The rights and wrongs of swearing oaths

 Posted at Reformation Scotland:

Earlier this year, an environmentalist serving on a jury took the oath by swearing on a river. Jurors are legally permitted to swear on their own religious book, as well as to make a non-religious “affirmation” instead of taking an oath, but this was reportedly the first time someone has sworn an oath on a part of nature. This juror swore with his fingers dipped in a cup of water taken from his local river. He explained that nature was his god and that he treated the river with the same “reverence, sacredness and love in action as many religious people give to their holy book.” Religious oaths are classified by the Westminster Confession as a part of worship, differing from activities such as preaching and the sacraments only in that they are “occasional” (appropriate on specific occasions) rather than “ordinary” parts of worship. Oaths are often discussed by theologians as an implication of the third commandment, “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain …” As the following updated excerpt from James Durham’s work points out, one key reason for treating an oath as a part of worship is that you cannot swear by the name of someone you can’t pray to. When a juror swears by Almighty God, they are calling Almighty God to witness what they are swearing, and to judge them according to the truth or falsehood of what they swear. On this view, to call on someone or something that is not the true God is worse than futile.

The Third Commandment both requires oaths, and requires oaths to be kept.

What is an oath?

At the outset we would like to distinguish between these four things.

Oaths are sayings which directly invocate God by expressions such as ‘By …’ (‘By my holiness I have sworn,’ Psa. 89:35), or, ‘I swear by the Lord.’

Asseverations (also called vehement assertions) are expressions such as, ‘As the Lord liveth,’ ‘In conscience,’ ‘In faith,’ &c. Like oaths, these should be done in truth and judgment with fear, and when called to, but they differ in that, in oaths, we are only to make mention of the true God, and swear by Him, but asseverations may be expressed in terms such as, “As thy soul liveth” (2 Kings 2:2, 4, 6), and yet by so saying we do not swear by the soul of anyone.

Simple assertions, such as, ‘In truth,’ ‘Truly,’ ‘Indeed.’ These only speak the thing simply, and affirm what is asserted to be true or false. As such, these belong to the Ninth Commandment only.

Imprecations are either directed to oneself conditionally, such as, ‘If such and such a thing is truth, then let me perish;’ ‘Shame upon me, if I do not do this or that;’ or they are directed towards others, especially in things like, ‘Shame upon you,’ ‘the devil take thee,’ ‘vengeance on thee,’ and other expressions too abominable to mention.

Thinking in more detail about oaths. In oaths which are for confirmation, we distinguish between assertory oaths, which only confirm a thing to be truth, and promissory oaths, which engage the person swearing to perform a certain thing in the time to come, either absolutely or with qualifications.

When an oath has the right qualifications, either of these kinds of oath is a lawful piece of God’s worship, and may, and should, be made use of by His people. This is a clear truth from Scriptures such as Deuteronomy 10:20; Deuteronomy 6:13; Jeremiah 4:2.

Continue here.