“You shall not bear false testimony against your neighbor.” -Exodus 20:16
No one likes being lied to. But it sure is amazing how in reality, a person will lie to either make themselves look better or to protect themselves from scrutiny. Lying is a sin that no one is taught; it’s an instinct. That’s the sinful nature easily on display. The first recorded lie told by man was Cain covering his tracks for his murder of Abel, and man hasn’t stopped lying since. Lying lips are the second thing listed by God in the things he hates the most behind a proud look/haughty eyes. Pride is why we lie, because it’s all about self-image. When we exaggerate, we are lying (the use of hyperbole is not a case of this). Those white lies are still lying. Guess what? It does not take much for me to know that I am a liar. I have told lies. I generally am truthful, however all it takes is one lie and by definition I am a liar. I’ve broken this commandment. And guess what? So have you. I don’t have to know your heart or your lifestyle. I just know how mankind is and what Scripture say about us.
Idolatry in regard to lying is like murder or adultery: idolatry leads to it. Now before I go further, I want to make clear that many people are truly sincere in what they believe, and they actually believe it. So while like murder, not all idolatry produces lying, but it certainly plays a role in the practices of idolatry.
Perhaps the clearest example of lying as a direct result of following an idolatrous practice is in Islam with the practice of taqiyya. It is the teaching that in the face of persecution or if it helps the cause of Islam, you can lie to the face of an “infidel.” It is important to realize that Islam teaches conquest and there truly is no such thing as a “moderate Muslim.” They are only “moderate” when they are in the minority, but the moment the majority is Muslim, suddenly they become “radical” in part because the last thing they want is for the “radicals” to think they aren’t Muslim. So they will lie to your face and not think twice about it.
The occult practices are heavy on lying. Remember, a lie is not just a blatant falsehood. It’s also a withholding of the full truth, and it’s speaking partial truths. In the occult, people seek the “advice of the spirits.” They are literally communing with demons. You don’t mess around with that stuff. To the youth reading this or to the parents of youth reading this: things like Tarot Cards, Ouija Boards, Palm Readings, Crystal Balls, the “Charlie Charlie ‘game’,” etc. are talking with demons. These aren’t games. These spirits will talk to you and they will tell you what you want to know. They are skilled observers, and they know things about you that you likely don’t know yourself. They’ll tell you partial truths to suck you in, but it won’t be the whole truth. They will say they are guiding spirits, your imaginary friend, or whatever, but they are demons. And they will get you to believe lies and once you start to believe the lies, you will start to speak them as though they are facts.
Identity politics has taking lying and blown it up to excessive proportions. We have men identifying as women, women identifying as men, blacks identifying as white, whites identifying as “Native Americans,” a grown woman identifying as a cat, and a man identifying as a 6-year-old girl, just to name a few. This is not only insanity; it’s lying. It’s lying to yourself and lying to public about yourself.
Don’t think the church is exempt from lying either. There is a lot of disillusionment in the young community about the church in regard to hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is a form of lying, and in many cases the hypocrisy comes from an idolatrous view of God. A recent book I read is “The Ten Commandments of Progressive Christianity” by Michael Kruger. It’s an excellent exposé of ten of the major teachings of this movement, but what he points out is that there are a bunch of half-truths in each of these tenets. The Progressive Christian movement does have some legitimate complaints about how the evangelical church has been, but their solution is to ditch truth, ditch facts, go by emotion, “love everyone” (without addressing sin), and forget any real relationship with God or that we have a sin problem. They want gracious behavior but not sound doctrine, and in reality, you can’t get gracious behavior without sound doctrine. They teach we should be loving towards each other and be good people, but when it comes to sexuality, how dare anyone question that. How can they have it both ways? They have an idolatrous view of God, coming out of post-modernism, and as a result they are not being truthful about what they actually believe. Kruger points out that this is not Christianity. It’s something else entirely.
One thing that pushes my buttons when it comes it evangelism is the idea that we can “agree with the world” on a number of things so they will know we are on their side, and then we can tell them the truth about Jesus. This is a classic bait-and-switch, and frankly it’s a deception. Whoever does this is lying to whomever they are trying to convert. They teach in practice that it is fine to move them from one lie to another lie only then to reveal the actual truth. Here is a modern example of this. The world believes that the earth is 4.5 billion years old and they think the idea of the earth only being 6000 years old is silly. So, if we say that God created the heavens and the earth as the Bible describes, the “educated” won’t listen to us, therefore, we need to agree with them about the age of the earth so they will not shut us down and we can tell them about Jesus. I’ve heard this many times. They are sincere about it. They truly think that is the best way to approach it. But they are lying to everyone they speak to in doing so. The rest of the world can read the Bible too and they KNOW it teaches 6-day creation with only a 6000-year history.
So, what happens? Either the evangelist who does this is dismissed, or they get the person to believe a half truth. And that half-truth includes what it means to be a Christian. Now I am not saying you must believe in a 6-day creation and a 6000-year history to be saved. I am saying you must believe the Bible means what it says if you are saved. Otherwise, you have the Holy Spirit within you saying it’s okay to not believe His inspired message when it comes to a controversial topic. It may take a while for the Holy Spirit to get deeply ingrained lies rooted out of you. I give grace for that. But any person who actively and openly questions the clarity of Scripture is not operating by the Holy Spirit, very likely is not saved, and has a false image of God. It’s idolatry, and such positions lead to lying about God, lying about your standing with God, and lying to others about God
John MacArthur makes a harsh statement about those who do not accurately represent God (he was specifically talking about those whom in current post-modern thought teach that God cannot be known or His word is not clear): “They hate the true God and are scared to death if anyone finds out who He really is.” I can say from my encounters with such people that they don’t just hate God, they also hate all who speak correctly about Him. They are idolaters and don’t want their delusions shattered, so they lie through their teeth about God, feigning a form of godliness but denying it.
Idolatry leads to lying – lying to others, lying to God, and lying to yourself. The only way to deal with it is to get rid of your idols and tear down your high places. Then return to the True God who speaks only truth and will deal with all forms of error. I have one more commandment to address next week: covetousness.
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