Can God Lie?
Ether 3:12; “And he answered: Yea, Lord, I know that thou speakest the truth, for thou art a God of truth, and canst not lie.”
2 Nephi 9:34; “Wo unto the liar, for he shall be thrust down to hell.”
Abraham 2:22-25; “And it came to pass when I was come near to enter into Egypt, the Lord said unto me: Behold, Sarai, thy wife, is a very fair woman to look upon;23 Therefore it shall come to pass, when the Egyptians shall see her, they will say—She is his wife; and they will kill you, but they will save her alive; therefore see that ye do on this wise:24 Let her say unto the Egyptians, she is thy sister, and thy soul shall live.25 And it came to pass that I, Abraham, told Sarai, my wife, all that the Lord had said unto me—Therefore say unto them, I pray thee, thou art my sister, that it may be well with me for thy sake, and my soul shall live because of thee.”
Numbers 23:19; “God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?”
Genesis 20:2-3; “And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, She is my sister: and Abimelech king of Gerar sent, and took Sarah. 3 But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said to him, Behold, thou art but a dead man, for the woman which thou hast taken; for she is a man’s wife.”
Today’s dilemma is chock full of topics to explore, but we’re whittling our choices down to one.
Can God lie?
I’m going to just start out by asking the questions I usually do!
Why do Mormon scriptures contradict themselves?
Why do Mormon scriptures contradict the Bible as they do in Numbers and Genesis? God is not a man and His word tells us that He cannot lie.
Our passage in Genesis puts a screeching halt to any notion that God told Abraham to lie! In fact God was the one who alerted Abimelech about Abraham’s tricky ways. They’re the ones that lied, not God. Abraham and Sarah are the guilty party who tried to take care of things with their own understanding.
If God commands someone to lie where does that put your level of trust in Him? How would we ever know in the future if maybe this is the time He lied again?
If you’re LDS which scripture in your canon do you believe? The passage in 2nd Nephi says the liar is cast into hell. Does that verse apply to God as well?
What about the verse in Ether? It assures the reader that God can’t lie so why or rather how did God lie in the book of Abraham if Ether says it’s impossible for him to do so?
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