*?#@* Is Not God’s Last Name

Swearing is, unfortunately, too much a part of language today.  It continuously pollutes television and radio programs. Children’s and adult programs alike are saturated with unnecessary filthy expletives. 

Many teachers and other speakers, who were once expected to be exemplary speaking examples, now feel they need to include profanity in their vocabulary.  Modern speech has digressed to a filthy “norm.”  

To make matters worse, vulgarity has de-escalated to a lower level.  Profanity now openly includes cursing with God’s name included, usually as a prefix or an adjective.

When reprimanding someone who curses using God’s name, they usually retort, “I didn’t mean anything by using it!”

“Exactly, what the Bible says not to do,” I usually respond. At this point, they often look a little confused, as few know what the Bible says.  I then quote the third of the Ten Commandments:  “Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.” Exodus 20:7

The word “vain,” according to Webster’s 1828 dictionary, means “empty, worthless; having no substance, value, or importance.”  Exodus 20:7 commands us not to take God’s name lightly and without meaning.  That is exactly what people are doing when they curse using God’s name in their profanity.

Besides, who believes that they do not mean it when they curse with God’s name included?  If I swore every time I was angry or hurt myself using your wife’s or mother’s name before the filthy word, you would certainly get the message that I did not respect them. 

After several foul expletives using your loved one’s name you would, (or should), get mad at me for using their name in such a degrading manner.  You may even want to take a swing at me for showing disrespect against one for which you cared.  In like manner, God also takes it seriously when you curse, especially using his name lightly.  The third command also states that anyone that uses the Lord’s name vainly will be found guilty of using it! Gulp!

One of the best illustrations for using God’s name respectfully is learned from the example of the early scribes who helped keep exact copies of the Bible.  As the old Bibles wore out, new ones had to be re-copied. 

Printing presses were not invented, and the only means of preservation was by re-writing it by hand.  When the scribes came to God’s name, they had such respect for His name they would not take it lightly. They threw out the quilled pen they were using, reached for a new quill, took their “pen knife” (that is where the term comes from today), and carved it into a new sharp writing instrument.  It was with this new pen that they wrote His name. They had such reverence for God’s name that they would only use an unused pen to record His name.

To this day, many Jewish writers still have such respect for God’s name that when they pen it, they will not spell it out entirely.  They write it as “G_d.”  This attitude of the past towards respecting God has certainly gone downhill to what most verbalize today.

It is not necessary to define one’s anger or displeasure further with a filthy word, as the ungodly world does.  We can respond with simply a “yes,” or “no” as the Bible commands: “But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil. “ Matthew 5:37  

One’s vocabulary should be more developed than one that has to resort to only using four-lettered words. Above all, one should never use God’s name vainly.  His last name is not a filthy word.