A Real and Significant Biblical Contradiction?

[Godscreated]

The writer of Hebrews is correct, God can not lie, deceiving and lying are not necessarily the same. Example military battles are often won by deception. This would actually qualify as a strategy.

Thanks for the reply GC. So to say the deception of Ezekiel is the same as the same as the telling of a lie of Hebrews would be akin to committing the informal fallacy of equivocation? To equivocate telling a lie with deception is illogical? You might be onto something there. I suppose one might reasonably say that all telling of lies is deception, but not all deception is telling of lies. One might logically assert that God never lies, but does sometimes deceive. Is this what you are saying?

Sorry it took me so long to get back with you. Yes, lies are always deception, but not all deceptions are lies. Another example would be in chess, you try to deceive the opponent by making him believe you are doing one thing while your actually doing another. In this deception you are not lying, you allow your opponent to believe he is sees what you are doing, while actually you have something else in mind.

What I was trying to explain is this, God allowed the false prophet to believe his own deception, God actually never deceived the false prophet but allowed the prophet to try and deceive Israel.

But why do you believe God actually never deceived the prophet? What else do these words of God mean?

"... I the Lord have deceived that prophet... ."

(Ezekiel 14:9)

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?sea...ersion=KJV

Not sure why you need to back off your premise that not all deception is telling a lie. I see no reason to, at the moment--unless I was mistaken about what you were trying to assert.

You were not mistaken, as you have read above, however I do not believe God used deception in these verses, this is why I do not pursue the premise. God does not state that he gave the prophet a false prophecy to give to the people, He said He deceived the prophet, I believe if God had given him a false prophecy it would have been in scripture. The deception God had for the prophet was to allow the prophet to believe he was right in his prophecy.

God punished the prophet for his deceitful work by ruining his reputation as a prophet so the Israelites would not listen to him. In actuality God was protecting His reputation as one who does not lie. If the people of Israel believed the prophecy and it did not come to past, then the people would say God has deceived us. Hope this helps.

Wouldn't the false prophet's inaccurate prediction be evidence he was not speaking for God? Seems to me this is what Moses quotes God as saying:

21 You may say to yourselves, “How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the Lord?” 22 If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the Lord does not take place or come true, that is a message the Lord has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him.

(Deuteronomy 18)

Right, this is always the way we know when someone is giving a false prophecy, but if God gave a false prophecy to a untrustworthy prophet then the prophet could say that God lied to him to make him look foolish. God does not need to work like that, false prophets are looking for one thing only, notoriety, all they care about is self. God knows they will give false prophecies and then He lets them hang themselves.