TEN TRUTHS YOU MAY NOT KNOW AND MAY NEVER WANT TO KNOW 4

By Nana Yaw Aidoo

TRUTH 4: Christians Are Not Amenable To The Ten Commandments

As a matter of fact, Christians are not amenable to the entirety of the Old Covenant (Gal.3:10; 5:4). However, Adventists contend that not all but some of the old law have been abolished and that the Ten commandments are still in existence. It's evident that Adventists take this position so they can keep the Sabbath.

Friends, by what manner of interpretation do we separate the Ten commandments from the Old Covenant? Moses wrote; "So He declared to you His covenant which He commanded you to perform, the Ten Commandments; and He wrote them on two tablets of stone" (Deut.4:13). Moses clearly states that the Ten Commandments are part of the Old Covenant. Thus, if as a result of the second or New Covenant, the Old Covenant has been taken away (Heb.10:9) and has been made obsolete (Heb.8:13), then it follows that the Ten Commandments, which were part of the Old Covenant have been taken away and have been made obsolete.

Paul makes this even clearer in his letter to the church of Christ (Rom.16:16) that was at Rome. In Romans 7, Paul used the imagery of the marriage institution to explain a very critical New Testament teaching to the Jews, "...those who know the law..." (v1). His basic argument was that a couple are bound by the law of marriage whiles they are both alive and so long as they are both alive, one cannot re-marry without becoming guilty of adultery (v2 - v3). Paul says nothing about the exception of Matthew 19:9 because Romans 7 is not a discussion of marriage.

He then proceeds to tell the Jews who once were "married" to the old law that there had to be the death of that old law in order for them to be married to Christ (v4). Thus, just as a wife cannot re-marry whiles her husband is alive, the Jews could not be married to Christ whiles the old law was alive, lest they become guilty of spiritual "adultery". The inescapable conclusion is that, at the time of Paul's letter to the Romans, the old law was dead, since the Jews were married to Christ (v4). The old law being dead, Paul could write; "But now we have been delivered from the law..." (v6). Who can misunderstand this?

Notice that the law the Jews were now dead to, was the law that said; "Thou shalt not covet" (v7). This is the Ten Commandments (Exo.20). Therefore, if the law had to die so the Jews could be married to Christ and if the law in view was the Ten Commandments, then it follows that the Ten Commandments is a dead law. However, if the Ten Commandments were still alive, then with these Jews married now to Christ (v4), we have a case of marriage to another husband whiles the old husband is alive. This would be "adultery", thus making Christ a party to an adulterous marriage. Both the Old and New testaments reigning together is "spiritual adultery".

Some contend that if this is so, then Christians can live immoral lives. Friends, Christians cannot live in immorality because the New Covenant outlaws immorality. Christians are not to steal (Eph.4:28), lie (Rev.21:8), fornicate (1 Cor.6:9), murder (Gal.5:21) and they are to honor their parents (Eph.6:1-2) among others. However, Christians don't steal and lie not because the Ten Commandments tell them not to but because the New Testament tells them not to. Look carefully, and you'd find that all but the Sabbath law are repeated in the New Testament.

Then comes an Adventist preacher who claims that man has kept the Sabbath from creation because God blessed and sanctified the seventh day. The assumption is that God blessed and sanctified the seventh day on the exact same day He "rested" or ceased from creation. There is simply nothing in the language of Genesis 2:2-3, that indicates that God blessed and sanctified the seventh day on the exact same day He rested. Moses who was writing of an incident that had happened 2500 years prior, clearly used the figure of "prolepsis", whereby He combined two separate periods as if they happened at the exact same time.

Notice that the word sanctified is rendered "hallowed" in Exodus 20:11. God commanded that the Jews keep the Sabbath to commemorate their Exodus from Egypt (Deut.5:15). When God wanted to give the Jews a day to commemorate their exodus, He gave them the seventh day, which was the exact same day He rested. Since God gave them the exact same day He rested, Moses wrote that; "...Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it" (Exo.20:11). In other words, God blessed and hallowed the Sabbath when He gave it to Israel to keep because He rested on that day. Guy V. Caskey wrote; "It was not blessed or hallowed to them until they had been delivered from Egyptian bondage" (A Reply To An Adventist, pp.15).

Moses who apparently wrote the book of Genesis after Sinai, wrote what had happened in the present as if it happened the same time God rested in the past. A historian can make a statement like this; "When President Nana Addo was a boy, he was a good boy". However, it's evident that when Nana Addo was a boy, he wasn't a president. The historian simply combined two periods in the life of Nana Addo as if they happened at the same time. That is clearly what Moses does in Genesis 2:2-3.

Even if this isn't so, it still wouldn't make the Sabbath a command from Eden. There is no record of anyone keeping the Sabbath, prior to Sinai. Moses wrote "The LORD our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. "The LORD did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, those who are here today, all of us who are alive" (Deut.5:2-3). The covenant in view was the Ten Commandments (Deut.5:6-21) and the fathers whom God made no such covenant with, were the patriarchs of old (Deut.1:8). Therefore, the patriarchs of old knew nothing about the Sabbath. They kept moral laws because God spoke to them too (Heb.1:1-2) and they had consciences (Rom.2:14-15). However they knew nothing about the Sabbath. If they did, where is the record?

If the rest of the Old Law have been abolished but the Ten commandments are still in existence, then which part reads, "Thou shalt not chew pork"? God's word still proclaims; "having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace" (Eph.2:15).

If you didn't know this truth, hopefully you do now.

God bless us all in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

(To be continued...)