THE TEN COMMANDMENTS: AN INEXORABLE "LIVING" LAW, SOON TO BECOME THE BASIC LAW OF THE PEACEFUL, PROSPEROUS, JOYFUL WORLD TOMORROW!

 God's Ten Commandments are living, active laws -- just like the law of gravity

As a motion picture, they were acclaimed by the world. As the law of God, they have been loved by some, hated by others -- but transgressed by all. 

The Ten Commandments have been cursed, maligned, distorted, vilified; some, by human arguments, have tried to do away with them. A small few of the obedient have experienced the blessings they can bring. David said, "O how love I thy law!" and called it perfect; Paul called it holy, just and good; Jesus honored, magnified, obeyed, and commanded obedience to the Ten Commandments.But to most people they remain and an enigma that has never been understood.

This is a lawless age. Crime and violence are increasing at a fearful rate because among millions of people there is practically no respect for law or constituted authority -- either that of God, or of man!

On the international scene, nations live in daily fear because they very well know that the so-called "guarantees" and treaties of peace are not worth the paper on which they are written. There is no law -- respect for no authority -- among the nations of the world.

This is the world in which you live!


The Real Source of Law

Men have lost all deep respect for law because they have forgotten the very SOURCE of all law and authority! Your Bible says: "There is ONE lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy" (James 4:12). That lawgiver is Almighty God.

In their modern search for a man-devised "peace of mind" or a "religion that satisfies," men have totally forgotten about the great God who RULES this universe! No wonder some of our young people -- the leaders of tomorrow -- have such a lawless attitude.

One of the world's foremost educators warned a group of military leaders of this very problem. He was the late Dr. Rufus von Klein Smid, former chancellor of the University of Southern California. He stated: "I have no quarrel with the present emphasis placed on science, but today we are paying for support of schools which act from September 1 to June 30 as if there were no God." Dr. von Klein Smid noted the "absence of moral values" in our youth resulting from this attitude.

When you leave the true God out there is no real standard of behavior left. The result is spiritual chaos and lawlessness and wretchedness in the human heart.

In nearly all present-day religious denominations, the tendency is to try to "modernize" and "democratize" God, and do away with His authority to RULE His creation -- and us, His creatures. There are very few truly "God-fearing men" left on earth today!

Having made their imaginative pet "god" in their OWN image, men certainly do not stand in awe and deep respect of such a "god." They do not fear their "god." And they certainly do not OBEY this creature of their own imagination!

Yet the real message of Jesus Christ was about the God who created and now RULES this earth! His was the God who blessed men for obedience to His laws -- and who punished for disobedience.

The Jesus Christ of your Bible ALWAYS preached the gospel of the Kingdom of God (Mark 1:14; Luke 4:43). In modern language, He preached the happy news of the GOVERNMENT of God -- the RULE of God. He said: "REPENT YE, and BELIEVE the gospel" (Mark 1:15).

Before you can sincerely believe and accept Jesus Christ as your Savior, and have His shed blood cover your sins, you must repent. But repent of WHAT? Repent of SIN!

What IS sin? Despite the contradictory ideas and generalizations of organized religious denominations, your Bible clearly states: "Sin IS the transgression of the law" (I John 3:4).

Sin is BREAKING GOD'S SPIRITUAL LAW -- the Ten Commandments. That is definitely and specifically what sin is!

Before God will forgive your past sins, you must first repent of breaking His law! You must learn to fear and respect God as the Supreme Ruler of this universe -- and as YOUR King and Ruler.

Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, was inspired to write: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge" (Prov. 1:7). This godly fear is by no means a personal dread, but a deep respect and reverence for the great office and authority of God -- for His divine power -- His wisdom -- His love.

Without faith in such a great and real God, man is incomplete. Cut off from the true God of law and order, man is purposeless, empty, frustrated, confused. The way out of modern man's emptiness and confusion may sound trite or simple to some people. But it is real -- and it works! It is simply that man must quit worshiping false gods. Man must return to the God of the Bible, the God of creation, the God who rules this universe!

Summarizing His way to the fulfillment of man's desire for a happy, abundant and purposeful life, God inspired these words at the end of the book of Ecclesiastes: "The end of the matter, all having been heard: fear God, and keep His commandments; for this is the whole man" (Eccl. 12:13, Moffatt translation).

Man is frustrated and incomplete without this living, vital contact with God -- walking His way, keeping His commandments. Obedience to God's commandments would bring peace and fulfillment and joy to all the nations and peoples of this earth. It is the real answer to all of our problems, individually and collectively. It is the way of life Jesus Christ is going to teach when He returns to rule this world (Micah 4:2).


Do You Really Understand God's Commandments?

The prophet David was a man after God's own heart (Acts 13:22). He is used as a type of Christ, and will rule directly under Christ over the entire nation of Israel in the soon-coming millennium (Ezek. 37:24), when Christ will bring peace to this earth.

David wrote: "O how love I thy law! It is my meditation all the day" (Psalm 119:97). David studied and pondered God's law all day long! He learned how to APPLY it to every situation in life.

This gave David wisdom. "Thou through thy commandments hast made me wiser than mine enemies" (verse 98). God's law showed David the WAY to go -- a WAY OF LIFE. "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path" (verse 105).

Throughout this 119th Psalm, David declared how he loved God's law, and used it as his guide in life. Do you?

Probably you don't. Most of you have been taught that God's law was done away -- or else you simply have not realized that it is the only real way of life that will bring man happiness and joy. You haven't realized that God's law reveals the very nature and character of God Himself. And God commands us: "Be ye holy; for I am holy" (I Peters 1:16).

Remember that the true Christians, the "little flock" of Jesus, are described as those "which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ" (Rev. 12:17). And God gives this description of the character of His saints: "Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus" (Rev. 14:12).

If you are to be counted among God's true saints who will escape the seven last plagues, you will have to have this living faith -- this OBEDIENT faith -- in Almighty God through Jesus Christ living His life in you! You will have to understand and keep God's spiritual law as revealed in the Ten Commandments!

In answer to thousands of requests, and to help all of you come to really understand the commandments of Almighty God your Creator, we are publishing in this booklet a series of articles explaining and expounding each of the Ten Commandments. You should really study this booklet, look up each scripture quoted, live by His spiritual and holy law.


The Almighty God of Israel

To properly understand and feel the real impact of the Ten Commandments, let us notice the setting in which they were given. Remember that Moses and the Israelites had preserved the knowledge that their God was the Creator of heaven and earth. He was the great RULER of the earth who had brought about the Flood in the days of Noah, their forefather.

And now the true God, the God of Israel, had delivered them from Egyptian bondage by tremendous miracles; had brought them out of Egypt and through the waters of the Red Sea which rose on either side of them as a mighty wall (Exodus 14).

Since the time they had passed through the Red Sea, God had begun to deal with them and to remind them of His laws which they may have, in part, forgotten. Before they ever reached Mount Sinai, God erased all doubt about which day was His Sabbath by performing a series of miracles to remind them (Exodus 16). In Exodus 18, Moses was already judging the people according to God's laws and statutes (verse 16).

Now that they were come to Mount Sinai, God proposed -- NOT to give them a new law -- but to enter into a covenant or AGREEMENT with them so that they would be His special people and He would be their God whose laws and statutes and judgments they would obey.

Since the Ten Commandments were -- and always will be -- God's basic SPIRITUAL law (Romans 7:14), they were made a part of this agreement between God and Israel. Since they were His holy and spiritual laws, He gave them with great power, and, unlike the rest of the covenant, wrote them with His own hand.

Notice the setting in Exodus 19. God commanded the people to clean themselves up and be ready against the third day when He would come down to them (verses 10-11). "And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet, exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp TREMBLED" (verse 16).

God was here showing His power as the Creator of this earth as He began to speak with His own voice the Ten Commandments! As the Creator Himself descended upon Mount Sinai in His glory, "the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and THE WHOLE MOUNT quaked GREATLY" (verse 18).

In this setting of great glory and majesty and power, God spoke the Ten Commandments to the people who were trembling in awe below the mountain. His voice must have literally shaken these people with its power as it boomed across the land like the sound of thunder (Psalm 104:7).