By... Michael Westfall

http://michaelwestfall.tripod.com/index.html  

The Ten Commandments were authored and personally delivered to humanity by God himself as a moral blueprint for mankind to follow.

The Commandments, which have no expiration date, are radical in the sense that they are at odds with the world in which we live. In today’s world many won’t read the Bible, are morally lost and cannot recite the Commandments. If people refuse to take the time to understand God’s word, then why would they follow his laws? 

The Ten Commandments offer a perfectly objective criterion for what is right and wrong, and the principles contained therein are relative to everything we do. The Old Testament sacrificial system and the New Testament sacrifice of Jesus Christ demonstrate God’s love and mercy for us. 

Jesus said that the first and greatest commandment was to love your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind, and the second is to love your neighbor as yourself. 

In the more conservative 1950’s, various American organizations constructed thousands of Ten Commandment monuments. Even though these monuments have been a powerfully positive influence for viewers, the ACLU and other special interest groups have gone to court in an effort to have the Commandments sliced from these public places. 

There are those among us whose most powerful observance of the Ten Commandments was when they saw them in the movies. I am referring to the 1956 movie filmed by Hollywood conservative filmmaker Cecil B. Demille. It was called The Ten Commandments and starred Charlton Heston as Moses. Demille’s film is in the top ten grossing films of all time.  

The film covered Moses’ life as an adopted child into Pharaoh’s family and his eventual self-exile from Egypt once he learned of his Jewish birthright. It covered Moses’ time in the desert and the liberation of millions of Jews out of oppression after Egypt had suffered 10 disastrous plagues. The film’s highpoint was Moses receiving the Ten Commandments from God in the form of two stone tablets on Mount Sinai. 

Many people cannot recite all of the commandments even though they are critical elements to Christianity and Judaism. The Bible is full of related scriptures, which help to explain the full meaning of each commandment. Exodus is the second chapter of the Old Testament. God’s 10 commandments to mankind can be found in Exodus 20 1:17. 

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS

I.  You shall have no other gods before me.

II.  You shall not make yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or the earth beneath or in the waters below.

III.  You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God.

IV.  Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.

V.  Honor your father and your mother.

VI.  You shall not murder.

VII.  You shall not commit adultery.

VIII.  You shall not steal.

IX.  You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.

X.  You shall not covet. 

Does humanity still believe in God and have faith that God has always and will always exist, or do we now consider God’s laws as antiquated, unimportant and just too restricting? Are Christians weak today with so little faith that they fall victim to confusing, conjured and fictitious Hollywood movies like The Da Vinci Code? Can our society continue to exist, as we know it, if we fail to uphold God’s first and second commandments, which pertain to the worship of other gods and idols? 

Whatever largely dominates your concentration or excessive impious fervor towards anything other then God can make one an idolater by definition. How many Americans bow down to false dogma, materialism, education, celebrities, sports or other personal beliefs? Political ideologies can also be false gods. 

Any ideology has the potential of becoming the object of idolatry. Consider the loose ideology of any liberal person who demonstrates their rejection of God’s word by fighting to eliminate the Ten Commandments in public places, teaching evolution as the beginning of life, promoting abortion and supporting homosexual marriage. Yes, the freewheeling liberal ideology or belief scheme, that opposes God’s laws, can and does become an object of anti-Biblical idolatry and can often be vastly opposite to Christian conservative beliefs. 

Relative to God’s Commandments, how many times do we hear the Lord’s name used loosely or taken in vain? In some circles, you hear God’s name used more in profane ways rather then in ways of reverence. God will not be mocked. 

How about keeping the Sabbath? Are we all in the house of God each week worshiping the Lord? Of course we aren’t, but if we were our church pews would be much fuller, and America would be a better place. 

God’s Commandment to honor your parents is directed to children of all ages. Not all of America’s children are loving and respectful. Some are self-centered and choose to ignore the sacrifices their parents made for them. They forget the love, protection, stability, teaching, and support of critical daily needs including physical and spiritual. Some children repay their parents in adulthood by becoming distant which makes proper grandchild bonding difficult. 

 Many of today’s adult children are better educated than their folks, and some consider themselves more enlightened and privileged. Children don’t realize until it is to late that their parents are only there for a short time and then they are gone. Those who deny God’s obligation to honor and respect both parents also dishonor God and exhibit a rejection of their own heritage. 

Thou shall not kill is a Commandment which obviously bans killings.  Mankind is made in the image and likeness of God. In a world that has chosen to cut itself off from God, many have little regard for the sanctity of life. The American legal system has allowed the systematic murder of over 46 million of our pre-born children due to the gruesome practice of abortion. America has made the choice to cast these children off as not worthy of life. 

In another arena, crimes of violence involving killings have brought America to the point of chief news sources declaring some of our major cities as being the murder capitals of America.

Israel in Moses’ day was a carnal nation, as is the United States today. Carnal minds refuse to obey God. When it comes to adultery, God’s Commandments direct man to refrain from sexual impurity. Marriage is a sacred bond. Adultery is the breaking of that Holy bond.  

 In the Garden of Eden God created and ordained marriage as the binding union between a man and a woman. Mutual fidelity is the basis for having a family and bringing up children in an environment of respect, self-assurance and sanctuary. You would never know that after viewing America’s terrible divorce statistics. 

 Many liberal educators, politicians, entertainers, media stars, and even some self-deceiving weak liberal clergy defy God’s word and promote political correctness in various ways, including the acceptance of homosexuality. Christian conservatives, who base their beliefs on God’s word and disagree with the homosexual agenda, are typically labeled as intolerant bigots. In reality these liberals are clearly waging war against God and his Holy Word. 

 America’s media seeds and desensitizes our culture using tacky sex pitches to sell everything from carbonated soda to cars. If America were to follow God’s laws and abstain from sexual sin, just consider the impact on illegitimate births and sexually transmitted diseases. Every home would have a father and our children would be brought into a much happier and more secure world. That is not the America in which we live today, nor is it the America of tomorrow unless we change directions.  

When it comes to the Commandment on stealing, how many top business leaders have been caught stealing from stockholders or from workers? Have you ever fudged on your taxes? You shall not defraud your neighbor, disrespect his property or rob him. The Commandment demands that we strive for honesty, fairness and integrity in all our dealings. God views stealing as lying which is an act of deception. 

Theft, in one form or another, is running rampant in America. Businesses are forced to build elaborate security systems, and America’s stores have to continually increase prices to compensate for shoplifting. 

God tells us to not give false testimony against our neighbors. We all know those who slander others. Many of us have been the victims of such people. God condemns deception in every form including lying, false advertising, slander, gossip, character assassination and false testimony in court.  

How many have not shown love and compassion for a difficult fellow driver engaged in the practice of road rage… against you? Do you love them as you love yourself? Can you love a cranky, unfriendly, gossiping self-centered unfair neighbor as yourself?  

The perfect character of God is reflected in the Ten Commandments, and we would obviously all be in trouble without Christ. 

To covet is to desire or lust for something pleasant or of alleged precious importance, and it can take many forms such as coveting your neighbor’s possessions. The covetous people of this materialistic world are never really satisfied because they always want more. Look at the debt of the people in this country because people want what they cannot afford. Quit worrying about what you don’t have and thank God for what you do have.

Has America turned its back on God and his Commandments? In important ways it has done just that. When God handed down his Commandments, he meant them not only for individuals but also for institutions and governments. 

 Our lawmakers are deceptively giving the immoral minority the right to violate God’s laws by exchanging and legislating man’s laws that blaspheme, defy, and debase our God under the full protection of the American legal system. Look at the way our lawmakers are working to redefine God’s definition of marriage. God calls homosexuality an abomination, yet our court system is fixated on redefining marriage so men can marry men.  

Abortion is America’s holocaust and our Supreme Court has passed laws legalizing abortion, which is the murder of America’s unborn, who are all created in the image of God himself. 

Look at how our lawmakers have supported further cultural devastation by allowing pornographers the right to use our public airwaves to get their filth and trash into our homes through our TVs, radios and computers. 

Just look at how our laws have been twisted to allow gambling across America to the point where Americans now view gambling as a favorite past time and the casinos as entertainment and vacation destinations. 

 It is bewildering why our founding fathers didn’t write into the American Constitution language protecting the Ten Commandments. We want to believe that it is contrary to the core ideals of our founding fathers that the legal system they envisioned would ever be used by individual pressure groups against our nation in their pursuit and promotion of special-interest immorality, but that is exactly what is happening. The simple answer is that 200 years ago our founding fathers could never have pictured our society as it is today. Our culture is now deteriorating and spinning out of control so fast because we simply refuse to follow the laws of the God of the universe. If not corrected this will ultimately lead to the destruction of America.  

Why is it that our weak shameless lawmakers have excluded themselves from protecting God’s laws? Don’t they feel any responsibility to righteousness or to obey their creator? Shouldn’t they be held accountable for developing legislation that debases our God, who rules us all? If not, why not? It is clear that there is an active sin based force that is driving lawmakers today. They continue to legislate more laws that are just plainly anti-Biblical and evil. 

What these people should realize is that God is in control of everything. Whatever our station in life, he gives us the choice to refuse him and his indisputable moral laws. Whatever we do he rules eternally.  

Those who have no fear of God and deceive themselves into believing that God’s Commandments are restrictive or not relevant should understand that there is no acceptable reason to contest the importance of the Commandments.  

Morality doesn’t come from humanity’s personal sense of right and wrong based on its own deceptive individual opinions. Who can dispute that man has ignored and debased God’s laws throughout his existence. Just consider how the world’s inhabitants have treated one another.  Have we considered the legacy that we are leaving to our children and their children as we desecrate these Commandments?

 We are the most educated society in the history of the world. Rather then read and follow the greatest book ever written and pursue God’s laws, which are a manual for living, we instead subscribe to the ideology of MTV or Hollywood, which is the blueprint for decadence. 

 While all of us are too imperfect to obey all of the Ten Commandments, the Lord will still not hold those who break them as guiltless. We are all guilty, have all sinned and come short of the glory of God. 

God sent his son to die on the cross for our sins and only the acceptance of Christ, as your personal savior, will clean the slate and give eternal salvation.  (John 3:16)

Mike Westfall