DEFENDING  THE  BRIDE

 


 

“Can God Lie?”

 

Many people will often respond by saying, “God cannot lie.”


That answer is wrong because it is an insult both to God’s Power and more importantly it is an insult to God’s love.

What these people are intending to affirm is true. God never lies and it would be a contradiction of God’s perfect nature and the essence of Goodness and Love for Him to lie.

 

       

Can God Lie ?

 

 

Stained glass: Alfred Handel, d. 1946[2], photo:Toby Hudson [CC BY-SA 3.0]

 
   

The mistake however is that the above answer is based on the assumption that mankind’s relationship to his nature is similar to the God’s relationship with His Nature. As man we are restricted by the nature that was given to us when we were conceived in our mother’s womb. It determines and defines our abilities and our limits. But God is unlike us and unique.

 

Luke 1:37
“For with God nothing will be impossible.”   

God is not Good and Loving because His Nature forces Him to be so. From all eternity God chooses for His nature to be Being Itself and to be infinitely consistent, good and holy.

 

There is no outside force, fact, or quality that requires for Him to be this or that. God is all-powerful. He has no limits. There is no outside being or fact can force Him to be non-contradictory, loving or true.

 

There are several proofs that God chooses his Nature from all eternity to be as it is.

 

 Proofs :
1. 
God is Love. And for love to be true love it must be freely given. Therefore, God freely chooses to be loving, good and honest. These are not qualities that are forced upon Him by His Nature.

 

If we say that God is honest, good or loving because He has no other choice in the matter then we would be insulting His Goodness and His Love. It would not be true love if it was not freely chosen. Therefore, He freely choses to be who He Is, True Love.

2. 
A God who freely chooses to Love is greater than a God who is loving only because He has no other choice. God is greater than we can imagine. Therefore, God has to be the better of two opposites. Therefore, God freely chooses for his Nature to be Love.

3. 
John 5:19
“Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever he does, that the Son does likewise.’”


At the temptation in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus freely chooses to continue his path of Goodness. Jesus feely chooses to conform His will to that of the Father. Jesus only does what he sees the Father doing. Therefore, the Father must also freely choose to be Love.

4. 
If God is constricted in some way by His Nature, then His Nature is greater than He is. God has complete free will. Therefore, God freely chooses His Nature to be as it is from all eternity.

So, the correct answer to the question,
“Can God Lie ?”     is …

God is all-powerful. He chooses to be Truthful, because He chooses from all eternity for His Nature to be Love, Truth, and Beauty, Goodness, and even Being itself.  And the fact that He freely chooses to be that points to how beautiful His Love is.

 

Hebrews 6:18

Sometimes Hebrews 6:18  is quoted to affirm God cannot lie. (also see Titus 1:2)

Some translations do a better job than others in capturing what is meant.

Translations

God did this so that we would be encouraged. God cannot lie when …
GWT -God’s Word® Translation

so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie …
NASB

Two irrevocable assurances, over which there could be no question of God deceiving us …
Knox

 

God is all powerful

Luke 1:37
“For with God nothing will be impossible.”   Cf. Jeremiah 32:17

 

While our nature does constrict us God is all powerful.  He cannot be bound or restricted by anything.

 

Or else that law, principle, or force would have to be greater than God.  And that would contradict the very definition of who God is.

 

He purposefully always chooses to be Good, Honest, and Loving, etc.

 

God is Love.  It is His Nature to love.  However, if God was forced to be honest or to love because it is His Nature then His love would not be true love. 

 

Love is freely chosen.  God freely chooses to be loving and to always be honest. 

 

He freely chooses that His Nature be as it is.  Since His Nature is so unlike ours we cannot use the same words or types of thinking for Him that would apply to ourselves.

 

See another article about Islam which claims their god does lie because “he is so powerful” that his nature allows for self-contradiction.

 

God’s Omnipotence
“Can God Contradict Himself?”

 

 
 
   

 
 

 

 

 

 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
     
     

 

 

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