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Ten Commandments (1)
Jesus Says…
The Ten Commandments (1)
Many Americans believe that the moral fabric of America is crumbling, as evidenced by the violence in our streets, the number of suicides occurring (the 12th leading cause of death), drug overdoses, etc. I agree with that assessment. I suggest that America could be helped if we would review the Ten Commandments given to Israel in the fifteenth century BC. It was the foundation block on which the Nation of Israel was built (see Exod. 20).
The first commandment emphasizes the supremacy of Yahweh (Jehovah): “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me” (Exod. 20:2-3). God grounded ethics in Himself. The sense of this commandment is that “You must have no other gods in distinction to me,” that is, Israel must be committed to the worship of one god. The idea that America’s strength is her diversity, is not what was taught in the Ten Commandments.
Many other ethical systems were present in Old Testament times as they are obviously present in 21st century America. One of the growing religions in our country is secularism (a more easily palatable phrase than atheism). In this religion, there are no moral absolutes because there is no god. Many American churches have different ethical beliefs, indicating that not all of them are building on the same foundation. If America is going to have a stable moral society, it must begin with the recognition that morality is grounded in the belief in Yahweh, the one and only God. Until that is settled, America will be just as morally unstable as Israel was in the latter days of the Judges when “every man did what was right in his own eyes” (Judg. 17:6; 21:25). Let’s build our morality on the right foundation—the foundation of God Himself! (Keep following our Facebook posts to read a short review of each of the Ten Commandments.)
Mike Willis
