Why I Do Not Want To Pledge Allegiance Nor Swear In Court Nor Commitment To Him

[JesusIsFaithful]

Matthew 5:33 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:34 But I say unto you, Swear not at all;........36 Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black. 37 But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.

Malachi 3:5And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the Lord of hosts.

Let's talk about the absurdity of pledging an allegiance which is to a flag, and to the country for which it stands with liberty and justice for all where there is no liberty and justice for all. Pledging to a lie. And boasting of tomorrow when you do not know how you can keep that pledge today.

James 4:13 Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: 14 Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. 15 For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that. 16 But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil. 17 Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

We cannot plan nor pledge for tomorrow for liberty & justice for all if you cannot do it today. All means all.

Then you have the judicial system with the unnecessary oath "to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help ye God" when the way the court system runs sometimes, you have to answer yes or no without adding anything to that answer or you will be held in contempt. So like, the court system is setting you up to break your sworn oath.

How many innocent have been convicted for crimes that they had not commit that we still do not know about yet? Are we really capable in keeping the pledge of allegiance? No.

Then there is that commitment to follow Christ as if Jesus led His disciples to do that very thing in pledging themselves by making that commitment to do so. Not.

Luke 9:23 And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.

We have to deny ourselves in our ability to follow Him by the religious flesh which is what a pledge, an oath, and a commitment does. Taking up the cross daily is to crucify ourselves daily in our inability to follow Him to lean on Him all the time to follow Him, because when He says "Follow Me" , He is really saying in context of denying yourself as able, to trust Him that you can which is why it is written that the just shall live by faith in Him for following Him.

Thanks to Jesus Christ, He has set me free from all commitments, pledges, promises, and etc. so I can rest in Him that He will help me to follow Him by the grace of God. and to His praise and glory too as the crowns that I shall receive are really His crowning achievements in me.

When Jesus descends with a shout to come up hither, I am free from all bondages to do so because of my faith in Him. I can't do His work in me. Only He can finish it to His glory.

Galatians 5:1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage....5 For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.

Philippians 1:6 Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:....11 Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.

2 Timothy 4:18 And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

 

[Helen]

Good post...
.......but often isn't it just a Promise.
Like the old days...'A man's word was his bond.'
But those days are far gone now. No man's word mean anything any longer.
A hand shake used to seal it.

It didn't work out too good for poor Jephthah in Judges 11:30-40
He rashly ( or maybe not) promised/made a vow to God, that if he won the battle against Ammon he would make a burnt offering of the first thing to come out of his house greet him.
( heaven sakes...it could have been his wife!! But it was his daughter!!)

I agree, we are not to pledge oaths.
Even our promises and good intents to God, fall flat more than often.

 

[lforrest]

If you make a pledge, which is conditional upon the Lords will would you find it acceptable?

Like, Lord willing I will do such and such.

What about something less than a pledge, like a commitment.

 

[Helen]

If you make a pledge, which is conditional upon the Lords will would you find it acceptable?

Like, Lord willing I will do such and such.

What about something less than a pledge, like a commitment.

But...how would that actually go down in court?

 

[lforrest]

But...how would that actually go down in court?

I've heard there is some way to avoid swaring in court, just for this kind of situation. It is called an affirmation, introduced in the Quakers act of 1695.

 

[amadeus]

But without regard the type of oath or even no oath you are telling the court, the judge and jury, that when you speak you will be speaking the truth as you know it. Under man's law there is such a thing as perjury. If after agreeing to speak the truth, you intentionally lie, that also has a penalty according man's law. With only a couple of exceptions you must answer the questions put to you officially by the court or be subject to a penalty. [The two exceptions that come to mind, are 1) that you cannot be made to testify to anything that would confess you are guilty of a crime and 2) that you cannot be made to testify against your legal spouse.]

 

[JesusIsFaithful]

If you make a pledge, which is conditional upon the Lords will would you find it acceptable?

Like, Lord willing I will do such and such.

What about something less than a pledge, like a commitment.

Masons sees commitment like a promise.

People usually refer to commitments as something they cannot get out of.

If we are to deny ourselves in being able to follow Him as we were unable to save ourselves, it stands to reason we can't do it by keeping a commitment.

If we consider His invitation to "Follow Me", then trusting Him at His word as in living by faith in Him and all His promises to us is the power for following Him.

The just are not to live by keeping their commitment to follow Him. The just are to live by faith in Jesus Christ as their Good Shepherd to follow Him.

 

[BARNEY BRIGHT]

Helen said:
It didn't work out too good for poor Jephthah in Judges 11:30-40
He rashly ( or maybe not) promised/made a vow to God, that if he won the battle against Ammon he would make a burnt offering of the first thing to come out of his house greet him.
( heaven sakes...it could have been his wife!! But it was his daughter!!)[/Quote\]

Jephthah and his daughter put their trust and confidence in God's way of doing things, even when it was hard to do so. They were convinced that gaining God’s approval was worth any sacrifice.
We all know that it is not always easy to stay faithful to God. The reality is that we need to “put up a hard fight for the faith.” (Jude 3)
Jephthah realized that he would need God’s help to free Israel from the Ammonites. So he promised God that if He gave him the victory, he would offer to God, as “a burnt offering,” the first one who came out of his house when he returned home from the battle. (Judg. 11:30, 31) Now Jephthah certainly knew by making such a vow there was the possibility that his daughter would come out first.

When Jephthah returns from battle his daughter, his only child, comes out first. The test was, would he keep his word and give over his daughter so that she could serve at the tabernacle for the rest of her life?

Divine principles guided Jephthah to make the right choice. Jephthah faithfulness even at great personal cost brought him God’s approval and blessing.

When we dedicated our lives to God, we vowed that we would do his will unreservedly. We knew that living up to that promise would require self-sacrifice. However, our willingness is especially put to the test when we are asked to do things that are not initially to our liking. When we make such sacrifices and serve God in a way that takes us out of our comfort zone, we prove ourselves faithful. The resulting spiritual blessings are always far greater than any sacrifices we may make, painful as they may be. (Mal. 3:10)

It could not have been easy for Jephthah’s daughter to accept the consequences of her father’s vow. Jephthah’s daughter was to be a whole “burnt offering”; she would have to forgo such joys as being a wife and mother.(Judg. 11:37-40) As the daughter of the victorious chief and leader in Israel, she might have been given in marriage to the best man in the land. But now she was to become a humble servant at the tabernacle. Yet she showed that she put God's service first by saying: “My father, if you have opened your mouth to God, do to me as you have promised.” (Judg. 11:36) She sacrificed her natural desires for a husband and children in order to promote true worship. We should imitate her self-sacrificing attitude.

Jephthah rejected the influences of the world around him. His willing sacrifices and those of his daughter led to blessings, as God used both of them to promote pure worship. At a time when others abandoned divine standards, Jephthah and his daughter clung to them.

The Bible urges us to “be imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.” (Heb. 6:12) May we be like Jephthah and his daughter by living in harmony with a fundamental truth that their lives highlight: Faithfulness leads to God’s approval.