Law and Life

Vows and Oaths

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Law

Genre: Speech

Lesson: 21 of 39

Track: 132

Dictation Name: RR156L21

Date: 1960s-1970s

[Rushdoony] Our Scripture is Matthew 23:16 through 24, and our subject Vows and Oaths. Matthew 23, verses 16 through 24. “Woe unto you, ye blind guides, which say, ‘Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor!’ Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifieth the gold? And, ‘Whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whosoever sweareth by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty.’ Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift? Whoso therefore shall swear by the altar, sweareth by it, and by all things thereon. And whoso shall swear by the temple, sweareth by it, and by him that dwelleth therein.

And he that shall swear by heaven, sweareth by the throne of God, and by him that sitteth thereon. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.”

In our last study, we saw that both church and state have claimed too much power for themselves. They have arrogated to themselves powers reserved either to God or by God to other orders of life. In this they are guilty of theft; claiming more than is their own. We saw in our previous study that the tithe, according to Numbers 18:21 through 28, specifies that one-percent is to go to the priests of the tithe, in other words one-percent for worship, it could be possibly stretched to two-percent in that of the nine-tenths that went to the Levites, some of it took care of the music in worship and temple services. But at least eight-tenths of the tithe went to the Levites for education. As a result, God’s central thrust in His work is Christian schooling; Christian education in its broadest sense. This is the key to commanding the future in terms of God. But church and state have both arrogated to themselves a centrality on the scene. The state has claimed what amounts really to four and a half tithes, and the church claims that the tithe belongs to itself, and both have worked thereby to destroy God’s order. Another area of arrogant claim that we shall touch on today is with reference to the vow and to the oath.

First of all, to look at oaths, because there is a difference between and oath and a vow. An oath is an invocation of a curse upon oneself if he breaks his word, as for example in 1st Samuel 19, verse 6. Or again, an invocation of a curse upon oneself if he is not speaking the truth, as in Mark 14, verse 71. There are limitations to the power of the oath over us. The truth cannot be demanded of us for evil purposes. The purpose of truth is to further God’s kingdom, not to do evil. Moreover, we are told that the oath has to be limited in its use. Our Lord declares in Matthew 5:33 through 37, “Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths: but I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God's throne: nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King. Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black. But let your communication be, yea, yea; nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.” Now some have taken this to mean that oaths under any circumstances are inadmissible. The Quakers, as a result, will not take an oath under any circumstances when in a court of law. However, we find that our Lord Himself was under oath in His trial, we find that repeatedly Saint Paul, for example in Romans 1:9, 1 Corinthians 15:23, Galatians 1:20, Philippians 1:8 and other places, uses the oath religiously. In other words, the oath has its place in legal proceedings, in the state, and on certain occasions within the church. So what our Lord is saying is that the oath cannot be used apart from God’s ordained purposes. It is taking His Name in vain, it is a violation of the 3rd commandment to use the oath lightly outside of the ordained areas for the oath. The emphasis on the false oath is on man’s integrity rather than on God and the certainty of God’s curse upon false witness. Moreover, in our text, we saw that our Lord condemned the oaths that were made in terms of man’s gift on the alter rather than the alter, on the temple rather than on the God of the temple, on the heavens rather than on God Himself. Such oaths were on man’s gift, not God’s rule and realm, or an aspect of the created order rather than the creator.

Moreover, the tithing He speaks of is a tithing on garden items which was not required by the law. They were obviously straining at gnats, as our Lord declares, and were blind guides, swallowing at the same time camels. But, in their pretense at obedience as our Lord describes it in the text, swearing by the gold on the alter rather than the alter, or the temple rather than He who dwelled within the temple, there was a kind of device at work which is characteristic of the ungodly in every age and in every situation, so that what our Lord is calling attention to here is a characteristic device of all sin. What is this characteristic device? It is the substitution of the lower for the higher; of a lower thing for a higher obedience; of exalting oneself for a lower loyalty or a lesser virtue to the neglect to the heart of virtue. And so this substitution of the lower for the higher is condemned by our Lord as at the heart of Phariseeism. And in every age the Pharisee does this. He prides himself on very minor things, he majors in minors, in trifles. He prides himself on the fact that he keeps the Sabbath perhaps outwardly, where as inwardly he gives no respect to God or His Word. He prides himself on being honest in little things, when he is dishonest in the great. The substitution of the lower for the higher is the mark of Phariseeism and of a false oath.

The legitimate oath has as its purpose to serve godly, not ungodly purposes, nor is its purpose to further anything personal. In other words, the oath cannot have reference to my purposes, but only to God’s cause, God’s kingdom. In Leviticus 19:12, we read “And he shall not swear by My Name falsely, neither shalt thou profane the Name of thy God. I am the Lord.” In every situation therefore, the oath must avoid profaning the Name of God. To profane is to take it out of the sanctuary, to put that which is holy to an unholy use. The oath today is regularly profaned. In some states, you still swear in court by God; “so help me God”; where God and his Word are not held in any respect by the court. This is profanity. In other courts, what is called an oath is when you simply swear to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth without any reference to God, this too is profanity. In other words, it puts you in the place of God, you swear by your own integrity and your own ability to curse, but the heart of the oath is that is an order established by God which is basic to the universe so that those who depart from it, and cultures that depart from it, nations that depart from it are under the curse of Almighty God. The oath therefore must always avoid profanity, it can never be anything profane. When it is used lightly, when no mention is made of God, and yet the truth is expected. The oath is an agency of justice established by God and to be taken in the name of God. The vow is directly to God, even though it may be taken in a court of law or in a church. It is not to individuals. Our speech to men must be yea, yea, and nay, nay. We cannot bind the conscience of men to us nor can men’s consciences be bound by our will. We cannot say he gave me his word and absolutely bind a man to something come what may, we are not God.

Not too long ago, someone came to me about something and I asked him in the situation if he wouldn’t mind staying out of since it was none of his affair. Later he changed his mind for his own good reasons and opposed me. But he was very distressed because he felt he had given me his word and was busy apologizing to people and justifying himself and he wasn’t any happier when I said that was totally unnecessary. I had no power to bind his conscience. But it was not an oath. That I have no right to bind anyone, and the changed circumstances, changed conditions can make us recognize that sometimes we must, in order to be righteous, change our mind about something and act differently. An oath is only to God, or to an agency of justice ordained by God. No one else can bind us.

When we come to vows, vows are directly to God, not to an agency of God. An oath is to an agency, it is before court of law or a church court. A vow is made directly to God, not to an agency of God. And in Numbers 30:1 through 16, we have laws determining vows. This is, as we saw when we studied Biblical law like all of Biblical law, case law. A vow is a pledge to perform certain things as in Genesis 20, verses 28, verses 20 to 22, or to abstain from certain things as in Psalm 132, verses 2 to 5, either in return for God’s blessing, as in Numbers 21:1 through 3, or in devotion to God, as in Psalm 22, verse 25. Now, as we look at vows and what Scripture tells us about them, it says clearly first of all, that in making a vow to God, a man shall not break his word. He shall do according to all that proceedeth out of his mouth, according to Numbers 30, verses 1 to 2. But only a free man can perform or has the right to make such a vow. Scripture goes on then to tell us that persons in positions of dependency cannot make unconditional vows if the authority over them disallows it. It then gives us four cases that we might understand how vows are to be made and when they can be made.

The first is of an unmarried woman or girl under her father’s authority. If she makes a vow, her father can disallow it when he first hears of it. If he does not, it stands. Or an unmarried woman who later marries. At the time of her marriage, her husband can disallow her vow. On the other hand, a widow or a divorced woman can make a vow and it is binding. A married woman can make a vow if her husband allows it to stand when he first hears of it. He cannot later go back and disannul it. Now the whole point of this law is that vows, even though made to God, cannot be used to create disunity in the family or in any human order established by God, or as an escape from authority. Moreover, Scripture also tells us that vows cannot be a promise to give God what is already His due, such as the tithe in Leviticus 27:26. We cannot vow a vow to God that we’re going to give Him the tithe, because He already has a total claim on that. Again, we cannot vow to give God the income of sin. According to Deuteronomy 23:18, the hire of a prostitute or the price of a homosexual can never be brought to God. Again the blemished gift is forbidden, according to Malachi 3:13 and 14. No vow or gift to God can nullify the requirements of God’s law. In Mark 7, verses 6 through 13, our Lord declared, “Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, this people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do. And he said unto them, full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition. For Moses said, Honour thy father and thy mother; and, whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the death: but ye say, If a man shall say to his father or mother, It is Corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; he shall be free. And ye suffer him no more to do ought for his father or his mother; Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.”

What our Lord is referring to here, first of all, is the case of someone evading the responsibility of caring for his parents by saying well I’ve promised to give God so much so I’ve no means of taking care of you. This is not a legitimate vow, it brings upon such the curse of God. Or again by substituting the washing of pots and cups and other such like things, our Lord says, for the heart of holiness. Now this was the essence of Phariseeism; so scrupulous about keeping the Word of God and so proud of it. It’s no wonder they brought upon themselves the judgment of God, and it is no wonder that they are today impotent. There was an article this past week about the descendants of the Pharisees who today live in Jerusalem, in the old city. They live there, supposedly the only keepers of the law and they pride themselves on that. And they spend their time nitpicking and being totally futile and worthless because they are supposedly so sensitive to God’s Word that they cannot stoop to disobey Him in the smallest thing. So, for example, there is only one piece of money, a paper bill, in all of Israel that does not have a picture on it of some man or person. To use such money they say is idolatry. Therefore, they are entirely limited, which means they can practically do no business and they have to figure out to the penny because they’re going to lose money, they are limited to using one piece of paper money only. So their life is practically at a standstill. If you could only spend a five dollar bill when you went to the store, think of how much time you would have to spend going without things, figuring out how much you could put together so that your trip to the drugstore or your trip to the grocery store would only come to five or multiples thereof. And they boast of this. They are using God’s Word to nullify it; straining at gnats and swallowing at camels.

No vow can nullify the requirements of God’s Word and no vow can be used to create disunity or to be a basis of rebellion and therefore even though vows are taken to God, they are still not unconditional. They can be disallowed and they can be broken. A marriage vow, thus, is not unconditional. In Deuteronomy 24:1 to 4, in Matthew 19:3 to 9, in 1 Corinthians 7:10 to 15, we are told that the marriage vow itself can on occasion be rendered null and void. Oaths and vows do not, in other words, bind men to church or state or persons essentially but to God. They are therefore to the terms of God’s Word. We cannot, for example, be bound to a faithless church by a vow or by a profession or by an affirmation to seek the peace in purity of Christ’s church, which we do when we join a church; we declare before God, and it is a vow, that we will maintain faithfulness to the church and to its officers and so on, but it is not unconditional, it cannot be. Vows are not unconditional, nor oaths permissible, except in terms of God’s Word. They cannot be used to disobey God or to evade His law, nor can they be used for purposes of deceit. The curse is attached to both the oath and the vow, and the curse is a judgment on sin, and if the oath or vow be used for sinful purposes, or the conditions alter so that continuance therein becomes a sin, we cannot then continue except in obedience to God as against our word. No vow or oath in brief, can be used to further sin, to set aside godly authority, or to evade godly responsibility. The goal is the kingdom of God and His righteousness. A man’s word, in other words, must be bigger than the man. It must have a framework of reference that is greater than man, than marriage, than church or state. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. We must obey God, which sometimes means disobeying men and recognizing that our word cannot bind us into disobedience to God. Let us pray.

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, Thy Word is truth, and Thy Word alone stands unchanged, unchanging, and changeless. O Lord our God, we are but today and tomorrow we are not. Our words so often spoken rashly or heedlessly pass away, but Thy Word O Lord endures forever. Teach us, O Father, to ground ourselves ever upon Thy Word, to know, our Father, that Thy Word is truth, and Thou art He who alone establishes, who alone blesses, who alone curses, who alone can sustain man in all his ways. Teach us therefore to walk ever in obedience to Thy Word and to rejoice that Thy Word, O Lord, is eternal. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

{?} first of all on our lesson? Yes?

[Audience member] What about the {?}

[Rushdoony] Yes, I’m glad you brought that up. Jephthah. Jephthah sacrificed his daughter because he said that the first thing that would come to meet him he would offer as a sacrifice to the Lord, and he thought that the first thing he would see as he went near his ranch house would be a heifer or a steer or a lamb or some such thing as that, but it was his daughter. Now, that was a vow he should have disobeyed because it involved him in sin, and of course we are told that in those days there was no king in Israel, men did not truly recognize God as their king, and while Jephthah went in the name of the Lord, he did it in ignorance to a great degree and he wound up in disaster because he felt his word was more important than God’s Word and that’s what he did. God’s Word did not permit such a thing. But his word was more important and he kept his word. Now that’s what a false vow amounts to and a false oath as well. When we are told we must disobey men rather than God, it means we must disobey ourselves at times, and Jephthah should have disobeyed himself. Yes?

[Audience member] Well, at the end of the message you said man’s word is bigger than the man.

[Rushdoony] Must be bigger than the man. In other words, you don’t stand on just your word, you stand on God’s Word. Yes?

[Audience member] {?}

[Rushdoony] What? Yes. When we take for example the marriage vow, there are three parts of the marriage ceremony, which is a good question. First, there is the contract with the state so that there is a legal relationship, a contract with the state. Then second, there is the contract between the man and the woman. I John take thee Mary. And then there is the one which precedes it which is not to one another but, in response to the pastor’s words, is to God. And that’s the vow properly. Yes?

[Audience member] I think it’s Matthew 3 or 4 that the {?}

[Rushdoony] Yes, you are right. The state came into marriage. Before that you simply could or could not, depending on the area, but the state came into it on the basis of protecting the family, which was legitimate to a degree, but it has steadily encroached on the power of the family in the situation; claiming rights over the children and to be the true father and the true heir of the family. Yes?

[Audience member] I believe the church {?} Was that a departure from the {?}?

[Rushdoony] Yes. In a church court there should be an oath to God.

[Audience member] {?}

[Rushdoony] Yes, well that’s wrong. In the church and in the state the oath has its place. Yes?

[Audience member] Dealing with the government, when they ask you to display a piece of paper or document or something, should you {?}

[Rushdoony] Yes, but we do it always unto God, so that while in the state of California the name of God does not enter into the oath, we must do it not blasphemously but religiously, and we take our oath to Almighty God, although we must do it silently at that point because we cannot be a part of that godless type of oath. It is blasphemy. So when we do it, we do it as unto the Lord, even though His Name is omitted. Yes?

[Audience member] {?}Is that correct?

[Rushdoony] No, Adam was saved by grace, everyone in every age has been saved by grace. We only can be saved by grace, never by works, so that the idea that there was ever a covenant of works was an error which crept into Reformed theology and we cannot believe in it insofar as it refers to the possibility that Adam or anyone else at any time could have saved themselves by works. It’s always by grace.

[Audience member] {?}

[Rushdoony] Yes. Yes?

[Audience member] I think {?} that seems to me to be encouraging the Jews {?} towards idolatry. {?}

[Rushdoony] Yes, in the case of the brazen serpent of course it was later destroyed during the reformation in Judea because it had been used as an occasion to sin. But in its original use in the wilderness, it meant that their sins were nailed to the cross and were put away by God, and all who looked to that found atonement, found healing. Yes?

[Audience member] Do the curses vary when an oath is broken or does it depend on what kind of {?}

[Rushdoony] Well, you can find good examples of curses in Deuteronomy 27 and 28, and you find that the curses cover the total life of man but can strike man in certain areas. They affect the natural area, they affect health, they affect the mind, the spirit, everything.

[Audience member] If an oath is broken or a vow is broken, is there any way you can be forgiven without the curse necessarily falling?

[Rushdoony] If a vow or an oath is falsely broken, then we can by making restitution, by going back and keeping our word or trying to undo the damage we’ve done, we can stop the working of the curse, yes. You see, the curse began with the fall; sin and death, and the curse intensifies as men depart from God’s Word. Now the whole point of sinful man is that he tries to replace his word for God’s Word, and the point of false vows and false oaths that our Lord is making is that the Pharisees were replacing God’s Word by man’s word even when they were claiming to be so very holy with their oaths and with their vows, and were in most cases keeping them, you see. But they were keeping them with a falsity, with a dishonesty; they were taking the gift to the temple so they could cut their parents loose and refused to support their parents, which was against God’s law. They were trying to be very super holy by tithing the very mint in the garden and forgetting the weightier matters of the law. Sanctimoniousness in other words.

Well, we have just a couple of minutes left. I’d like to call your attention to something which I think ties in with all of this. We are told repeatedly in Scripture that when a man’s ways do not please the Lord, nothing he does goes right. The tender mercies of the wicked are cruel. Now some of you may have seen this on television in the past week, I’m going to read the facts of it from the Herald Examiner of August 26th, 1974, an editorial entitled Acidic Rainfall. “Some of the rain now washing down on the crops, streams, people, and buildings of the Eastern United States and Europe is said to be as acidic as lemon juice and a good deal more harmful. Authorities are blaming the lemony rain on smog control devices that strain the smoke particles from industrial smoke stacks but not the gases. When gases such as sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide combine with moisture in the air, the result is sulfuric and nitric acids which are corrosive. Before air cleaning devices the problem did not exist because the smoke particles neutralized the acid. It all sounds like the old story of the new medicine that cured warts but caused the ears to fall off, and it reminds us that a few years ago the {?} radicals had a glib saying; if you weren’t part of the solution you were part of the problem. In hasty environmental decisions, as in so many of mankind’s affairs, sometimes the solution is the problem.”

And that is so true today. The solutions that men are coming up with every day are the problem, and I think that was underscored today when in the Herald Examiner there was a happy editorial on the front page by William Randolph Hearst Jr., so happy that the Federal Reserve {?} and the President and the authorities agreed with him that the cure for inflation was to end the tight money situation and print more money. Now, Scripture speaks of judicial blindness that God sends to men, and that’s a signal instance of judicial blindness as well as this acidic rainfall. They become more and more blind and the facts don’t change the matter, they only aggrevate their blindness. Yes?

[Audience member] {?}

[Rushdoony] Yes, right, emphatically so. Let us bow our heads now for the benediction. Now go in peace, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost bless you and keep you, guide and protect you this day and always. Amen.

[End of tape]