Most U.S. presidents have sworn on a Bible of their choosing when taking the oath of office. However, it’s not required, as John Adams, the 2nd president of the United States, didn’t swear on the Bible for his inauguration but rather took the oath on a book of law.
When the United States was founded, swearing an oath meant something, because you agreed that you were making a promise and asking God to enforce it. And if you broke that promise, you could expect divine retribution. Some suspicions, atheist and religious, stemmed from the fact that if they swore an oath, people couldn’t be sure that they were fearful of breaking it. The rituals around the oath were meant to emphasize how seriously the oath should be taken even by people who might otherwise break their promises.
When swearing an oath, you use special gestures by raising your hand, holding it up with the palm out towards America and putting the other on a Bible, emphasizing the seriousness. In fact, swearing an oath was so serious that some Christians forbade it entirely. One of those was a Quaker, William Penn, who founded the colony of Pennsylvania, as a safe place. Quakers held similar beliefs, and the Constitution allows any federal officer to make an affirmation instead of an oath of office, saying they will meet the oath’s conditions without involving God. In today’s culture, the oaths seem much less weighty, and that all this business of the Bible seems like archaic claptrap.
Not that people take the oath lightly, but they don’t want to spend every moment over it because they might break it in the fear of eternity in hellfire, reinforcing the idea that taking the oath should be serious business for those of the religious persuasion, and the act of swearing their oath using the Bible or a holy book might act on their conscience that God may be checking on them.
“As God as my witness,” some may say. But in any event, swearing on an oath will not ensure that all witnesses will tell the truth, as will make those witnesses legally liable for what they say at the very least.
Courtrooms at large tend to keep both the Bible and the Quran on hand, or a witness could bring some other book to use that would be appropriate to their faith. I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, so help you God. Some oaths often end with “so help me God” with 2.2 billion Christians and 1.8 billon Muslims coming in 2nd out of the 7.442 billion people in the world, according to Google. Religious or not, I was shocked hearing our President using the Lord’s name in vain when he used the GD word on CNN and MSMBC during a conversation between Omarosa about her leaving the White House.
So what does the Bible say about telling the truth and lying?
In fact, if you look through scriptures on this you may be overwhelmed about how many stories there are regarding lying in the Bible. You might say lying is very biblical in all different degrees, and how it can reproduce itself in our lives?
The definition of lying is: One who presents false information with the intention of deceiving. Sin first entered our world through a lie when the serpent said to Adam and Eve, “You will not surely die, for you will be like God,” which is one of the devil’s most successful traits of deception in different degrees and forms.
Understand before we go any further the reason that this is an important subject. So let us not be the Devil’s Fool. The Bible makes it very clear that God loves truth and he hates lies.
Genesis 3:4: “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman.“For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
According to the Bible, when the sin problem is being dealt with, turn to Revelation 21:7-8 where it says, “He that overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be my son, but the cowardly, the unbelieving, the abominable murderers, the sexually immoral sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars will have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone which is the second death.”
If that is not clear enough, turn to Revelation 22:14: “Blessed are those who do his commandments, that they might have a right to the Tree of Life and enter through the gates of the city because outside are dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters and whoever loves and practices a lie.”
It does not say lies, it says a lie! Lie is like a part of the handle that fits all the other tools of sin because It’s so often connected with stealing, adultery, coveting, and right on down the line. Sometimes it may be your body language and sometimes in our silence, we lie. You may say silence is golden, but it’s just yellow.
The whole final scenario is going to be between good and evil and is going to revolve around what you believe. God tells us if we do not receive the love of the truth, we don’t learn to love the truth. God will allow us to believe a lie through free will and that’s why we should learn the importance and to have an appreciation of the truth.
But the question is, does God measure truth by just what everybody sees on the surface or what is in your heart
When Jesus appeared to Abraham with two angels that later went on to Sodom and Gomorrah to rescue Lot, the Lord said in Genesis 18:9-15, “’Where is your wife, Sarah?’” they asked him. ‘There, in the tent,’ he said. Then one of them said, ‘I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.’ Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him. Abraham and Sarah were already very old and Sarah was past the age of childbearing.
So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, ‘After I am worn out and my lord is old, will I now have this pleasure?’ Then the LORD said to Abraham, ‘Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really have a child, now that I am old?’ Is anything too hard for the LORD? I will return to you at the appointed time next year, and Sarah will have a son.’ Sarah was afraid, so she lied and said, ‘I did not laugh.’ But he said, ‘Yes, you did laugh.’”
Because she did not laugh openly, she thought she could deny it because she thought she was the only one that knew the truth. The difference of lying is a statement, used intentionally for the purpose of deception. Fake news is a type of yellow journalism or propaganda that consists of deliberate misinformation or hoaxes spread via traditional print and broadcast news media or online social media.
Party Affiliation definition: is an organized group of people, often with common views, who come together to contest elections and hold power in government.
The Tea Party pretty clearly has an affiliation with the Republican Party. Our voter registration card determines the group we are affiliated with.
A few week ago I received a call about taking a survey about my political view and after she thanked me and said my question to you is if everything I told you was a lie does it matter, and then she hung up.
If God says He can save you and me, and when we don’t believe Him then we must be calling Him a liar. If Peter denied that he knew Jesus, was he lying? Jesus said that night “you’re all going to forsake me.” Peter jumped to his feet and said I will not forsake you. But later when it was no longer popular to be associated with Christ, a servant pointed to Peter, laughing and saying, “You’re one of his followers.”
And in shame he said, “I don’t know Him,” and he lied. Have you ever said to someone, “I pray every day but you don’t?”
Sometimes we conduct ourselves depending on who we are around. The Bible says out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. I say best to speak the truth and swallow some pride and to be in good hands with Christ Jesus rather than trying to deceive others. But about our President, love him or hate him, we should still pray for him.
Why? Because he is our President and only God can do miracles of conversion. Such as Saul to Paul in Acts 9. God only knows what is in your heart. Before the Beatles made their hit song, Jesus was already singing it: “All you need is love.”
Formulated by Dunndeal Publications
Doug Batchelor – The Truth About Lying, Part 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmwTToHG5CI&t=1884s
www.amazingfacts.org 877-232-2871