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DOUG
The bible says that god causes some people to lie. In one bible story god
wants to make a king do something, and asks some of the spirits there in
heaven how it can be accomplished. (So much for omniscience!) One spirit
volunteers to lie to the king via his prophets. God thinks it's a good idea
and sends the spirit to do it. Later, the bible tells us:
1 Kings 22:23: "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."
See 2 Chronicles 18 for another account of the story:
2Ch. 18:20 Finally, a spirit came forward, stood before the LORD and said, `I
will entice him.’ “`By what means?’ the LORD asked.
2Ch. 18:21 “`I will go and be a lying spirit in the mouths of all his
prophets,’ he said. “`You will succeed in enticing him,’ said the LORD.
`Go
and do it.’
2Ch. 18:22 “So now the LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouths of these
prophets of yours. The LORD has decreed disaster for you.”
So god tells a spirit to go and lie. This is done at the specific request of
god. The Lord put the lying spirit in the mouths of the prophets, says the
bible. So the prophets were indeed getting information from a divine
source
and repeating it, but what they were repeating were lies.
Ezekiel 14:9 tells us: "And if the prophet be deceived when he hath
spoken a
thing, I the LORD have deceived that prophet..." So god sometimes causes
prophets to make false prophecy! What does this say about supposed prophecies
in the bible? Can believers show us that the supposed prophecies in
Revelation are not also false ones from god? Of course not. So even if the
prophecies in Revelation are indeed given to a prophet from god, there is no
guarantee that they're not false prophecy.
People who think that assuming that god exists solves bible discrepancies or
makes prophecy accurate are fooling themselves. The bible shows us that
clearly, doesn't it?
So god lies and deceives. He "hates a lying tongue and a
falsewitness"
(Proverbs 6:17-19)? Nonsense. He has people lie and give false witness
according to his own schemes. Why can't god get his plans carried out by
telling the truth? You'd think he could find a way to do stuff without making
people lie for him and without intentionally deceiving people. Does he like
to make people do things he hates? The verse from Proverbs contradicts
what
other verses tell us about god and lying. God doesn't hate lying.
He makes
sure that it happens.
But it's even worse for the bible-believer. The Ezekiel 14 passage I cited,
in context, tells us how wicked this bible god is:
14:7 For every one of the house of Israel, or of the stranger that sojourneth
in Israel, which separateth himself from me, and setteth up his idols in his
heart, and putteth the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and
cometh to a prophet to enquire of him concerning me; I the LORD will answer
him by myself:
14:8 And I will set my face against that man, and will make him a sign and a
proverb, and I will cut him off from the midst of my people; and ye shall
knowthat I am the LORD.
14:9 And if the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the LORD
have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand upon him, and will
destroy him from the midst of my people Israel.
14:10 And they shall bear the punishment of their iniquity: the punishment of
the prophet shall be even as the punishment of him that seeketh unto him;
(KJV)
So if an idolator, let's call him Mr. Idol, goes to a prophet, call him Mr.
P, to consult Mr. P about the will of god, god will answer Mr. Idol by
deceiving the prophet and then destroying the prophet. Supposedly, just
for
being consulted by Mr. Idol, Mr. P shares his guilt. In fact the NIV
translates the latter part of verse 10 as: "the prophet will be as
guilty as
the one whoconsults him."
So god will cause the prophet to lie and then destroy the prophet. The
prophet was not an idolator, but gets destroyed for the guilt of idolatry of
someone else. That sounds rather unjust, doesn’t it?
Bad enough? It gets worse. The god of the bible sometimes causes people to be
decieved so he can send them to hell. Second Thessalonians tells us the
following (NIV):
2Th. 2:11 For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they
will believe the lie
2Th. 2:12 and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth
but have delighted in wickedness.
The KJV has it this way:
2:11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should
believe a lie:
2:12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had
pleasure in unrighteousness.
So god send some people a delusion, a lie, to make them believe something
false. And he specifically does this "that they all might be
damned." So god
wants to damn some people, and he sends them a lie for them to believe,and he
damns them for believing it.
Could a demon be any worse? And this is certainly a contradiction, since
1Timothy 2 tells us:
1Ti. 2:3 This is good, and pleases God our Saviour,
1Ti. 2:4 who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the
truth.
So which is it? Does god want all people to be saved and come to have
knowledge of the truth, as stated in 1 Timothy? Or does he want some people
to believe lies and be damned, as stated in 2 Thessalonians? Both views are
found in the bible, but they can’t both be true.
So we have (at least) two contradictions regarding god and lying.
First, god
is supposed to be against lying, but he makes people lie. Second, god
supposedly wants all men to be saved, but he causes some to believe lies so
they can be damned.
_______________________________
Doug Krueger
"Christian theology is not only opposed to the scientific spirit; it is
opposed to every other form of rational thinking."
----H.L. Menken
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