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The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Third-day, August 27, 1867

The Commentary.

Tell me the meaning of Scriptures. One gem from that ocean is worth all the pebbles of earthly streams.—M'Cheyne.

Infidel Objections to the Bible Answered. No. 10.

God cannot Lie.—It is impossible for God to lie. Heb. vi, 18.

God Lies by Proxy; He sends forth Lying Spirits to Deceive.—For this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie. 2 Thess. ii, 11. Now, therefore, behold the Lord hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets, and the Lord hath spoken evil concerning thee. 1 Kings xxii, 23. And if the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the Lord have deceived that prophet. Ezek. xiv, 9.

The principal difficulty here, is involved in the language of 1 Kings xxii, 23. An explanation of this will relieve from embarrassment all the rest. On this point, therefore, we quote the following testimonies: Horne, Introduction, Vol. i, p. 566, says:

“It has been asserted from 1 Kings xxii, that Jehovah kept false prophets as well as true ones. The most common attention to the context will show that this assertion is as false as it is malignant. For, in the first place, the four hundred prophets mentioned in that chapter (verse 6.) were pretended prophets whom the wicked king of Israel had in his pay, and who knew how to suit his humor and to flatter his vanity, all agreeing in the same fawning compliances and in the same treacherous counsels which pleased for the present, but ultimately proved fatal. They are emphatically termed by Micaiah (verse 23.) Ahab's prophets, notwithstanding they professed to be the Lord's prophets, prophesying in his name, and, secondly, the address of Micaiah to the two confederated kings in verses 19–23, is not a real representation of any thing done in the heavenly world, as if the Almighty were at a loss for expedients or had any hand in the sins of his creatures; but it is a mere parable, and only tells in figurative language what was in the womb of providence, the events which were shortly to take place, and the permission on the part of God, for these agents to act. Micaiah did not choose to tell the angry and impious Ahab, that all his prophets were liars; but he represents the whole by this parable, and says the same truths in language equally forcible but less offensive.”

The Scriptures represent the Almighty as a God of truth and faithfulness; but he is charged by the opposers of divine revelation with being guilty of falsehood, by inspiring prophets with false messages, and by violating his promises. The grossness of such assertions is sufficiently disgusting, but it is the duty of a Christian advocate fully to meet them and to expose all their falsehood.

In the first place, With regard to the charge of inspiring prophets with false messages (which is founded on 1 Kings xxii, 23, 28, Jer. iv, 10, and Ezek. xiv, 9.) we remark that it is a known idiom of the Hebrew language, to express things in an imperative and active form, which are to be understood only permissively. So where the devils besought CHRIST that he would suffer them to enter into the herd of swine he said unto them, Go; (Matt. viii, 31.) he did not command, but permitted them. And so in John xiii, 27, where our Saviour says to Judas, What thou dost, do quickly, we are not to understand that he commanded him to betray him, though that seemed to be expressed in the form. So likewise here, where an evil spirit offered himself to be a lying spirit in the mouth of the prophet, and God says Go forth and do so; this only signifies a permission, and not a command. And so (Jer. iv, 10.) where the prophet complains that God had greatly deceived the people, saying, they should have peace, when the sword reacheth to the soul; we are to understand this no otherwise, but that God permitted the false prophets to deceive them, prophesying peace to them, as appears by the history. (Eze. xiv, 9.) I the LORD have deceived that prophet, that is, permitted him to be deceived, and to deceive the people, as a just judgment upon them for their infidelity with respect to his true prophets. This he threatens at the 5th verse, I will take the house of Israel in their own heart because they are all estranged from me through their idols; because they have chosen to themselves false gods, I will suffer them to be deceived with false prophets; and that this is the meaning, appears by the threatening added, and I will stretch out my hand upon him and I will destroy him from the midst of my people: now God will not punish that of which he is the author.

That text (Jer. xx, 7.) Thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived, signifies no more, but that he had mistaken the promise of God to him, who when he gave him his commission, told him he would be with him, by which he understood that no evil should come to him, and now he was become a derision and the people mocked him; and in his passion and weakness, he breaks forth into this expression, Thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived; whereas it was his own mistake of the meaning of God's promise, which was not, that he should not meet with scorn, and opposition, and persecution, but that they should not prevail against him, as we may see at the latter end of the first chapter.—Tillotson's Works, vol. vi. p. 506. London, 1820.

Although the foregoing testimony sufficiently explains all the passages in question, the reader will be pleased to see the following from Dr. Clarke on 1 Kings xxii, 22, 23:

“Verse 22. Go forth and do so.] This is no more than, God has permitted the spirit of lying to influence the whole of thy prophets; and he now, by my mouth, apprises thee of this, that thou mayest not go and fall at Ramoth-gilead. Never was a man more circumstantially and fairly warned; he had counsels from the God of truth, and counsels from the spirit of falsity; he obstinately forsook the former and followed the latter. He was shown by this parable how every thing was going on, and that all was under the control and direction of God, and that still it was possible for him to make that God his friend whom by his continual transgressions he had made his enemy; but he would not: his blood was therefore upon his own head.

Verse 23. The Lord hath put a lying spirit! He hath permitted or suffered a lying spirit to influence thy prophets. Is it requisite again to remind the reader that the Scriptures repeatedly represent God as doing what, in the course of his providence, he only permits or suffers to be done? Nothing can be done in Heaven, in earth, or hell, but either by his immediate energy or permission. This is the reason why the Scripture speaks as above.”