I never said it's unnecessary--I'm not the best judge of that.
I didn't say you did. I said that IF it is necessary, even once, then it is not always evil.
There is no such thing as "necessary evil."
Paul said "Do not do evil that good may come of it." (paraphrasing)
That means don't do evil! If it's necessary to do something in order to avoid evil, then what you do should not be evil itself!
What I'm saying is that what might make it necessary are circumstances where a greater evil needs to be averted,
A greater evil than what, Derf? Lying? That's called begging the question. You can't assume something that you're trying to prove.
and we humans don't have the knowledge or power to always avoid the lie.
Sure we do! It's called WISDOM!
You can even ask God for it!
That doesn't mean that lying is a good thing,
It doesn't mean it's necessarily a bad thing, either.
except where it is less of a bad thing
Begging the question.
than the other, and only 2 choices appear to be available.
This is a false dichotomy.
There's ALWAYS the option to NOT do evil.
This goes back to what I said. There is NEVER a time when you must break one moral law in order to not break another.
You can ALWAYS just do neither. That's your "third choice."
The whole circumstances are not wrong, because we need to avoid the greater evil.
Again, greater than what? If you are talking about lying, then, again, you're begging the question that lying is evil!
This is true in all the instances you've suggested.
Confirmation bias.
Take of the "lying is always evil" lenses for a moment, Derf.
What part of "do not do evil" do you not understand?
If Paul condemned doing evil that good may come of it, that NECESSARILY IMPLIES that he condemned doing ALL evil!
The bible consistently portrays lying as a sin
No, it doesn't, and this thread is proof of it!
and [portrays lying] to be avoided when using the terms "lie" and "lying".
You can't get around the fact that God rewarded the midwives for their lie.
You can't get around the fact that God rewarded Rahab for her lie.
You can't get around the fact that God deceived the people of Ai and ambushed them.
You can't get around the fact that Elisha, a man of God, lied to the blinded Syrians, and led them to Samaria.
You can't get around the fact that God sent a lying spirit to deceive a wicked king.
Corrie Tenboom lied to save innocent Jews from being killed by the Germans.
Harriet Tubman lied to Americans who would rob blacks of their freedoms.
The Allies deceived the Germans with fake armies in fields to aid the Normandy invasion...
The list goes on and on and on, where lying IS in fact a good thing to do, and NOT evil, especially when combatting evil!
Clearly, there are circumstances where lying and deception is a good thing!
There's never a reference to a "good lie" or a "bad lie",
False.
just stories where the lying was done to save someone's life.
Supra.
Even Peter was guilty before Christ for denying Him...by lying to save his own life.
What Peter did was, in fact, wrong. His lie was not out of fear of God, but out of fear of men.
Notice the caveat above in bold. God DOES have the knowledge and power to avoid lying.
And we can have it too, if we ask Him for wisdom!