I hear the expression "Oh my ____!" (name of our Lord)all the time. Do you find it offensive. Do you find yourself using it. Also why are so many people drawn to it, to express utter suprise.

Edited by Moderator

[Edited on 4-17-2005 by joshua]

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Roy Burke Loudon Congregational Church Loudon, New Hampshire
LoudonCongregational Church CCCC
Loudon, New Hampshire.

Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain...this constitutes as vain usage and is VERY offensive!

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JC
URCNA
PA, but homesick for SC

"Who says you can't go back, been all around the world and as a matter of fact. There's only one place left I want to go, who says you can't go home" Bon Jovi

It's a clear violation of the Third Commandment because it takes the Lord's name in vain. Most people I know, including many Christians, are not shy about using this expression. It's everywhere. Atheists who don't believe in God and Muslims who believe in a different God among others use this expression, and likewise, many will take the name of Christ in vain specifically. I don't know why this is so, except that we are all sinners and God's name is something we all naturally want to abuse. There are people who try to substitute "gosh" or other expressions for the one you cited, but all that does is create a "minced oath." There are all sorts of euphemisms for God, but they still take God's name in vain. I usually hear these expressions arising out of anger or alarm. It makes a huge difference what the motivation or context is for using the name of the Lord in a particular way. We ought all to remember the Lord's Prayer: "Hallowed be thy Name."

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Andrew Myers
Husband of Jessica, Father of Jackson, Katie and Samuel
Member, Presbyterian Reformed Church of Northern Virginia
Warrenton, VA USA
Editor, The Matthew Poole Project

"Let your Morning Thoughts, and your last Evening Thoughts, be what shall become of you to all Eternity." -- Matthew Poole

It is most offensive. Enough for me to edit the title.

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Josh Hicks, Chloë's Dad
Attending CCRPC, Member of TRBC
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Jeff Bartel
Mechanical Engineer
Member - Trinity Reformed Church - RPCNA

"To believe in the power of man in the work of regeneration is the great heresy of Rome, and from that error has come the ruin of the Church. Conversion proceeds from the grace of God alone, and the system which ascribes it partly to man and partly to God is worse than Pelagianism" (The Reformation in England (London, 1962), Vol. 1, p. 98)

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I think for at least SOME Christians (and I'm not saying you are one of these rmb), this slips out because they watch too much TV...

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Strangerpilgrim
Knoxville, TN
Mssry in closed country

"Judge not the Lord by feeble sense..."

I think a more in depth discussion could be started by asking...Is it ok to say "Oh my Gaaaa" or "Oh my Word" or "Cheese" or "Gee Wally."

These don't use God's Holy name explicitly, but one may argue that they are implicitly.

Thoughts?

As I mentioned, they are minced oaths.

Is it bad that I had to look up minced? All I could think of was garlic!

I agree Andrew.

[Edited on 4-17-2005 by Jeff_Bartel]

I thought about posting an article on the subject of minced oaths from an online Encyclopedia, but there is too much swearing in the article! Hmmm...

Oh my ________? groans my skin. Usually whenever I hear it while watching television I get most uncomfortable and guilt ridden.

I guess this is God trying to get me to go to a next level of sanctification in giving up these silly television shows.

[Edited on 4-17-2005 by Slippery]

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~Keon Garraway~ Brooklyn, NY Member of Franklin Square OPC

Love for God demonstrated by the love for our children in giving them a God centered education is the only hope for our country. by David Morrow
Pslam 71:20 [Thou], which hast shewed me great and sore troubles, shalt quicken me again, and shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth.

That ain't sanctification! (Response to picture)

The phrase referenced in the title offends me and I hear Christians use it (and worse) all the time! Even when talking about God they're swearing.
Sometimes to my surprise, I hear myself doing it. (I don't own a TV, that ain't the problem for me.) I'd like to stop and to get accountablilty for it, but it seems awfully Wesleyan to bring it up. People will start using the legalism-word and the gnostic-word and on and on. I keep waiting for God to just get them to stop, and that's another whole There, I feel better!

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The man who is disposed to think of his sin as a great calamity, rather than as a heinous crime, is not likely either to reverence God or to respect His law. - John Kennedy, 1873
Meg
Blog
Member, Intown Presbyterian Church,PCA, Portland, OR

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It makes my skin crawl. I heard this one girl say it that I kind of liked and felt like throwing up.

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Tim Potts
Siloam Springs, Arkansas
Member of Covenant Presbyterian Church (PCA)
Student at John Brown University
-Let the church change the world and rather than the world change the church-

If it does not offend us and drive us to defend God's glory then we have a flawed view of God. Worse yet, if we use the phrase, we expose our lack of reverence for Him.

How long has it been since you heard a sermon on the fear of God or on the holiness of God?

When you have a right view of Him, like Isaiah in the temple, then you cry with the prophet, "Woe is me, for I am undone. I am a man of unclean lips."

Phillip

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Pastor Phillip M. Way
[url=http://www.timeintheword.org][color=blue] Maranatha Community Church of Central Texas[/color][/url]
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When all souls are saved and all mourners comforted we may venture to discuss recondite theories, but not while graveyards are filling with those who know not God. -- CH Spurgeon

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Heard one? Well does listening to last weeks tape of my sermon count? Then it would have been on Tuesday.

IMHO the Fear of the Lord is the most overlooked theme of Scripture.

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Lawrence Underwood, Jr.
Pastor - Providence Family Fellowship / Mobile, Alabama
My Blog - Imprimis

Yeah! Thanks for the long ago recommendation of Sproul's The Holiness of God

My wife helped my daughter and her husband move into their first house. While moving my daughter (who was raised in the church but has left since being out on her own) kept speaking the name and title of the Son of God as an oath. My wife had to ask her to stop. Very disappointing. I have been engaging her in conversation and exhorting her to return to church and remember who her Lord is, and thought she was remembering. But this was not encouraging.

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How often have you wondered why Christ should set His heart upon such a one as you! --Octavius Winslow

Lon Wadkins (Jesup, Iowa)
New Covenant Fellowship, OPC
Independence, Iowa

Like others I find "Oh my ___" to be offensive for the reasons others have given. A rather interesting side note though, my daughter's school is dispy fundamentalists (closest Christian school around - not our first choice mind you). They have been told in 2nd grade that they cannot say "Oh my gosh" or "Oh my goodness" since these other words are replacements for "God" and thus are equally sinful.

I've looked up "gosh" in several dictionaries and I could not find anyone that defines "gosh" as a replacement word for "God".

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Tony Felice
Elder/Acting Pastor
Londonderry Church
Campbelltown, PA

Good for those Dispies! Gosh & Golly are both minced oaths, so I've always been told.

From the Online Eytmology Dictionary:

You learn something new every day!

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Joe Burgess
Grace Bible Church - http://www.gracemessenger.com/
Olive Branch,MS

"Eighty and six years have I served Him, and He never did me any injury: how then can I blaspheme my King and my Saviour?" - St. Polycarp

What bothers me worse then anything is G--d---n.It makes me almost violently angry when somebody says it.

[Edited on 4-18-2005 by Average Joey]

I would much rather hear dung in its common venacular or the F word way before hearing the Lords Name taken in vain.

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R. Martin Snyder
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Harmony Baptist Church (Member)
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