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The Ten Commandments - Are They Required Today?
Section 7
The First Four Commandments – Love for God
Take a moment to seriously think about this important question. How should a man or woman love God? Throughout history, humanity has held various ideas about how this should be done. Some have believed that they should make great statues representing God and bow down to them. In ancient times people have burned their first born child in a ritualistic fire believing that this was an expression of devotion to their god. There have even been people who believed their sins would be expiated by having sex with a temple prostitute. To them, this was an expression of love and devotion toward divinity.
Today, millions believe that we should honor God by dragging an evergreen tree into our homes, decorating it with ornaments and lights, then bowing down and placing gifts under its branches. We think we are showing love for Christ by handing out chocolate bunnies, coloring eggs, and attending sunrise services (an ancient practice venerating the sun). If we would make an honest comparison between how mankind has traditionally expressed love toward God, and how He commands us to do so, we would see the enormous fallacy of our way.
Man does not, and cannot, know how to love God unless the Almighty reveals it to us. We were not created with an inherent moral compass to guide us in the way of righteousness. We are incapable of innately knowing how to love Him and what are the proper steps to take in life. Left to our own, mankind will steal, murder, commit adultery, covet, bow down to idols, and worship false gods of his own making. This has been the case down through history and we are reaching the pinnacle of disobedience to God today.
Without a revelation from our Creator, men will dream up all kinds of perverse ideas regarding the way they think we are to show love. A prime example of this is demonstrated by the fact that many profess to love God, but they reject His Commandments! Ironically, it is this great set of fundamental physical and spiritual laws that reveal exactly how we are to love our Creator.
Consider that numbers have profound symbolic meaning in scripture. For example, the number four represents that which is strong and can be built upon. Thus, there are four corners of the earth, four seasons, and four gospels upon which the New Testament is built. In that context, notice that the first four commandments express the way we are to demonstrate our devotion to the Almighty. Everything else in a Christian’s life is to be built upon these four Commands.
I
I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt,
out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Exodus 20:2-3
The first commandment is a cornerstone of love toward God. As a wife is to have no other husband, we are to have no other gods before Him. However, look at our society through the lens of this command.
Today we actually celebrate the ancient pagan Saturnalia in our modern Christmas observance. This celebration honors the god Saturn and does so on the designated birthday of the god Mithra—December 25th. In addition, this celebration shows enormous respect to the ancient fire god Molech (Jer. 32:35). Over the centuries, we have combined these false gods into a fiery red suited figure named Santa Claus (The Truth about Christmas, pp. 1-20).
But this is not the end of our ignorance regarding the first commandment. In the spring we promote worship of the pagan goddess Ishtar. Known as Ashtoreth in the Bible, she was a goddess of fertility (1 Kgs. 11:33). For this reason, today’s Easter holiday still bears the marks of its origin. It is teeming with symbols of fertility such as eggs, bunnies, and lilies (The Truth about Easter, pp. 6-14).
In our society, we put material objects before the true God. We care more about money, cars, careers, and our favorite television programs than we do our Creator. We uphold perverse rock and roll stars, professional athletes, celebrities, and actors as if they are role models to follow instead of Jesus Christ. We actually give them god-like status in our culture.
Michael Jackson sculpture
II
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them:
Exodus 20:4-5
God tells us the second way we are to show love toward Him. We must make no graven image or any representation of Him (Dt. 4:12-15). This means that we are not to have images of angels, animals, plants, fish, or anything found in heaven or earth in our worship. God requires this because human beings have an inherent tendency to become attached to, or fixated on, things that are material. We will bow down in reverence to these objects created from rock, wood, metal or plastic, just like the ancient pagans did to their idols.
At this point, many readers may likely object. They may think that they certainly do not do any of those primitive things. However, consider this command in the light of what many modern churches practice. Thousands of buildings are filled with marble, clay, wood or plastic statues of Christ, Mary, and various saints. Millions of adherents will genuflect to honor these objects as if these works of man’s hand were sacred and holy.
In another example, people wear crosses around their necks with a tiny image of what they consider to be Jesus. They will often clutch or kiss them as they pray. Ironically, the biblical evidence shows that Jesus was not crucified on a cross, but rather an upright stake. The “T” symbol was actually used long before Jesus walked the earth as a Pagan emblem reflecting the heathen god Tammuz (The Truth about the Cross, pp. 4-5).
Many place statues of a baby Jesus on their lawns and in their homes during the winter season. We erect an evergreen tree within our house. It becomes the center of attention as we adorn it with tinsel and bright, colorful decorations. Some actually sing songs of praise before this motionless idol. Such behavior is identical to ancient heathen worship which God condemns (Jer. 10:2).
In the spring, we think we are showing love towards Christ by coloring eggs and designing family activities around them. We purchase colorful cellophane wrapped baskets filled with chocolate bunnies, jelly beans and marshmallow peeps. We even place lilies (a flower used by pagans to represent sex) in our homes and churches.
In the fall, we turn around and erect demonic symbols of witches, ghouls and goblins. We dress our children in costumes that picture satanic creatures. Then we send them out to ask a “trick or treat” of neighbors. This supposed “hallowed eve” was once an official church holiday derived from the heathen observance of Samhain—a celebration of death (The Truth about Halloween, pp. 2-3).
Who do we think we are kidding? Certainly not God! We make idols using artist’s renditions of Jesus which represent Him as effeminate with long hair like that of a woman (1 Cor. 11:14). We proudly display symbols of a fish which has its origin in the ancient fish god Dagon.
The truth is that worship of God has become a massive religious marketing scheme in which the more gold, color, trinkets, and statues a church has, the more holy it is thought to be. This we do when the Almighty thunders to make nothing to represent Him or use any likeness of anything in heaven or the earth in our worship (Dt. 4:15-19).
This is an immense irony. We actually do the opposite of what God commands, and at the same time we think we are showing Him love. Instead, we have been deceived into committing acts of enormous disdain toward the Almighty.
III
Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain;
for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
Exodus 20:7
The third command tells us that we are not to take God’s name in vain. However, on any night of the week, television networks will abusively broadcast God's name all around the world. Hollywood cannot seem to make a movie without misusing His name. It has simply become accepted practice. Many attempt to make this abuse sound less flagrant by using terms like gosh, golly, gee whiz, jeepers-creepers and cripes, the truth is that all of these are simply euphemistic slang words for the names God or Jesus Christ.
Christ also instructed us to not call anyone “Rabbi” or “Father” (Mt. 23:8-9). By this admonition, He warned us against referring to any human as our spiritual parent or teacher. He and the Father alone hold this status. However, today Jewish religious leaders are called Rabbi, and Catholic adherents are instructed to call their priests Father. Perhaps the pinnacle of breaking this commandment can be found in the self proclaimed title of the Pope who is referred to as the Most Holy Father.
Paradoxically, while objecting to the status and title claimed by the Pope, Protestants disregard the third commandment and make the same mistake. Many in their ministry will adopt the title of Reverend. Some actually go so far as to call themselves the Right Reverend. They allow themselves to be called by God’s name while being adorned with ornate pageantry.
The Consecration of the Right Reverend Quintin Primo, Jr.
at the Cathedral of St. James in Chicago
These honored titles that mean bestow upon themselves are an absolute abomination to our Creator! The scriptures proclaim that “Holy and Reverend is HIS name” (Ps. 111:19). These individuals presumptuously call themselves by God’s holy name. By so doing, they repeatedly and directly break the third commandment.
IV
Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, northy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle,
nor thystranger that is within thy gates
Exodus 20:8-11
If there is any Commandment that is most forgotten, it is the one that God tells us to “Remember.” In fact, of the few sects that might be willing to admit the Ten Commandments are obligatory for Christians, most still disregard God’s true Sabbath.
The Creator did not create the Sabbath when He gave the Commandments to Israel. As we have previously seen, the Commandments have always been in existence. Thus we see that God set aside the seventh day at the end of creation week (Gen. 2:2-3). It was designated as a time to for man to shut down his own activities and direct our attention wholly to God.
The importance of keeping this command is enormous. Remembering to keep the Sabbath day holy is God’s mark or sign. It directs people to who the true God is while it also points to who His people are (Ex. 31:13).
The Sabbath was kept by Christ. It was observed by His apostles, the New Testament Church, and by Gentile converts (Lk. 4:16, Acts 15:19-21, 17:2). In the Old Covenant, as well as the New Testament, the seventh day is the only day ever called the Sabbath and it has always been the day we know as Saturday. In fact, there is not a single shred of evidence that there was any deviation regarding the doctrine of the Sabbath in the entire Bible. It was hundreds of years after Christ death that the day was officially moved to Sunday—by the hand of man—not the command of God! It was the sun worshiping Roman Emperor Constantine who decreed this law in 321 A.D., saying:
On the venerable day of the Sun let the magistrates and people residing in cities rest, and let all workshops be closed (Codex Justinianus lib. 3, tit. 12, 3; trans. in Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, Vol. 3, p. 380, note 1).
It must be understood that keeping Sunday is a different day than the Eternal designated for man. Sunday worship does not show respect or love toward God. Instead, it shows respect for a pagan Roman emperor and the apostate church that propagated this change. As Peter Kraemer writes in the Catholic Extension Society Magazine:
We Catholics do not accept the Bible as the only rule of faith. Besides the Bible we have the living Church, the authority of the Church, as a rule to guide us. We say this Church, instituted by Christ to teach, and guide man through life, has the right to change the ceremonial laws of the Old Testament and hence, we accept her change of the Sabbath to Sunday. We frankly say, yes, the Church made this change, made this law, as she made many other laws, for instance, the Friday abstinence, the unmarried priesthood, the laws concerning mixed marriages, the regulation of Catholic marriages and a thousand other laws (1975, Chicago, Illinois).
As this church admits, it has made up many laws that are not Biblical. The change from the Sabbath to Sunday is just one of many. However, it must be understood that no man has the authority to make these changes to God’s Word, and God’s holy day has always been, and will always be, kept by His true people.
Furthermore, the weekly cycle has never been lost. God’s people have kept a record of the Sabbath for thousands of years. This record was meticulously preserved by Israel and later through the Jews (Rom. 3:1-2).
The Sabbath has always begun on Friday at sunset, and ended Saturday at sunset (Lev. 23:32). Take a look at any calendar and it will display the correct order of days in the week. The first day is Sunday and the seventh day is Saturday. It is only recently that a few corporations have begun to produce calendars showing Sunday as the seventh day of the week. However, this has NEVER been the weekly cycle since the time of creation.
Despite this truth, most professing Christians ignore God's Sabbath. They have been taught the old time worn Gnostic heresy that people can worship God any way they please as long as they have love for Him in their heart.
However, it must be understood that such a belief is terribly flawed. Our emotional feelings are not the most important part of our worship. The Almighty is the only one who can define love for Him, and He plainly states that it is expressed by keeping His Commandments (Jn. 14:15, 21, 15:10, 2 Jn. 1:6). The apostle John makes this clear when he states:
For this is the love of god, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous (1 John 5:3).
Any kind of love for God that we might think we have is empty and vain if we do not keep His Commandments. You may have been told that obeying the Ten Commandments is not required, but what you have been told is a lie (Rev. 12:9)!