Last edited Thu Sep 4, 2025, 01:08 PM - Edit history (1)
falls under the 9th Commandment which says, "Thou SHALT NOT bear false witness against thy neighbor."
It might seem heavy handed, but try to consider those commandments' 4,000 year history.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_literalist_chronology
In the promise to Abraham and the oath that accompanied it, Abraham's God commits himself, but without disclosing his name. He begins to reveal his to Moses (3,000 years after Adam/Eve's misuse of their free will) and then finally makes it known clearly before the eyes of the whole people when he saves them from the Egyptians, their slave masters.
Third Commandment is recorded in Moses' Five Books (the first 5 of the Bible)
Exodus 20
: “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.” This is repeated in Deuteronomy 5:11.The Ten Commandments were also named in the Books of Genesis, Leviticus and Numbers, so they're the oldest record of God giving what's called Mosaic Law, because the God of Israel literally met face to face with Moses on Mt Sinai and gave the commandments to him as God's message for the whole nation of Israel to obey.
Why? Because as former slaves from a land that worshipped man-made things, they were disordered as a society, didn't know how to organize their families, their "justice" or behavior. So it was to Moses that their God told his name; this God actually named him(it)self all that actually IS ( I AM WHO AM) and that he called Moses in order that His "chosen" people learn the basics of God's morality on earth, to bring to the rest of the nations.
Why? Because their God (back then called Yahweh) who made all the universes, had chosen Israel as the nation to bring his Word to the rest of the nations. After that, all the elders of Israel went up to the mountain at Sinai and saw the glory of the Lord (I AM WHO AM or Yahweh) directly, without Moses to stand between them and God. The Ten Commandments were God's Covenant (sacred oath) to his people -- they would obey Him and be a nation of priests, who were the Levites (the priestly tribe), and He, God, would care for and lead Israel to the Promised Land if they did not fall back into the idolatries of their neighbors. That's just the fourth of five covenants their God made with Israel over 2,000 years. The last covenant is the New Testament. A common hypothesis among biblical scholars today is that the first major comprehensive narrative of the Pentateuch (Moses' Five Books) was composed in the 7th or 6th centuries BCE.
If you don't believe in a God that only slightly revealed him/itself over 4,000 years ago, then you don't hold Him as an Infinite being -- as Existence itself -- outside of time and space, in the eternal Now, that needs nothing because nothing else exists without Existence creating it out of His/Its Existence, and who created both the finite material (from subatomic/quantum law) universes, and the unseen realm of spiritual beings out of nothing; -- nor do you likely believe that that God, "existence itself," is Holy.
Then again, if you believe you might have a soul, and/or might have a free will, maybe think about where those beliefs came from. Or think about how humans have come to learn the concepts of good and evil, freedom, laws, statutes, courts, faith, hope and even love, or treating others the way you would like to be treated ... things that even nonbelievers and atheists believe in.
Edit history
Recommendations
0 members have recommended this reply (displayed in chronological order):
= new reply since forum marked as read