Some believers have taken to using “G-d” and “L-rd” rather than “God” and “Lord.” What are we to think of this?
This is a modern reflection of the rabbinic practice of refusing to say the name of God. This was not the practice of the ancient Hebrews of Old Testament times (an important point, and we’ll get to that). The practice of substituting a circumlocution for God’s name developed at some point after the Babylonian captivity (I’m not sure we can pinpoint when).
The rationale given for the practice of substituting “Adonai” (“my Lord”) for YHWH is derived from the Third Commandment: “You shall not take the name of YHWH your God in vain.” If we never even say the name—so goes the reasoning—then we can’t take it in vain, and thus we will keep the commandment. This is wrong for four reasons.
First: REALLY???? Does anybody honestly think that God gave the Third Commandment hoping that we would all just stop saying His name? Does anybody really think that’s what God was after?
Second, this sort of overly scrupulous fence around the law is an unnecessary burden. God actually gave us the law that matters, and here we are making up extra regulations to keep. Why? This is the kind of reasoning that took a command against boiling a kid goat in its mother’s milk and extrapolated it so far that you can’t have a milkshake with your hamburger, even though none of that is from goats, the milk and the meat don’t come from the same breed of cattle, and it doesn’t boil in your stomach anyway.
Third, from Eve’s “Neither shall you touch it” to today’s adulterous pastor who keeps the Billy Graham rule, that sort of thing is always destined for failure. As Paul would later write, “These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.” It just doesn’t help. Building extra fences doesn’t stop us from eventually breaking God’s law anyhow.
Finally, this particular brand of scrupulosity doesn’t actually meet the burden of the Third Commandment anyhow. Remember the expansive way that Jesus reads the Sixth and Seventh Commandments: hating someone in your heart without cause already breaks the command against murder; lusting for someone not your spouse already breaks the commandment against adultery. Now imagine that you were to say something that would violate the Third Commandment if you used the actual name of God, but instead you substituted “G-d” or “HaShem” (Hebrew for “the Name” and a commonly used circumlocution for exactly this purpose). Do you really imagine God is going to say to himself, “Well, technically, that’s allowed”??? I don’t think so.
So this to say: If you personally feel convicted to use “G-d,” then go ahead, but don’t think that observance is protecting you from violating the Third Commandment. If you’re wondering if you should adopt the practice, you need not feel compelled, and no one should try to compel you.
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