Monday Rant: Stop Using The Lord's Name in Vain

 Immediately, with some seeing the title the thought is, "He must be talking about cussing."  Not at all.

 

I've seen this being posted lately.  Have you?  (It's spreading like James 3:5 wildfire.) Maybe you've shared it...  I quote:

"After hearing Mark Zuckerberg saying that posting the Lord’s Prayer goes against their policies, I’m asking all Christians to please follow my example Jesus said; Everyone who denies me here on earth, I will also deny before my Father in heaven. Matthew 10:33

This is the best challenge I've ever seen on Facebook. So if you love Him and you're not ashamed, please join me in this challenge of faith!

AMEN

Our Father who art in heaven,

Hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come,

Thy will be done

On earth, as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread,

And forgive us our debts,

As we forgive our debtors,

And lead us not into temptation,

But deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.

 

Then it ends with "Can I get an Amen?"

But, Rick! Is that taking the Lord's name in vain?  Absolutely.  Here's why.

1. Did anyone actually hear Zuckerberg say something like that, and if so, where is the evidence?  Post a link, please.

2. The original poster says that the owner of Facebook said posting "The Lord's Prayer" goes against Facebook's policies, implying they will remove it.  Yet, behold, there it is in living black and white.  Maybe someone at FB is asleep at the wheel?  Not likely.  They've shown themselves to be highly sensitive to anything that goes against their "community standards". So, the post itself disproves itself.

 

3. Knowing that this can't be true, yet using Jesus' words to falsely prove something that isn't provable is using His name in vain.  If anything (and I believe He's a whole lot more) Jesus is truth.  So, why propagate a lie, or at the least something you don't know to be truth by attaching perhaps His best-known words to it? 

My years on social media have made it clear that there are none in our culture more gullible than Christians who post things that are either inaccurate, have no evidence behind them or are outright falsehoods.  And God help us...we tend to go even farther with political conspiracies.  By the way, God included such in a prohibition in His Ten Commandments.

So, as a pastor, may I say, "Cut it out!"  This copy and paste stuff, especially if it paints a picture of some kind of persecution (even it is dubious) does nothing to elevate the Gospel.  If you KNOW something to be false (not due to hearsay or because your most trusted BFF posted it), then by all means share that information.

Otherwise stick to pictures of cherub angels and unicorns.

Rant over.