The Blue Church

“Please place your hand on the Bible. Do you swear that you will tell the truth, and nothing but the truth …”

 

Recently I was listening to these words being said to a U.S. Senator. I thought to myself, “In this age, when any reference to God / religion is being lobbied and legislated against, I’m surprised such a practice is still in the courts”. So, I did a little research to see where this practice came from.

 

“There is no constitutional requirement for any federal official—firefighter, ambassador, or President—to take the oath of office over a particular text or, in fact, over any text at all. The earliest Western use of oath books in a legal setting dates to ninth-century England when, in the absence of a structured royal government, certain transactions were conducted at the altar, the participants swearing on a gospel book. Three centuries later, English courts adopted the practice, requiring jury members and individuals in particular trials to take an oath on the Bible. An unnamed thirteenth-century Latin manuscript, now held in the library of Trinity College, Cambridge, sets out the method and the significance of the act. By placing a hand on the book and then kissing it, the oath-taker is acknowledging that, should he lie under oath, neither the words in the Bible nor his good deeds nor his prayers will bring him any earthly or spiritual profit. In time, this became standard legal procedure—all witnesses swearing to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth—and made its way into American courts. British witnesses today still take their oaths “by Almighty God,” as American oath-takers conclude theirs with “so help me God.”

 

Interesting. Especially the line, “the oath-taker is acknowledging that, should he lie under oath, neither the words in the Bible nor his good deeds nor his prayers will bring him any earthly or spiritual profit.”

 

For me, it seems like a loose paraphrase of this would read, “If I lie about what I am about to say, nothing in the Bible, nor my good deeds or prayers will bring to me any profit”.

 

Wow. That is pretty significant.

 

Such an oath should certainly make someone think twice about what they are about to say. Of course, I wonder, as you probably do, how seriously people take it.

 

Additionally, this oath raises a lot of questions such as:

 

• What if the person lies, and then, sometime later, confesses their sin to God? Will the words of the Bible still be of no spiritual profit to them?
• Why does the breaking of this oath mean that no amount of good deeds will be of any earthly or spiritual profit?
• Does God really close His ears to anyone who lies after taking this oath, or prevent their prayers from benefitting them?

 

I think such questions come up when we try and integrate what the Bible says about lying with what man has said about lying under oath. Now, don’t get me wrong, because God does not want us to lie.

 

Let’s see what His Word says:

 

“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor” – Exodus 20:16

 

“There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.” Proverbs 6:16-19

 

“A false witness will not go unpunished, and he who breathes out lies will perish.” – Proverbs 19:9

 

“Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.” – Colossian 3: 9-10

 

“Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.” – Ephesians 4:25

 

There are many more verses in the Bible that address lying, but what have we learned from these?

 

• God commands us not to lie about our neighbor.
• God detests a lying tongue
• There will be consequences that come to us from our lying.
• In Christ, we are to have nothing to do with lying.

 

There is more for you to study in the scriptures about oath-taking, but for now, as far as all that other stuff about God’s Word, good deeds and prayers becoming of no earthly and spiritual profit to those who lie, I will leave that to man’s ideas. What God does with us when we lie is up to Him, and He is not bound by the suggested consequences. We just know that God does not want us to lie, and that should be all we need to understand.

 

For Jesus,

 

Rob