> I do not think I am missing the point. I am saying that Rahab sinned, and I believe that the Bible agrees with me, "Lying lips are an abomination to the LORD..."
> The question is "Why does God bless Rahab"?
> My point is that God is not blessing her because she sinned - but that she feared God more than the people of Jericho. She thought she was doing right, and because she was not trained in the Law, God forgave her ignorance because of her sincerity. Matthew Henry says it like this:
> "Yet divines generally conceive that it was a sin, which however admitted of this extenuation, of lying; but God accepted her faith and pardoned her infirmity. However it was in this case, we are sure it is our duty to speak every man the truth to his neighbour, to dread and detest lying, and never to do evil,that Good may come of it, Rom. 3:8. But God accepts what is sincerely and honestly intended, though there be a mixture of frailty and folly in it, and is not extreme to mark what we do amiss."
> In that private conversation we had do you remember talking about True Believers who are Charismatics? Are these believers doing something wrong according to what the Bible teaches? Yes they are! Yet God is gracious to save them even though what they are doing is contrary to God's will! The same is with Rahab - she doesn't know any better so she lies, but God saves her because of her sincerity not because he is saying "it is ok to lie on certain circumstances"! Salvation is by Grace and not by works. Rahab was saved not because she lied, but because she feared God - and that fear is a product of Grace.
> Does this answer your question? I patiently await your rebuke.
> Your bro in Jesus,
> Rob
Hi again Rob,
Let's see what I can say about your post here...
First and formost, I just want to state something here, I do NOT think that it's a good thing to lie, lying under most circumstances can cause a lot of pain and trouble for people, I'm not advocation lying, I'm simply saying that sometimes, under a FEW circumstances it is ok.
Ok, with that out of the way let me try and reply to your post.
First off, I'd like to restate again that the author the the book of Joshua neither justifies nor condemns Rahab, and I that this is a pretty major thing. I find it interesting that the author did not point out that she had sinned, the author only mentions the blessing that she had received.
I'd state once again, ignorance is no excuse. Having good motives doesn't mean anything. I know that you know the story of Uzzah. He saw the Ark of God about to fall, he had good motives, he didnt' want to see the thing fall down and break... but what happened? God struck him dead. Not because his motives were wrong, but because he didn't listen to the command of God. I'm not basing my whole agruement on Uzzah here (just to let you know), Uzzah should have known not to touch the Ark, maybe he wasn't taught correctly, maybe he just let his instincts take over... I'm not sure, but I'm just using him to try and show a point. Motives aren't the most important thing to God, what matters is doing what He commands you to do.
Now you say that she didn't know better, she didnt' know that lying was a sin. For this I say, God has written His laws into the hearts of men. People don't get out of judgement because they didn't know, that's foolishness. We are held accountable for all that we do.
Nextly, about the True Believer that is a Charismatic Christian... I feel the difference between Rahab and a Charismatic Christian is this:
Rahab's showed her faith in God by telling a lie, and God blessed her for it.
the Charismatic doesn't show his faith by speaking in tongues, or whatever else he does... in fact he'll probally receive some kind of judgement for going into serious error. God doesn't bless him for his sin.
Going by what you say;
Rahab was blessed for her sin
but the Charamatic isn't
Lastly, I'd just like to point out James 2:25 and the verses surrounding it.
In this verse it says that she was justified by her works! What works you may ask? She was justified because of the lie that she told. She became JUSTIFIED. Her lie is equated to Abraham believing on God, as well as Christians helping others in the name of God.
Why would a sin be equated with helping others?