If we ask someone a straight question, we obviously want someone to give us a straight answer, right? However, there is a bit of verbal maneuvering that instead of beating around the bush, it gives us neither the truth nor a lie. In court, someone might say that they are “pleading the fifth,” refusing to give an answer that might implicate them in a crime. This is based on the Constitution.
Others might use the Glomar response.
“In 1968, U.S. intelligence learned that a Soviet-owned submarine, K-129, sank in the Pacific Ocean and came to rest over 3 miles below the water’s surface. What made the sub’s fate particularly interesting (if not outright concerning) was the fact that it was carrying nuclear missiles. With Russia seemingly unable to locate and retrieve it, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) began putting together a plan to scoop it—and any Russian secrets it might harbor—up for themselves.
“To keep suspicions low, the CIA asked wealthy aviator Howard Hughes to participate in a fabricated story in which Hughes’s company, Global Marine Development, would announce a salvage ship, the Hughes Glomar Explorer, that was intended to locate minerals on the ocean floor. But in fact, the Glomar (a contraction of Global Marine) was a ship designed to grab the Soviet sub like an arcade claw machine paws at a stuffed animal.
“The mission, which was finally completed in 1974, was not terribly successful: The U.S. was able to retrieve only a portion of the hull, which harbored few intelligence secrets. Worse, Hughes’s office had been burglarized and mention of his CIA affiliation was leaked to press. When the media pressed the CIA for more information, the agency realized it had a problem—it couldn’t simply dismiss the operation, as evidence was out there. But the sensitive intelligence operation couldn’t be acknowledged, either. The agency had to figure out what not to say, and how not to say it.”1
As reporters peppered the agency with questions, they were backed into a corner. Evidence was out there concerning the operation and lying to the American public wouldn’t be a good thing. So, the Glomar response was employed: “We can neither confirm nor deny these allegations.”
Though given a name in the late 60s, the Glomar response can be traced back in history to as early as the 1800s. Today, the acronym NCND (neither confirm nor deny) is used to shorten the verbiage and it is used by Federal agencies as well as anyone else who wants to avoid telling the bald-faced honest truth.
I guess that I can understand that there are going to be times where such an evasive response is necessary. Personally, we all have private lives and the point of the word private is just that – private. Some folks, though, are diggers. They will poke, prod, and keep drilling for an answer in those private areas of our life. Our evasiveness seems to incentivize them to get an answer or die trying. Rather than being blunt and rude, telling them to mind your own business and stop being nosey, we could give the NCND answer.
When we come to the Word of God, though, there is no evasiveness. NCND is not an answer. When God questions, we need to offer up truthful answers.
Job had such a time with the Lord in Job 40:1-7. “Moreover the LORD answered Job, and said, (2) Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him? he that reproveth God, let him answer it. (3) Then Job answered the LORD, and said, (4) Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth. (5) Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further. (6) Then answered the LORD unto Job out of the whirlwind, and said, (7) Gird up thy loins now like a man: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.”
No equivocating, Job. No waffling. No hedging. No NCND. God says, “I want straight, honest answers because I know the truth already and I want to hear you admit to the truth.”
As you read your Bible today, God is wanting to do a work in our lives. Changes need to be made. Weak areas need to be strengthened. Strong areas need fortified. But nothing will be accomplished if we dance around the truth and do nothing with what we read.
God’s Word is many things and one of those is that it is a 100% accurate lie detector test. Though we may get evasive, the least little misstep will sound the alarms, and we will be 
caught. Keep Hebrews 4:12-13 in mind as the Lord deals with you today.
“For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. (13) Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.”
1https://www.mentalfloss.com/neither-confirm-nor-deny-phrase-origins
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