When Sarah Palin condemned the critics of the National Day of Prayer she boldly exclaimed, "What in hell scares people about talking about America's foundation of faith?"
For me, hearing "what the hell" in the same sentence as the word "faith" pushed a button that took me way back to my childhood. I could hear my Grandma Pearl admonishing me as she so often did: "The Bible says, 'Don't cuss.'"
Grandma Pearl was a petite, powerful and very pious woman. She wore her dresses well below the knee and her uncut hair was always pinned back in a tidy little bun. She sat in the front row every Sunday morning at a little white steepled-church where she taught Sunday school and never missed a Wednesday night prayer meeting.
I was always nervous around Grandma Pearl because she would get pretty riled up about what she called, "the sins of the devil" -- smoking, drinking, gambling and cussing. It's interesting to note that she had five sons, all of whom joined the Navy and, you guessed it, learned to cuss like sailors.
This familiar injunction against having a potty mouth is derived from The Ten Commandments. All this time I thought it simply said, "Don't cuss." Come to find out it actually says: "You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who take His name in vain."
The first glaring question to ask is: What is God's name?
If you don't know what God's name is, how could you take that name in vain? Off the tip-top of my head I thought God's name was God. But, now that I think about it, that's presumptuous and a tad bit absurd. It would be like thinking Brad Pitt's name is Actor or Shaquille O'Neal's name is Basketball Player or Grandma's name is Grandma. What an eye-opener.
Obviously, the Hebrew people were privy to what God's name was. In order to get in on the secret, you can either flip back a few pages in the Book of Exodus, or you can pop in Cecil B. DeMille's 1956 classic movie, The Ten Commandments, and you'll find the answer for yourself.
As the story goes, one day Moses was out in the field tending sheep, and all of a sudden, he found himself talking to a burning bush that never really burned up. He was having a vision, I guess you could say, and he heard a voice telling him to go tell Pharaoh to free the people. Moses was reluctant. (Wouldn't you be if you were talking to a bush?) So, Moses said, "Whom shall I say sent me?" The Voice replied, "I AM THAT I AM. Tell them, 'I AM has sent me.'"
There it is. God's name is I AM.
So "God" is not God's name at all. God is what God is. So, if God's name is I AM, just think how many times a day you are actually saying the name of God. "I AM an actor." "I AM pleased as punch to meet you." "I AM eating Oreos for dinner." "I AM selling my lava lamp to the highest bidder." "I AM this." "I AM that." Your every minutely detailed experience of life is an expression of God.
The next question erupting from this edict is: What does the word vain mean?
One meaning is, "conceited or egotistical" as in, "You're so vain." Everybody sing, "I bet you think this song is about you." Using that definition, this decree would say, "Now that you realize your oneness with the host, don't walk into the party like you're walking onto a yacht. Just because of your name, don't be stuck up about it."
But another definition of the word vain is "ineffectual, useless or unproductive." Basically, this commandment says that in taking the name of God, in wearing the name "I AM," you boldly step into the power of that name and take hold of all the rights and responsibilities that it affords. There is never a time or reason to think, feel or act as if you are useless, ineffectual or unproductive. Your life has meaning because it is sustained and supported by the One Supreme Power.
Far from being a decree against expletives, this commandment is about oneness. It tells us that we all wear a very important and impressive name. We are all members of the number one family in the universe with every resource available to do fantastic things in life for ourselves and for the world. If you don't realize who you are, if you don't do anything with everything you have, "Then shame on you," as Grandma Pearl would say.
Grandma Pearl sounds like a fun person.
Glad that "a$$hole" is not a word that uses God's name. There are no other words in the English language that convey as powerfull a meaning.
When a person takes God's name it means that a person is God's representative. To take His name in vain means it's just for show. We usually see a lot of this around election time or when someone joins the church for business contacts.
The true believer is an ambassador of God and should comport himself as such.
Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. 2Corinthians 5:20
Aside from that, why would God, who is Spirit, care about anything that has to do with the physical world?
We're at a place in our evolution where the world is less forbidding - hopefully bringing us to the realization that we are all one big human family.
Seems that way to me...and you might be right, at that.
Many things are being done In His Name that would qualify here:
"Holy" Wars and Genocide "In His Name."
"Justifications" for outright murder, mayhem, and violent behavior.
"Gospels" that have nothing to do with the Word of God and the Teachings of Jesus, especially those that celebrate ostentatious wealth worthy of Mammon.
Hatred of those different frrom you, based "On God's Word."
Abuse of children by those sworn to "Serve God."
Destruction of our natural resouces "Because God Is Coming Soon."
Meddling in the lawful activities of adults and children "because God doesn't approve."
There is more, that much is true.
I also know that those who profess to Speak For God are but a short step fom proclaiming themselves As God!
And that, right there, is the biggest violation of Commandment Three (as well as #1).
--RKJ
You forgot one.
Judging others! (Maybe this would fall under the meddling.)
What does this statement mean? It means that we are all God. Our true nature is His nature. Does anyone really think that God has a body like us?
However, the study I do on the Ten Commandments has as its main point on the Third Commandment that its violation is when God's name is used to gain personal power particularly at the expense of others. The scripture writers knew very well the power of religious belief and they felt it essential that a person not subvert this power.
There are plenty of religious leaders of all religions who violate this commandment. In reality, anyone can violate this commandment but I think it is particularly addressed to the power-players of religion for they are the ones who can use the power of religion (or God's name) to gain personal advantage the most.
Rather, I think it refers to those who claim publicly claim to be one of "God's faithful servants", but aren't true believers, or whose actions strongly contradict the tenants of their faith.
If this is the case, there are a great many "Christian" political leaders who are in violation of this commandment on a daily basis.
To violate the Third Commandment, is to use God's name to gain personal power particularly at the expense of others. The scripture writers knew very well the power of religious belief and they felt it essential that a person not subvert this power.
You are correct that there are plenty of "Christians" who violate this commandment. In reality, anyone can violate this commandment but I think it is particularly addressed to the power-players of religion for they are the ones who can use the power of religion (or God's name) to gain personal advantage the most.
Is it?
Is there ever a time when someone, by taking the name of God in vain, makes God look like a useless, ineffective, fruitless, fool, or, conceited, arrogant, unjust and a brute?
Example:
If my loved one is sick, do I take them to a doctor, or pray for them? If they die because I refused to allow them the necessary and proven medical attention, do I make Jesus/God look like a fool, as well as myself, just him, or just me? If they die, can I pray and have them raised from the dead, literally?
And yet, sadly, many were encouraged to believe that this was possible.
Example:
One of the founders of the constitution, forget which one, said that he believed in "natures God". Einstein was quoted as saying the same thing, but what is that?
Many in the ancient world looked to nature to define the nature and will of God, and as a result of that, demoted women. They perceived women and children as inferior. Women didn't earn an inferior status/complex, as is stated in the story of Adam and Eve, it was imposed upon them by men, natures gods.
Having entered the slippery slope, other men became inferior; black men, homosexual men are just two examples.
Do we?
The God of the OT gave out a lot of commands, but did he abide by them, did he ever change?
Thou shall not murder, or, We shall not murder begs the question, which God do you want? Which is fair, which is just, which is rational?
Jesus said that he came not to abolish the law but to fulfill it. Should God then have been stoned for being an adulterer, unfaithful? Should God have been stoned for having committed murder, theft, cursing and all the rest? Does the law apply only to me?
Of course the Romans did not stone they crucified, but I can't imagine that one is worse then the other, when each suffers horrifically. Horrific suffering is not justice, it is irrational, wrathful, vengeful.
Thous shall not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain has many nuances.
Taken in the right context, one can use Occams razor and find the simple and most elegant of reasons for not taking the name of either of "Us" in vain; the royal "We".
How many times have we heard of a loved one who changes the law, so that the tragic death of a loved one was not in vain? Often.
And so we ressurrect him.
Does God curse women? Men?
Does God steal from one and give to another?
Does God murder?