Barrister in Supreme Court calls BoJo ‘the devil’!

I know that Boris Johnson is widely disliked, but surely calling even him ‘the devil’ is a bit harsh!

Nevertheless that’s what happened yesterday (18 September) in the UK Supreme Court.

According to The Times, Aidan O’Neill QC, arguing the case that the current prorogation of Parliament is unlawful, told the Court, “What we have with this prorogation is the mother of parliaments closed down by the father of lies.”

The “father of lies” is an epithet coined by Jesus Christ in John’s Gospel to describe the devil. Speaking to the Jews in Jerusalem who are seeking to kill him, he says,

‘You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.’
John 8:44[1]

I have no doubt that Mr. O’Neill knew exactly what he was saying with his remark. “Father of lies” is not a phrase that one just comes up with by coincidence.

Any doubt about this is eliminated by the fact that, in the very next sentence, Mr. O’Neill continued: “Lies that have consequences, but the truth will set us free” — a clear reference to John 8:32:

³¹To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, ‘If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. ³²Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’
John 8:31-32[2]

It seems very clear that Mr. O’Neill has been reading John chapter 8!

The real ‘father of lies’ and the truth that can really set us free

The real ‘father of lies’ is the devil. Even if we find his way of doing politics heavy-handed and his attitude to constitutional matters blasé, Boris is hardly to be compared with the devil. He is the one who introduced The Lie into the world, and spurred on Cain to murder his brother. Boris can claim none of this.

Mr. O’Neill’s double reference to John chapter 8 was an example of taking a text out of context.

There is a truth that can set us free, but it isn’t the truth over whether Boris lied to the Queen, or what the real reasons were for the five-week prorogation. Finding out the answers to these questions, if that’s even possible, may be important for the health of our constitution, but it’s not the truth that will set us free.

The good news is that, in the Bible, the ‘father of lies’ doesn’t win. We don’t have to listen to him.

The ‘father of lies’ is a wicked parody of the Father of truth — God the Father.

Where the devil wants to bring humanity down with him into everlasting destruction, God the Father wants to restore humanity into a wonderful relationship with him.

And he has provided the means to do this. The “truth that will set us free” is Jesus himself:

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.
John 3:16-18[3]

That, friends, is the real truth that will set us free.

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Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

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[1] https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+8%3A44&version=NIVUK

[2] https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+8%3A31-32&version=NIVUK

[3] https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+3%3A16-18&version=NIVUK