Is there one Worst than Another?

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Genesis 4:5-12     Cain offered God a lesser sacrifice than Abel’s—(poorer, older vegetables, smaller bruised?  We don’t know.) but God applauded Abel’s sacrifice making Cain angry.  Then Cain took him out to a field and killed him.  When God asked about Abel, Cain replied, “I don’t know.” He said, “Am I my brother’s keeper?’    (Murder and lying)

Genesis 9:6     Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.

Exodus 20:13     You shall not murder

Leviticus     Whoever takes a human life shall surely be put to death.

Proverbs 6:16-19     There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to Him:  haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.

Proverbs 12:22     Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who act faithfully are his delight.

Matthew 10:28     And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.  Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

John 15:13     Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends

Acts 5:1-11     Ananias and his wife Sapphira had some land sold it, and both agreed to turn over some of the money, but not all.  Peter immediately “learned from God/Holy Spirit” that Ananias lied, and he was then immediately struck down by God and died.  In verse 7, Sapphira also came to the apostles, and she too lied, and Peter confronted her, and she was immediately struck down and also died.

James 2:10-11     For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all.  For He who said, “DO NOT COMMIT ADULTERY,” also said, “DO NOT COMMIT MURDER.”  Now if you do not commit adultery, but do commit murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.

Revelation 21:8     But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the desirable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with the fire and sulfur, which is the second death.

 

Do you have a list of questions you think about to ask God after you have been at that dazzling home of heaven for awhile?  I have a list I add to and tuck into my God bag which is always on my bedroom door.  Some of you may be familiar with me talking about my God bag in the past.

Anyway, I have several questions that have come about over things that irritate or confuse me, and wondering why He ever created them—mosquitos, ticks, gnats, leeches, anything in the family of flies—house, deer, and you get the idea.   I have wondered why severely handicapped children who cannot communicate or move on their own grow into adulthood; or sometimes I wonder why an active person is now totally paralyzed and has no desire to live and God keeps them going. Over the years, I have had several patients beg to be released from the life they are now enduring, and my heart can only break for them and say maybe they need to have a discussion with God to find His purpose for them now.  

But I’ve been reading a lot of books on the resistance of many countries during World War II, as well as articles on lying, particularly regarding this blog.  Lying was one of the biggest sins in my family growing up.  Disobedience was one thing, but if you lied about the disobedience, that became a monstrous deal.  That involved trust and breaking trust.  This was something one earned, and could lose if you proved you were no longer trustworthy; were consistently late, lied, stole something from a sibling, but the biggest thing I remember doing to break the trust bond was lying.  It was a big deal, a very disappointing deal, to lose the trust that parents had given to you.  

Anyway, in my mind, although the Ten Commandments once broken are all sins, I rated them; the first three were to respect and love and honor God, and then honor others and honor the Sabbath.  The rest, I felt were kind of in order—killing was number 5, so a pretty big deal as stated in Exodus 20:2-17 and Deuteronomy 5:6-21 and lying came down on number 8. 

My brain has been twirling around a lot lately regarding the people who stepped up to help the Jewish, and others targeted by the German Reich–hiding them, feeding them, smuggling them to safety, and then lying about it.  The lies could very possibly be to save others lives, including someone who may have just left them within a few hours, lies could be told to protect others one knew who were actively helping people from being sent to camps, to being killed in their streets in front of families and neighbors.  I recognize lying to be sinful, but if another era like that happens, I hope I would lie to protect others.  According to everything I read in the bible—all sins are equal.  If you commit one, you have sinned for all.   

Lord, maybe someday You can give me Your views on this.  I don’t want to disappoint You, but to lie for such a reason as protecting others from the annihilation the Germans committed in the 1940’s, I hope I could lay down my life for another.  Thank You that You laid down Your life for me and ‘mybellaviews.’

 

 

 

 

 

Were the people who told the lies, including some Jews or other refugees who had been given new false ID papers and now when questioned had to lie about their true identity, were they punished when they died?   Did they all fall to their knees in acknowledgement of sinning, or all to their knees praising God that the war was over, and they were being let out of concentration camps, helped to resume some of their lives prior to the horrors they endured.

The articles I read about lying are adamant that lying is always wrong.  I may be totally wrong, but my moral code says it is not as wrong as letting someone be killed, brutalized.  And thus my conflict.  I think the Nazis and many of the German people were vicious, hateful, and murder was not a big sin or deal to them at all.  They believed themselves superior (no pride there, uh?!) and therefore had the right to exterminate Jews, Poles, gypsies, blacks, homosexuals, communists, those with differing political ideas, and those with different religious beliefs, such as Jehovah’s Witnesses.

“One of the seven deadly sins God hates is a lying tongue  (Proverbs 6:16-19).  Here is why God hates lying.  A person who lies hates the individual they are lying to (Proverbs 26:28).  And if you hate another human being, God views the hater as a murderer (1John 3:15; 1 John 4:20)”   http//www.bakeerfield.com  Community Voices: What God says about liars who spread lies,  March 5, 2022

I can guarantee there was no hate in my heart when I lied to my mother to avoid punishment for disobeying.  There was not.  I hated being caught and facing punishment—but did not hate my mother.  So, it leaves me conflicted.   Reading Proverbs 6:16-17  ‘certainly lying is there, but also listed are hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, and lastly a person who stirs up conflict in  the community.’  I see the Germans as committing many more of these atrocities listed in the Proverb than those who lied to save others.   But am I wrong?  I well could be, but it does not feel wrong in my moral compass.  If such an era ever again occurred, I would lie to try to save others.   At present, I am not sure if I would be held as accountable as the outright murderers; but according to God’s Word, I guess I would be. 

My interpretation is the Germans who were his higher officers, SS (the Schultzstaffel).  They believed they were assigned to cleanse all who were not German or Aryan, which they believed to be the pure race.  Certainly they were responsible for taking many peoples and thrusting into numerous camps—and if they died, too bad, if they were able to be worked until death, so much the better.  They received some of their information from informants, those hopeful they could escape any suspicion and save their own hides, some because they were keenly watching to see if anyone behaved secretly, suspiciously, guiltily, and so forth.  The SS were bullies, superior men who believed they had the right to subject others to brutal punishments, shuffle them on crowded, stinking dirty trains and hustle them off to “labor” camps, or for some, straight to death camps.

For those who risked their lives, and perhaps lied for others, are the sins the same.  I certainly understand God hates lying, and it is a sin—(Proverbs 19:9)