Is Lying Ever Justified? Part II

By this everyone will know that you are My disciples,

If you have love for one another.

John 13:35

Fast forward from Rahab’s Jericho to Germany, Poland and the Netherlands in the 1940’s.  The Nazi’s were in the midst of exterminating the Jewish race [as well as gypsies, homosexuals, political prisoners, etc.] in the gas chambers of concentration camps, such as Auschwitz or Ravensbruck.  Average citizens such as Oskar Schindler or Christians like Corrie ten boom made it their work to save as many Jews as possible. Bribery, deceit, lying – all were utilized to keep the Gestapo from knowing where these precious human lives were hidden.  If soldiers had come to your door and said, “We understand you have Jews hidden here,” you would not have been likely to answer, “Ah, yes - at the back of the house.  Just take the left stairway and move aside the bookcase in the hallway.”

Or would you?  Corrie’s older sister, Elizabeth [call Betsie, Bep or Beppy by the family], steadfastly refused to lie to anyone about the people hidden in her home.  Once when the Gestapo were questioning the family about hiding Jews, Betsie was asked if there were any Jews hidden in the building.  She answered, “Yes.  Underneath the table.”  The soldier laughed at her impertinence, but in point of fact, there was a trap door underneath the large rug on which the table sat.  She had told him the absolute truth, but he didn’t believe her.

If you go on Google and type in the words, “Is it Ok to lie to save a life,” or something similar, you can find fascinating discussions on this issue.  One website solved the problem by giving a different definition of what a lie is: “To lie is to speak or act against the truth in order to lead into error someone who has the right to know the truth [CCC 2483].  According to this definition, Rahab and Corrie ten boom did not tell any lies, because 1)they were not speaking against the truth in order to lead anyone spiritually astray, and 2) those who were endeavoring to take life had no right to the truth.

What about you?  Would you lie to save a life?  Would you lie to save your own life?  Is one OK but not the other?  Or is it not even an issue?

No legacy is so rich as honesty.

~William Shakespeare