The 9th Commandment says the following:

Exodus 20:16 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.

From my understanding this commandment is saying that lieing is a violation of the 9th Commandment and is, therefore, a sin.

Is this true in all circumstances?

In other words, does the Bible ever say that it is OK to lie if it will save a life?

Can we find an answer to this question from the Bible?

The Bible says that liars are God's enemy & the enemy of His people. ------
Deuteronomy 33:29 Happy art thou, O Israel: who is like unto thee, O people saved by the LORD, the shield of thy help, and who is the sword of thy excellency! and thine enemies shall be found liars unto thee; and thou shalt tread upon their high places.

The Bible says that liars are the devils children and fulfil his desires--------
John 8:44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

The Bible says that all liars are lost and burn up in hell's fires beside their father the devil-----
Revelation 21:8 But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

Looking up the word liar, the Bible does not authorize lying for any reason. Corrie Ten Boom's sister refused to lie to the nazi's, God worked it out. At His trial jesus was put on the spot, to tell the truth was death on the cross. To lie was sin. He chose the cross rather than lie.

Sometimes God supplies wisdom to sidestep a verbal trap, instead of following it's seemingly unanswerable demands instead of lying to settle the situation.

Are there not some instances in the Bible where a lie was told to save lives such as regarding Rahab and the two spies?

Was Rahab lost beause of this?

Hebrews 11 places Rahab amongst the faithful, does it not?

And what about David who pretended to be a friend of the Philistines?

I mention these as they were mentioned to me in a conversation I had the other day.

Daryl I have ofen wondered the same thing about those two incidents in the Bible.

They are responsible for their actions & responces. Jesus never did such, but Jesus came to save from their what ? Did they continue to do these things ? Rahab was unlearned at following God - those words were her best attempt to save those men, David was making mistakes frequently during that time of his life.

Don't we also make mistakes as we learn, and even put ourself in situations like David's sometimes ?

Who do we turn to, more rationalizations or The Way, the Truth, and The Life ? Which One can & does streighten things out on His terms as we give ourselves & situations to Him anew ? He worked with Abraham, but did put him to the test later to teach the lessons that worship, fidelity, loyalty, and truthfulness are wrapped up in each other.

I often feel that when we take things into our own hands and think this is the only way out....Rahab...we make ourselves God and do the deciding. She know no better and did what she thought was right but had she left it up to God to work out...He could have done a miracle to save them.
How many times to we interfere with God's miracles by doing on our own, what we think is right.

The Bible shows example after example that human scheming doesn't work. It never worked for David when he tried to see if Saul "liked" him. It didn't work for Joshua at Ai or Gideon before God reduced his army.

About lying: When my relatives got out of a country during WWII when communists were taking over, they had to be rather deceptive with their movements. They now see some of the stuff they did when they were younger was wrong--but what do you do in a corrupt state? Missionaries in some African countries must always deal with the black market because the governments themselves are horribly corrupt.

Many of the examples about lying that attempt to show that it is wrong are from the point of view in which the human instigates the lie to get themselves out of a jam. Of course, those are wrong. However, when evil doers put you in the jam then either God will work it out* (i.e., pray quick and ask for divine guidance) or, if for instance, the Nazi's came to your door and asked (which they did do) if you are hiding any Jews then, I'd say, smile and lie through your teeth!

Another incident from WW2: the "fuzzy-wuzzies", as they were called back then, had been converted fron heathenism, and, more importantly, from cannibalism just prior to the outbreak of the war (guess who had His hand in that timing!) and they had been taught to never lie under any circumstance. Anyway, they'd save downed allied pilots and when asked by the Japs where the pilots were they'd look their captors in the face and say "I will not tell you" (the poor Jap must have been thinking "that's not how its supposed to work! I'm supposed to beat it out of you!"). In one case, the Jap lost his voice when he was going to give the command to fire (at a firing squad) and in another the gun wouldn't work when pointed at the native but worked quite fine in any other direction.

It sounds as if you have read the book 'Fuzzy Wuzzy Tales' by Reuben Hare. Its a great book but long out of print. There's only one copy in my family so right now I am busy scanning it and will then have it in my own computer library for good. I see the date it was originally printed is 1950.

Hope no people of oriental-ethnicity aren't offended by the "Jap" comment. We have a large Korean compliment in our congregation along with a large spanish group. Lots of Germans, Ukranians and black people from "the islands".

We're blessed with the multiculturalism and gives us a constant reminder to be careful of what we say... funny- my children's story today was on that exact subject.

But more to the topic....
I know that some will take the 9th commandmenta little too literally and will tell certain "truths" that obey the letter of the law, if not the spirit - so to speak. I remember someone once describing the commandment not so much as "not telling a lie" as "don't misrepresent your neighbour by what you say - truth OR lie." There are many truths that could be badly taken out of context... (hence several different church denominations?)

Such as: If I said I liked "Judy" because they were a nice person, friendly, talented, etc. then someone speaks to Judy and with a lilt and a wink says, "Markell LIKES youuuuuuu..." Judy now has a very incorrect view of me, as I certainly didn't have any romantic thoughts of her. (Hey, I'm married! This was only an example, folks!)

I wish I knew more about the situation in question... A sin is a sin, and if you did lie (no matter how good the cause) you'd have to ask forgiveness for it. I think God would bless us with the right words to say, and not HAVE to lie, if given the chance to speak through us... A quick and earnest prayer would go a long way there.

I'm no expert on the subject yet, but I would hope that the more we lean on Jesus and count less on ourselves, the fewer of these issues we would even have. If we were in a close connection with Jesus, the right words would just come out - just by nature.