Lying.
I refuse to accept the Bible as a moral guide because it sanctions lying and deception.
“And the Lord said, Who shall persuade Ahab that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead? 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” (1 Kings xxii, 20–23).
“If the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the Lord have deceived that prophet” (Ezek. xiv, 9).
“O Lord, thou hast deceived me” (Jer. xx, 7).
“Wilt thou [God] be altogether unto me as a liar?” (Jer. xv, 18.)
“God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie” (2 Thess. ii, 11).
Respecting the forbidden fruit God said: “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Gen. ii, 17). But the serpent said, “Ye shall not surely die” (iii, 4). Satan’s declaration proved true, God’s declaration proved untrue. Thus, according to the Bible, the first truth told to man was told by the devil; the first lie told to man was told by God.
In regard to the promised land God says: “Doubtless ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I sware to make you dwell therein, ... and ye shall know my breach of promise” (Num. xiv, 30–34).
God commands Moses to deceive Pharaoh (Ex. iii, 18), he rewards the midwives for their deception (Ex. i, 15–20), and instructs Samuel to deceive Saul (1 Sam. xvi, 2).
“And the Lord said unto Samuel, ... fill thine horn with oil, and go, I will send thee to Jesse the Beth-lehemite: for I have provided me a king among his sons. And Samuel said, How can I go? if Saul hear it he will kill me. And the Lord said, Take a heifer with thee, and say, I am come to sacrifice to the Lord.”
Would an omnipotent and a just God use falsehood and deceit? If there be such a God we must believe that he is an honest and a truthful Being. But this God of the Bible violates nearly every pledge he makes, and instructs his children to lie and deceive.
The patriarchs all follow his example and instructions. Abraham tries to deceive Pharaoh and Abimelech (Gen. xii, 13–19; xx, 2); Sarah tries to deceive the Lord himself (Gen. xviii, 13–15). Abraham becomes the parent of a liar. Isaac said of Rebecca, his wife, “She is my sister” (Gen. xxvi, 7). Rebecca in turn deceives her husband (Gen. xxvii, 6–17). Jacob sustains the reputation of the family for lying.
“And he came unto his father, and said, My father; and he said, Here am I; who art thou, my son? And Jacob said unto his father, I am Esau, thy first-born.... And he discerned him not, so he blessed him. And he said, Art thou my very son, Esau? And he said, I am” (Gen. xxvii, 18–24).
Jacob’s wives, Leah and Rachel, both used deceit. The former deceived her husband (Gen. xxix, 25); the latter deceived her father (Gen. xxxi, 34, 35). His twelve sons were all addicted to the same vice (Gen. xxxvii; xlii, 7), and these became the founders of the twelve tribes of Israel, God’s chosen people.
David, Elisha, and Jeremiah, three of God’s holiest men, were liars (1 Sam. xxvii, 8–11; 2 Kings, viii, 7–15; Jer. xxxviii, 24–27).
Speaking of the Hebrews and Bible writers prior to the Exile and the introduction of Persian ethics, Dr. Briggs says:
“They seem to know nothing of the sin of speaking lies as such. What is the evidence from this silence? They were altogether unconscious of its sinfulness. The holiest men did not hesitate to lie, whenever they had a good object in view, and they showed no consciousness of sin in it. And the writers who tell of their lies are as innocent as they.”
The Decalogue itself does not forbid lying. It forbids perjury; but mere lying is not forbidden.
Christ taught in parables that he might deceive the people.
“And he said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God, but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables: That seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them” (Mark iv, 11, 12).
Paul used deception and boasted of it. He says:
“Being crafty, I caught you with guile” (2 Cor. xii, 16).
“Unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews” (1 Cor. ix, 20).
“I am made all things to all men” (1 Cor. ix, 22).
“For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory, why yet am I also judged as a sinner?” (Rom. iii, 7.)
The primitive Christians, accepting the Bible as infallible authority, naturally regarded lying for God’s glory not a vice but a virtue. Mosheim in his “Ecclesiastical History” says:
“It was an established maxim with many Christians, that it was pardonable in an advocate for religion to avail himself of fraud and deception, if it were likely they might conduce toward the attainment of any considerable good.”
Dean Milman, in his “History of Christianity,” says: “It was admitted and avowed that to deceive into Christianity was so valuable a service as to hallow deceit itself.”
Dr. Lardner says: “Christians of all sorts were guilty of this fraud.”
Bishop Fell writes: “In the first ages of the church, so extensive was the license of forging, so credulous were the people in believing that the evidence of transactions was grievously obscured.”
M. Daillé, one of the most distinguished of French Protestants, says: “For a good end they made no scruple to forge whole books.”
Dr. Gieseler says they “quieted their conscience respecting the forgery with the idea of their good intention.”
Dr. Priestley says they “thought it innocent and commendable to lie for the sake of truth.”
Scaliger says: “They distrusted the success of Christ’s kingdom without the aid of lying.”
That these admissions are true, that primitive Christianity was propagated chiefly by falsehood, is tacitly admitted by all Christians. They characterize as forgeries, or unworthy of credit, three-fourths of the early Christian writings.
The thirty-second chapter of the Twelfth Book of Eusebius’s “Evangelical Preparation” bears this significant title: “How far it may be proper to use falsehood as a medicine, and for the benefit of those who require to be deceived.”
Bishop Heliodorus affirms that a “falsehood is a good thing when it aids the speaker and does no harm to the hearers.”
Synesius, another early Christian bishop, writes: “The people are desirous of being deceived; we cannot act otherwise with them.”
That is what most modern theologians think. With Dr. Thomas Burnett, they believe that “Too much light is hurtful to weak eyes.”
That the methods employed in establishing the church are still used in perpetuating its power, a glance at the so-called Christian literature of the day will suffice to show. Read the works of our sectarian publishers, examine the volumes that compose our Sunday-school libraries, peruse our religious papers and periodicals, and you will see that age has but confirmed this habit formed in infancy.
Every church dogma is a lie; and based upon lies, the church depends upon fraud for its support. The work of its ministers is not to discover and promulgate truths, but to invent and disseminate falsehoods. In the words of Isaiah, they well might say: “We have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves.”
The church offers a premium on falsehood and imposes a punishment for truthfulness. With a bribe in one hand and a club in the other, she has sought to prolong her sway. The allurements of the one and the fear of the other have filled the world with hypocrisy. In our halls of Congress, in the editorial sanctum, in the professor’s chair, behind the counter, in the workshop, at the fireside, everywhere, we find men professing to believe what they know to be false, or wearing the seal of silence on their lips, while rank imposture stalks abroad and truth is trampled in the mire before them.
Every truth seeker is taunted and ridiculed; every truth teller persecuted and defamed; the scientist and philosopher are discouraged and opposed; the heretic and Infidel calumniated and maligned. In proof of this, witness the abuse heaped upon the Darwins and Huxleys, see the countless calumnies circulated against the Paines and Ingersolls.
It is said that Paulus Jovius kept a bank of lies. To those who paid him liberally he gave noble pedigrees and reputations; those who did not he slandered and maligned. Paulus is dead, but the church, guided by Bible morality, continues his business.