Why False Accusations Ruin Lives

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Or, a man going to jail for 15 or 35 years, you know these stories that I'm referring to, where there's a false accusation of rape.

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He was in jail, lost 30 years of his life because of a false accusation of rape. Comes out later, he didn't do it.

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So do women and men make false allegations against one another? Yes.

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And how about this? We've got a supreme example in the Bible. One of our heroes of the faith,

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Joseph. He is actually brought into slavery into Egypt and he goes into Potiphar's house and Potiphar's wife lies and says that he tried to rape her.

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One of our biblical heroes received a false allegation of rape. Mr. Potiphar.

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Mr. Potiphar. Mr. Potiphar! Merry Christmas, Mr. Potiphar. It's almost that time, yeah.

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That's right. So you're going to be hearing lots of these quotes from us. So here's, unless you guys have anything to add, I'm just going to say one more point on this.

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I was just going to say, you see this a lot with, especially with athletes. You know, you see a lot of women that make these accusations and they just know a lot of times they just get paid off, right?

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They don't ever go to court. They get money and then they shut them up and they never have to go to court because it's cheaper and it's better for these guys, you know, reputation if it doesn't go to go to court and stuff.

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And yeah, I mean, if God, like this whole thing you've been saying, if God's law was our standard, right?

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This wouldn't be happening because there would be real consequences for these, for women making these false allegations.

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Well, and also it's important to mention, I'm not, I'm certainly not comparing assault to adultery or sexual immorality, but we don't have a good sexual ethic in our country to begin with.

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Right. We're not following God's law by any stretch of the imagination, right? We like people engage in adultery all the time, premarital sex all the time, and it's actually encouraged, especially to women now.

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But I just want to say that the one thing that the world isn't going to tell you in a situation like this for fear of sounding like they're blaming the victim, which

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I would never do. So if you want to say I'm doing it, that's fine, but I would never do that. Is that there's no encouragement to immediately report assaults that happen.

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Yes. And the reason why nobody wants to say that is because I absolutely understand the shame and the humiliation that's involved in reporting something like that and having to acknowledge that something like that has happened to you.

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But what we're seeing right now is a bunch of women, whether it's false or whether it's true, they're all coming out and they're saying that they were assaulted by various people and there isn't any justice.

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There's no real justice. In our world, justice is being slammed by public opinion.

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Now just everyone knows, but that's not real justice. That's not the justice that God calls for for the person that commits an assault, a sexual assault.

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He calls for them to die. He doesn't say, oh, and everyone will just know and think really poorly of you and you won't get any more brand deals or book deals.

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Don't believe the lie that encouraging an assault victim to report is victim blaming.

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There isn't a responsibility on the victim to report, but they should.

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And the reason is that if you want justice, that is how you're going to do it.

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That's how you're going to maintain evidence, those independent lines of testimony.

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And so I'm not trying to sound callous or cruel or by any means say that if you were assaulted that you have to report.

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Now, I do think there is a little bit, there's something a little bit different just with Ford was mentioned.

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She was quoted as saying, you know, once I saw that he was going to be in this position, I realized like everyone needs to know about this.

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But the point, so that's all at face value that makes a lot of sense, but it doesn't really because he deserved, if it really happened, he deserved justice back then.

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Not just when he was going to become a part of, yeah. So it just, I say all that just to help you guys think a little bit more clearly about what's happening in our country, about what's going on with situations like this and how they don't provide the sexual ethic and the justice that we call justice.

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Doesn't provide anything for the victim, really for most victims of anything, but specifically the victims of sexual assault.

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And it's interesting too, in God's case law in the Old Testament in reference to rape, there are several examples of like what to do in the case of rape.

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And there's even an example of a person who is raped away from people. And no one's there to witness it.

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And what's amazing about God is he actually encourages in his law, he tells the woman, cry out, meaning go and report this.

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So that God removes the shame from the victim in reporting, like you'll feel dirty, you'll feel foul, you'll feel, whatever the case may be,

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God's telling the woman, you have a responsibility to make sure that people know, you bring people into this with you.

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The community is supposed to gather around the woman for protection when she's raped. The rape victim is to be held as supremely valuable and protected and with dignity.

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Because she hasn't, there is no shame. He doesn't just say, oh, there was shame, but I'm taking it away.

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What he's saying is you did nothing wrong. So there is nothing for you to make up for.

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There's nothing that even needs to happen here. And I'm certainly not speaking in an emotional capacity or whatever.

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But in terms of the law, you're not guilty in any way. There's no guilt that's removed.

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If you're the victim of an assault, you are without shame.

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You guys are right. And so the call for God is to actually not hide this, but report.

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And there's protection for the victim at that point. So here's another element of protection in God's law in terms of the judicial system.

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Don't receive accusations unless there's two to three independent lines of witness and testimony. But then in that same text,

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Deuteronomy, it's the same text. Deuteronomy 19 .15 was a single witness will not suffice against a person for any crime.

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But in that same text, in verse 17, it says this. No, 16. If a malicious witness arises to accuse a person of wrongdoing, then both parties to dispute shall appear before the

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Lord, before the priests and the judges who are in office in those days. The judges shall inquire diligently.

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And if the witness is a false witness, so there's the cross -examination. So the whole idea of cross -examination is right here in the text.

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Diligent, you actually question the witness, cross -examine them. And it says this. The judges shall inquire diligently.

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And if the witness is a false witness and has accused his brother falsely, then you shall do to him as he had meant to do to his brother.

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So you shall purge the evil from your midst. So it's powerful. There is actually a protection within God's judicial system, a protection against malicious witnesses, because now the person in God's system knows this.

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I better know this is true. It better be right. Because if I stand here in this courtroom and it's found out that I am lying about this whole thing, then

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I'm going to get whatever he was going to get, which means if it was theft, money's coming out of my pocket now.

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If it was rape, I'm dying. So false accusations in God's court,

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God says, well, you're going to get what this person would have got. And so God's law says two to three witnesses.

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If there's a malicious false witness who's falsely accusing somebody, that person gets what the other person would have gotten.

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And then here's the standard that is so often, it's so often misunderstood by Christians.

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Here's the standard. Verse 20, and the rest shall hear and fear. Do you get it? That's the point of this, is to cause fear to fall on everybody.

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Don't you dare be a false witness in court. The point of it is to cause fear and shall never again commit any such evil among you.

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Your eyes shall not pity. So God says this, do not pity the person who's a malicious false witness that ends up punished for it.

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God actually says this, I command you not to have any pity for that person. That's actually tough to do.

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If you think about it as an image bearer of God, I know this person's lied. I know they could have gotten this person killed, but now they have to die.

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God says this, you are not to show any pity to the person who went so far as to falsely accuse somebody.

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No pity. You must hold justice high at that point. It shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

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That means equal scales, equal justice. It's right in the context of life for life, eye for eye, of a malicious witness accusing somebody else, maybe of rape, that's false.

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This person would have died. And so now this person is going to get it. That's eye for eye, equal justice.

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You were going to get him killed. Now you're going to die. Equal scales, equal justice.

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People say, but I thought Jesus abolished all that. No, he did not. In the

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Sermon on the Mount. Did he abolish? What about the part where he says that an assault victim is without shame?

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Did that part go out too? Because that's a problem. Right, and also it's interesting.

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Don't you think it's interesting that Jesus quotes from this text, two to three witnesses, and says, this is how you're to handle church discipline. Apparently he didn't abolish the law because he appeals to it in church discipline.

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But what's interesting is in the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus says, you've heard it said, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, and those things.

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He says, but I say to you, don't return evil for evil. If somebody strikes you on your right cheek, turn to him on the other.

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Jesus was referring there to their first century perversion of the judicial law where they were using it for mob justice.

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They were using it as an excuse to retaliate. And they say, hey man, this guy did it to me. Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, sucker.

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I'm going to get you. They were using it as retaliation. They weren't using it in a judicial sense for the courts to actually establish equal weights and justice for eye for eye, tooth for tooth.

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They were saying, I'm going to retaliate. I'll return fire. Proof is that Jesus says if somebody strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other.

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Right -handed culture, I've said this many times before, it's a right -handed culture. They constant references in the Bible to the right hand because that was the right -handed, that's how they referenced things, the right -handed culture.

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So Jesus says if somebody strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other. How would you hit somebody in a right -handed culture on the right cheek?

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You'd have to backhand and slap them. So Jesus says turn the other cheek. If somebody gives you the insult, they try to denigrate you, just turn the other cheek.

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Don't return the insult. Don't return fire. Don't return fire has nothing to do with God abolishing his standard of justice.

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Are we really, I'm going to say the last thing, are we really going to suggest, are we seriously going to suggest that the

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God of the Bible, the holy and just God has now abandoned his commitment to just standards?

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Are we really going to say that God no longer cares about equal justice, which is what eye for eye means, equal justice.

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Are we really going to suggest that God has abandoned the idea of equal justice?

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I don't think so. Not the judge of all the earth who is a perfect judge. No way. I'm going to play one more thing.

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Christ didn't say that he abolished the law. He said he fulfilled it. And that's where there's confusion for whatever reason a lot of people assume or say that Jesus said that he came to abolish it.

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He even says, no, I didn't come to abolish it. I came to fulfill it. And he says if anybody teaches anyone to disobey even the least of these commandments, it would be called leasing the kingdom of God.