The Ten Commandments are getting a lot of press these days.
Atheists bristled when they discovered in May that a newly constructed Minnesota jail includes a two-story display of the Commandments.
Then, on June 19, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry signed a bill requiring all public school classrooms to display a poster-sized copy of the Ten Commandments starting in 2025. This, he said, was for historical purposes. The Ten Commandments will be included among other documents that influenced the founding of our nation, such as the Magna Carta.
Not to be outdone, Texas is moving forward with similar legislation. And in Oklahoma, public schools will be incorporating the Bible and the Ten Commandments into their curriculum for grades 5-10. This, the Superintendent says, is not to proselytize students, but it is for historical purposes.
Secularists object
Secularists and progressives are livid. The ACLU is threatening lawsuits, and the Freedom from Religion Foundation is crying foul.
They claim these actions violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, even though, as Sen. Adam Bass notes, the Ten Commandments are “posted in over one hundred and eighty [public] places,” across the United States, “including the Supreme Court of the United States of America.”
So, if the Ten Commandments are already so ubiquitous in American culture, why care if they are displayed in public schools?
They know that the only way to ensure that America is fully secularized is to control education for the next generation. By their outcry, and their selective application of the Establishment Clause, secularists again are admitting what we have all known. They own and operate the public schools, and they want to keep it that way.
(The ACLU and similar organizations have a lengthy history of manipulating the First Amendment for their own gain. See the excellent book, Ten Tortured Words by Stephen Mansfield).
The influence of the Ten Commandments
Efforts to purge our culture of any remembrance of Judeo-Christian influences doesn’t improve our society. It advances our demise.
It’s simply a fact. The Ten Commandments, along with many other documents, influenced our Founders and their application of the rule of law. They acknowledged that our freedoms come from God, not men.
Don’t misunderstand. The Framers didn’t huddle around the Ten Commandments and use it as the blueprint for our Republic. Other philosophies, documents, and government models influenced them as well.
But it’s dishonest to ignore the influence of the Bible on our laws and our Founders. In fact, even a cursory reading of their letters, speeches, and documents reveals their intentional commitment to a biblical worldview and its inclusion in our systems of government. It’s an historical fact, even if you are not a person of faith.
And that is both the promise and the problem with public displays of the Ten Commandments.
The promise of the Ten Commandments
Exodus 20:1-17 records the text of the Ten Commandments.
When God gave the Ten Commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai, the Israelites were becoming God’s people, and they needed to know how to do that.
At the core of the Ten Commandments is the promise that His people can have a relationship with their Creator. This was a new idea. Other cultures sought to appease various gods, fearing deities of their own creation. These gods were distant and dangerous and mostly capricious.
But the one true God was gracious, faithful, and wanted a relationship with His chosen people. Even so, He was holy, so that relationship had to be on His terms.
So, the Ten Commandments serve as a covenant, like a contract, between God and His people in this freshly minted relationship. If obeyed, the Commandments foster a healthy community and a healthy relationship with Him.
And that’s the way to understand these commandments. They are practical and relational. But foremost, they are non-negotiable for fostering a right relationship with God. In the first four Commandments (20:1-7), God gives His expectations for cultivating a relationship with Him. In short, He is God, so worship Him only.
Ethics for a new community
The remaining Commandments direct the Israelites how to treat one another. It’s an ethical manifesto. The Commandments promote healthy personal relationships and cultivate a growing community with a unified identity.
The truth is, nearly everyone, religious or not, could affirm these ethical and moral prescriptions. Many of them are coded into our laws today. Do not murder, steal, or lie in court.
And some are designed to cultivate character traits. They just make sense. Do not commit adultery or covet your neighbor’s stuff. Clearly, if we all practiced these commandments, we would be better for it.
So, what’s really the problem?
The problem with the Ten Commandments
The problem? Just this. The first four Commandments establish a right relationship with God.
That is, the basis for the Ten Commandments is the existence of God, our Creator. To acknowledge the Ten Commandments, even as historical documents, you cannot overlook the clear statement that God is real and requires people to behave morally.
So, we do not define morality. He does. And the basis for a healthy, thriving, unified community of people is the common recognition of God as our Creator.
Then, the other commandments draw from this assumption. Moral law starts with a moral Lawgiver, and we have an obligation to treat one another the way He wants us to.
And that’s why they hate it
Secularists despise this notion. God exists. And they equally detest that our Framers acknowledge this fact in their documents. “All men are created equal.” By whom? Why, by our Creator, of course.
See, the problem secularists have with the Ten Commandments being displayed in schools is not with the Ten commandments. It’s with the obvious and unmistakable truth that we are created beings. We are not gods ourselves.
Secularists and progressives can’t have our children learning this truth. It contradicts the socialist, Marxist, and progressive ideologies they want taught in schools–ideologies designed to divide and classify and destroy.
The Ten Commandments are the starkest reminder possible that we have a Creator, we are created equal, and that our Creator expects us to treat one another as His special creation. Can’t have that, can we?
But what about you?
But let’s pause there. Maybe you agree that the Ten Commandments should be posted in our public spaces. Okay.
But when confronted with these simple non-negotiables, how are you doing?
Are you putting “other gods before Him”? Are you ignoring your role as His creation, or taking His name in vain by ignoring the holiness of His character? Do you keep the Sabbath holy, setting aside time that belongs solely to Him? And joining to worship Him with God’s people?
And does your character reflect a relationship with Him? How do you handle anger? Lust? And how are you doing with that coveting thing?
See, maybe the Ten Commandments will be posted in the schools. Maybe not. But either way, how do the Commandments impact your life?
You shall have no other gods before me.
Ex. 20:3 (NASB)