Rahab acted to the best of her knowledge, but she evidently lied.

What about Corrie Ten Boom in relation to her hiding of the Jews from the Germans?

While the discussion continues in relation to Sunday's study, I want to bring Monday's study on The Birth of Isaac into the topic.

With the birth of Isaac, the long awaited promise is fulfilled, however, even with the birth of the promised son, "What follows is a painful example of what it means to live with the consequences of sin, even after that sin has been forgiven."

From Monday's study comes the following questions:

1. What sad events eventually followed the birth of Isaac?
2. How did the Lord help ease Abraham's pain at having to send his son away?

That's another good example. I'm sure we can think of many.

But here's the quote again:

Does God ever sanction falsehood?

Webster's New World Dictionary defines "deceive" as "to make (a person) believe what is not true". But the additional explanation throws a better light on it: "deceive implies deliberate misrepresentation of facts by words, actions, etc., generally to further one's ends."

Could hiding people or objects (as Bibles) be classified as deceiving?

I think this could be classified as a forbidden action, or as a transgression of a law, but not as deceit, unless you are questioned about it and tell a lie (which was what Rahab did, but not what, as far as I know, Corrie did).

Jesus in His judgment did not say He was the Son of God until specifically questioned about it.

But what about the biblical testimony about Rahab?

Since it has been concluded here that she lied, and that lying is a sin, it concludes that the conviction of her is sinner.

But the bible say about her Heb 11:31 By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace.

And Jam 2:25 Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way?

Despite 'sinning' in doing so, she is praised by these apostles who wrote these letters for both her faith and her works. How can this be? A lying whore gets praise among the giants of faith in hebrews and is the postergirl for James argument about working faith. Did we miss out on the letter or the spirit of the law since we have this difficulty in reaching the same conclusion that the apostles did?

Doesn't Jesus lineage include Rahab? I listed to a sermon by CD Brooks called "God in bad comapny", and this was mentioned explicitly. Worth checking out.
God Bless,
Will

This brings us to Wednesday's study on the interesting aspect of the close connection between Faith and Works in relation to this week's study.



What is faith not in the above quote?

What is faith in the following quote?



It says "faith means obeying God."

What does "faith means obeying God" actually mean?

There are 24 different hebrew words that are at least once translated as some versions of "deceit" in the KJV, ie, to deceive, deceitful, deceit and so forth. Which one that is used in the specific situation isnt unimportant. Strongs08267 for instance refers to lying while Strongs08582 refers to "causing to walk the wrong way" and a third strongs04123 refers to deception/illusion. Why do I write this? I am of the oppinion that the meaning of the hebrew word is much more interesting for understanding what the bible means than the english word that some translator choose to use. In some instances the word exists in 30-40 places in the OT and only be translated deception once. In such case it would be more profitable to know what the word means the 39 times it is not translated deception than what the word means in websters the one time it is translated deception.
IMO.

/Thomas

Isn't it interesting the various discussions that can come out of this week's lesson study!?!

Pursuing Wednesday's study further, I quote James 2:17-26 as noted in Wednesday's study.



The above quoted text said in two places that a man is justified by works.

I thought a man was justified by faith!?!?!

Can anybody help me here?