Using expressions such as 'for God's sake' etc

[LCMS_No_More]

Let’s bear something in mind…

His name isn’t “God,” that’s His title. His name is YHWH, Yahweh, JHVH, Jehovah, Jesus, “the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit” (we are baptized into the “NAME of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”).

So, someone saying “Jesus Christ!” as an explitive would be taking the name of the Lord in vain. Also, using God in politics, I would say, is definitely using God’s name in vain.

Thus, I have no problem with saying, “Oh, my God!” Considering the situations in which it’s said usually call for prayer, anyway, I don’t think it’s a problem.

 

[wcknight]

hilde the dog:

I recently had a front row witness of car crash. Parts of those cars landed on mine. The only thing I could say was “Oh my God”. And then one of cars drove around in circles for few minutes until it rolled past me and nearly pinned to the outside of my car and I saw the young lady held in the car by her seat belt. Then it was “Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy, Christ have Mercy.” To me it depends on the context.

You handled that a lot calmer than I would have. I would have a few dozen expletives deleted long before the car rolled around to me.

 

[chevalier]

I would not use such expressions because they are hardly warranted by the situations in which they are typically used. “For… sake” suggests a “beseeching” context, as in “by …, I implore you!” or “for …'s sake, I beg you.” I think in a very serious situation, it wouldn’t be irreverent, so it wouldn’t be sinful. In trivial matters, I think it’s disrespectful.

I’m not sure of “holy this” or “holy that”. I think it’s not proper to assign holy qualities to things which cannot have them. I remember my very own “holy logic!” which I employed to show the importance of proper reasoning and complain in a humorous way about certain inconsistencies. I’ve discontinued that, which means I probably didn’t feel good with it, which means I probably had some reason to.

If this helps any, I learnt English as a second language and why I do sometimes take the Lord’s name in vain in this language, it’s disproportionately less frequent than in my first one. I just couldn’t make myself say it and I didn’t want to develop the habit. It was a mental block. I suggest that if human nature can rebel against it in such a way as to cause a mental block, then there might be something wrong with it. As for phrases like “holy cow”, I don’t see unthoughtful utterances as sins, but learning that expression for later use in a second language sounds wrong to me. A cow is not holy and if it were holy, it would be bad to swear falsely by it or misuse its name. Therefore if you can make the choice, do not learn that phrase for use in English.

 

[Junebug999]

What is the prayer “Glory to the Holy Name”? Thank you – (I’m new to this.)

 

[dove51]

They make me cringe, honestly, especially when people say “for Christ’s sake!” or “Jesus Christ!”. I used to do this and I can’t imagine it today–it just hurts to hear now. I don’t like when people say “Oh my God” either. I think it’s just too casual and too irreverent.

 

[Sanctus_Paladin]

This is the way I see it…

If something happens that surprises you and causes you to call on God in anyway sharp or form if your not ready to have Jesus himself walk up and say.

Jesus: “So what you calling me for?”

“Nothing just a spider jumped on my head.”

Jesus: “You called me cause a spider jumped on your head?”

“Yeah, um why?”

Jesus: “Kind of a busy guy you know, got tons of people to save, prayer lines to reply to. Lost half my phone pray agents to sickness this weekend. Times kind of valuble.”

“Okay sorry.”

If your going to call him cause some horrible happened and it would merit his attention like hearing that a family member injured by all means call out his name in that way.

Thats my 2 cents.