A
Righteous Lie? [Part 1 and 2]
Bodie
Hodge, M.Sc., B.Sc., PEI
Biblical
Authority Ministries, April 9, 2026 (Donate)
Part
1, Letter, unedited:
You,
know I almost hate to do this because I know how much email you guys handle . .
. But I want to respond to Bodie Hodge’s “contradictions” article on Rahab’s
“lie”.
Bodie is almost always right on the mark and is probably my favorite feedback
man, but in this case I have to take exception to his saying that it is always
wrong to lie . . . The ninth commandment says we should never bear false
witness against our neighbor (or anyone). But if the Nazis are looking for
Jews, and you know where they are, it would not be wrong to lie, in order to
protect them, nor would this be bearing false witness “against” someone . . . I
think in the same way the Israeli midwives lied to the Egyptians about the
birthing of male babies in Moses’s day . . . I know its a rare exception, but
there may be other circumstances when it might be appropriate to “lie”,
although obviously, 99% percent of the time it would be wrong . . . Keep up the
good work, all of you, your ministry is the most awesome in the world, just
blows me away
M.H.
Response:
[FYI: M.H.
and I had a great conversation on this topic and have the utmost respect for
one another. He was even praying for my wife when she was giving birth,
immediately after this last response. J But this
shows how Christians can engage in debate in an iron sharpening iron fashion as
Christian brothers.]
Ananias and Sapphira lied to God the Holy Spirit and were struck down for keeping back money they pledged; Image requested by Bodie Hodge (ChatGPT)
Thank you for
contacting the ministry and
thanks for the comments. I know this can be a touchy subject, but please bear
with me as I try to explain. Keep in mind that I, too, am not perfect but will
try to answer as scripturally as possible.
A Righteous
Lie? Part 1
Bearing false
witness is a lie, and in Hebrew the word for false in Exodus 20:16
is sheqer, which literally means “lie.” It is derived from the Hebrew
word shaqar, which means “deal falsely, be false, trick, and cheat.”
There are many verses in the Bible that reaffirm the Ninth Commandment, and a
couple are:
You shall not
steal, nor deal falsely, nor lie to one another (Leviticus 19:11, NKJV).
I have not
written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and
that no lie is of the truth (1 John 2:21, NKJV).
The devil is
the father of lies (John 8:44), and one lie to God the Holy Spirit was
worthy of instant death for Ananias (Acts 5:3–5). Paul points out that even if he were to
lie for the glory of God, he would be deemed a sinner for such an act:
For if the
truth of God has increased through my lie to His glory, why am I also still
judged as a sinner? (Romans 3:7, NKJV).
In light of
such passages, does a “righteous lie” really exist? The most common example
sent to me was envisioning the Holocaust and being placed in the position of
lying to potentially protect someone’s life. Like most, if placed in such a
difficult situation, it would be very difficult. In fact, I could never be sure
what I would do, especially if it were a loved one.
Soldiers are coming! Image requested by Bodie Hodge (ChatGPT)
But consider
for a moment that we are all already sentenced to die because we are sinners (Romans 5:12).
It is going to happen regardless. If a lie helps keep someone alive for a
matter of moments compared to eternity, was the lie, which is high treason
against the Creator, worth it?
It would be
like sitting in a cell on death row and when the guards come to take your
roommate to the electric chair, you lie to the guards and say you don’t know
where the person went—while your roommate is hiding under their covers on the
bed. Does it really help? Since we are all sinners (Romans 3:23),
death is coming for us, and there is an appointed time (Ecclesiastes
3:2).
The truthful
lip shall be established forever, but a lying tongue is but for a moment (Proverbs
12:19, NKJV).
Is it worth sinning against God to try to buy a moment of
time next to eternity—intentionally lying is foolish and would only harm the
extent of your own life (Ecclesiastes 7:17). Let’s look further at
Scripture for an example of a situation where a lie could have saved a life.
Stephen
Stephen in Acts 6–7
preached Christ, and men came against him. This culminated with a question by
the high priest in Acts 7:1 who said: “Are these things so?”
At this
point, Stephen could have done a “righteous lie” to save his life so that he
could have many more years to preach the gospel. However, Stephen laid a long
and appropriate foundation for Christ—then preached Christ. And they killed
him.
But this
event triggered a persecution that sent the gospel to the Gentiles (Acts 11:19)
and peaked with Paul (who consented to Stephen’s death) coming to Christ and
taking the message to the Gentiles and writing several books of the New
Testament. The Lord had a greater purpose for Stephen—even though it cost him
his life. Keep in mind, however, that this, and other examples, are about the
person in question—not another.
Do
We Know What God Had in Mind?
I often
wonder if a Nazi soldier asked if someone was there hiding and they told the
truth before God, could the Lord have in mind a greater purpose? Could God have
used that person to free a great many people who ultimately died in the
Holocaust? Or have done something to stop the war earlier? Or cause a great
number of Jews and Nazi’s to come to know Christ? It is possible, but we simply
cannot know. And one should not dwell too long on “what ifs” anyway.
No doubt,
there is great value in the truth (John 8:32). As fallible, sinful human beings, our
imperfect thoughts may not be able to comprehend what God has in mind, and we
need to strive to trust God when He speaks on this subject, regardless how hard
it may be. We need to place our faith fully in Christ and trust in God in all
things—and not lean on our own understanding (Proverbs 3:5).
I’m not
saying this to be “preachy,” because I really don’t know what I would do in
such a situation. However, I would pray that the Lord would grant me the wisdom
to know what to say and how to say it—but more preferably—how to avoid being in
that situation in the first place.
If
Forced into This Situation . . . What Then?
Let’s
consider again the Nazi-Holocaust situation: there seems to be a conflict in
the situation to lie before God to try to save someone else’s life. The result
is often called the “greater good” or “lesser of two evils.”
I’ve been
told in the past that the lesser of these two evils would be to lie to save a
life—hence the common phrase “a righteous lie.” This is often justified by
appealing to the command to love our neighbor (Romans 13:9).
But how does
God view this, remembering that God is a discerner of our motives. To God, a
lie for selfish motive was worthy of death to Ananias. But, in fact, just one
sin is worthy of death (Genesis 2:17). (This should be a reminder that we
should continually praise God for His grace that is bestowed upon us). But
let’s look at Scripture again. The two greatest commandments are:
Then one of
the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, perceiving that He
had answered them well, asked Him, “Which is the first [Ed. Meaning
greatest/foremost] commandment of all?” Jesus answered him, “The first of all
the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one. And
you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with
all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. And
the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There
is no other commandment greater than these” (Mark 12:28–31).
Jesus tells
us that all the commandments can be summed up into these two statements. But of
these two, the first is to love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all
your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. So, this would trump
the second. Our actions toward God should trump our actions toward men. Peter
also affirmed this:
But Peter and
the other apostles answered and said: “We ought to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29).
If we love
God, we should obey Him (John 14:15). To love God first means to obey Him
first—before looking at our neighbor. So, is the greater good trusting God when
He says not to lie or trusting in our fallible, sinful minds about the
uncertain future?
Consider this
carefully. In the situation of a Nazi beating on the door, we have assumed a
lie would save a life, but really we don’t know. So, one would be opting to lie
and disobey God without the certainty of saving a life—keeping in mind that all
are ultimately condemned to die physically. Besides, whether one lied or not
may not have stopped the Nazi solders from searching the house anyway.
As
Christians, we need to keep in mind that Jesus Christ reigns. All authority has
been given to Him (Matthew 28:18), and He sits on the throne of God at
the right hand of the Father (Acts 2:33; Hebrews 8:1). Nothing can happen without
His say. Even Satan could not touch Peter without Christ’s approval (Luke 22:31).
Regardless, if one were to lie or not, Jesus Christ is in control of timing
every person’s life and able to discern our motives. It is not for us to worry
over what might become, but rather to place our faith and obedience in Christ
and to let Him do the reigning. For we do not know the future, whereas God has
been telling the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10).
A Righteous
Lie? Part 2
Letter,
unedited:
Wow,
you put a lot of work in to that answer Bodie, and from a biblical basis too. I
agree with you 100% about lying to protect yourself, that could be interpreted
as mere cowardice, and I think most of your biblical examples dealt with that.
However there is a scripture in Exodus ch.1 vs. 15–22, in which the Jewish
midwives are told to kill all the male babies they delivered but refused to do
so. When asked why they hadn’t destroyed the babies, they told the Egyptians
the Hebrew women simply gave birth faster than the Egyptian women, and had the
babies before the midwives got there. Vs.17 however says that the Jewish
midwives saved the male children alive, so here they are lying not only to save
the male babies but probably to escape punishment from the Egyptians. Vs. 20
says that God dealt well with the midwives for doing this. I think this is one
of the rare examples or cases where lying would truly not be offensive to our
Creator. At any rate, I think this scripture shows that not all lies are equal,
at least to my mind. In that most lies are done for self advancement, self
protection, greed, etc., but some are done at least with the intention of
protecting others, their reputations or physical selves. I can’t fault your
stance though, your conscience and the Word must be your guide. Keep up the
good work.
M.H.
Response:
I looked up
the passage about the midwives, and I, personally, don’t believe they lied.
Scripture doesn’t say they did. Please see the context:
Then the king
of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, of whom the name of one was Shiphrah and
the name of the other Puah; and he said, “When you do the duties of a midwife
for the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstools, if it is a son, then you
shall kill him; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live.” But the midwives
feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the
male children alive. So the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said to
them, “Why have you done this thing, and saved the male children alive?” And
the midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the
Egyptian women; for they are lively and give birth before the midwives come to
them.” Therefore God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied
and grew very mighty. And so it was, because the midwives feared God, that He
provided households for them. So Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying,
“Every son who is born you shall cast into the river, and every daughter you shall
save alive.” (Exodus 1:15–22).
Naturally,
their fear of God led them to refuse the order to murder. It makes more sense
to me that they could have informed the Hebrew wives what the Pharaoh had
commanded, and, thus, many of the Israelite women were giving birth before the
midwives would arrive so they would not be in a position of killing the child.
Midwives taking their time; Image requested by Bodie Hodge (ChatGPT)
Perhaps the midwives took their time to arrive as well and spent more time with those still pregnant instead of those who were delivering. That would allow the
children to survive and the midwives to speak the truth to Pharaoh.
What would
make pregnant mothers more vigorous or lively to have the child born? Make them
aware that if they do not give birth quickly their child’s life may be in
danger. There are any number of ways the mothers and midwives could have
avoided a lie.
With
humbleness in Christ,
□
Bodie Hodge,
Ken Ham's son in law, has been an apologist defending 6-day creation and
opposing evolution since 1998. He spent 21 years working at Answers in
Genesis as a speaker, writer, and researcher as well as a founding
news anchor for Answers News. He was also head of the Oversight
Council.
Bodie
launched Biblical Authority Ministries in 2015 as a personal
website and it was organized officially in 2025 as a 501(c)(3). He has spoken
on multiple continents and hosts of US states in churches, colleges, and
universities. He is married with four children.
Mr. Hodge
earned a Bachelor and Master of Science degrees from Southern Illinois
University at Carbondale (SIUC). Then he taught at SIUC for a couple of
years as a Visiting Instructor teaching all levels of undergraduate engineering
and running a materials lab and a CAD lab. He did research on advanced ceramic
materials to develop a new method of production of titanium diboride with a
grant from Lockheed Martin. He worked as a Test Engineer for Caterpillar,
Inc., prior to entering full-time ministry.
His love of
science was coupled with a love of history, philosophy, and theology. For about
one year of his life, Bodie was editing and updating a theological, historical,
and scientific dictionary/encyclopedia for AI use and training. Mr. Hodge has
over 25 years of experience in writing, speaking and researching in these
fields. Originally
at Answers in Genesis; Edited; Republished by permission.
