The definition of the words oath, swear, pledge, and vow are all the same. They all mean to make a solemn promise about something. The person making a pledge is promising to do something in the future. If you think about this you will see that it is not possible to truthfully promise anything. I am not speaking of what a person intends to do, but what someone promises to do.
A solemn promise is not within the power of any man. No man can control the future, so no man can make a solemn promise in truth. When someone asks us to promise, or make a pledge, we should examine all of the situations which we think might cause us to break our promise and answer accordingly. However we do not even know the future. How then can we make a solemn promise and what promise that a Christian would make is not a solemn promise.
Let me illustrate what I am trying to say. Suppose you are walking down the street and you happen to meet a friend. Your friend stops you and explains that he desperately needs a loan. He asks for one hundred dollars. It seems like a lot of money, but you have a thousand in your pocket. However you intend to make a purchase with it and you do not want to go back to the bank, where you have more than a hundred thousand, in order to withdraw more. You fear you will miss out on the deal you had planed for. Your friend does not need the money until tomorrow so you promise to loan it to him in the morning. You see no reason that you can not fulfill your promise and it does seem reasonable, but it would be better to listen and contemplate what God says about making promises.
The ability to see the future is not given to man. Suppose you die tonight. Your friend who desperately needs the loan, which you promised, stopped searching for it, because of your promise. That is just one possible ending to the story. There are any number of possible endings.
You could forget, after all, the loan is not as important to you as it is to your friend. There could be a tornado, hurricane, or flood. Your bank could fail, or you could learn that you are bankrupt and did not realize it.
You are probably saying to yourself that these are very unusual occurrences and of course that is correct. This may lead you to think, because you could not predict these unusual circumstances that you have done nothing wrong. But do not forget your friend who depended on you to fulfill your promise. Your conscience will remind you that you have indeed erred.
Consider Matthew 5:33-37 (NIV), AAgain, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath, but keep the oaths you have made to the Lord.’ But I tell you, Do not swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one@. Also James 5:12 (NIV), AAbove all, my brothers, do not swear‑‑not by heaven or by earth or by anything else. Let your “Yes” be yes, and your “No,” no, or you will be condemned.
While you are contemplating solemn promises and you still think you are released from your promise if unusual circumstances cause you to fail to fulfill your obligations. Consider Leviticus 5:4 (NIV), AOr if a person thoughtlessly takes an oath to do anything, whether good or evil‑‑in any matter one might carelessly swear about‑‑even though he is unaware of it, in any case when he learns of it he will be guilty.@ Did God give you an out? He said anything, good or evil, in any matter, even if you are unaware of it you will be guilty.
I don=t see any possible way to justify a broken promise. If you are one of those who would say Leviticus is the Old Testament and it no longer applies to the events of today you are wrong. It is true that the penalty for sin has been paid for all those who will admit guilt, and plead for mercy, but it is still wrong to sin.
Only God knows the future, so only God can make a promise. If we promise to do anything without the ability to fulfill it we are lying, and we do not have the ability to control or predict the future, so any promise is basically only a lie.
If you are inclined to think your motives make a vow, or pledge right then consider Jephthah the Gileadite who made a vow to the Lord. His motives were right. However he did not know the future and he had to sacrifice his only daughter, because of his vow.
Satan can not change the Word of God, so he changes the meaning of the words in which the Word of God is written. This is how Satan has confused this issue. Satan has managed to shade the meaning of swear into meaning using God=s name in vane. It does not mean that when it is used in the Bible. It means to make a promise. When we make a promise we are setting ourselves up as a God. We, though we do not mean to, are indicating that we can do what only God can do. Do as the Bible says (Mat. 5:34-37 NIV), ABut I tell you, Do not swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.@
That is how promises, oaths, swearing, pledges, and vows look to me.
January 6, 2008 at 2:20 pm
In your example of pledging your friend money, what if you answered your friend with a “yes”? Would this be promising? Or would it be following Jesus’ and James’ instruction to let your “yes” be yes and your “no” no?
January 8, 2008 at 12:04 pm
Ian,
I think it would be following the instructions of Jesus and I believe Jesus said this because we can not make a pledge in truth. I for one am glad that the Bible doesn’t spell everything out, but gives us enough to go on so that we can determine what is right and just. The answer “yes” would not have changed the outcome for either participant in my example. However if we thought these things out, realizing that anything could happen, we might be able to make the outcome different. I must say that an answer “yes” is about as close as a Christian can get to a pledge without making a solemn promise.
January 12, 2008 at 11:41 pm
So then my next question is, What is the difference between pledging something and saying “yes” to doing something?
You said, “However if we thought these things out, realizing that anything could happen, we might be able to make the outcome different.” Does this mean in the situation you outlined above the more financially endowed friend should have either given the money to the friend on the spot or said “no”?
It seems to me that Jesus was saying when we begin qualifying our commitments, it could mean our truthfulness is in question. Using your example, if the friend with $1000 in his pocket said “Yes, I promise I’ll give you the money tomorrow”, the question would be: why did he need to use the word promise? Possibly because he has said “yes” to things in the past and had not followed through. Therefore, in this situation he felt he needed to add something to his statement to coerce his friend into believing him.
If “money bags” had this type of track record and had said only “yes”, perhaps his friend would have thought, “Well, maybe he will and maybe he won’t give me the money. You never know with this guy.” Surely here this isn’t an example of what Jesus was talking about, otherwise we could go around saying only “yes” and “no” yet not really following through—not being people of truthfulness and integrity. These last two qualities are what I think Jesus was intending to point out by the example he gave.
Please correct me if I’m wrong, but your argument appears to be presented like this:
Telling someone you will do something at a later time than now when it’s possible to do it now is promising (pledging, making an oath, vowing).
Jesus said we should not make promises (pledges, oaths, or vows).
—-
Therefore, we should not tell someone we will do something at a later time than now when it’s possible to do it now.
The problem I see with this line of reasoning is that Jesus said we _should_ say “yes” or “no”. In your example and by your implicit definition of promise, saying “yes” to the friend would have been the same as promising!
In any case, I find that the words aren’t really the issue. The issue, as I hinted at above, is that we remain truth-tellers. I would qualify what you say in your blog above that “When we make a promise we are setting ourselves up as a God” with “if we don’t keep in mind that God does control the future”. I will explain as follows.
Your reference to the Old Testament is relevant in my judgment. Although, I think it should be pointed out that it applies to a “yes” equally as well as to a “promise”. Why? Because Jesus said let your yes be yes and your no no. This is as good as a human can get to being truthful about the future.
Example.
Mother: Son, will you take your brother to school in the morning?
Son: Yes.
By responding with “yes” I would have to say he’s promised, pledged, vowed, made an oath, or sworn to do his mother’s will. It may seem I’m being simplistic in my use of these words. However, I do understand they have many different meanings that are not all within the same semantic domain. Nevertheless, If he had promised, pledged, vowed, made an oath, or sworn, how would that have effected the outcome? I say it would not have affected the outcome. Consider this.
Mother: Son, will you take your brother to school in the morning?
Son: I am really really really sure I will take my brother to school in the morning.
How is this different from responding with “yes”? In the mother’s perspective I don’t think there is a difference. He either is or is not going to do what he said he would do. Jesus’ advice: don’t waste your breathe, be honest and don’t make yourself sound bigger and better than you really are because the future is in God’s control.
So, to answer your question, “Should a christian make a pledge?” I would have to answer, yes, as long as they are truthful and use everything God has given them to follow through.
This leads to “Should a christian ever forswear?” As you’ve said above, whether good or evil, to forswear makes a person guilty before God.
But, I’m finished writing for now, and please pardon my length.
January 14, 2008 at 11:53 am
Ian,
Before you can ask, “What is the difference between pledging something and saying “yes” to doing something?” you must ask if there is a difference. It seems to me that you have determined that there is no difference. If there is no difference then Matthew 5:37 makes no sense.
Matthew 5:33-37 is a warning not to swear. In verse 37 it is said that it is alright to say yes, but anything beyond comes from the evil one. If there was no difference then it would be OK to swear: which is the conclusion that you reached.
The question of what is wrong with swearing or pledging is what started me thinking about the whole thing.
I see that you, like me, must think things out for yourself and you do not accept anything at face value. I believe that is the proper way to approach anything that another says and in order to gain a personal understanding of a subject there is no other way possible. Well, I haven’t thought that out yet! The only exception that I am willing to make at this point in my studies is, “If the Bible says it, I accept it as true” and that exception came from the fact that every time I doubted the Bible, in the end of that particular search, it proved itself true.
As I analyze your comment it seems to me that you are trying to prove me wrong. I think that is a proper approach and I appreciate it. There is always a chance that I am wrong and a view from that angle is one of the ways I can learn more about a subject and I want to know and understand everything about the Bible.
If you can prove me wrong you must prove that I am wrong about “why” there is a difference between giving the answer yes or no and swearing, but your conclusion is that there is no difference. You must prove the Bible wrong in order to substantiate that view.
Part of me hopes that you can prove me wrong, because I will lean more and it will remove a wrong understanding that would block the way to a complete understanding of the truth. But there is a prideful part of me that would not be happy if you succeed. Both parts of me are grateful for your attempts! Don’t stop.
To answer your comment, I don’t believe it is wrong to say yes about a future event. It is only wrong to add anything to the answer. As I said in the post it just is not possible to be completely honest and pledge something that one does not have the power to deliver and because we can not control the future we can not guarantee anything: either good or bad.
As I understand Matthew 5:33-37 it is not about forswearing which is lying, but about any form of swearing.
You say, “So, to answer your question, “Should a Christian make a pledge?” I would have to answer, yes, as long as they are truthful and use everything God has given them to follow through.”
Then you might want to consider Jephthah. He made a pledge to God and he was given everything necessary to fulfill that pledge. At the time he made the pledge he thought it a good thing, but he did not know, or have the ability to control the future and he was a very unhappy man when he realized what he had done.
As I think more about the subject I see that one could say that 33-37 is only speaking about an oath made to God, but that little voice in my head immediately asked “What is the difference between making a pledge to God and pledging to someone made in the image of God?
Thanks for caring enough to comment. I really do like the input.
January 14, 2008 at 9:31 pm
I will respond point by point to your comments. Your statements will be within single quotes.
‘Before you can ask, “What is the difference between pledging something and saying “yes” to doing something?” you must ask if there is a difference. It seems to me that you have determined that there is no difference. If there is no difference then Matthew 5:37 makes no sense.’
As I was writing I was thinking that I might not have been clear enough. I redefined the meaning of the word pledge near the end of my post. I think there is a difference in Matthew 5:37 between saying yes and swearing. The definition in Matthew 5:37 would be adding “by heaven”, “by earth”, or “by my head”, to “yes”. This is what Jesus was saying not to do. Notice that we should still fulfill our commitments to God.
‘Matthew 5:33-37 is a warning not to swear. In verse 37 it is said that it is alright to say yes, but anything beyond comes from the evil one. If there was no difference then it would be OK to swear: which is the conclusion that you reached.’
Again, I apologize for not being clear enough. The definition that I had assigned to swear was “a commitment made to someone”. I can hear a possible objection, but please bear with me.
‘The question of what is wrong with swearing or pledging is what started me thinking about the whole thing.
I see that you, like me, must think things out for yourself and you do not accept anything at face value. I believe that is the proper way to approach anything that another says and in order to gain a personal understanding of a subject there is no other way possible. Well, I haven’t thought that out yet! The only exception that I am willing to make at this point in my studies is, “If the Bible says it, I accept it as true” and that exception came from the fact that every time I doubted the Bible, in the end of that particular search, it proved itself true.’
Just be careful of your presuppositions. I’m reminded of a saying, “A text taken out of context is a proof text for a pretext.”
‘As I analyze your comment it seems to me that you are trying to prove me wrong. I think that is a proper approach and I appreciate it. There is always a chance that I am wrong and a view from that angle is one of the ways I can learn more about a subject and I want to know and understand everything about the Bible.’
I think both of us have knowledge to gain from the other. That is why I’m discussing this with you. I’m not trying to prove you wrong. I’m merely analyzing the argument you’ve presented.
‘If you can prove me wrong you must prove that I am wrong about “why” there is a difference between giving the answer yes or no and swearing, but your conclusion is that there is no difference. You must prove the Bible wrong in order to substantiate that view.’
It may be that you are overlooking one of my statements—”In your example and by your implicit definition of promise, saying ‘yes’ to the friend would have been the same as promising!” This was a crucial point in my argument. I’m saying that you are defining promise in a way that is not in line with what Jesus was saying. This is what I’m attacking, so to speak. Please don’t misunderstand—I’m not attacking you personally. Although, I think you obviously understand what I’m saying, so I won’t say anymore about that.
‘Part of me hopes that you can prove me wrong, because I will lean [sic] more and it will remove a wrong understanding that would block the way to a complete understanding of the truth. But there is a prideful part of me that would not be happy if you succeed. Both parts of me are grateful for your attempts! Don’t stop.’
Isn’t this what all rational discussion should lead to?
‘To answer your comment, I don’t believe it is wrong to say yes about a future event. It is only wrong to add anything to the answer. As I said in the post it just is not possible to be completely honest and pledge something that one does not have the power to deliver and because we can not control the future we can not guarantee anything: either good or bad.’
This is exactly the line of reasoning I’m focusing on in my previous reply. You say that it is not wrong to say yes about a future event, but then say (in my paraphrase) we can’t be honest when we tell somebody we’ll give them something when it’s not within our power to do so. Maybe I’m getting tripped up on your example, since “money bags” had the power to give his friend the cash. Or did he? If you think about it, we really don’t have the power to do anything, as you say we can’t control the future. So this makes me think that the friend was in fact pledging the money to his friend, even if he said only yes, although this is different from what Jesus was saying in Matt 5.
‘As I understand Matthew 5:33-37 it is not about forswearing which is lying, but about any form of swearing.’
When I say forswear I mean to “formally reject or disavow a formerly held belief, usually under pressure”. Ref: http://wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=forswear
Consider Matt 21:28–32. Repentance is very similar to forswearing under the previous definition. Notice the son that said simply “no” to his father ended up doing his father’s will. This also applies to my line of reasoning. I don’t think God is all that interested in what we say, but in what is in our hearts, which will be carried out in our actions and words. If our hearts are right with Him, then everything else will follow. This is another reason I was trying to merge the meanings of “pledge” and “yes”.
‘You say, “So, to answer your question, “Should a Christian make a pledge?” I would have to answer, yes, as long as they are truthful and use everything God has given them to follow through.”
Then you might want to consider Jephthah. He made a pledge to God and he was given everything necessary to fulfill that pledge. At the time he made the pledge he thought it a good thing, but he did not know, or have the ability to control the future and he was a very unhappy man when he realized what he had done.’
Do you have the reference for this story of Jephthah? I can’t seem to find it. In any event, would it have changed things had he answered only “yes” instead of “vowing”?
I think this may be where the fog resides. There might have been people who said only “yes” to something and then later said, “I was only joking” or “I wasn’t serious”. Maybe this is another thing Jesus was referring to. When we say “yes” it should mean “yes”. If we’re being honest and we can’t say yes, then we should say “no”. Although I think there are legitimate reasons for saying yes and then later changing that to a no, or vice versa. Consider the two sons in Matt 21.
‘As I think more about the subject I see that one could say that 33-37 is only speaking about an oath made to God, but that little voice in my head immediately asked “What is the difference between making a pledge to God and pledging to someone made in the image of God?’
I think your thought is valid based on Jesus’ statement, “don’t swear at all” and by James’ comment.
‘Thanks for caring enough to comment. I really do like the input.’
Your welcome.
January 16, 2008 at 4:43 pm
Ian,
You have to laugh: well I do anyway. God confused the language and we are trying to use it to enlighten each other.
You say, “The definition that I had assigned to swear was “a commitment made to someone”. If that is so then we are not speaking about the same thing. “Yes” is a commitment to someone, and “Yes, I promise” is adding to it: which becomes a pledge, oath, or a solemn promise.
As for my presuppositions, I probably should have said, “If the Bible says it, I accept it as true as I understand it.” It is good advice to be careful of presuppositions and I thank you for it.
You say, “It may be that you are overlooking one of my statements—”In your example and by your implicit definition of promise, saying ‘yes’ to the friend would have been the same as promising!”
Well, if I say yes to a friend I certainly mean to fulfill what ever I said yes to, but my friend does not hear a solemn promise and I have not guaranteed an outcome.
Perhaps that may be what we are not clear on. If I verbally make a promise, then I am giving my personal guarantee of the outcome of that promise and because I do not have the power to do so I am in effect lying. I think Jesus is telling us that we are “Getting to big for our britches” if we make promises that we do not have the power to fulfill. (Been told that once or twice myself)
You included, ‘Part of me hopes that you can prove me wrong, because I will lean [sic] more and it will remove a wrong understanding that would block the way to a complete understanding of the truth.
Ha Ha! I wondered why I kept falling down! I need to learn more and lean less!
You say, “If you think about it, we really don’t have the power to do anything, as you say we can’t control the future. So this makes me think that the friend was in fact pledging the money to his friend, even if he said only yes, although this is different from what Jesus was saying in Matt 5.”
I wouldn’t say that we do not have the power to do anything, but I would agree if you said that we do not have the power to guarantee anything that we intend to do which is the difference between “Yes” and “I Promise”.
You say, “When I say forswear I mean to “formally reject or disavow a formerly held belief, usually under pressure”.Ref:http://wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=forswear”
Do you see how God confuses us? The American Heartige Dictionary defines forswear as, “for•swear•ing, for•swears. –tr. 1.a. To renounce or repudiate under oath. b. To renounce seriously. 2. To disavow under oath; deny. 3. To make (oneself) guilty of perjury. –intr. To swear falsely; commit perjury.” And the first word in the Thesaurus is “Lie”
You say, “Consider Matt 21:28–32. Repentance is very similar to forswearing under the previous definition. Notice the son that said simply “no” to his father ended up doing his father’s will.”
I suppose you could say that, but I wouldn’t chose the word “belief” to describe how the two sons were thinking at the time they were told what to do. I wouldn’t really call it a belief, more like a desire to do the will of his father. The wiser one decided later that it would be better to do it, though I doubt if he wanted to.
You say, “Do you have the reference for this story of Jephthah? I can’t seem to find it. In any event, would it have changed things had he answered only “yes” instead of “vowing”?
Well, Jephthah didn’t have to make any promise. God didn’t ask for a vow, it was Jephthah’s idea. There was no possible answer of “Yes”. The reference is Judges 29-39 and it is a revelation of how men use to revere God and keep their word no matter what. It is also an amazing account of a mistake and worthy of much thought.
You say, “Although I think there are legitimate reasons for saying yes and then later changing that to a no, or vice versa. Consider the two sons in Matt 21.”
I certainly would agree with that. We should always try to rectify our mistakes, but it is better not to make them in the first place.
I once thought that I might have to be on the Witness Stand and you should have seen the face of my lawyer when I told him I would not put my hand on the Bible and swear anything, because the very Book that the Court demanded that I swear on says, “Do not swear”. To his credit he researched it and the demand is “Swear or Affirm”: at least in Kentucky it is.
I am surprised that someone hasn’t brought up the subject of a Promissory Note yet. Just so you don’t have to, it is an agreement with the conditions spelled out. If you don’t pay you loose the collateral, so it is more of a yes than a promise.