God’s Law 6: Do Not Misuse The Lord’s Name
JESUS SAID (Mat. 5:19): DO & TEACH GOD'S LAW
Here is the 3rd commandment of the Ten Commandments:
“You must not misuse the Name of the Lord your God. The Lord will not let you go unpunished if you misuse His Name.”
Deut. 5.11
The Amplified Bible reads it this ways;
“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain [that is, irreverently, in false affirmations or in ways that impugn the character of God]; for the Lord will not hold guiltless nor leave unpunished the one who takes His name in vain [disregarding its reverence and its power].”
To misuse the Lord’s Name or to use His Name in vain, God says, “The Lord will not let you go unpunished.” We all suffer because of sin in the world today, but evidently there is additional punishment in one way or another for anyone that misuses the Lord’s Name, whether they recognize it as punishment from God or not. But God’s punishment is for such a person to recognize misusing His Name and to repent of their sin and be forgiven and receive God’s mercy and grace.
But here is the worst misuse of the Lord’s Name, and the worst punishment (Lev. 24.15-16):
“Those who curse their God… anyone who blasphemes the Name of the Lord must be put to death.”
It’s wrong and bad enough to curse anyone, but to curse God receives the ultimate punishment. This may seem too severe to some Christians today, but maybe some Christians today don’t fear God as they should or even as He demands. The Apostle Paul (Gal. 6.7):
“Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man will reap what he sows.”
To not blaspheme God is not only to maintain His honor, but it’s also for society’s sake. When society no longer fears to curse or blaspheme God, they will no longer fear to curse and murder man, made in God’s image. Crime and murder increase proportionate to society rejecting any of God’s Law. The repercussions of rejecting any part of God’s Law are unavoidable, unless there is no God.
This 3rd Commandment was first adopted in Virginia law in 1610:
“That no man blaspheme God’s holy Name upon the pain of death.”
The same law was put in place in Connecticut in 1639:
“If any person shall blaspheme the Name of God the Father, Son, or Holy Ghost… he shall be put to death.”
Other colonies put the same 3rd Commandment law in place:
Massachusetts in 1641
Connecticut in 1642
New Hampshire in 1680
Pennsylvania in 1682, 1700 and 1741
South Carolina 1685
North Carolina in 1741
George Washington issued numerous military orders during the American Revolution. Typical of these orders, on July 4, 1775, Washington had the following ordered:
“The General most earnestly requires and expects a due observance of those articles of war established for the government of the army which forbid profane cursing, swearing, and drunkenness; and in like manner requires and expects of all officers and soldiers not engaged in actual duty, a punctual attendance on Divine Service to implore the blessings of Heaven upon the means used for our safety and defense.”
The laws against blasphemy and profanity based on the 3rd Commandment continued way beyond the Founding Era. During the 18th and 19th century several States continued to pass laws based on the 3rh Commandment:
Connecticut 1784
New Hampshire 1791
Vermont in 1791
Virginia in 1792
Pennsylvania in 1794
Main in 1821
Tennessee in 1834
Massachusetts in 1835
New York in 1836
Zephaniah Swift, Connecticut Chief Justice, is recognized as the author of the first legal text published in America, "A System of the Laws of the State of Connecticut". This treatise, published in 1795-1796, was a comprehensive overview of the state's common law. Swift's work is notable for being a pioneering effort in documenting American common law distinct from English tradition.
In Judge Zephaniah Swift’s first legal text published in America, he explained why civil authorities enforced the 3rd Commandment’s prohibition against blasphemy and profane swearing:
“Crimes of this description are not punishable by the civil arm merely because they are against religion. Bold and presumption must he be who would attempt to wrest the thunder of heaven from the Hand of God and direct the bolts vengeance where to fall. The Supreme Deity is capable of maintaining the dignity of His moral government and avenging the violation of His Holy laws. His omniscient mind estimates every act by the standard perfect truth and His impartial justice inflicts punishments that are accurately proportioned to the crimes.
But short sighted mortals cannot search the heart and punish according to the intent. They can only judge by overt acts and punish them as they respect the peace and happiness of civil society. This is the rule to estimate all crimes against civil law and is the standard of all human punishments. It is on this ground only that civil tribunals are authorized to punish offences against religion.”
*(Just a note for understanding early American documents: At that time the word “religion” was used in reference to Protestant Christianity. All others were considered false. Roman Catholics were called ”papist” or “popish” and Islam and all others were referred to as ill-religions, or irreligion, or anti-religion.)
In 1824 the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania wrote:
“The late Judge Wilson of the Supreme Court of the U.S., Professor of Law in the College in Philadelphia, appointed in 1791 unanimously by the House of Representatives of this State to ‘revise and digest the law of this commonwealth…’ He states that profaneness and blasphemy are offences punishable by fine and imprisonment, and that Christianity is part of the common law.”
In 1828, Noah Webster, who wrote the first American Dictionary, said:
“When in obedience to the 3rd Commandment Decalogue you would avoid profane swearing, you are to remember that this alone is not a full compliance with the prohibition which also comprehends all irreverent words or actions and whatever tends to cast contempt on the Supreme Being or on His word and ordinances.”
A 1921 case from the Supreme Court of Maine stated:
“To curse God means to scoff at God; to use profanely insolent and reproachful language against Him. This is one form of blaspheme under the authority of standard lexicographers. To scornfully reproach God, His Creation, final judgment of the world, Jesus Christ, the Holy Ghost, or the Holy Scriptures as contained in the canonical book of the Old and New Testament, under the same authorities, is to charge Him or Them with fault, to rebuke, to censure, to upbraid, doing the same with scornful insolence, with distain, with contemptuousness in act or speech.
This is another form of blasphemy. But as particularly applicable, perhaps, to the present case, it is blasphemy to expose any of these enumerated Beings or Scriptures to contempt and ridicule. To have done any one of these things is blasphemy under the statute as well at common law.”
The Florida Supreme Court of 1944 stated:
“This court has never defined the legal meaning of the word ‘profanity’ so far as this writer has been able to discover, but a number of other courts have done so, and practical all of them, following pretty close the dictionary meaning, define it as use of words importing ‘a curse of Divine vengeance’, of ‘implying divine condemnation,’ or words denoting ‘irreverence of God and holy things,’ - blasphemous. These decisions doubtless hark back to the 3rd Commandment of the Decalogue:
‘Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain.’”