The Third Commandment In The Christian Bible: The Misuse of God's Name and Idol Making - Biblical Truth Presented By Evangelical Holiness

    PITTSBURGH, PA, December 12, 2019 /24-7PressRelease/ -- All people are commanded to avoid taking the Lord's name in vain. Taking God's holy name in vain can include any misuse from the holy way it is cited in scripture itself, including using it with profanity. As presented in the following passages by Evangelical Outreach, the third of the ten commandments is directly related to God's most holy name:

You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name. (Exo 20:7)

Elsewhere we read of God's unique and most high name:

Let them praise the name of the LORD, for his name alone is exalted; his splendor is above the earth and the heavens. (Psa 148:13)

...you have exalted above all things your name and your word. (Psa 138:2)

...your name alone do we honor. (Isa 26:13)

No one is like you, O LORD; you are great, and your name is mighty in power. (Jer 10:6)

...your adversaries misuse your name. (Psa 139:20)

Some believe those truths are under attack. How? The Catholic Magisterium teaches to misuse Mary's name violates the command to not misuse God's name!

2146 The second commandment forbids the abuse of God's name, i.e., every improper use of the names of God, Jesus Christ, but also of the Virgin Mary and all the saints. (CCC 2146)

FYI, What the Catholic church calls the 'second commandment' is actually the third commandment. The Catholic church ignores the real second commandment for obvious reasons:

You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not BOW DOWN to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments. (Exo 20:4-6)

"The Likeness of Male or Female" Omitted

Shocking but true – note the following quote and especially the three dots (ellipsis), which indicates missing words in the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

2129 The divine injunction included the prohibition of every representation of God by the hand of man. Deuteronomy explains: "Since you saw no form on the day that the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, beware lest you act corruptly by making a graven image for yourselves, in the form of any figure. . . . " It is the absolutely transcendent God who revealed himself to Israel. "He is the all," but at the same time "he is greater than all his works." He is "the author of beauty."

The footnote attached to that ellipsis is Deut. 4:15-16 and that passage reads:

Therefore watch yourselves very carefully. Since you saw no form on the day that the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, beware lest you act corruptly by making a carved image for yourselves, in the form of any figure, THE LIKENESS OF MALE OR FEMALE.

The Catholic magisterium wants to conceal those 6 words, the likeness of male or female, because they themselves continue to violate that command with their millions of images in the form of male and female.

Getting back to God's name being misused, the third of the Ten commandments (not the second one) is the one related to God's holy name:

You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name. (Exo 20:7)

Had God wanted to include sinful man's name to an equal importance with his own sacred name it would state so, but it surely doesn't. Just the thought of sinful people being elevated to the unique importance of God's most high and exalted name is disturbing. Again, scripture says:

...you have exalted above all things your name and your word. (Psa 138:2)

The compound problem there is: the Catholic teaching not only lowers and devaluates Almighty God's name to the level of Mary and the names of Catholic saints, but lethally elevates their names to be on a par with God's most high name to not be misused. That too has led people into an idolatrous view of his sinful creation, including Mary.

Mary is "the All-Holy One" in Catholicism

BTW, Catholicism also wrongly teaches Mary was sinless, in contrast to God's word says:

493 The Fathers of the Eastern tradition call the Mother of God "the All-Holy" (Panagia), and celebrate her as "free from any stain of sin, as though fashioned by the Holy Spirit and formed as a new creature". By the grace of God Mary remained free of every personal sin her whole life long. (CCC 493)

2677 Holy Mary, Mother of God: With Elizabeth we marvel, "And why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" Because she gives us Jesus, her son, Mary is Mother of God and our mother; we can entrust all our cares and petitions to her: she prays for us as she prayed for herself: "Let it be to me according to your word." By entrusting ourselves to her prayer, we abandon ourselves to the will of God together with her: "Thy will be done."

Pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death: By asking Mary to pray for us, we acknowledge ourselves to be poor sinners and we address ourselves to the "Mother of Mercy," the All-Holy One. We give ourselves over to her now, in the Today of our lives. And our trust broadens further, already at the present moment, to surrender "the hour of our death" wholly to her care. May she be there as she was at her son's death on the cross. May she welcome us as our mother at the hour of our passing to lead us to her son, Jesus, in paradise. (CCC 2677)

The exaltation of Mary, as demonstrated above, is in direct opposition to God's word, for God alone is the Holy One (Isa. 1:4; Ezek. 39:7; Hos. 11:9; etc.), and we should never pray to Mary. Scripture also states the following attribute about God:

Who will not fear you, O Lord, and bring glory to your name? For YOU ALONE ARE HOLY. All nations will come and worship before you, for your righteous acts have been revealed. (Rev 15:4)

Let them know that you, whose name is the LORD-- that YOU ALONE ARE THE MOST HIGH over all the earth. (Psa 83:18)

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, (Rom 3:23)

If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives. (1 John 1:10)

For the Catholic magisterium to claim Mary has never sinned is to call God a liar and to show his word has no place in their lives, based on 1 John 1:10. Mary was not sinless and our trust and hope must not be in her for anything, especially our soul's salvation. We must have a trusting and submitting faith in the PRECIOUS Lord Jesus, the Savior. That means 100% trust and submissive faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and 0% in Mary, the sacraments and being a Catholic.

According to the Bible, eternal life is much more than just the gift of God (Rom. 6:23) and a present tense possession (Jn 6:47; 1 Jn 5:11-13). Eternal life is also a hope (Titus 3:7) yet to be reaped (Gal. 6:8,9), in the age to come (Mk. 10:30) for only the ones who persist in doing good (Rom. 2:7) and don't grow weary and give up sowing to please the Spirit (Gal. 6:9)! Eternal life is also a promise for the Christians who hold on to the gospel truth they heard from the beginning to remain in Christ and the Father (1 Jn. 2:24-26).

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. (1 Cor. 6:9-11, NASB)

Dan Corner, a former pastor and ex-Catholic, is the author of a number of books including 'The Believer's Conditional Security: Eternal Security Refuted', 'The Myth of Eternal Security' and 'Is this the Mary of the Bible?'.

Dan is available for media interviews, including debates, and can be reached using the information below or by email at [email protected], by phone at 724-632-3210 or by mail at PO Box 265, Washington, PA, 15301. His websites are https://www.evangelicaloutreach.org (EOMIN.org) and AlcanceEvangelistico.org (DBN-MIN.net) and EternalLifeBlog.com.

After graduating from college, Dan Corner got saved by reading the Bible. For over four decades, he has diligently served the Lord Jesus. Dan Corner's pastoral, apologetic, counter cult and street evangelism experiences have equipped him to contend for the faith and win souls to Jesus from many backgrounds.

He is an ordained minister and director of Evangelical Outreach who pastored for almost seven years and has authored hundreds of Christian articles, answered thousands of emails and letters and has written several books of vital importance in our day.

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