There is no such thing as "holy deception"

 

There exists a range of views among Christians on the sin of false witness so I want to be specific in this post.  I don't mean to attack people for "white lies," though there is not a blanket exception in the Orthodox faith for such.  I also don't mean to discuss here people who lie because they are weak.  I'd like to think we all struggle with this at times, but perhaps I'm the only one.

What I'm discussing is a very specific phenomenon, mostly spread on the internet, but which I've observed in real life.  The concept that there are times, in order to protect the faith or the Church (or, more accurately, one's preferred view of the faith or the Church), that it is actually virtuous to lie to people.  

I've seen this most notably in the case of those who favor reception by baptism over reception by chrismation in the case of previously baptized converts.  Not universally, but there are some who actually instruct such people to lie to their priest or bishop so that the candidate, not the clergy, will have the final say in how the candidate is received.  This is posited as some sort of opposition to evil and preservation of the truth, rather than what it is -- open rebellion against the authorities the Church has placed over the candidate.

There are other examples, but the example is not what is important -- I offer it only to highlight what I'm discussing.  The principle is the issue, and the principle is simply this -- the Scriptures and the Holy Fathers teach us to be honest in all we say and do.  Jesus has harsh words for people who are not honest:

You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. (John 8:44).

Solomon calls lying "an abomination to the Lord." One of the Ten Commandments warns us against bearing false witness.  This ought to be uncontroversial.  And yet for some reason it is not.

Guard your soul.  One who lies so reflexively will eventually ask you to lie too.  There will be something in you that knows this is not right, whether you are repeating the lies or being asked to create new ones.  The truth will be repackaged as hateful attacks.  You will be asked to defend this gaslighting rather than to call the liar to repent.

Again, this is not to condemn liars writ large, for we are all liars.  Go to confession.  Receive absolution.  But always keep things in proper order and be watchful.  "Holy deception" is no virtue.  It is no less than prelest to consider one's self such a mark of holiness that one's lies become virtuous, and the refutation of those lies sinful. As we will sing in a few short weeks, "beware therefore O my soul, do not be weighed down with sleep, lest you be given up to death and shut out from the Kingdom.  But rouse thyself crying, 'Holy, Holy, Holy art Thou O Lord.'"