“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: