Chapter 26: The Third Commandment, Part 3

I began the section revolving around WLC Q. 113 today. 

Q. 113: What are the sins forbidden in the third commandment?
A.: The sins forbidden in the third commandment are, the not using of God’s name as is required; and the abuse of it in an ignorant, vain, irreverent, profane, superstitious, or wicked mentioning or otherwise using his titles, attributes, ordinances, or works, by blasphemy, perjury; all sinful cursings, oaths, vows, and lots; violating of our oaths and vows, if lawful; and fulfilling them, if of things unlawful; murmuring and quarrelling at, curious prying into, and misapplying of God’s decrees and providences; misinterpreting, misapplying, or any way perverting the word, or any part of it, to profane jests, curious or unprofitable questions, vain janglings, or the maintaining of false doctrines; abusing it, the creatures, or any thing contained under the name of God, to charms, or sinful lusts and practices; the maligning, scorning, reviling, or any wise opposing of God’s truth, grace, and ways; making profession of religion in hypocrisy, or for sinister ends; being ashamed of it, or a shame to it, by unconformable, unwise, unfruitful, and offensive walking, or backsliding from it. 

I did not, you will probably not be surprised to know, make it beyond oaths and vows. Beginning then with the first of the Sins Forbidden by the third commandment: Failure to use God's Name as required.

God threatens to curse all those who do not honor His name as it deserves and who do not take His name, and all it means, to heart. God will curse their persons and
their blessings. This is particularly true of Christian leaders, like the priests to whom these words were originally addressed (vs. 1). They must show the people the right way to live and worship, and correct any impiety and false worship in the people whenever they see the people growing cold in God’s worship. (306)

The Abuse of God's Name:

[1: Ignorance]
Abusing or misusing God’s name in ignorance is still a breaking of the Third Commandment, for our ignorance of God, i.e., the willful suppression of the truth in unrighteousness, is guilty, inexcusable ignorance: “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse” (Rom. 1:20). (307)

“The unbeliever is fully responsible for his mental state, and this is a state of culpable ignorance. That explains why Paul issued a call for repentance to the
Athenians (v. 30); their ignorant mindset was immoral.” 79. ​Bahnsen, Always Ready, 256 (308)

[2: In Vanity]
The reason for these petitions [Prov. 30:7-9] is that he does not want to dishonor his God by sinning against Him either by unbelief or pride....Either way he considers his sin as an abuse of God’s name in vain. (308)

[3. Irreverent Profanity]
By their treatment of the altar and the table of the Temple, the people and priests were, in God’s opinion, guilty of contemptuous behavior in corrupting His worship, because they had regarded the worship of God as of such little sacred value, that it was nothing to them to adulterate that worship. Irreverence for the means by which God reveals Himself is irreverence for the God who is “majestic in holiness” and who is “a consuming fire.” (310)

[4. Superstition]
For example, in the incident described in 1 Samuel 4, Israel had a misplaced and superstitious trust in the ark of God, rather than the God of the ark: “Let us take to ourselves from Shiloh the ark of the covenant of the Lord that IT may come among us and deliver us from the power of our enemies” (vs. 3). Such superstitious attitude
and use of the ark of the Lord is a heinous sin against the Lord of the ark. Faith puts its trust in the trustworthiness of divinely instituted symbols, sacraments and ordinances as pledges of God’s presence and blessing to His faithful people. But these divine symbols, sacraments and ordinances do not derive their power from the trust that is properly placed in them, that is, in God through them. (311)

[5. Wicked Mentioning of God's Name]
    A] Titles and Attributes:
Those wicked people who speak against God wickedly, taking His holy name in vain, using His glorious titles or mentioning His perfections in a wicked and irreverent manner are counted by God as His enemies and as haters of God....God takes a person’s wicked use of His name far more seriously than we ordinarily think. God hates it, is insulted by it and will punish it. (320)
   
    B] Ordinances:
To mention or use God’s divinely instituted ordinances revealed in His Word in a wicked manner is also taking the Lord’s Name in vain. In Psalm 50, “the Mighty One, the Lord…God, your God” (vs. 1, 7) counts “the wicked” as everyone who speaks His statutes and ordinances favorably and who confess His covenant, making their public vows, but who hate His discipline of them and audaciously
disregard His revealed Word. (321)

Correct forms of worship and correct words in worship without faith, heart and repentance are forms and words used wickedly before God. Such empty formalism, being superstitious and without heart, is detestable to God. (321)

    C] Works:
Any wicked mentioning or using of God’s creative, providential or redemptive works amounts to taking His name in vain. Isaiah 5:8–30 is a catalogue of the specific sins of Israel and their appropriate judgment. In verses 11–12, Israel is condemned for being a debauched people. Their lifestyle, music and knowledge are debased and immoral. They give themselves to drunkenness and dissipation making them unfit to glorify God in six days of meaningful work for God’s glory and one day of rest and worship. (324)

By Blasphemy: 

This last passage (Lev. 24:11–16) shows us how God views blaspheming His name: it is such a heinous sin and crime in His sight that it must be punished by the civil magistrate, and it is of such an extremely heinous nature, because it is against God’s infinitely valuable Name, that its only just punishment is death. Blasphemy, then, remains a capital crime as long as God’s name is infinitely holy. (326-327)

Basic to a godly social order is the sanctity of the name of the God who defends such an order. (The source of law for a society is the God of that society.) The blasphemer verbally assaults the name of God: His titles, perfections, works, ordinances, representatives, etc. He publicly challenges God and His representatives to do something about his renunciation of his covenant oath to God and his faith in God by uttering a curse against God. Such verbal assault is rebellion and treason. It is an attack upon the foundation of a godly social order, which social order is to be defended and maintained by the civil magistrate. (327)

By Perjury:

Perjury is a serious offense according to Biblical Law. It is regarded as a destruction of the processes of justice (Lev. 19:12; Deut. 17:6, 7; 19:16–21; Prov. 19:5, 9; 25:18; Matt. 19:18; Mark 10:19; Luke 18:20). Biblical Law equates perjury with blasphemy, since it is God’s justice that is offended (Lev. 19:12). (329)

By all Sinful Cursing, Oaths, Vows, and Lots:

[1: Cursing]
"You need not go far in this life to meet a Shimei. His personal characteristics are all too common.… Here is an unbridled tongue, fulminating in the foulest language and pointing to an untamed heart (James 3:5–6). Here, also is the capacity to combine a monolithic sense of being in the right with a readiness to indulge a sinful, judgmental attitude to another person (James 3:9). Allied to this is a lack of interest in solving whatever problem exists, or of extending the slightest hint of a willingness to forgive a perceived wrong, and a vicious enthusiasm to see the wrath of God poured out on that person. The Shimeis of this world are driven by a burning desire for revenge. They don’t want any repentance, reconciliation, or restitution. They want to see the other fellow “get his deserts,” as the saying goes. Bitterness consumes those who, far from not letting the sun go down on their anger
and so leaving everything in the hands of a just Father- God, wallow in unholy anger, self-pity or vengefulness. 114. Keddie, Triumph of the King, 155–56. (335)

[2: Oaths]
    A] Flippant Oaths made in Everyday Conversation:
Both Jesus and James (5:12), forbade flippant oaths in everyday conversion, lightly taken with reference to trivial matters. They did not forbid oath-taking, but the taking of such oaths in every day conversation. (335)

Therefore, when Christ said, “make no oath at all,” He was not absolutely forbidding all oaths on necessary and solemn occasions, but, rather, was forbidding the taking of oaths in everyday conversation and oaths in the name of creatures, rather than in the name of God. (336)

    B] Made in the Name of Someone or Something other than God:
Oaths are to be taken only in the name of the God of the Bible, the one, true and living God....Swearing in the name of God implies faith in and confession of the God of the Bible and of His glorious perfections, especially His omniscience, omnipotence, justice and sovereignty. It follows, therefore, that to swear in the name of anyone or anything else besides Him is utterly unlawful and is nothing less than idolatry, which God hates. (337)

    C] Swearing to Something that One is not Fully Persuaded is the Truth:
In taking an oath we should swear to nothing but what we are fully persuaded to be the truth: “And you shall swear, ‘As the Lord lives,’ In truth, in justice and in righteousness” (Jer. 4:2). (338)

    D] Swearing to What is not Good and Just:
To swear to that which is good and just is to swear to that which is Scriptural because the Bible, as a written revelation of the character and will of God, is the standard for goodness and justice. (338)

    E] Swearing to Something that One is not Able and Resolved to Perform:
We should swear to do nothing but what we are able to do with the Lord’s help and what we are resolved and prepared to do. (341)

    F] Oaths Obligating Sinning:
​No oath is obligatory which binds a man to do what is unlawful or impossible. The sin lies in taking such an oath, not in breaking it. The reason of this rule is, that no man can bring himself under the obligation to commit a sin. (343)

[3. Vows]
    A] To do Something Forbidden:
We may never do what God’s Law forbids us to do; hence, it is wicked to vow to do what God forbids (Acts 23:12, 14; Mark 6:26). (343)

    B] To do Something which would Hinder our Performing any Duty Commanded by God:
Because we are to obey whatever God commands of us in His Word, we may take no vows that would keep us from doing what God commands. (343)

    C] To do Something which is Not in Our Power to Perform:
The Bible explicitly forbids us from vowing to do things that we are totally incompetent to carry out: “When you make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not delay to pay it, for it would be sin in you, and the Lord your God will surely require it of you.… You shall be careful to perform what goes out from your lips” (Deut. 23:21, 23). Therefore, vows which are not in our power to perform are forbidden, as well as vows which we do not have the authority to make. (344)

    D] To do Something which we have No Promise From God for the Ability to do:
Where there is no divine bidding, there is no divine enabling....Therefore, since we cannot faithfully keep a vow without the assistance of Christ and His Spirit, we cannot make any vows other than those which obligate us to do what He has commanded, since the only promise of ability which He gives us is in reference to being enabled to do what His Word commands. Hence, Roman Catholic vows of
perpetual chastity, poverty and silence, or Fundamentalist vows of total abstinence of alcoholic beverages are forbidden us since God has not promised to give us the ability to keep such vows because He has not commanded such things of us in His Word. (345)

[4. Lots]
In the light of what we explained about lots, as revelatory of God’s will until the completion of the Biblical canon, any use of lots to determine God’s will is sinful. It is to seek to know God’s will apart from the all-sufficient Word of God which thoroughly equips us for every good work (2 Tim. 3:17). (353)

By Violating our Oaths and Vows if Lawful, and Fulfilling them if Unlawful:

[1. Violation of Lawful Oaths and Vows]
The word treason, means literally “to give up” or “to betray” a trust, an oath or a vow. (353)

It is…a sin to refuse an oath touching any thing that is good and just, being imposed by lawful authority (WCF, XXII, iii). (354)

This incident [Zedekiah and Nebuchadnezzar] also teaches us that we are to keep lawful oaths even when they are made to heretics and infidels. The obligation of a lawful oath does not depend upon the character of the person imposing the oath. (356)

[2. Occasions when Oaths and Vows May Be Broken]
    A] When they would Commit Us to Sinning:
Because oaths are made in the name of God to a God-ordained agency, and because vows are made directly to God, neither church nor state can regard either as in any way binding men to them, rather than to God’s law. No disobedient and faithless church can regard its clergy and laity as bound to loyalty to the institution, and no lawless state can bind the conscience of man apart from the Word of God. (357)

B] When made by a Family Member without the Consent or Knowledge of the Head of the Family

C] When Imposed on Us for Evil Purposes:
Therefore, “where the truth is being extracted from us for evil purposes, for the commission of a crime, we are under no obligation to tell the truth. To tell the truth and help an evildoer in the commission of a crime is to become an accessory to it.” 153. ​Rushdoony, Law and Society, 118. (361)

And there we stop for the day...

      Racheal