Posted on 02/25/2011 3:36:52 PM PST by NYer
How is it “vain” not to take the Lords name in vain? Do you know how wide spread it is? Take a “listen” around you once in a while.
It’s as common as breathing!
Well some are definitely dishonest, anyway. When I first moved into this area, a guy came by my house and pretended to ‘find’ a couple of tracts on my porch. He was insistent that I read them, and when I started I said, ‘This isn’t right; this isn’t Biblical. Whose tracts are these, anyway?’
He said he didn’t know. I turned to the back, and said, ‘Watchtower—they’re Jehovah’s Witness tracts.’
He got this exaggeratedly shocked look on his face, and said, ‘Really? I didn’t know that.’
I’ve since learned that he is a died in the wool JW, and proselytizes whenever he gets a chance. I still can’t believe how dishonest he was about those two tracts, though. It really made a deep impression—a bad one.
died = dyed. Duh.
I agree. He KNOWS you’re talking to Him, no need to say it a few thousand times.
>>I blame it on the people. People see and hear what they choose to, which is why we have so many different religions to begin with.<<
A friend of mine puts it this way: When people become Christian, they spend the first few years studying and solidifying their beliefs, then they spend the rest of their life studying to prove those beliefs. We can be completely blind to information, even in the bible, that contradicts what we decided, after that first few years, what the bible says. It is difficult, but not impossible, to break through those barriers. Here is one guys attempt at one of those “standard” beliefs. In this case is that non-Christians burn and suffer in hell forever:
http://www.jeremyandchristine.com/articles/eternal.php
Last thing they'll do is take the lord's name in vain ~ any lord, any vain ~ just doesn't happen and yet you know they are usually going to be provoked into doing it.
A trick I found useful to make it possible to hold my tongue against the most strenuous of attacks was to imagine that I was in God's great hall of judgment and it was my turn. "Show Me your stuff" says God, and there it is ~ no sense to call for God's help when you are being judged at the end of time!
>>Mine is those who put an S on the Revelation.<<
Hahaha! Me too. And this is significant. A serious student of the book does not put an S at the end. It exposes a person as someone who is not all that familiar with it. After all, it gets its name from the first verse, “The revelation from Jesus Christ...”
I’m not being a snob about it. Rather the added s gives a clue as to the person’s familiarity with the book.
If you're going to be all nit picky....YOU didn't capitolize His name...so I did it for you.
Did you even read my post? I said people whom I've known for quite some time....NOT strangers.
Fact is, people are uncomfortable talking about Him in front of others. Perhaps it's where one lives that determines the reactions of others (I'm in NY).
>>How is it “vain” not to take the Lords name in vain?<<
I’m trying to explain the meaning of the phrase “take the Lord’s name in vain.” Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying swearing while inserting Jesus name within the swearing is appropriate, I just don’t think it fits the definition of “taking the Lords name in vain.” Rather, I think it is showing disrespect for the Lords name. Not the same thing.
I like what you say and understand your point. My close friends and family have begun to make a conscience effort, on their own now, regarding taking the Lords name in vain, at least in front of me.
Is that NOT one of the Commandments? What’s the difference between me stating “no, don’t go and kill them, or no, don’t steal or lie or no, don’t take the Lords name in vain”?
If I knew a murderer or a thief, I would say, NO, DON’T DO IT!
The thing that made my parents leave JW was that one day they did their door to door thing (this was in the very early 60’s) and when everybody got back to the Kingdom Hall afterward for a review of what happened, an interesting discussion followed. It seems that one of the pairs were arguing with an older guy on his doorstep and the guy died of a heart attack right there. The whole group laughed and laughed at that.
It didn’t seem very “Christian” of them from my parent’s perspective.
Swearing IS taking the Lords name in vain.
Saying Jesus F^&*^%G Christ IS taking the Lords name in vain.
>>Fact is, people are uncomfortable talking about Him in front of others<<
Some are. Some aren’t. And it can be for a variety of reasons. It is usually not “talking about Him” that they avoid. Rather, it can be that they are busy, they don’t agree with the other person on a couple of key beliefs (and the other person is adamant), or the other person is a bore and they don’t like talking about ANYTHING significant with that person.
I LOVE talking this stuff every chance I get, but there are some people that I would rather not discuss it with. I’ve already shaken the dust off my feet and they really just want to cram their misguided beliefs down my throat. And by “misguided”, I don’t mean we merely disagree. I mean stuff like “Jesus was not God” an things like that.
BTW, as often as I use His name and refer to Him in posts, I miss capitalizing about 10% of the time. It’s like typos.
i always wondered how the routing of souls upon death would work. seems like a ton of work that could be easily structure by the Almighty (he is an engineer after all)
making the assumption souls exist, we can assume they are a form of energy
energy can have a charge
with that thought, i wondered if people were born with neutral charge, then their life experiences could effect the overall charge. if they tended to be good, their positive charge would increase. bad things would have negative impact. it’d be a summing of events throughout your life that would reflect the overall ‘status’ of your soul.
the routing would work by having like charges attract (i know, reverse normal... go with it). as the soul leaves the body it would be drawn either towards the highly positive (Christ) or highly negative (satan). of course, there is no reason why lower charges (-0.5..0.5) couldn’t continue to remain within range of the earth plane... potentially leading to reincarnation and second chances.
just something i always figured an engineer type would create
>>Saying Jesus F^&*^%G Christ IS taking the Lords name in vain.<<
Here’s another good discussion of the meaning of the phrase:
http://atheism.about.com/od/tencommandments/a/commandment03.htm
Now, for a little JH joke, all in good humor of course. A JH knocks on somebodies door, and the person invites him in. "So, what did you want to talk about?" asked the homeowner. "Darned if I know," replied the JH, "I've never gotten this far before."
Ha, I’m definitely with you on that S. :)
That's the other Commandment...Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness (Lie)
Wow—that is quite a story. I believe they laughed, and yet it seems incredible. I don’t blame your parents for leaving.
This Jehovah’s Witness I have come to know in the area is always dumping on other Christians. For instance, he told me that Luther ordered the death of four hundred Christians who didn’t agree with him. He claims the execution order was carried out. I told him it never happened, and he said the history of it has been suppressed.
Otoh, he also believes cars have been designed that run on cheap fuels other than gasoline, and their inventors have been murdered. So I guess he’s just an overall whack job.
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