—By Father DavidDO 124811/6/79

1. THE FIRST INCIDENT THAT COMES TO ME ABOUT MEN OF GOD OR EVEN SPIRITS LYING TO PEOPLE TO ACCOMPLISH GOD'S PURPOSE is the instance in Kings where the Prophet of God even had a soldier wound him to make him look like a soldier, & he pretended to be a soldier & he said he was a soldier, which was an outright lie! And when the king came along he stood up & said‚ "Oh, King, a certain prisoner was committed to my charge"—& the whole story was a phoney, not a word of it was true‚ but he was doing it to trap the king.

2. HE SAID, "A CERTAIN PRISONER WAS COMMITTED TO MY CHARGE & MY LIFE WOULD BE FOR HIS LIFE IF I LET HIM GO. And while I was busy with a little here & there, the man was gone!" And the Kind said, "Well, your own mouth has pronounced your judgement—your life." And then the Prophet rose up & said‚ "Thou art the man, O King! You let mine enemy go, therefore I'm going to require your life at his hand!" But the whole thing was a skit & a phoney & a lie just to trap the king! (1Kg.20:35-43).—Was it right?

3. ANOTHER TIME WHEN THE LORD WAS FED UP WITH SOME OTHER FOLKS & KINGS & WHATNOT—I think this is in Kings, too.—He held a Heavenly Council of His Spirits to decide on what was the best plan to defeat this king. Different ones offered different plans & finally one spirit said, "I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of his prophets!" One of God's angel or spirits, whoever it was, said he would be a lying spirit in the mouth of his false prophets, in other words, to deceive the king again so he could be trapped & defeated. (1Kg.22:22). Was this right?—God did it!

4. SO THE LORD & HIS PROPHETS FREQUENTLY USED DECEIT & SOMETIMES OUTRIGHT LIES, believe it or not, to accomplish God's purpose. The law is the standard, but there are always exceptions to the rules, particularly if God's the One Who makes the exceptions! The Lord Himself says that if they reject the Truth—this is in 2Thessalonians—"I will send them strong delusion that they might believe a lie, that they might all be damned who received not the love of the Truth" (2Th.2:10–12).—He'll send a lie!

5. GOD HIMSELF IS GOING TO LIE TO THEM & DECEIVE THEM BECAUSE THEY REFUSED THE TRUTH & they were wicked & deserve to believe a lie because they didn't want to believe the Truth! So God lied to them & deceived them & deluded them & damned them! What better proof can you have than that?—God sometimes uses lies!

6. (MARIA: DECEIVERS YET TRUE!) (See 2Co.6:8.) Yes, I remember Josh always used to like to use that Scripture, being that we are deceivers yet true. (Maria: So you have to find a proper balance. Some people get off too much on the other side lying about every little thing.) Yes, some, people get in a habit of lying about every little thing!

7. I HATE TO LIE & VERY RARELY IN MY LIFE HAVE DONE IT! It hurts me, it bothers me, but if I have to do it to save my life‚ I might do it! And a few instances, although I have not outright lied, I have deceived or I have said something that I knew they would believe, I meant one thing when I really meant another, deliberately, in order to save some situation or spare someone or in order to escape some situation or whatever. It's very serious. (Maria: But normally you don't make it a habit.)—Amen! I hate it!

8. IF YOU HAVE TO LIE TO SAVE A LIFE, I THINK IT'S WORTH IT! And I think the people who would strain at a gnat of a little lie at a time like that & swallow a camel of costing someone's life are just hypocritically self-righteous!—And let somebody go to prison or torture or death just because they weren't willing to tell one little falsehood to save them! But I certainly don't recommend it & it would be in the absolute extreme emergency, just like it was with our folks in Malta. (See No.797!)—Amen? GHU!