[Rohzek]

I find it interesting that so many people regard lying as a sin in and of itself. If you read the 10 commandments all it says is that you should not bear false witness against your neighbor. That’s not the same as lying. And there are plenty of examples of the prophets lying to save their wives, etc. Lying itself isn’t a sin. A good example of this is the story of Rahab (Joshua 2:1-6). Therefore, I think it is feasible for God to lie to us for our own sake.

 

[MrSnaith]

It is said that whatever God does is good.

But you must understand why this is said. That whatever God does is good is so, not because “God did it”, but rather because God is internally consistent. That is to say, it is not the Divine Will that determines goodness, but the Divine Being itself. And because of God’s internal consistency, His actions deriving from who and what He is, His actions are therefore always good.

It is an Islamic proposition that goodness is determined by the Divine Will, not a Catholic one. Therefore, in Islamic theology, if God changes his mind about something, it is changed. What’s good today may be evil tomorrow, and vice versa, depending on the Will of Allah. This is part of the reason the theoretical sciences never developed very well in Islamic countries, though their practical sciences did well.

This is not the case in Catholic theology. Goodness is determined by the Divine Being, and since that does not change, goodness doesn’t change. This is why the theoretical sciences flourished in Catholic countries… because they are grounded in the understanding that the universe operates upon unchanging, universal principles, deriving from the Creative mind of an unchanging God.

So, God cannot simply say that lying is good, and it therefore is. When God created the world, He did not declare each of His creations good, and they were so. Rather, God saw His creatures and recognized their goodness. Why? Because they were good insofar as they manifested His own glory. They were good because they were like God, each in their own way.

More specifically, lying is the expression of untruth. It is antithetical to being and to reality. As such, it is manifestly contrary to God, who is being and truth and the source of reality. To suggest lying is good is to suggest that to act contrary to God is good.

Are there occasions wherein lying may be justified? Maybe, but I think that’s a question for a different thread… unless it’s something you’d like to discuss here.