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I believe Gregory of Nyssa, St. Chrysostom, and other Church Fathers believed that God sometimes uses Pedagogical Deceptions (and held to the "Christus Victor" theory of the atonement), but there are passages in the Old and New Testaments that say that God cannot lie.

One of them is here.

God is not a man, that he should lie, nor is the son of man, that he should be changed. Hath he said then, and will he not do? hath he spoken, and will he not fulfil? (Num. 23:19.)

This passage also seems to say that God doesn't change His mind, but the following passages seem to imply either that He does change His mind, or that He sometimes says that He's going to do things only to achieve a desired effect.

At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it; If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it; If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them. (Jer. 18:7-10.)

In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz came to him, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live. Then he turned his face to the wall, and prayed unto the LORD, saying, I beseech thee, O LORD, remember now how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore. And it came to pass, afore Isaiah was gone out into the middle court, F114 that the word of the LORD came to him, saying, Turn again, and tell Hezekiah the captain of my people, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee: on the third day thou shalt go up unto the house of the LORD. And I will add unto thy days fifteen years; and I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake. (2 Kings 20:1-6.)

And the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the second time, saying, Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee. So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days' journey. And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water: But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not? And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not. (Jonah 3:1-10.)

If God didn't know that Nineveh would repent, and if He didn't foresee Hezekiah's prayer, doesn't that contradict the part of Num. 23:19 that says He doesn't change?

And if He did know that things would turn out the way they did for Hezekiah and Nineveh BECAUSE He sent Isaiah and Jonah, doesn't that contradict the part that implies He never speaks without fulfilling His word?

Didn't He say He would take Hezekiah's life from the illness he was suffering from when Isaiah told him to get his affairs in order (because he would not recover), knowing He'd grant him fifteen years after he prayed?

And didn't He say He'd destroy Nineveh in forty days knowing He'd spare the city for another century after they repented?

Is there a contradiction?

Can it be reconciled?

And is the following passage an example of what some of the Church Fathers would call a Pedagogical Deception?

And when they came down to him, Elisha prayed unto the LORD, and said, Smite this people, I pray thee, with blindness. And he smote them with blindness according to the word of Elisha. And Elisha said unto them, This is not the way, neither is this the city: follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom ye seek. But he led them to Samaria. And it came to pass, when they were come into Samaria, that Elisha said, LORD, open the eyes of these men, that they may see. And the LORD opened their eyes, and they saw; and, behold, they were in the midst of Samaria. And the king of Israel said unto Elisha, when he saw them, My father, shall I smite them? shall I smite them? And he answered, Thou shalt not smite them: wouldest thou smite those whom thou hast taken captive with thy sword and with thy bow? set bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink, and go to their master. And he prepared great provision for them: and when they had eaten and drunk, he sent them away, and they went to their master. So the bands of Syria came no more into the land of Israel. (2 Kings 6:18-23.)

Every Commentary I've consulted seems to agree that this was no ordinary blindness (or else they could not have followed Elisha), but a supernatural blindness that caused their sight to be "so altered, that they knew not the objects they saw," couldn't recognize their surroundings, and allowed Elisha to lead them straight into Samaria.

This army returned to Syria, no one was harmed, and the war came to an end, but was this an act of divine pedagogical deception, and how do we reconcile that with the passages that say that God cannot lie (or is there something wrong with our definition of lying)?

Can anyone help me here?

http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/most/getwork.cfm?worknum=216

Fr. William Most to the rescue!

MichaelB,

With all due respect, I think that there are a couple of points for you to consider:

You may be missing the point of scripture as a genre. (I'm not implying in any way that you don't know scripture or don't attempt to live as a Christian, but that you may not be fully comprehending "the wrapper" or "conveyance" for the scriptural message.)

When we read the sports page it says that "the Cleveland Browns creamed the opposing team..." Do we expect to find "cream" (the remnants of their opponents) on the field?

The radio announces that "the markets soared to new heights today..." Is the stock exchange building any taller than it was yesterday? Was it really soaring?

Note the auctioneer at an auction with his fast-tempo voice and his ever-increasing pitch meant to excite us and draw out ever-higher bids.

So every genre has its own approach to communicating its goal.

The holy scriptures are filled with "contradictions" if one looks upon them on a literal level. This is the mistake of the "literalist" or "fundamentalist" Christians. They say the earth was made in six days but forget that He tells us that one day to man is as a thousand years to God. Your ways are not my ways. The wisdom of man is foolishness with God.

For example, how long was the Lord's ministry (from baptism to resurrection)? One gospel lays out 2.5 yrs and the other three gospels lay out a single year. Which is wrong?

When we find the key to the scriptures it starts to come into focus better: They are not geography books, not history books, not chemistry books, and certainly not anthropology books because none of those are important to the goal of the scriptures. We do not know the color of the Lord's skin or his hair or his eyes since these are all irrelevant to the reason behind his incarnation (a blessed Annunciation feast to you and all readers on the New Calendar).

Scripture is a lesson book about theanthrophilia (Gods' love for man). Roughly, there are several sub-genres: The Cosmology (Genesis), the Law, the Prophets, Wisdom Literature, the Good News (John, Matt, Mark, Luke & Acts), and the General and the Pastoral Epistles. Still all the various "types" of scriptures point back to God's inextinguishable love for man.

And just as we may explain the same thing to a child in two different ways at different times or under different circumstances since we think the effect (the child's understanding) will be better, God uses different ways to communicate with us, who certainly cannot understand his ways fully.

The related point that you need to keep in mind is that God is "outside" of time and space. They are contructs. They are parts of His physical creation. This is why I love hearing about how the laws of physics seem to be bending at the "edges of the universe" or in subatomic situations. The "laws" of physics are also part of His creation and are whatever He wills them to be wherever He wills them to be and whenever He wills them to be. He is incircumscribable. [Remember that they were in the upper room with the door locked and yet the resurrected Lord entered therein.]

Understanding that He is outside of time and space means accepting that He knows everything that will happen before it happens. Yet this knowledge does not mean that our actions are predetermined (sorry, Mr. Calvin). It is just that He sees our action from "a position" outside of the time and space inside of which we acted.

You may not find all of the answers that you ask of the scriptures. But the good news is that you may not need them. Love God and love your neighbor. Forgive those who have sinned against you. A blessed Lent!