While I agree with you wholly on your idea that putting God’s name to something that you don’t actually know He would attribute his name to is disobeying the third commandment, I must say that I believe using God’s name as a swear is just as wrong. Here’s why:

Let’s say your friend dropped a huge F-Bomb. Let’s say it went like “For F— sake, you piece of F—ing S—!” Here she has come across quite vulgar, however, she has only used words that have been labeled as swears in our culture, in our society. For example, where did the word Sh-t come from? I don’t know if it’s proven true, but the legend is that it came from the term Ship High In Transit. I won’t go into it, but it’s super interesting. Google “Ship High in Transit” and check it out. Regardless of historical fact though, the F-bomb, S-bomb, and -oh- even the dreaded “C-word” were labeled as ’swear’ words by us humans. I would say it it wrong to use them because they are now offensive, and ‘the appearance of evil’ is something we are also supposed to stay away from. HOWEVER, at least if your friend had done this, she would not have broken the third commandment.

I use to say “oh my God” all the time. I didn’t understand what was so wrong with it. And then I would say, “it’s just a bad habit”. I knew it offended some people so I began apologizing after saying it. I would apologize to the person I said it in front of. After a while I began apologizing to God for using His name in this way. Finally, I was put in a situation were the Power of His name was displayed for me.

- WARNING! What I am about to say happened. Whatever your opinion of the situation is, it still happened to me. If you want to believe that it was somehow staged, that is your choice, but it still happened.

I am a youth leader. We were doing the 30-hour famine, and the youth group was sleeping over at the church. Us girls were downstairs, and the boys were upstairs. There was one boy there that was ultimately too old to be in youth group, as he was just slightly younger than me, and I was a leader. I have known for my entire life. I once heard, when I was young, that he got possessed several years ago. He has had a problematic life for most of his life as well, and often found himself in a questionable state. At 2AM his sister woke me and the other female leader up. She said that her brother was having a Satanic Attack. I could have had a heart attack. I have never seen or had proof that this sort of thing existed. The 3 of us ran upstairs. All the boys were holding him down on a couch. The other boys were older teens that are strong. The male leader was also there. The possessed guy was thrashing violently and yelling out some pretty crazy things. His voice was different somehow and the voice was saying things that the guy does not actually know. What I mean is that – whatever was speaking knew things about certain people in the room that the guy should not have known. I was SO afraid that the voice was going to address me by name, which it had done to the leader. One of the older teens was speaking in tongues. The rest of us were holding down the guy and praying like we’ve never prayed before. His eyes were closed for this whole thing. THIS went on for 2 hours. It was as if the guy had 2 voices, his own, and the demon’s. The demon was saying crazy things, and the guy was trying to say “Jesus Christ” but every time he tried, the demon cut him off. Finally the guy said it. He said “Jesus Christ!” and suddenly the demon was gone. Gone as if nothing had ever happened. The guy was asleep as if he had never moved.

Before the guy’s sister woke us up they had ALREADY held him down for two hours. The whole possession had been about four hours long. I think there were eight of us that witnessed the possession, three of us being leaders, the youth were in all different levels of belief. One of the older teen boys had a complete breakdown and was shaking with tears afterward.

If you find this hard to believe, I think it is harder to believe that “the guy faked being possessed for four hours, the one teen faked speaking in tongues, somehow the male leader told the guy that had been possessed personal issues to be used against himself, and that the rest of us fell for it.” There was snot all over the possessed guys face. It was horrible.

So what I learned is that the name of The Lord is SO powerful. The name of Jesus Christ can draw out a demon. So when we say “Jesus Christ!” because we stubbed our toe, what does that do to God? The name of the son has replaced the F-bomb. That’s wrong. That’s disrespectful. That probably really hurts His feelings and I’m not joking. I think it’s HUGE. People around me are constantly doing it and it has began to really offend me, but I am usually silent. How do you explain how big of a deal it is to someone that is not religious? I don’t know. It is a rule in our youth group that you cannot say “oh my God”. I don’t think people realize why it is so bad. It is because we have taken the honour and the grace and the majesty out of His name and have put it in the context of a common swear.

Thank you for your thoughts and for reading this HUGE post of mine.

However – beginning with this point – I want begin with this pretend scenario. In this scenario, I tell a friend that I have driven a race car before. I am telling the utter truth but my friend doesn’t believe me when I first tell them, therefore I swear on the Lord’s name. (this is a scenario I just made up for example purposes, it’s never actually happened.)
Me – I’ve driven a race car before.
Friend – No you have not.
Me – Yes I have, honest to God.

I have said “honest to God” many times before, however I ONLY use it if I am telling the complete and honest truth, and that is my way of saying “I am telling the complete and honest truth, and God can see it”. My question is, do you think that this is wrong? I can see what’s wrong with people swearing by the name of the Lord if they are lying.

This comment is getting long, but I have another point to make so I’m going to post it as a separate comment.