Lying, Christian Ethics and Islamic “Conversions”
BY Herschel Smith
18 years, 4 months ago
Michelle Malkin is following the story of Steve Cintanni who was captured and then later released after his (and his colleague’s) “conversion” to Islam. I posted earlier on his conversion at gunpoint. Michelle is also blogging the issue of Cintanni’s conversion making him a target for future assassination attempts if he repudiates his conversion. Finally, Michelle links to a great post by La Shawn Barber on the question “What would you do?” in “Gunpoint Conversions and Martyrdom.” Let’s turn the microscope up a few notches and look at this question of Christian ethics in more detail.
First of all, let’s dispense with this silly and adolescent notion that all lying is immoral. I know, this strikes you as a rather odd statement to make, whether you are a Christian or not, right? Well, let’s revisit the story of Rahab. In the book of Joshua, Rahab takes in the spies. In Joshua 2 we read:
Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim. “Go, look over the land,” he said, “especially Jericho.” So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there. The king of Jericho was told, “Look! Some of the Israelites have come here tonight to spy out the land.” So the king of Jericho sent this message to Rahab: “Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house, because they have come to spy out the whole land.” But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. She said, “Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they had come from. At dusk, when it was time to close the city gate, the men left. I don’t know which way they went. Go after them quickly. You may catch up with them.” (But she had taken them up to the roof and hidden them under the stalks of flax she had laid out on the roof.) So the men set out in pursuit of the spies on the road that leads to the fords of the Jordan, and as soon as the pursuers had gone out, the gate was shut. Before the spies lay down for the night, she went up on the roof and said to them, “I know that the LORD has given this land to you and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you. We have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed. When we heard of it, our hearts melted and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the LORD your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below. Now then, please swear to me by the LORD that you will show kindness to my family, because I have shown kindness to you. Give me a sure sign that you will spare the lives of my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them, and that you will save us from death.” “Our lives for your lives!” the men assured her. “If you don’t tell what we are doing, we will treat you kindly and faithfully when the LORD gives us the land.”
R. J. Rushdoony (in Institutes of Biblical Law) comments:
“Rahab clearly lied, but her lie represented a moral choice as against sending two godly men to death, and for this she became an ancestress of Jesus Christ (Mat 1:5).
On August 29, 2006 at 4:46 pm, Gene Robins said:
“Is there a time to tell a lie? And them he answered it by saying, yes, you must always tell the truth to whom the truth is due and you must always tell the truth to whom justice requires, the truth was not due in this case.
On August 29, 2006 at 5:31 pm, Herschel Smith said:
Gene, this is an interesting comment, and an even more interesting link. I appreciate your visit to my site. I think that the connection that R. C. Sproul, Jr., has to the so-called “New Perspectives on Paul” movement is unfortunate. As for RC himself, I knew none of this and know nothing of the veracity or lack thereof of these allegations, but it really makes no difference to the post. You might be missing the point. RC needs no wiggle room on the definition of a lie.
I could have stopped with quoting RJ, but threw in Sproul for good measure. In fact, I could have given my view without quoting either one of them. My view is that Rahab did not sin. Lying is justified in certain circumstances. Note the import here. The point is not to redefine “lie” as if we need “wiggle-room.” The point is that in certain circumstances, lying is appropriate. I happen to agree with R. J. Rushdoony’s and Gary North’s defense of Rahab, and disagree with the Puritan’s disparaging of her lie.
This next point is important: The point of the remainder of the post was to be able to address the issue of forced “conversions” without the baggage of having to deal with this juvenile notion that all lying is sinful.
Finally, I cite La Shawn Barber in supporting the idea that one does not lose his salvation in such a forced confession, but still, for a Christian to confess anyone but Christ IS sinful and not appropriate (for reasons other than it is lying — it is denying Christ). I end with how I would like to go out if I ever face that exigency. I will never know unless God puts me in that position.
There are things worse than death. And … statistics show that ten out of ten people die.