No doubt you have heard of the phrase “bearing false witness”, taken from the ninth commandment of the ten in the Bible’s Old Testament Book of Exodus, chapter 20, verse 16: “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour”. The Hebrew in that verse is, לֹֽא־תַעֲנֶ֥ה בְרֵעֲךָ֖ עֵ֥ד שָֽׁקֶר, reading literally, word by word, “Not testify/announce/sing/ against your neighbour testimony lying/false/deceitful”. The meaning is pretty clear, taken at face value. But what are the implications? Is this commandment referring solely to the giving of evidence in a court-like situation? Surely not. In fact, if we analyse the possibilities, this commandment from God, the creator of this cosmos, has far-reaching ramifications for our social life and experience, extending right into the everyday lives of humans in damning ways which many may not yet have comprehended, as I hope to show below.

Firstly, let it be understood that the words “your neighbour” do not refer solely to those who live in the houses or apartments next door to you. It can refer to them; but it would also refer to those in the next street, those with whom you work, those with whom you share any kind of community as a fellow human being. Ultimately, it refers to anyone whose needs impinge on your life and experience (as illustrated by Jesus when He was asked by a man, “Who is my neighbour?” see Luke 10:29-37).

That being said, bearing or testifying or speaking any kind of falsehood about another human being in any kind of way is a sin which has far-reaching implications. Under the old covenant, if you were found to have testified falsely about someone, by way of retribution you would then have to suffer exactly the same ignominy as you intended for the one about whom you had lied — “an eye for an eye”. As the Scripture puts it:

“If the witness is proven to be a liar who has falsely accused his brother, you must do to him as he intended to do to his brother. So you must purge the evil from among you. Then the rest of the people will hear and be afraid, and they will never again do anything so evil among you. You must show no pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, and foot for foot” (Deuteronomy 19:18-21).

That is the fairest possible outcome. No mercy for those who lie about others, for such an act is nothing less than evil. In the new covenant, although there is no specific punishment shown to be enacted in this life (though one can still apply the same principle of fairness in retribution), the harrowing end-of-life outcome for those who bear false witness (thus, they lie) is spelled out in no uncertain terms:

“To the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and sexually immoral and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulphur. This is the second death” Revelation 21:8).

So the eternal state for those who have been impenitent liars is the experience of hell, the second death, a state of spiritual death, “eternal destruction, separated from the presence of the Lord” (2 Thessalonians 1:9). That is how serious it is. This is reiterated in the chapter following that. After quoting Jesus saying that He is coming back soon, and that He will “give to each one according to what he has done” (Revelation 22:12), John says,

“Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by its gates. But outside are the dogs, the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood” (Revelation 22:14-15).

The phrase “washed their robes” is a metaphor describing regeneration, new birth, that has happened at the profoundest level to all those who are disciples of Jesus the Christ, who have received His forgiveness, as a result of His sacrifice. This is described also by Paul to Titus as: “The washing of new birth and renewal by the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5). Washed clean.

The words above in Revelation 22:14-15, “so that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by its gates”, refers to being admitted lawfully into the “New Jerusalem”, which is a biblical buzz-expression for the creation to come, the culmination of the kingdom of God, after this present creation has been destroyed. But then that Scripture says that “everyone who loves and practices falsehood” (along with other miscreants) will be “outside” that New Jerusalem, will be excluded from it because they will be in hell, undergoing “the second death” — that spiritual state of eternal separation from God which will be the lot of all those who have rejected God and His Christ in this present life. These are all basic teachings of the Scriptures [For those who want to know more about those two passages in Revelation 21 and 22 — especially while gaining an understanding of the words “abominable” and “dogs” in this context — please see pages 558-563 and 581-582 in my commentary on the Book of Revelation, “The Essential Apocalypse”, available here: https://diakrisis-project.com/2025/03/12/second-edition-of-the-essential-apocalypse-is-now-available-as-an-e-book-in-pdf-format/ ].

So we can see that lying of any kind that is not repented of is a most serious matter. Reality check for those who may be incredulous at what has been written in this article so far: “A false witness will not go unpunished, and one who utters lies will not escape” (Proverbs 19:5). And lying about others is even more serious than merely being a general liar. Let me just expand on that idea of lying about others — bearing a false testimony about others. For it is not merely referring to the formal giving of evidence in a court of law. As I wrote in my commentary on the Book of Revelation:

“This is not only the telling of actual verbal lies but also any form of being dishonest with words, such as the deliberate habitual spreading of disinformation, deceiving people, falsifying, twisting, fabricating, libelling, calumniating, disseminating unfounded rumours and spreading wicked gossip, bearing false witness, committing perjury, and so on”.

Many may not have made this connection between actual lying and such things as engaging in malicious gossip. But such gossip is just another form of bearing false witness against one’s neighbour because both malicious gossip behind someone’s back and bearing false witness in, say, a court of law, thereby publicly and wrongly destroy a person’s good name and reputation. Thus, a maliciously gossiping person is entirely in breach of the ninth commandment and is therefore deserving of receiving the same punishment in kind and is also a candidate for undergoing the second death, aka hell. This is more than relevant when one considers how so many churches are chock-full of malicious gossipers who feel fully entitled in that role — like as if they are tut-tutting about others on behalf of God Himself. I am sure that you have seen and heard this many times.

Frankly, I find it hard to believe that genuine disciples of Christ would behave in such a manner. But it is surely a further example of the fact that the visible church — the church that the world sees on its high street, in the media and elsewhere — consists to a high degree of unbelievers and impostors ‘playing at church’ and is yet another reminder that we are in the throes of the great apostasy. It all needs stamping out, with the gossipers repenting of their evil. Gossip does not merely breach the ninth commandment in Exodus 20; it is also evil, so please do not forget that.

So if you find that you have become the brunt of gossips anywhere and discover that there is a feeding frenzy against you involving backbiters and badmouthers, you do not need to take any action (unless you are someone in authority who can oust those moral degenerates from their positions). For I can assure you that the more those embittered bletherers impenitently persist in their skullduggery, the more they will one day have to answer for it before God. People underestimate the seriousness of character assassination. It is not merely “trivial tittle-tattling”; it is the bearing of false witness about which God thundered His displeasure onto a tablet of stone on Mount Sinai some 3000 – 4000 years ago (Exodus 20:16) and which God’s servant, John, a little over 1900 years ago on the Isle of Patmos, wrote as a visionary in the Book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ that impenitent lying was worthy only of the second death, hell (Revelation 21:8). Bearing false witness and malicious gossiping are both out of the same box of dirty tricks, in that they utterly demean the person who is the object of their badmouthing. Every church pulpit should be thundering against all this as part of a sermon on Exodus 20:16. If it was done properly, with enough convicting power, the massive incidence of malicious gossiping in churches would hopefully be obliterated and many heads would hang in shame.

You can see from the above list that I made in the previous quotation that the spreading of disinformation while falsifying, twisting, fabricating, libelling, and calumniating others also comes under the heading of bearing false witness. From my observations, social media has also become a veritable hotbed of such ninth-commandment-sins. Everywhere I look on social media, there are people peddling false conspiracies which wrongly impugn others, or publicly calling out people as paedophiles without any actual evidence (just parroting what they’ve read elsewhere on social media or in a meme), or the massive number of false teachers who are continually lying about the Christian faith, or the disinformation which is being spread by both government agencies and left/right partisan groupings in both social media and mainstream media. It is all in breach of the ninth commandment in the Old Testament and is the object of denunciation in the New Testament writings.

Really, the whole world has now become a monstrous hotbed of mendacity (defined in dictionaries as “the quality of being untruthful or the tendency to lie” and “habitual lying or deceiving”) in so many different forms — bearing false witness, maliciously gossiping, spreading misinformation, falsification, fabrication, slandering, and calumniating. Everywhere in this world, one is totally surrounded by liars and their lies. But the great irony is that this current hotbed of rampant mendacity is going to come back on the world with a vengeance during the future usurped reign of the Antichrist and in the run-up to the return of the Lord Jesus Christ:

“The coming of the lawless one will be accompanied by the working of Satan, with every kind of power, sign, and false wonder, and with every wicked deception directed against those who are perishing, because they refused the love of the truth that would have saved them. For this reason God will send them a powerful delusion so that they believe the lie, in order that judgment may come upon all who have disbelieved the truth and delighted in wickedness” (2 Thessalonians 2:9-12).

All this bearing of false witness, malicious badmouthing, spreading disinformation, misinforming and outright lying by the unbelieving people of the world will one day be turned around onto them by rendering them entirely gullible to believing a lie themselves which will convict them for all eternity. As you can see from the above Bible quote, because the world has “refused the love of the truth”, God will judicially give people over to believing “the lie”. What a perfect comeuppance, straight out of the Old Testament lawbook about a bearer of false witness having to undergo what they have meted out to others! An eye for an eye. The identity of “the lie” is that God is not God and that the Antichrist is, and that all his false workings are true — all of which is the ultimate outworking of the fact that “the whole world lies under the power of the evil one” (1 John 5:19), that is, Satan, who will control the Antichrist, “the lawless one”, as shown by these words: “The coming of the lawless one will be accompanied by the working of Satan” (2 Thessalonians 2:9) and “the dragon [Satan] gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority” (Revelation 13:2). The whole unbelieving world will fall for all these deceptions, even as the world itself begins to fall apart before their very eyes. The only protection against falling for this or any other lie is to repent of your former life and become a disciple of Christ.

Therefore, it would be no exaggeration to say that bearing false witness, malicious gossiping and badmouthing, spreading disinformation, misinforming, and outright lying are all nothing less than satanic. For Satan is the ultimate “liar and the father of lies”, as Jesus stated (John 8:44). So bear in mind that if you bear false witness, engage in malicious gossip, spread disinformation, deliberately misinform, fabricate stuff, and calumniate others, you are functioning as a Satanist even more than if you attended the Church of Satan (or any of its spin-offs) and utter the words “Hail Satan”. For at such a “church” you only harm yourself. But when you bear false witness you harm others (“your neighbours”), and unless you truly repent of it, then that action is unforgivable, rendering you an enemy of God’s law, entirely open to deception and, ultimately, hellbound.

.

.

.

© Copyright, Alan Morrison, 2026
[The copyright on my works is merely to protect them from any wanton plagiarism which could result in undesirable changes (as has actually happened!). Readers are free to reproduce my work, so long as it is in the same format and with the exact same content and its origin is acknowledged]

.