"The bible test" Answered.

[Tonus]

so again, what is a lie? It is a unauthorized deception. Can God lie? no. why? Because every deception is authorized.

Hehe. Well it's just deception. It simply had never occurred to me that god would lie, so that was an interesting discovery there. I think it is a bit redundant that god would say "if I swear an oath then it's guaranteed." By his admission, his actions must promote his purpose (or his will, I suppose). Therefore if god mislead a person in order to further his plans for humanity, it would be in keeping with his will, and if his will is for the greater good then the lie is defensible (in the same way as a person lying to protect an innocent, we can say).

It does reinforce the idea that any particular action is not, in and of itself, moral or immoral. I think that context is probably the best guide for what makes an action moral or not. For some actions it may not be easy (or even possible?) to find a context that makes it moral, and I am sure that there are people who can commit some pretty horrible acts with the full confidence that what they are doing is good. I know that many theists abhor moral ambiguity (I sure did when I was a believer) but it seems that there is very little that is unambiguous about morality.