This is a tough one...Peter denied Jesus three times, and yet still became the "Rock of the Church."
A girl at Columbine refused to denounce her faith and was murdered. Of course, chances are even if she did denounce her faith they would have shot her anyway.
This is a very tough question: is it ok to deny your faith to save your life? How "bad" of a lie is this? Is it worse because you're sort of "reverse witnessing" or would it be worse to die and not be able to live and witness to more people?
In this case, you can lie and not sweat it. When under duress with your life at stake, lying to scum who want to kill you is good defense.
What if you deny to save your life and that denial includes accepting the Mark? Or maybe the Mark is symbolic of any denial?
And Peter regretted it for the rest of his life. He was eventually crucified (hanging upside down), at which time he refused to deny his faith.
It would be hard to NOT lie if your life hung in the balance. However, it is my personal hope/belief that nothing on earth could make me deny my faith. I hope to never be put to that test.
If they try and I see it comming, they'll hafta "pry my cold dead fingers off my gun" first. (And that's one reason they'll never get my gun.)
The demonized murdering Muslims don't deserve the truth. I strongly tend toward telling the truth, but in this case, they don't truly "deserve" it. If this man *did* tell the truth, that would have been fine in the eyes of the Lord, I believe. But his telling a lie to these demonized men ... I would not consider a damnable offense. The Lord is prone toward forgiveness and "craftiness."
Wasn't there a prostitute who deceived people, and who thereby was praised in Scripture -- even honored to the point of being included in the lineage of Christ?
The Christian faith is not as simplistic as some pretend it to be. The Lord is clear about truth/lies, right/wrong, but sometimes that works itself out different from how we knee-jerk interpret it to be....
I, for one, do not condemn this man for lying to these demonized Muslims.
Peter denied Jesus before he was filled with the Holy Spirit and before he was saved. He was then restored by Jesus on the beach after the resurrection.
A girl at Columbine refused to denounce her faith and was murdered. Of course, chances are even if she did denounce her faith they would have shot her anyway.
...and she is now absent from her body and present with the Lord.
"This is a very tough question: is it ok to deny your faith to save your life? How "bad" of a lie is this? Is it worse because you're sort of "reverse witnessing" or would it be worse to die and not be able to live and witness to more people?"
Others have answered the question above with this scripture: "Everyone therefore who shall confess Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever shall deny Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven." Matthew 10:32-33
I would add: "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."
I would question this person's true "salvation" or commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ. He loved this life enough to save it, instead of hating this life to save the eternal one. Jesus said about those that remain faithful unto death, to them will He give the crown of life. This man did not remain faithful unto death. As for witnessing, lying to save your life to witness again is no witness at all. The "witness" would have been to the terrorists themselves to "remain faithful unto death".
But, what do I know?
He who fights and runs away lives to fight another day.
He who lies and gets away, lives to fight another day.
I'd have lied to them too.
And if I had a gun, I'd have blown their heads off as they turned away.