Should Christians Swear on the Bible?

00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)

00:00:02.580 | - Well, I pray your Easter Sunday was a magnificent one.

00:00:08.840 | Today, we have an email from Candice

00:00:10.520 | who lives in Long Beach, California,

00:00:12.320 | who asks, "Pastor John, what does the Bible say

00:00:14.480 | "or what are your thoughts about the practice

00:00:16.200 | "of using the Bible to swear truthfulness

00:00:18.460 | "in a court of law?

00:00:19.800 | "Why is this done, should it be?

00:00:21.740 | "And what about those who lie?

00:00:23.060 | "Is this act, using a Bible,

00:00:24.440 | "making a lie more punishable in God's eyes?"

00:00:28.480 | - Well, let me be honest right up front.

00:00:29.980 | I think Christians should resist

00:00:34.300 | taking such oaths in that traditional way.

00:00:38.020 | And by that traditional way, I mean,

00:00:42.680 | and this is part of my answer to her question

00:00:45.340 | about the meaning of it,

00:00:46.520 | taking a sacred object

00:00:49.800 | and swearing to tell the truth

00:00:53.980 | by that sacred object,

00:00:56.260 | like a Bible or your mother's name

00:00:59.680 | or your father's grave

00:01:01.880 | or the name of God or Christ.

00:01:04.420 | Like, "I swear by my father's grave,

00:01:06.920 | "I won't lie to you," something like that.

00:01:09.800 | In this traditional way of taking an oath,

00:01:13.080 | by calling some sacred object to mind,

00:01:18.300 | the idea is that your commitment to truth

00:01:23.300 | may be weak and would be strengthened

00:01:28.320 | by the desire not to desecrate

00:01:30.920 | the sacred object you have sworn by.

00:01:33.540 | You see that?

00:01:34.540 | In other words, the assumption is

00:01:36.200 | you come into this courtroom or some situation

00:01:38.960 | and you're not really committed to tell the truth.

00:01:42.160 | And maybe we could up your commitment to tell the truth

00:01:46.840 | if we could get you to associate

00:01:48.720 | your telling of the truth or your lying

00:01:50.800 | with the desecration of some sacred object

00:01:52.840 | like your mother's name or your dad's grave

00:01:55.180 | or the name of God or the Bible.

00:01:57.400 | So that's why I think the Bible

00:01:59.260 | was traditionally used in court

00:02:02.220 | because it was, once upon a time,

00:02:05.140 | a universally held treasure of holiness in the culture

00:02:10.140 | that no one but the most hardened person

00:02:12.980 | would want to desecrate by swearing by it

00:02:16.980 | and then lying through his teeth

00:02:19.820 | right after he had put his hand on the Bible

00:02:22.000 | that he's now desecrating.

00:02:25.000 | And the reason I want to discourage Christians

00:02:28.640 | from taking that kind of oath

00:02:32.460 | is because here's what Jesus said in Matthew 5:33.

00:02:36.640 | "Again, you have heard that it was said to those of old,

00:02:39.220 | "You shall not swear falsely,

00:02:42.180 | "but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.

00:02:45.960 | "But I say to you, do not take an oath at all,

00:02:53.920 | "either by heaven, for that is God's throne,

00:02:57.920 | "or by the earth, for it is his footstool,

00:03:00.540 | "or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King.

00:03:03.860 | "And do not take an oath by your head,

00:03:07.660 | "for you cannot make one hair white or black.

00:03:10.180 | "Let what you say be simply yes or no.

00:03:15.180 | "Anything more than this comes from evil."

00:03:20.860 | And then James picks it up, James 5, 12.

00:03:24.260 | "Above all, my brothers," which is quite a statement,

00:03:27.620 | "do not swear either by heaven or earth or any other oath.

00:03:32.620 | "Let your yes be yes and your no be no,

00:03:35.960 | "so that you may not fall under condemnation."

00:03:39.880 | Now, as soon as those verses are quoted like that,

00:03:43.980 | usually it is pointed out from the other side,

00:03:48.320 | whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute.

00:03:49.920 | God himself took an oath in Hebrews 6, 13.

00:03:54.060 | And angels take oaths, Revelation 10, 6.

00:03:59.160 | And Paul, at least five times,

00:04:01.960 | heightened his seriousness in telling this truth

00:04:06.400 | by saying he was speaking in the presence of God

00:04:09.840 | or of Christ.

00:04:11.520 | Now, my response to that is to say,

00:04:13.940 | well, yes, that's important to take into consideration,

00:04:17.400 | but none of those examples, as far as I can tell,

00:04:21.760 | diminishes the seriousness or applicability

00:04:25.560 | of Jesus' words in Matthew 5 or James in 5, 12.

00:04:30.560 | The burden of Jesus is that his people be so utterly

00:04:35.560 | and deeply and simply committed to tell the truth

00:04:41.400 | that they don't need buttresses to hold up their words

00:04:47.120 | like the fear of desecrating a sacred object, whatever.

00:04:52.080 | In fact, he says, Jesus says that if you add to yes or no,

00:04:57.080 | it is likely that this is coming from evil.

00:05:02.720 | So, very practically, here's what I have thought I would do.

00:05:07.720 | I've never been a witness in a courtroom, not yet,

00:05:12.880 | but here's what I thought I would do

00:05:14.920 | if I ever was deposed by lawyers or sworn in, as they say,

00:05:19.920 | in a courtroom as a witness.

00:05:24.240 | So, they present me with a Bible, maybe, hold out.

00:05:26.800 | I don't know how the different courts

00:05:28.360 | are doing it these days.

00:05:29.540 | If they presented me with a Bible

00:05:32.000 | and asked me to put my hand on it

00:05:34.200 | and swear to tell the truth, the whole truth,

00:05:36.200 | and nothing but the truth, I would say something like,

00:05:40.960 | Your Honor, my commitment to the truth

00:05:45.360 | and to the Lord of the truth, Jesus Christ,

00:05:48.600 | leads me to believe that it would dishonor

00:05:52.680 | both my commitment to the Lord and the Lord himself

00:05:57.600 | if I needed to put my hand on this sacred book

00:06:00.240 | to guarantee my truthfulness.

00:06:02.380 | I am totally committed to the truth

00:06:06.720 | and to the Lord of the truth.

00:06:08.640 | So, I ask that I be permitted to act without such an oath,

00:06:13.360 | but I do promise, I do promise,

00:06:18.240 | in reliance on the help of the Lord Jesus

00:06:21.820 | to tell the truth, the whole truth,

00:06:24.640 | and nothing but the truth.

00:06:26.560 | And I think that courts would honor that promise.

00:06:31.560 | I think they would allow you to say it your way.

00:06:36.200 | And it's an occasion for testimony.

00:06:39.320 | And I'd use it if the Lord gave me grace.

00:06:41.920 | So, the point of that little action right there

00:06:45.640 | in the courtroom is to magnify Jesus as the Lord of truth

00:06:50.640 | and to highlight my commitment to be a person of the truth

00:06:55.680 | without any need for threats that my dishonesty

00:07:00.580 | would bring worse consequences

00:07:02.580 | because I put my hand on the Bible.

00:07:05.640 | Fascinating, thank you, Pastor John.

00:07:07.440 | And thank you, Candice, for the question.

00:07:09.400 | These are the tricky pastoral questions

00:07:10.760 | we address on the podcast each week.

00:07:13.120 | And for more information and to download our apps

00:07:15.760 | or to search our archive of over 800 episodes now,

00:07:19.480 | find us online at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn.

00:07:23.800 | There you can send us a question of your own.

00:07:26.040 | And one of the most common questions

00:07:28.400 | that we get over and over again

00:07:30.400 | is about how faith and works work together

00:07:33.680 | in the Christian life, and we'll address that tomorrow.

00:07:36.880 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.

00:07:38.520 | Thanks for listening to the Ask Pastor John podcast

00:07:40.320 | with author and longtime pastor, John Piper.

00:07:43.400 | (upbeat music)

00:07:45.980 | (upbeat music)

00:07:48.560 | [BLANK_AUDIO]

Should Christians Swear on the Bible?

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