Taking the Lord's Name in Vain

The Text

"You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain." Exodus 20:7

Some Thoughts on This

In a few months, we will be doing "Tough Sayings" in Evening Worship. The first will be the Unpardonable Sin that Jesus speaks of in the Gospels. Essentially, the unpardonable sin is ascribing to Satan the works of the Holy Spirit. Is this command in the Big Ten related at all to the Unpardonable Sin?

Enter, Dennis Prager

I heard on the radio this week a Jewish man speaking about war atrocities. His thesis was that atrocities in the name of secular ideology far outweigh the atrocities in the name of religious idealogy. Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, and other 20th century dictators kiled more for their purposes than all of the crusaders throughout the millenia. Then he came to the current atrocities perpetrated by Islamic extremists. They kill in the name of their god. He said they are breaking this Big Ten. Taking God's name in vain means (to the Hebrew mind) to do evil for God and call it good. I had never heard that before.

Aw, Jeez...

According to this scholar, "oh my G-d" and "J-sus Chr-st!" when you are shocked, hurt, etc may be wrong, but it isnt part of the Big Ten. He says God is big, noble and He wouldn't vaporize you for that. But what He cannot abide is when truly wicked people make religion and make Him appear to be advocating the sick and truly evil behaviors of those spokesmen. I get it. That certainly is more evil than "goodness gracious!"

It's Your Turn

Your thoughts on the Third Commandment?