Was It Right to Lie to Nazis?

A World magazine article (July 2026) caught my attention with the title “When Nazis are at the Door” and with this question: “Is lying ever justified?” The topic related to how to answer Nazis who asked if there were any Jews in the house. The author of this article claims that it’s never right to lie, even if the result may lead to a person’s death. But wasn’t hiding Jews rebelling against a lawful authority? Andrée Seu Peterson brings up Corrie ten Boom’s 1971 autobiographical memoir, The Hiding Place. It details her family’s efforts to hide Jews from the Nazis during World War II. The title refers to both the secret room in their Haarlem home where refugees were concealed and the Scriptural promise in Psalm 119:114: “You are my hiding place and my shield; I hope in Your word.”

Why would it be OK to hide Jews but not OK to lie about hiding Jews? The ten Boom family helped save approximately 800 Jewish lives by joining the Dutch underground resistance. They were betrayed in 1944 and arrested, with Corrie and her sister Betsie sent to the Ravensbrück concentration camp. Were they “betrayed,” or did someone decide not to lie?

Charles Ryrie, the author of the notes in the Ryrie Study Bible, argues that “Scripture teaches complete civil obedience on the part of Christians and does not indicate any exceptions to this principle.”[1] Is he right? Many Christians believe he is.

There is no doubt Christians are to submit “for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do good” (1 Peter 2:14). This is the same Peter who said, “We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29).

As we will see, there are exceptions under certain conditions. Let’s begin with the Old Testament.

The Hebrew Midwives

The Hebrew midwives were commanded by “the king of Egypt” to put to death all the male children being born to the Hebrew women (Ex. 1:15-16). The Hebrew midwives disobeyed the edict of the king: “But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt had commanded them, but let the boys live” (1:17). The midwives had to make a choice. Did God’s law overrule the command of a king, even “the king of Egypt”? God shows His approval of their actions: “So God was good to the midwives, and the people multiplied and became very mighty. And it came about because the midwives feared God, that He established households for them” (1:20-21).

Jochebed’s Deception

Jochebed, Moses’ mother, also disobeyed the edict of the king by hiding her child and later creating a way of escape for him so he would not be murdered by the king’s army: “But when she could hide him no longer, she got him a wicker basket and covered it over with tar and pitch. Then she put the child into it, and set it among the reeds by the bank of the Nile” (Exodus 2:3). Jochebed even deceived Pharaoh’s daughter into believing that she, Jochebed, was in no way related to the child (2:7-9). Surely Jochebed was right in her defiance against the evil edict of Pharaoh.

Rahab’s Lying and Spying

This example gets a lot of attention. Rahab hid the spies of Israel and lied about their whereabouts. When a route of escape became available, she led them out another way, away from the pursuing soldiers. The king issued a command to Rahab: “Bring out the men who have come to you, who have entered your house, for they have come to search out all the land” (Josh. 2:3). She disobeyed a direct command of the “king of Jericho.” Some want to maintain that Rahab was right in “welcoming the spies in peace” (Heb. 11:31), but she was wrong in lying about the whereabouts of the spies. The following is a representative example:

We see, therefore, that neither Scripture itself nor the theological inferences derived from Scripture provide us with any warrant for the vindication of Rahab’s untruth and this instance, consequently, does not support the position that under certain circumstances we may justifiably utter an untruth.[2]

“Welcoming them in peace” means that they would not fall into the hands of the king of Jericho, which would have meant certain death. Rahab had changed her allegiance from Jericho to Israel. The conditions of war were operating. If she had told the truth to the men who sought the two spies, she would have been an accomplice in their deaths (cf. Psalm 50:18).

Consider that camouflage is a lie. Leaving your lights on when you leave the house to give the impression that you may be home is a lie. Subverting the Nazis in the lead-up to D-Day was a lie. Operation Mincemeat was a highly successful British deception operation during World War II designed to mislead Nazi Germany regarding the true target of the 1943 Allied invasion of Sicily (Operation Husky). In 2022, the film Operation Mincemeat was released. It’s worth watching.

There is another point that is often missed in this story about Rahab’s lie. “Joshua the son of Nun sent two men as spies secretly from Shittim” (Josh. 2:1). The text continues by telling us that “they went and came into the house of a harlot whose name was Rahab and lodged there.” Did they announce that they were Israelite spies? Joshua says the operation was to be done “secretly,” that is, without revealing the truth of their mission. Aren’t “spies” in the business of lying? Why was Joshua right in sending men to spy out the land, while Rahab was wrong in lying about the route the spies took? Why were the spies right in hiding and Rahab wrong in not revealing where they were hiding? Is that not an act of deception? Why didn’t they rebuke Rahab for lying? Why didn’t the spies leave by the same route as when they entered the city? Instead, they were accomplices in Rahab’s lie by allowing her to “let them down by a rope through the window” (2:15).

Rahab is praised by two New Testament writers for her actions: “By faith Rahab the harlot did not perish along with those who were disobedient, after she had welcomed the spies in peace” (Heb. 11:31). Rahab is listed with Abraham as one whose faith was reflected in her works: “And in the same way [as Abraham] was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works, when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?” (James 2:25). It does not say, “even though she lied.” By sending the spies out another way, she subverted the king’s desire to capture the spies. God commended Rahab. Again, the circumstances were atypical. “The critics of Rahab’s lie apparently think her case is analogous to David’s adultery with Bathsheba, a union which ultimately produced Solomon. We are not, of course, bound to praise David’s action simply because Solomon’s rule produced many desirable results (such as the construction of God’s temple). We are specifically told that David’s adultery was abhorrent in the eyes of God; we are not so informed about Rahab’s actions.”[3] Nathan’s rebuke makes that abundantly clear. “Thou art the man” (2 Sam. 12:7). In a sense, Solomon deceived the two women who claimed to be the mother of the surviving child (1 Kings 3:16-28).

When you go out at night, do you keep a light on in the house? Some people purchase a device that turns lights on and off at random intervals to give the impression that someone is at home. This is done to mislead burglars. Isn’t this deception? Are you not lying?

I don’t want to leave the impression that Joseph Fletcher’s situation ethics are at work here. It’s not always easy to determine when it might be OK to deceive an enemy. Sometimes the deception might lead to horrible results. The same is true for revealing the truth. Every decision must be weighed on the scales of biblical admonitions and examples. Consider the following:

• God orders Israel to ambush the men of Ai (Joshua 8:3-8).

• Jael deceives the Canaanite general Sisera (Judges 4:18-21; 5:24-27).

• God develops a cover story to deceive Saul (1 Sam. 16:1-5).

• Michal deceives Saul to protect David (1 Sam. 19:12-17).

• David tells Jonathan to cover his absence by deceiving Saul (1 Sam. 20:6); Jonathan then deceives Saul to protect David (1 Sam. 20:28-29).

• David deceives Ahimelech the priest about the mission he is on (1 Sam. 21:2).

• David deceives the people of Gath by feigning madness (1 Sam. 21:13).

• David deceives Achish about where he was raiding (1 Sam. 27:10).

• David deceives Achish about his real allegiance (1 Sam. 29:8-9).

• David tells Hushai to deceive Absalom by giving bad advice (2 Sam. 15:34); Hushai then deceives Absalom this way (2 Sam. 17:5-13), and God ensures Absalom is ruined by Hushai’s deceitful advice (2 Sam. 17:14).

• A woman deceives Absalom’s men to save David’s men (2 Sam. 17:19-20).

• Elisha deceives Syrians sent to arrest him (2 Kings 6:14-20).

• Jeremiah deceives people to keep secret God’s message to Zedekiah (Jeremiah 38:24-27).

• God says he will himself deceive false prophets (Ezekiel 14:9). (Source)

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[1] Quoted in Lynn Buzzard and Paula Campbell, Holy Disobedience: When Christians Must Resist the State (Ann Arbor, MI: Servant Books, 1984), 157.

[2] John Murray, Principles of Conduct: Aspects of Biblical Ethics (London, England: The Tyndale Press, 1957), 139.

[3] Gary North, “In Defense of Biblical Bribery,” in Rousas J. Rushdoony, The Institutes of Biblical Law (Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1973), 841.

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