Friday, March 13, 2015

On false accusations and willful false accusers

A Bible Reading snippet from Bible Gateway for today from 3400 years ago (though — New Atheists, kindly note on “the whole counsel” of Scripture — Christians will read this in light of how Jesus treated the Woman caught in the act of adultery and her accusers). 

This points to just how dangerous and chaotically destructive false accusations are and how diligently we must work to get things straight:
Deut 19:16 If a malicious witness takes the stand to accuse someone of a crime, 17 the two people involved in the dispute must stand in the presence of the Lord before the priests and the judges who are in office at the time. 18 The judges must make a thorough investigation, and if the witness proves to be a liar, giving false testimony against a fellow Israelite, 19 then do to the false witness as that witness intended to do to the other party. You must purge the evil from among you. 20 The rest of the people will hear of this and be afraid, and never again will such an evil thing be done among you. [ESV]
 Food for sobering thought where we live in a day when it seems ever so many are quick to resort to false accusations and other means of falsely framing issues, situations and people in defiance of duties to truth, fairness, wisdom and justice, in order to try to gain a hoped for advantage. END