Shincheonji Perspective

Shincheonji may claim the following:

Even though Abram lied about Sarai being his sister to the Pharaoh and King Abilemech, God still blessed him.

Therefore, it is okay to “lie” to further God’s kingdom.

Abram’s Cowardice and Missed Opportunity to Glorify God

Shincheonji often looks at the actions and stories of the Old Testament as examples to justify their use of lying. When doing this, they often forget to mention the context of the story.

The fact of Abram lying shows a lack of trust in God’s sovereignty in God’s protection and sovereignty. While Abram was a great man of faith, he also had his own faults and doubts on occasion. We can see this with the fact that he had a child with Hagar the slave in Genesis 16, and bore a son named Ishmael due to his lack of faith in God keeping his promise. 

Even though God still blessed Abram, and still stood by Abram’s side, this furthers my argument that God was going to use Abram despite his flaws. Since God still blessed Abram, does this mean that it is okay for us to commit adultery?

Also, another key point on how this shows that Abram had doubt about God’s promise is the fact that Isaac wasn’t born until Genesis 21. If Abram truly had unwavering faith in God, he would have reasoned with himself that God would protect Sarai from harm, without any need of the use of deception.

We can contrast the actions of Abram putting his wife in danger to Genesis 22, where Abraham reasoned with himself that God would even resurrect Isaac to keep His promise.

As for Abram receiving a “blessing” for lying about his wife Sarai:

On two occasions (Gen. 12:10–20; Gen. 20:1–18), Abraham passed off his wife Sarah as his sister in order to save himself from getting killed. The first time he did so was when famine afflicted Canaan so severely that he felt he had to move to Egypt to survive (Gen 12:10). But as he approached that corrupt pagan land, he realized he would be at the mercy of a society that would not stop at murder to seize his beautiful wife for the king’s harem.

Abraham felt sure they would kill him if they knew the truth about his marital status. He therefore persuaded Sarah herself to join with him in the lie, feeling that this was the only way his life could be spared. It was understandable enough that she complied with his request under those circumstances. Yet it was a sin on the part of both of them, and it robbed them of all possibility of witnessing to the truth of God before the idolatrous society of Egypt.

Pharaoh’s agents did as Abraham had foreseen; they took Sarah to Pharaoh as a lovely addition to his harem (she was still beautiful after sixty-five!). But to Abraham’s embarrassment the king bestowed lavish gifts on him and greatly increased his wealth—in servants, livestock, silver, and gold (Gen. 12:16; 13:2). 

Even after Pharaoh was stricken with a sudden illness, as soon as Sarah entered his palace, and he was constrained to inquire of his soothsayers the reason for his affliction, he was restrained from exacting vengeance on Abraham for his deception. Perhaps Pharaoh understood the constraint that his visitor was under because of the likelihood of his being murdered for the sake of his wife. Pharaoh was also very uncomfortable about being involved in the sin of adultery—which was sternly forbidden even by the Egyptian religion (cf. Book of the Dead, chap. 125, sec. B19, in Pritchard, ANET, p. 35, where the deceased has to aver that he has never committed adultery). 

Pharaoh was awed by the power of Abraham’s God, who could smite him so quickly that he could not take Sarah to his bed before he fell deathly sick. For these reasons he allowed Abraham to leave Egypt with all the handsome dowry he had bestowed on him as Sarah’s guardian. It seems quite clear that this account of Abraham’s failure is an honest inclusion of his lack of faith as manifested by this entire episode. If he had not believed that Yahweh was able to protect him with honor and integrity if he went down to Egypt, then he should never have gone there at all. 

As it was, he brought dishonor on himself and the cause he stood for, discrediting himself before the moral standards of Egypt itself.

As for his enrichment through Pharaoh’s generosity, there was a very definite sense in which the king was under obligation to pay amends for the wicked constraint that his corrupt society put on strangers who visited his land. 

When he found out the truth, he had to admit that Abraham had acted logically when he lied himself out of peril. Therefore it hardly follows that God was responsible for Abraham’s increase in wealth; it was Pharaoh’s own doing, and he did not feel justified in demanding it back, even after he found out the truth. Abraham retained his added possessions as he returned to Canaan, the land God had promised to him. 

Genesis 20 tells us how readily Abraham fell into the same subterfuge in Gerar, when he once again feared for his safety on account of his wife. As he later explained to Abimelech of Gerar, “I thought, surely there is no fear of God in this place; and they will kill me because of my wife” (Gen. 20:11, NASB). He then went on to explain that in point of fact Sarah was his half sister (v.12), even though she lived with him as his wife. But here again Abraham showed a lack of confidence in God’s power to preserve him from mortal danger and failed to uphold God’s honor before the eyes of the unbelieving world. 

Even though he was given a thousand shekels by way of atonement for Abimelech’s having taken Sarah into his palace, Abraham had to leave under a cloud of dishonor. Again we should observe that this account no more exonerates Abraham from his sin than did the similar adventure in Egypt. He came away from both failures with dishonor and shame, and his influence on the Philistines was as nullified as it had been in the case of the Egyptians.

Despite the flaws of Abraham, God still used his mistakes to bring glory to Himself, and fulfill the promise that he made with Abraham (Genesis 12:2-3).

However, just because God used Abraham as a tool and instrument, does not mean that we should also fall prey to each and every sin and mistake of Abraham. This includes polygamy with Hagar the slave, and lying.

Gleason L. Archer, New International Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties, Zondervan’s Understand the Bible Reference Series (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1982), 89–90.