Training · The 1689 Baptist Confession
Lawful oaths and vows
When swearing an oath is right, what makes one binding, and what may be vowed.
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What is actually happening when someone swears a lawful oath?
They are calling God to witness what they say, and to judge them according to whether it is true.
That is why the confession classes an oath as a part of religious worship rather than a legal formality. You are not adding emphasis; you are inviting God into the transaction as a witness against yourself.
Respect God, serve him, hold on to him, and make your promises in his name.
Deuteronomy 10:20Confession 23.1
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Given Christ's words about not swearing, may a Christian take an oath at all?
Yes, in matters of weight, to confirm truth and end a dispute - and only by the name of God.
The confession reads the prohibition as aimed at casual and rash swearing, and at swearing by anything other than God, both of which it calls sinful and to be abhorred. A solemn oath in a serious matter it holds to be warranted.
People swear by someone greater than themselves, and their oath settles the matter and ends any argument.
Hebrews 6:16Confession 23.2
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What is wrong with swearing carelessly?
That anyone taking an oath should weigh how solemn the act is, and affirm nothing except what he knows to be true - because rash, false and empty oaths provoke the Lord, and the land mourns for them.
The land mourns is a line from Jeremiah, and the confession is applying it to its own country. Oaths were everywhere in seventeenth-century public life, in court, in office and in trade, so casual swearing is treated here as a national problem rather than a private fault.
Don't swear falsely by my name or use it to cover up a lie. That would disrespect my name. I am the Lord.
Leviticus 19:12Confession 23.3
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In what sense is an oath binding?
In the plain and common sense of the words, without equivocation or mental reservation.
It closes the escape route of swearing truly in a private sense while intending to be understood otherwise. The meaning that binds is the one the hearer would take.
Only those whose actions are clean and whose hearts are pure, who don't worship fake gods or make empty promises.
Psalm 24:4Confession 23.4
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What is a vow, and are monastic vows a higher form of devotion?
That a vow is made to God alone and never to any creature, and is to be kept with the same care as an oath - and that monastic vows of lifelong celibacy, poverty and obedience are not a higher devotion but superstitious and sinful snares.
Worth noticing what is not here. Westminster's chapter on the same subject runs to seven paragraphs and includes one saying nobody may vow to do what Scripture forbids; the Baptists kept five and dropped it. What is left aims at one target, and no reader in 1689 was in any doubt which.
Make your promises to the Lord your God and keep them. Everyone around him should bring gifts to the one who deserves honor.
Psalm 76:11Confession 23.5