Lying the truth

Telling whether a person lies is not difficult especially when people make an outright lie. We do not need a lie detector to tell if a child is lying because they always make a genuine lie.

What make a lie difficult to tell is that people never lie wholly. It is always lie in combination with truth. The truth obscures the lie and makes it difficult or even impossible to detect lie sometimes.

Satan, the father of all lies, does the same too in lying. Satan never makes a pure lie. It is always a half truth and half lie type of lie. In the temptation of Jesus, the tempter is right when he says "you are Son of God" but immediately follow with a lie to say "tell this stone to become bread."

Again, he says the truth that "you are Son of God", but again he lies to say "throw yourself down." He is right too to say "all this I will give you", but wrong to say "if you bow down and worship me." John says he is the prince of this world and he does have a super natural power to give. He is right in a sense in the power of giving. But bowing down to him is a lie against God's commandment.

Many people are unable to detect this half truth and half lie telling nature of Satan. This is why we have so many Satan worshipers with a hope for their blessing.

Another vivid Biblical illustration of Satan's lying technique is seen in the whole chapter 36 of Isaiah. Stan is speaking the truth is verse 5, half truth and half a lie in verses 7 and a complete lie in verses 8-10. Then he repeats the truth in verse 14, lie in verse 15 and half truth and half lie in verses 16-17. Verse 18 is a lie, 19 is a truth and 20 is again lie.

So, in hearing things, we should be alert and do some screening work of separating a truth from lie. If the whole saying leads you to believe in a lie, it is a lie. This may sound very easy, but in fact very difficult. This is why we read every day in the news that people are swindled, deceived, defrauded and cheated.

We hear political scandal and corruption. Where have all the talks and promises to change the lives of the citizen to the better during the campaigning days gone? Are they all lies? Again, "no", they are simply half truth and half lie that end up in a lie.

Some people say, to learn how they lie is to be one of them. It takes a bandit to know how a bandit thinks. This is again fallacious. It contains half of the truth and half of the lie. The truth is to learn best is to be one of them. The lie is to be one of the liars.

The American Banking Association each year sends hundreds of bank tellers to Washington in order to teach them to detect counterfeit. During the entire two-week training, no one touches any counterfeit. Only the real money passes through the hands. The logic is that if a man is thoroughly familiar with the real, he will not be deceived by the counterfeit bills, no matter how much like the original it appears. This exemplifies exactly my point.

There is no way we can live away from liars. Peter says they are like a roaring lion preying on us. What we can do is to live in the truth so that we can be able to distinguish the lie to protect ourselves. And Jesus said, "I am the way and the truth and the life."