There are two predominating and controlling spirits in the world, besides our own human spirit, that we have to do with or deal with. One of these spirits predominates to establish truth and righteousness in one’s life and conduct, but the other tends to lead man in the other direction, and the evil spirit, known as Satan and the devil, is an outright lying spirit. As we have already explained in chapter five, he never tells the truth.
By B.E. Echols
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- Stripped of All Honor, Reputation, and Success
We are informed by the Scriptures that “the prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail” Isaiah 9:151. The inevitable consequences of lying make it one of the most serious sins or offenses that one can indulge in or commit. Few people realize the seriousness and danger of lying. One never knows what the outcome of one lie may be until it has taken its course and cut down its victims. A lie is sometimes very long lived—it may die or spend itself out very slowly. A person who is stripped of all honor and reputation, and has had a successful career turned into failure and defeat by lying himself or by being lied upon, is in a pitiful condition. Such people are often left in such despair until they contemplate committing suicide or actually perform the act. Well, these are just some of the consequences and punishments that await those who tell lies. (See Jeremiah 23:30-32.)
- Lying Causes One to Err
“Thus saith the Lord; For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof: because they have despised the law of the Lord, and have not kept his commandments, and their lies caused them to err” (Amos 2:4). Whoever lied that did not err? Every person that lies errs from the truth, but there are more ways to err than in this manner. To err also means to miss one’s aim, to make a mistake, to go astray morally, to sin, and, in every case, to wander from the truth. When one begins to consider the punishments that await the person who tells lies, he can readily see that such a life or practice never pays off with anything that is good or worthwhile. Well enough, the liar has his payday coming, even if it is sometimes quite delayed (Romans 2:2-9). The worst error of lying is that it certainly diverts one’s steps from the path of life to that of eternal death and agony. (See Revelation 21:8, 27.)
- Lying Causes God to Remove One’s Name from the Book of Life
God informed Moses, “Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book.” If there is any sin that would prompt God to take one’s name off the
Book of Life, it is the sin of lying; but it is not a question of the degree of sin that is committed—if it is sin, one’s name is removed. (See Exodus 32:33 with Psalm 69:27-28.) I suppose that my readers all know what the consequences are of having one’s name removed from the Book of Life. It simply means that one’s right to eternal life has been canceled and that he must spend eternity with the damned in the lake of fire. (See Revelation 20:15.) There is no chance of being saved for one who dies after God removes his name from the Book of Life, unless he gets God to replace it before he dies.
- God’s hand is against All Liars
This alone is a terrible punishment for lying. If God be against us, who can be for us? There is no one who can deliver us out of His hand. The wife may succeed in delivering her child from the hand of her husband who desires to punish him, but there is no one who could succeed in taking anyone out of the hand of God. Too, this means that everything one may try to do is opposed by the Lord. For proof that God’s hand is against those who lie, we quote: “Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Because ye have spoken vanity [lies], and seen lies [you received them by way of a vision], therefore, behold [look and see], I am against you, saith the Lord God” (Ezekiel 13:8). Again we read in Jeremiah 23:31-32: “Behold, I am against the prophets, saith the Lord, that use their tongues, and say, He saith. Behold, I am against them that prophesy false dreams . . . and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies.”
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