“Defending The 10 Commandments”
Exodus 20:1-17
Proverbs 4:7 “Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom.
Notices that it says get “wisdom” and not “knowledge”.
I believe that the application of knowledge by way of Biblical wisdom is paramount for the believer in today’s world! We live in a confusing world with a buffet of philosophies to choose from. Which one will you bite into?
What is Philosophy but a type of knowledge that one lives by? There are forces in the world that are driving their philosophy down our throats in the most creative and destructive ways – Media and our Courts.
I ask…how is Christianity doing in getting its worldview out there? Sadly we’ve lost ground over the last 40 years! Why? The main reason…prayer, Bible reading and the 10 commandments have been aggressively attacked in America and reduced this country to a moronic and miniscule mindset of morals!
This progressive propaganda is really destructive pabulum!
Ecclesiastes 2:12, 13 “I turned myself to consider wisdom, madness and folly…then I saw that wisdom excels...”
As Europeans would visit America just as she was declaring her liberty 200 years ago, America was known for her godly wisdom and shining honor - just read Alexis De Tocqueville’s “Democracy In America”.
He writes…“In the United States the sovereign authority is religious…there is no country in the world where the Christian religion retains a greater influence over the souls of men then in America, and there can be no greater proof of its utility and of its conformity to human nature than its influence is powerfully felt over the most enlightened and free nation of the earth…America is great because America is good and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.”
Ecclesiastes 10:1 “Dead flies putrefy the perfumer’s ointment, and cause it to give off a foul odor. So does a little folly to one respected for wisdom and honor.”
Does this describe Amercia?
Proverbs 4:8 “Exalt her (wisdom) and she will promote you; she will bring you honor, when you embrace her.”
How far down the slippery slope of secular slim will America go before America returns to this revelation?
Think about it - prayer, Bible reading and the 10 commandments are 3 avenues of gathering knowledge and then the ability to apply wisdom to society!
Last week, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments on whether it is Constitutional the have the 10 Commandments on display in public.
In the Texas case, a U.S. appeals court ruled that a 6-foot-high, 3-foot-wide granite monument erected in 1961 on the Capitol grounds in Austin could remain standing because it is part of a larger presentation remembering state history and culture.
In the Kentucky case, however, a federal court ordered McCreary and Pulaski counties to take down framed copies of the Ten Commandments that had been put up in their courthouses in 1999. The federal court said the displays were, “blatantly religious” — and therefore unconstitutional — even after officials added other documents, including the Declaration of Independence.
I just wonder if our Founding Fathers could have ever imagined this happening in America?
When the 10 Commandments were removed from the Alabama State Supreme Court, Judge Roy Moore said, "It is a sad day in our country when the moral foundation of our law and the acknowledgment of God has to be hidden from public view to appease a federal judge."
In the Kentucky case, most of Americans feel that the 10 Commandments have every right to be displayed.
The CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll found 77% of the 1,009 Americans interviewed disapproved of U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson’s order to remove the monument.
One cannot enter the National Archives and see the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution without first noticing the Ten Commandments posted at the entrance. Moses occupies a central position in the United States House Chamber and he faces forward — perched over the Chief Justice’s seat — at the United States Supreme Court.
As Chief Justice Warren Burger noted in Lynch v. Donnelly: “The very chamber in which oral arguments on this case were heard is decorated with a notable and permanent-not seasonal-symbol of religion: Moses with the Ten Commandments.”
So do Christians stand on solid ground when fighting these kinds of cases in the highest courts in the land? Absolutely!!!!
I Give You Several Pieces of Evidence To Consider:
1. The Northwest Ordinance.
Congress first enacted the Northwest Ordinance in 1789, when the nation was still operating under the Articles of Confederation. The purpose of the Ordinance was to create a temporary government for the Northwest Territory (a huge patch of land that extended from the great lakes to the Ohio river valley), and to establish a procedure by which territories could apply for admission into the Union. The Ordinance was reenacted with very minor changes in 1789, after the passage of the Constitution.
The first sentence of Article III of the Northwest Ordinance reads as follows: “Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.”
My Point: The Northwest Ordinance received final House approval on July 21, 1789, Senate approval on August 4, 1789, and was signed into law by President George Washington on August 7, 1789, in the midst of this; the same Congress was formulating the First Amendment (from June 7, 1789, to September 25, 1789).
Thomas Jefferson, while President of the United States, became the first president of the Washington D. C. public school board, which used the Bible and Watt’s Hymnal as reading texts in the classroom. Notice why Jefferson felt the Bible to be essential in any successful plan of education: “I have always said, always will say, that the studious perusal of the sacred volume will make us better citizens.”
2. Our Natural Laws Come From God’s Laws.
The Ten Commandments have been the foundation upon which much of America’s legal system has been built. To deny this fact, one would have to rewrite American history.
Former President Harry S. Truman said: “The fundamental basis of this nation’s laws was given to Moses on the Mount. The fundamental basis of our Bill of Rights comes from the teachings… If we don’t have the proper fundamental moral background, we will finally wind up with a totalitarian government which does not believe in rights for anybody except the state.”
Noah Webster, the man personally responsible for Article I, Section 8 of the U. S. Constitution, explained two centuries ago: “The duties of men are summarily comprised in the Ten Commandments, consisting of two tables; one comprehending the duties which we owe immediately to God-the other, the duties we owe to our fellow men.”
The Ten Commandments are a smaller part of the larger body of divine law recognized and early incorporated into America’s civil documents.
For example, the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut-established in 1638-39 as the first written constitution in America and considered as the direct predecessor of the U. S. Constitution -declared that the Governor and his council of six elected officials would, “Have power to administer justice according to the laws here established; and for want thereof according to the rule of the word of God.”
Also in 1638, the Rhode Island government adopted, “All those perfect and most absolute laws of His, given us in His holy word of truth, to be guided and judged thereby”. Then they sight, Exodus, 2 Chronicles, and 2 Kings.”
The following year, 1639, the New Haven Colony adopted its “Fundamental Articles” for the governance of that Colony, and when the question was placed before the colonists: “Whether the Scriptures do hold forth a perfect rule for the direction and government of all men in all duties which they are to perform to God and men as well in the government of families and commonwealths as in matters of the church, this was assented unto by all, no man dissenting as was expressed by holding up of hands.”
In 1672, Connecticut revised its laws and reaffirmed its civil adherence to the laws established in the Scriptures, declaring: “The serious consideration of the necessity of the establishment of wholesome laws for the regulating of each body politic hath inclined us mainly in obedience unto Jehovah the Great Lawgiver, Who hath been pleased to set down a Divine platform not only of the moral but also of judicial laws suitable for the people of Israel; as...laws and constitutions suiting our State.”
Those same legal codes in those days, in a separate section, were given the Bible verse on which that law was based because: “No man’s life shall be taken away...unless it be by the virtue or equity of some express law of the country warranting the same, established by a general court and sufficiently published, or in case of the defect of a law, in any particular case, by the Word of God.”
There are other similar examples, but it is a matter of historical fact that the early colonies adopted the greater body of divine laws (10 Commandments) as the overall basis of their civil laws.
Let’s take the 3rd Commandment - “You shall not take the Lord’s name in vain”
Civil (common) laws enacted to observe this commandment were divided into two categories: laws prohibiting blasphemy and laws prohibiting swearing and profanity.
Noah Webster, an legislator and judge, affirms that our laws were derived from the third commandment of the Decalogue: “When in obedience to the third commandment of the Decalogue you would avoid profane swearing, you are to remember that this alone is not a full compliance with the prohibition which [also] comprehends all irreverent words or actions and whatever tends to cast contempt on the Supreme Being or on His word and ordinances [i.e., blasphemy].”
Reflecting the civil enactment of these two categories embodying the third commandment, a 1610 Virginia law declared: “That no man speak…maliciously against the holy and blessed Trinity or any of the three persons...upon pain of death.”
A 1639 law of Connecticut similarly declared: “If any person shall blaspheme the name of God the Father, Son, or Holy Ghost, with direct, express, presumptuous or high-handed blasphemy, or shall curse in the like manner, he shall be put to death.” Leviticus 24:15, 16
Similar laws can be found in Massachusetts in 1641, Connecticut in 1642, New Hampshire in 1680, Pennsylvania in 1682, 1700, and 1741, South Carolina in 1695, North Carolina in 1741, etc.
Commander-in-Chief George Washington issued numerous military orders during the American Revolution that first prohibited swearing and then ordered an attendance on Divine worship, thus relating the prohibition against profanity to a religious duty. Typical of these orders, on July 4, 1775, Washington declared: “The General most earnestly requires and expects a due observance of those articles of war established for the government of the army which forbid profane cursing, swearing, and drunkenness; and in like manner requires and expects of all officers and soldiers not engaged on actual duty, a punctual attendance on Divine Service to implore the blessings of Heaven upon the means used for our safety and defense.”
This civil prohibition against blasphemy and profanity drawn from the 10 Commandments continued well beyond the Founding Era. They also appeared in the 1784 laws in Connecticut, the 1791 laws of New Hampshire, the 1791 laws of Vermont, the 1792 laws of Virginia, the 1794 laws of Pennsylvania, the 1821 laws of Maine, the 1834 laws of Tennessee, the 1835 laws of Massachusetts, the 1836 laws of New York, etc.
Judge Zephaniah Swift, author in 1796 of the first legal text published in America, explained why civil authorities enforced the Decalogue prohibition against blasphemy and profane swearing: “Crimes of this description are not punishable by the civil arm merely because they are against religion. Bold and presumptuous must he be who would attempt to wrest the thunder of heaven from the hand of God and direct the bolts of vengeance where to fall. The Supreme Deity is capable of maintaining the dignity of His moral government and avenging the violations of His holy laws. His omniscient mind estimates every act by the standard of perfect truth and His impartial justice inflicts punishments that are accurately proportioned to the crimes. But shortsighted mortals cannot search the heart and punish according to the intent. They can only judge by overt acts and punish them as they respect the peace and happiness of civil society. This is the rule to estimate all crimes against civil law and is the standard of all human punishments. It is on this ground only that civil tribunals are authorized to punish offences against religion.”
In 1824, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania reaffirmed that the civil laws against blasphemy were derived from divine law: “The true principles of natural religion are part of the common law; the essential principles of revealed religion are part of the common law; so that a person vilifying, subverting or ridiculing them may be prosecuted at common law.”
Key: The court then noted that James Wilson, a signer of the Constitution and original Justice on the U. S. Supreme Court, had drawn up its State’s laws against blasphemy: “The late Judge Wilson, of the Supreme Court of the United States, Professor of Law in the College in Philadelphia, was appointed in 1791, unanimously by the House of Representatives of this State to “revise and digest the laws of this commonwealth… ” He had just risen from his seat in the Convention, which formed the Constitution of the United States, and of this State; and it is well known that for our present form of government we are greatly indebted to his exertions and influence. With his fresh recollection of both constitutions, in his course of Lectures (3d vol. of his works, 112), he states that profaneness and blasphemy are offences punishable by fine and imprisonment, and that Christianity is part of the common law. It is vain to object that the law is obsolete; this is not so; it has seldom been called into operation because this, like some other offences, has been rare. It has been retained in our recollection of laws now in force, made by the direction of the legislature, and it has not been a dead letter.”
The 10 commandment’s influenced on our profanity and blasphemy laws was reaffirmed by subsequent courts, such as the 1921 Supreme Court of Maine, the 1944 Supreme Court of Florida, and others.
The 4th Commandment- Keep The Sabbath Holy.
Examples of the early implementation of this 4th commandment into civil law are seen in the Virginia laws of 1610, the New Haven laws of 1653, the New Hampshire laws of 1680, the Pennsylvania laws of 1682 and 1705, the South Carolina laws of 1712, the North Carolina laws of 1741, the Connecticut laws of 1751, etc.
In 1775, and throughout the American Revolution, Commander-in-Chief George Washington issued military orders directing that the Sabbath be observed. His order of May 2, 1778, at Valley Forge was typical: “The Commander in Chief directs that divine service be performed every Sunday at 11 o’clock in those brigades to which there are chaplains; those which have none to attend the places of worship nearest to them. It is expected that officers of all ranks will by their attendance set an example to their men.”
In 1950, the Supreme Court of Mississippi had similarly legislated: “The Sunday laws have a divine origin. After the six days of creation, the Creator Himself rested on the Seventh. Genesis, Chapter 2, verses 2 and 3. Thus, the Sabbath was instituted, as a day of rest. The original example was later confirmed as a commandment when the law was handed down from Mt. Sinai: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.”
The 6th Commandment – “Thou Shall Not Murder”
Courts have been very candid in tracing civil murder laws back to the 10 Commandments. For example, a 1932 Kentucky appeals court declared: “The rights of society as well as those of appellant are involved and are also to be protected, and to that end, all forms of governments following the promulgation of Moses at Mt. Sinai has required of each and every one of its citizens that “Thou shalt not murder.” If that law is violated, the one guilty of it has no right to demand more than a fair trial, and if, as a result thereof, the severest punishment for the crime is visited upon him, he has no one to blame but himself.”
The 8th Commandment – “Thou Shall Not Steal”
In 1940, the California Supreme Court had made this statement: “Defendant did not acknowledge the dominance of a fundamental precept of honesty and fair dealing enjoined by the Decalogue and supported by prevailing moral concepts. “Thou shalt not steal” applies with equal force and propriety to the industrialist of a complex civilization as to the simple herdsman of ancient Israel.”
Significantly, other courts acknowledged the same, including the Utah Supreme Court, the Colorado Supreme Court, the Florida Supreme Court, and the Missouri Supreme Court.
3. The Opinions of Our Founding Fathers.
Justice William Paterson, a signer of the Constitution placed on the Supreme Court by President George Washington, declared: “Religion and morality…are necessary to good government, good order, and good laws.”
Justice Joseph Story, later appointed to the Supreme Court by President James Madison, similarly declared: “I verily believe Christianity necessary to the support of civil society. One of the beautiful boasts of our municipal jurisprudence is that Christianity is a part of the Common Law…there never has been a period in which the Common Law did not recognize Christianity as lying its foundations.”
Expounding on this belief, signer of the Declaration John Witherspoon, who served on over 100 committees while in Congress, declared: “To promote true religion is the best and most effectual way of making a virtuous and regular people. Love to God and love to man is the substance of religion; when these prevail, civil laws will have little to do.”
To close with…To ban the display of the 10 Commandments simply because the first four commandments are more religious in nature than are the other six is like permitting the display of George Washington’s “Farewell Address” or Patrick Henry’s “Liberty or Death” speech or the “Mayflower Compact” only if each document is displayed without its religious portions. To display any of these historical works – it’s not the endorsement of religion that is happening - but it’s the recognition of the historical contribution made to America that also happens to include religion!
