Before you begin your Bible study, as a believer
in the Lord Jesus Christ, be sure you have named your sins privately to God the
Father.
If we
confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness. [Known, Unknown and Forgotten sins] (1Jn 1:9)
You will then be in fellowship with God, Filled with God the
Holy Spirit and ready to learn Truth from the Word of God.
God
is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in Spirit and Truth. (Joh 4:24)
The Ten
Commandments
Today
the United States of America is facing destruction as a nation: Spiritually,
politically, militarily, socially and economically. We are in a state of moral
and immoral degeneracy. (To many believers and unbelievers in our nation,
are living by the power of the old sin nature and
Satan's false realities) The
cause of national disintegration and the solution for recovery are clearly
stated in the Word of God. In fact,
they are closely related to a subject with which many people are familiar but
about which they know little — the Ten Commandments, or the Decalogue. (Exod 20:1-17)
Occasionally,
young people find themselves in a position where they are required to memorize
the Ten Commandments. They may even receive a gold star in Sunday school for
this “achievement.” On the other hand, there are those in this country who have
never been near a Sunday school, do not attend a church, and may not even have
a Bible, but are knowledgeable regarding the Decalogue. It is amazing that
people can occasionally quote almost verbatim something that is found in this
passage, even though they have never looked at Exodus 20. Therefore, generally
in this country today, there is some understanding of, or at least familiarity
with the Ten Commandments.
Now, for many
people, the last five Commandments are about the only
system of authority known, and these
Principles are lodged in the right lobe as part of their conscience. (Rom 2:14-16) What is
generally not understood is that all ten of the Commandments are a summary of
God’s Principles pertaining to freedom. Each
of these Commandments is backed up by a series of Divine Laws which were given
for the protection and happiness of both believers in Jesus Christ and for
unbelievers. Even
though the Mosaic Law is not our operating procedure today, the Commandments
have always applied to the human race in general.
The
Decalogue summarizes a system of “sense
of right and wrong” — not one
or the other, but a combination of both.
I am not referring here to Spirituality in its technical sense, of being filled
with God the Holy Spirit but in a more general sense of relationship with God.
(Joh 3:19-21) The
first five Commandments declare the Principle of Spirituality, (Personal love for God) the
possibility of establishing a relationship with God; the last five apply to man’s relationship toward his fellow
man! (Impersonal love for all mankind) (Mat 22:36-40; Rom
8:4; Gal 5:22-23) To the Jews of the
generation of Moses to whom the Law was given, these Spiritual Thoughts were
pertinent because theirs was a generation of believers; to following generations;
the Commandments have become Principles of conscience; (Rom 2:14-16) without
the Concept of a relationship with God.
However, the Ten Commandments are not a set of specific,
detailed Laws. But are the Principles God has set fourth for protection, life,
liberty and property of a people within a national entity. When a nation operates
under these Divine norms and Standards, the result is individual freedom and
happiness; national stability and prosperity! No group of people can survive as a national
entity without a basic system of conscience; and these Commandments and Principles
that are found in them, if they are violated by a maximum number of people,
that nation will be destroyed!
The dispersion of
the nation of Judah in 586 BC was the result of this very Principle. For forty years prior to
their fall, the prophet Jeremiah continually warned the people of the
consequences of negative volition. (Jer
11:1-8) He taught Truth every day; but the people were negative to his teaching, and their rejection of God’s provision for the protection of
their freedom led to their personal and national destruction. The people became so totally saturated with degeneracy,
(Self-worship; Jer
11:8) that they destroyed first their souls
and finally their nation.
Freedom
in our own nation is being destroyed today because the Principles of Divine
establishment, (Liberty, protection, privacy and property) and the Divine institutions, (Freewill, marriage, family
and nationalism) are being overturned by our enemies and rejected
by our citizenry in general! This is part of the angelic conflict. The devil knows, even if many believers do not, that there
must be freedom; if the Gospel is to be proclaimed and the Bible to be
communicated. A national entity and the people
Thinking with these Principles are always the object of Satanic and human
attack!
As in
Jeremiah’s day, (Jer
11:9) so in our day, the Satanic attack is
manifested through a conspiracy — the socialistic communist conspiracy and demonism (Life apart from God and His Reality; Psa 2:1-3) — which is
dedicated to the total destruction of individual freedom and national
sovereignty! Yet God, in His grace, always
continues to warn of such disaster right up to the “fifth cycle of discipline” — military defeat and
dispersion. He did so in Judah in Jeremiah’s
day, and He is doing so in the United States of America in our day! No conspiracy can ever succeed unless the people of a nation
first go negative to the Principles laid down by God, for human freedom can be established and preserved only
when the nation will follow and Think with God's Principles, Promises and or
Thoughts; and not Satan's or our own! (Isa 55:6-9)
The influence of the Decalogue
The
United States of America was founded upon these Principles, and although they
are under severe attack in our country today, our history is a testimony of
God’s gracious provision. We have not only been successful as
a nation, but our national entity has had tremendous impact on history. The reason
can be attributed to the fact that in the past this nation has adhered to the
Principles found in the Decalogue. In the function of a nation, there are
certain Principles that must be followed and carefully guarded, for they are
absolutely necessary for the establishment and survival of freedom. Therefore,
I shall list some ways in which the Ten Commandments have had a great influence
upon our own national entity.
The Concept of Freedom, Protection, Privacy and Private
Property.
These are
mentioned specifically in the Decalogue and are protected by the Divine Laws
declared in the Ten Commandments. Any attempt to invade the privacy or the
property of an individual is destructive to freedom and to the proper function
of a national entity. Today we have a tragic breakdown in Law; therefore, the protection of
privacy and property is being eroded and the Law is being overturned to promote
socialism. The very essence of socialism is an
invasion of privacy, protection, freedom and private property. Socialism, when carried to the extreme, results in the types
of government which exists today in Communist countries. It is anti-God,
anti-Christian and anti-Biblical.
You can immediately see that when a nation promotes
anti-Divine Principles and makes those Principles a part of its legislative
Laws, then socialism becomes the Law of the land. Socialism not only destroys
freedom in a nation, it eventually destroys the national entity itself, for it
is international in its function and denies the Principle of nationalism as
designed by God.
The Concept of Freewill, Marriage, Family and Nationalism.
Freewill,
Marriage and Family are protected by the Principles in the Decalogue. All of
these institutions were designed by God for the protection of the one man-one
woman relationship and for the instruction and protection of the children
resulting from that relationship. The Word of God also
sanctions the Concept of national entities for the preservation of the human
race. (Gen 11:6-9)
The Concept of Military.
One
of the great objectives of the Mosaic Law is to provide a stabilized population
of young men who are willing to defend not only their family, but every man,
woman and child in a nation. (Neh 4:14) A strong
military is absolutely essential for the protection of the freedom of a nation.
The Ten Commandments provide a phenomenal basis for establishing a stabilized
military organization made up of men who have an understanding of the basic
Concepts of authority that make military teamwork a success — men who have the
courage to go out and vigorously defeat and neutralize the enemy to the point
of unconditional surrender, or annihilation, or both!
Of course,
some of you are already thinking. What about “You shall not kill”?” As we shall see in our exegetical study of
the sixth Commandment, the word for “kill”
should be translated “murder”;
therefore, it has nothing to do with military life. To kill the enemy as a
military representative of your country is not only compatible with the plan of
God, but is Commanded and should be done “as
unto the Lord.” There is no Biblical support for the position of a
“conscientious objector.” There is no Biblical support for the born-again
believer to stay out of military service!
It is true that
our military services are under severe attack today, and they are not what they
used to be. This situation could be drastically
changed if the military were made up of a preponderance of believers with Truth
or even unbelievers with the Principles of the Divine institutions in their
right lobes. Remember, the Principles contained
in the Decalogue are for both the believer and the unbeliever. The Biblical Principle in fighting a war calls for
the defeat of the enemy, and that entails killing and neutralizing the enemy. This is in the Word of God! (Num 1:3; Deut
20:1-18) You do not stop wars by playing
games with the enemy; you stop wars by KILLING THE ENEMY!
Now, I want you
to understand something: fighting in the military is the basic system for
preserving freedom in the devil’s world. In spite of man’s efforts for peace,
there will be warfare until the Second Advent of Jesus Christ. (Mat 24:6; Mar 13:7;
Luk 21:9) You
cannot stop wars by being a peacenik; you cannot stop wars by disarmament.
The only way to stop war is to be ready for war; and
adequate preparation demands a strong military!
The Jews in the
Old Testament had the greatest military record of any national entity in the
ancient world, with the possible exception of the Assyrians. In fact, it was the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of Hosts,
the Commander of the Armies, who gave the orders for the Jewish Army to fight
and defeat, and in some instances, to annihilate the enemy. (1Sa 15:2-3) It was through the Principles which the God of
Israel gave to Moses that the Jews developed that phenomenal character which is
so necessary to be successful militarily. A man must have a lot of character to
fight and die for his country and to do it right. Such character is built upon
the Principles of freedom found in the Ten Commandments. This is not to say
that a lot of immoral killings do not happen in war — they do! However, killing the enemy is not one of them!
The Principle of the Decalogue
While the Ten Commandments were given
specifically to the Jews as Codex I of the Mosaic Law, and while they also fulfill the Spiritual purpose of proving that
man is a sinner and needs a savior,
(Gal 3:19-29) the
Principles contained in these Divine Laws are designed to protect the human
race from self-destruction and to perpetuate the human race during the course
of the angelic conflict. (The invisible
courtroom trial; where we are all participants!) Absolute and unchanging, they have been given to insure freedom for
evangelism in every generation and to provide a FRAMEWORK for human happiness.
Now, keeping the Mosaic Law in itself is not happiness. The Law merely provides a “house” where happiness can live
and be sustained.
The Decalogue was not intended as a set of prohibitions by
which sin is defined. The Biblical definition of sin is much greater and
more extensive. (Cf. Pro 6:16-19; Col 3:5-10; Eph
5:1-6) In stating a set of Principles of freedom, it is inevitable
that certain prohibitions will parallel certain sins, for these sins are an
encroachment upon freedom. Since the Decalogue sets up
a summary of Laws dealing with Principles of protection, the last five
Commandments mention specific forms of sin. However, these relate not only to
overt acts of sin but to the thinking of sin as well. Remember, we are dealing
with the Decalogue IN Principle! We are dealing with Thoughts which, when
Thought with, stabilize a person and a nation!
Now, in order to
understand the Principles for freedom contained in the Decalogue, it is
necessary to study them exegetically, beginning with verse 1 of Exodus 20.
Freedom verses Slavery
“AND GOD SPOKE ALL THESE WORDS, SAYING.” (Exod 20:1) cf. (Jer 11:1) The first
thing that we notice is that the Decalogue did not come from Moses but from
God. Moses simply had the privilege of being
God’s spokesman. The Hebrew verb for “spoke”
indicates that these Words are categorically correct, that their order is
logical, and therefore, the Principles involved are vital to the survival of
any national entity. Remember that these Principles were given to a people who
had just been set free to establish their own nation. A stabilized nation must be preceded by stabilized souls,
and the Decalogue was given for that very purpose. The phrase, “God spoke,” establishes the
Commandments as Divine Thoughts and or Laws with God as the Source.
Moses began to
speak the Commandments to the people by first citing the
Source. The verb “saying” in the Hebrew means “to bring to
light.” It was God’s purpose to bring to
light certain Thoughts, certain Principles which in summary provide protection
for the human race as it is involved in the angelic appeal trial. The Ten Commandments were never given to the Jews until they
came OUT OF SLAVERY. Therefore, the Ten Commandments are for a people who have
freedom. These Laws of freedom were designed
to keep the Jews from going back into slavery. Jeremiah
referred to the “Covenant” in, (Jer 11:1-3) because he
was God’s spokesman to warn Judah of impending national disaster. The breaking of the Covenant was the breaking of the
Decalogue — God’s Principles for human freedom
and prosperity. Had the Jews observed these
Commandments, they would have preserved their freedom; but because they ignored
these Principles and broke the Covenant, national disintegration resulted, and
they went back into slavery in 586 BC.
When a maximum number of people in a national entity are in
emotional revolt of the soul, the nation is destroyed. Emotional revolt of the soul is the result of negative volition to
God’s Thoughts and God's Reality. It leads to “scar tissue” of the soul and to
the acceptance of false thoughts and false realities! Therefore, the first Principle that must be understood in
this context is that the Decalogue is for people who possess physical freedom;
but God's Thoughts and Word can be used in physical freedom or in physical
slavery.
Every “You
shall not” is a challenge to FREE WILL, which means that once you have
physical freedom, you can, by your own volition, use or abuse that freedom. If you maintain your freedom, you
have great inner happiness; but, if you abuse this freedom, you will not only become a
slave to emotion under emotional revolt of the soul, but also a physical slave
under the fifth cycle of discipline. Therefore,
the whole purpose of the Ten Commandments is to show you the Principles by
which the freedom of your soul can be maintained; this individual freedom in
turn provides the objectivity necessary to protect the freedom of your nation.
The Gauge of Freedom.
The second point about the Mosaic Law which must
be understood is that the Decalogue is a standard, a gauge, which measures the
personal and national condition with regard to freedom. When these Principles come under
attack, the very foundation of freedom is weakened. It is God’s way of letting
people know the condition of their soul regarding the four Divine Institutions.
(Volition, Marriage, Family and Nationalism) These institutions have been designed by God for both the
believer and the unbeliever, and the Ten Commandments are the provision for the
protection of both. If there is a pivot of
mature believers the Divine Institutions will prosper; if there are not enough believers growing to Spiritual
maturity they will decline!
AS GOES THE BELIEVER, SO GOES THE NATION!
God, the Source of Freedom.
I AM
THE LORD YOUR GOD, WHO BROUGHT YOU OUT OF THE LAND OF EGYPT, OUT OF THE HOUSE
OF SLAVERY. (Exod 20:2) In the
Hebrew there is no verb in this verse. The “am,”
in italics, has been inserted, and is misleading. In the correct declaration, “I, the Lord your God,” God is not establishing His existence, but is establishing
Himself as the Source. Since His existence is assumed, no verb is
needed. Although the first Commandment, in actuality, is given in verse 3, the
Principle is contained in verse 2.
The
Source of all human freedom is God Himself; and God, in His grace, sets up Laws
to protect freedom — Laws
to punish the violation of freedom and Laws regarding self-enslavement. Basic enslavement in human life, as taught in Romans 6,
occurs in the soul, and believers are Commanded to avoid soul enslavement: (Self-worship)
“and do not go on presenting the members
of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness ....” This means being controlled by the old sin nature, and that
is basic soul enslavement “… but present
yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, [Temporal death and or
carnality]
and your members as instruments of righteousness Fellowship: Experiential
Righteousness]
to God.” (Rom 6:13) This is Spiritual freedom, (Spiritual Maturity) and is achieved by making Truth in the heart and or human
spirit the authority of the soul! (Rom
6:17-18; 2Co 10:5) It is what goes on in the soul that determines freedom or slavery, and soul activity in turn
influences the overt activity of the individual and the nation!
There is a
historical Principle that is borne out in the rise and fall of nations. This Principle is that no nation ever becomes enslaved until
first a maximum number of people in that nation undergo emotional revolt of the
soul; and soul slavery, unless reversed by
Truth, leads to physical slavery! No nation is conquered by an enemy unless destruction of
individual souls occurs first. A large number of people in our country today
are in soul slavery. If this soul slavery continues, it will only be a matter of
time before the enemies of this country, both internal and external, destroy it
and deliver its people into literal
slavery! (Psa 127:1)
The phrase, “the Lord your God,” in (Exod 20:2) is very interesting because it is
made up of two words — the Tetragrammaton, which we will simply call “Jehovah,” and the noun, “Elohim.” Since “Elohim” refers to essence, it is in the plural. The Tetragrammaton
never refers to more than one Person at a time. It could refer to the Father,
to the Son or to the Holy Spirit, the context of the passage determining the
reference. The God of Israel is Jesus Christ;
therefore, “I, the Lord your God, Jesus
Christ,” gave these Commandments to Moses. The Lord Jesus Christ
personally taught the Ten Commandments. (Also as the Angel Of The Lord) (Gal 3:19)
Neither the Gospel nor evangelism was the issue in this
passage because the people of the nation were already saved. But I will tell
you what was the issue — FREEDOM! The verb “brought
you out” is a Hebrew word which means that the
Jews were caused to go forth, or to be delivered from slavery. Their freedom
was an established fact! The Principle comes out in the literal
rendition: “I have caused you to go forth
out of the land of Egypt.” They didn’t earn their freedom; they didn’t
deserve it; they didn’t work for it — it was the
GRACE OF GOD!
Jewish freedom began at the Passover, which portrays
Salvation. The bloodshed by the physical death of the lamb through representative
reverse analogy, taught (The lamb bled to death, but was not judged for sin; Christ
was judged for sin; but did not bleed to death) the Spiritual death of Christ. “Knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things…
but with precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb
unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.” (1Pe 1:18-19)
Christ suffered Spiritual death when He was judged for the
sins of the world. (Isa 53:11)
The Old Testament believers looked forward to the cross, while today we look
back to the cross; but for both; Salvation is BY
FAITH. (Act 4:11-12)
The whole
structure of the Commandments, therefore, was designed for people who were
free, who had the ability to use their free will. This introduces the Principle
of Human Freedom.
Human Freedom
Freedom Demands Responsibility.
Responsibility is necessary for freedom to be
maintained. The
Mosaic Law implies responsibility. In slavery, the Jews could not
function as a nation. Once free from physical slavery, the Jews had the
responsibility of not only exercising their freedom, but also of protecting and
maintaining their freedom. (If we abuse our freedom; we
will lose our freedom; Gal 5:1)
Human Freedom Is a Primary Factor in the Resolving of the
Angelic Appeal Trial.
Human volition must be intact to accept or
reject Christ as savior. Believing in the Lord Jesus Christ requires the
non-meritorious function of volition.
Human Freedom Gives us the Opportunity for a Relationship
with God.
Through the operation of human freedom, God in His grace gives man the
opportunity to have a relationship with Himself. This in turn gives meaning,
purpose and definition to life. All true
purpose in life must be related to God.
God Has Designed Laws for the Protection of Freedom in the
Angelic Appeal Trial.
Without Divine
provision for the stability of the soul, man is no match for Satan, “the god of this
world.” (2Co 4:4) Without God’s Thoughts for maintaining freedom, there would
be no norms or Standards to guide the soul and no restraints on the old sin
nature; and that would result in the old sin nature, (Demonism; Joh 8:44) dictating to the soul. (Emotional
revolt of the soul)
Now,
legalism is the greatest enemy — OF ALL
of God’s grace provisions,
and the Decalogue has been distorted and abused by legalism: (Ritual; Mat 15:8-9; without God's Spiritual
Thinking in our souls; Joh
4:24) Legalism is Satanic in origin and is part of
Satan’s strategy in the angelic conflict to destroy the true purpose of the Ten
Commandments, and in this way destroy human freedom. A true understanding of the function of the
Decalogue will free you from some of the legalistic traps and self-righteous
attitudes that have existed historically during the Church Age, not to mention
all the legalism prior to the Church Age!
All Sin, Known or Unknown Involves the Action of the
Volition.
The only way you
can avoid deliberately sinning is to have your volition removed from your soul;
and this is impossible. Let’s look at the problem of original sin. In the
Garden the Lord Jesus Christ held Bible class every day for the man and the
woman. Subsequent events reveal that Adam understood the issue involved in
God’s Commandment, “You shall not eat,”
given in, (Gen 2:17) but that the woman
did not. After the woman sinned, as recorded in, (Gen
3:13) she said, “The serpent
deceived me...” the women’s was an unknown sin, as it were. (She thought the tree and fruit were poisonous; Gen 3:3; God never said
they could not touch it) The Apostle Peter in, (2Pe 2:14) warns the
believer of false teachers who entice unstable souls. Since the serpent
deceived the woman, it is evident that she had developed an unstable soul in
perfection. Even under perfect condition, with
Jesus Christ doing the teaching, one of the assembly of two was not always
tuning in!
Read carefully, (Gen 3:6) “She
TOOK of the fruit...” Even though she did not understand what she was
doing, her volition was involved. Adam, on the other
hand, knew exactly what he was doing. The fact that both were involved
in the sin is stated clearly in; (1Ti 2:14)
but there was a difference: the woman was deceived, but Adam deliberately
sinned. How did they sin without an old sin nature? Mechanically, there was
only one way — through their volition. Volition operated in both souls: both sinned, one knowingly, one unknowingly, but both willingly!
This Principle is that all sin, known or unknown
involves action of the volition. (Freewill) The
original sin of Adam and the woman was negative volition. They did not possess
and old sin nature; yet the sin nature, once acquired, never produces sin apart
from volition — NEVER! So,
every Commandment implies the operation of volition.
Volition and Human Freedom Are the Basis of the Function of
True Love.
There are two categories of Virtue love: Category One — Personal Love toward God; Category Two — Impersonal Love toward man; The Principle of Category
One love is illustrated by the relationship between one man and one woman. Now the man is the aggressor, and the initiation of love
must come from his volition. A lot of men say, “I’m not naturally aggressive;
I’m kind of a milk toast type.” If you have free will and a normal soul, you
are an aggressor! All you need is that spark — a woman — and you will want to
initiate.
By contrast, a
woman is designed to respond, but the response of love must come from HER
VOLITION! True love cannot be forced; it must be
freely given. The man must provide for the woman — authority, freedom, protection and privacy. In
aggression, the man protects the freedom of the woman to respond. Now a woman
can be very aggressive in responding to a man, but that does not mean that she
is manly. It means that her volition has been protected, and she is free to
respond. Ignorance of this Principle leads some men to destroy the volition of
the woman by demanding love. The enslavement of a woman’s volition destroys her
capacity for love. And in the Spiritual life God is
the initiator; with an unlimited capacity to give; and believers are the responder; with an
ever increasing capacity to appreciate and receive! And the more Truth and
Virtue we acquire; by growth to Spiritual maturity; the more God can and will give us; for ALL ETERNITY! (The perfect love
relationship: FOREVER!)
Human Freedom Is the Basis for Determining Choice.
The right lobe of the soul contains a conscience
and is the storage area for establishment Principles. Under the emotional revolt of the
soul, the function of the right lobe is destroyed and the emotions rule the
soul under the dictates of the old sin nature. When the emotions rule the soul,
individual responsibility is lost, as is capacity for objective Thinking.
Volition Is the Issue in Salvation.
The reason
volition is the determining factor is that everything else has been provided.
Salvation was designed by God the Father, (Joh
4:34) is revealed by God the Holy Spirit, (1Co 2:10) and was purchased by God the Lord
Jesus Christ through His work on the cross. (1Pe
2:24; 1Jn 2:2; 1Jn 3:16) Yet Salvation
is OPTIONAL. Whether a person is saved or not depends on the attitude of his
free will! Positive volition is: “He that BELIEVES on the Son has eternal
life”; negative volition is: “but he who does not obey the Son shall not
see life; but the wrath of God abides on him.” (Joh 3:36) cf. (1Jn
3:23)
Human Freedom Is Protected by God’s Prohibitions.
“You shall not” is not a tyrannical
expression of God’s will; rather it has been given by God in His grace for the
protection and the freedom of your soul and the freedom of your nation!
The first Commandment: (Exod
20:3)
The
first Commandment is where liberty begins:
“YOU SHALL HAVE
NO OTHER GODS BEFORE ME; or, literally, THERE SHALL NOT BE TO YOU ANY OTHER
GODS BEYOND ME.” Notice the change in
translation. What is actually being said is that there is room for only One at the top, and that place is
occupied by the God of Israel, the Lord Jesus Christ! This is no way detracts from the Doctrine of the Trinity.
Jesus Christ, the revealed Member of the Godhead — IS the Creator and Savior of the
universe as well as the God of Israel! (Isa
46:9-10) The protection and proper
exercise of freedom demands recognition that the God of Israel is alone at the
top. The verb translated “You
shall have no” literally means “There
shall not be.” This, then is not a YOU SHALL NOT Commandment, but rather “THERE SHALL NOT BE
other gods.” The reference is to the
prohibition of idolatry.
Soul Idolatry.
The first
Commandment is dealing with idolatry in the soul, while the second Commandment
deals with overt idolatry. The Principle is this: freedom
begins in the soul. The Jews did not suddenly decide to manufacture a
calf in the desert while Moses was up on the mountain receiving the Decalogue
from Jesus Christ; they had that calf in their minds from the day they walked
out of Egypt. Their bodies were free, but their souls
were not. God freed the bodies of the Jews;
but God could not free their souls because that
requires individual volition. “Operation Golden
Calf” demonstrated that the Jews of the Exodus generation had not freed
themselves from idolatry: they had idolatry in
their souls. Their souls were in emotional
revolt, and they were ruled by their emotions,
(Php 3:19) instead of being ruled by God's Thoughts and God's Reality!
The right lobe and or human spirit have been designed by
God as the Spiritual authority of the soul. Slavery
of the soul is a part of emotional revolt of the soul; such slavery is the most
subtle slavery in the world. It is the result of the old sin nature’s dictating
to the emotions rather than the emotions being under the authority of Truth. When the emotions are responding to the old sin nature, the
soul becomes enslaved. There are three
categories of emotional revolt: the Lust of the flesh, the Lust of the eyes and
the Pride of Life, (1Jn 2:15-16)
all or any combination of the three — ALL of which are an abomination to the Lord!
God has set up a “conscience” in the soul of every normal
human being and has designed it as a “squad leader.” The left lobe has mentality, faith volition,
emotion, conscience and above all, the old sin nature. At the moment of Salvation we have a renewed human spirit
that is empty of Spiritual Thoughts; but must be filled up, in order to Think
according to God's Reality! (A New Heart;
Eze 11:19; Eze
18:31)
Comparison Between Moses’ and Jeremiah’s Generation.
The two greatest
men of the Old Testament, Moses and Jeremiah, showed their greatness under
conditions of total adversity, for their ministries were to people who were
physically free but were enslaved in their souls. The slavery of the soul
inevitably leads to the slavery of the body. The
conditions that existed with the Exodus generation as they came out of slavery
were similar to conditions that existed with Jeremiah’s generation as it went
back into slavery. The Jews spent forty years
wandering in the desert to get into the land —
from 1440 to 1400 BC; likewise, the Jews spent
forty years in Jeremiah’s day getting out of the land — from 626 to 586 BC. It
took a decadent generation forty years to get into the land, and it took a
decadent generation forty years to get out of the land!
After providing physical freedom for the Jews of the Exodus
generation, God offered them, through the Mosaic Law, the blueprint for freedom
in their souls. However,
God is a “Gentleman,” and He does not
interfere with human volition. He does provide
information whereby human volition can respond and become free. (Living by God's Thoughts and Reality; Joh 8:31-36) The Mosaic Law was designed to free
the souls of the Jews; thereby their freed souls would be compatible with their
freed bodies. But it depended of course on their individual choice. Until these Principles were Understood, the Jews could not
enter the land.
Even though Moses constantly taught them the Law, the Jews of
the Exodus generation never understood it as Principles of freedom. As a
result, they remained in soul slavery for forty years after their physical
liberation. That, and their failure in the sphere of the faith-rest technique,
(Heb 3:7-12) were the two reasons why
that generation, with the exception of Caleb and
Joshua, never went into the land.
The next
generation of Jews who went into the land lived in freedom as a nation through
the provisions of the Decalogue, referred to later on by Jeremiah as the
“Covenant.” But through idolatry they gradually enslaved their souls, until in
Jeremiah’s day, too, the Jews were free of body but enslaved of soul. The overt
manifestation of soul slavery was the same in both generations — idolatry. (Self-worship;
living by false thoughts and satanic and human false realities) In the Exodus generation, it was revealed by “Operation
Golden Calf”; and in Jeremiah’s generation, it was revealed by “Operation
Baal.”
Both forty-year
periods were characterized by the constant pouring out of God’s grace; in fact,
both periods of time could be called eras of “super
grace.” But through the constant rejection of Truth in Jeremiah’s day,
the nation returned to slavery from which the Lord had previously delivered it
in grace.
Freedom Through Truth.
The Jews were the nation of people appointed by God to
receive the Gospel from Him and transmit it to Gentile peoples. They were His
people chosen for this purpose, and, in this sense, they were His possession. Keep this in mind when we later encounter the passage, “I the Lord your God am a JEALOUS God.” Jealousy is a sin, and God does not sin. Jealousy in
reference to God is an expression of possessiveness based upon the fact that
God is free. If you are going to respond to God, you must be free to do so.
God is possessive of your freedom. When God says, “No other gods beyond me,” God is
saying, “Beyond me there is nothing.” This
means that God stands there with His arms open, but you have to be free to
come, as it were, into His arms. So, in
order to maintain freedom, the Source of its origin — God — must be recognized.
The Principle is also clearly stated in: (Joh 8:32)
“AND YOU WILL
KNOW THE TRUTH, AND THE TRUTH WILL MAKE YOU FREE.” (Free from the control of; the old sin nature
and Satan's false human realities) Here is the other side of the
coin. These words appear (Erroneously used) on at least one building of every
campus I have ever been on. Other famous quotes around the campus always seem
to cite the source — Shakespeare, Benjamin Franklin, or some other one. But the
source of John 8:32 is never cited. Who said it? Jesus
Christ said it! He also gave the first Commandment to Moses. Knowing the Truth and having his soul freed by the Word of
Truth: The Bible. Whether it be from the slave
market of sin for the unbeliever, or from the Mosaic Law for the unbeliever and
believer — are one and the same with
the Commandment, “There shall not be to you other gods beyond Me.”
You, as a citizen
of the United States of America, are twice blessed: you have freedom of soul in
what is still a free country, and freedom of body, although this freedom is
rapidly being destroyed. You have the freedom to take
in Truth; and no matter what adversity you may face, Truth is your source of
strength and stability. Truth can never be
separated from the soul nor the soul from Truth when you are functioning daily
under Operation Z. (The “grace apparatus for
perception”) No matter what happens to your
body, your soul cannot be touched. Martin Luther expressed this so
beautifully in that great hymn, “A Mighty Fortress”:
“… the body they may kill, God’s Truth abides still!” The Word of God lives and abides forever! (1Pe 1:23) No nation ever
survives the violation of God’s Principles. “There shall not be to you other gods beyond
me.” This is a nation’s protection against
slavery!
Summary of the first Commandment.
By way of summary,
this Commandment recognizes human volition, which is the basis for maintaining
freedom — by Knowledge of the Truth. The
Commandments were not given to the Jews until after God had freed them
physically. The national entity must operate on the basis of personal freedom,
which means personal privacy: “There
shall not be TO YOU [There is your personal freedom] other gods beyond Me.”
Freedom of the national entity depends upon the
freedom of all within that entity to make the choice between God and other gods, as well as
upon a maximum number making the RIGHT choice. “Other gods,” in context, indicates that there can be false gods in the minds of
people, which, being beyond God, are nothing. All false gods represent a
thought or thoughts that people desire: Power, Strength, Human Wisdom, Money,
Sex, Emotion, Drugs, Approval, Fame, and Beauty etc.! (1Jn 2:16) Who or what is yours? (Mat 6:24)
False gods Versus the True God.
False
concepts, and actually false gods, are always created by the soul in slavery
and are the direct result of the emotional revolt of the soul. (Demonism; Eph 6:12-13) When the soul revolts against what God has designed, (Truth) that soul is looking beyond God for something
else. And what is there? NOTHING! If there is nothing beyond God, and people in emotional revolt go
beyond God, they go into nothing.
Once they are in nothing, they must draw upon the old
sin nature; and since the old sin nature does not contain Spiritual Knowledge,
Truth or Virtue, (And the emotion was designed
to appreciate these things) they are in soul
slavery! (We
are all born into soul slavery; we have to learn Truth and grow to Spiritual maturity to
become FREE!)
Paul, in his
letter to the Corinthians, reiterates this Concept when he declares, “…we know that
there is no such thing as an idol in the world, and that there is none other
God but One!” (1Co 8:4) Now, since an idol is nothing, who tries to pick up nothing
and do something with it? Satan does, of course!
This is the Devil’s communion table of. (1Co 10:19-21)
The phrase, “before Me,”
(Ahead of Me) (Exod
20:3) emphasizes that when you walk past God, you have rejected
Category One love, and therefore, you have rejected God. Mental idolatry (Soul
idolatry) or soul slavery is actually unfaithfulness or rejection of Category
One love. This is why idolatry is called “Spiritual
adultery.” The negative form of the prohibition emphasizes the same
issue that was made in the original sin. In the Garden, it was “You shall not eat.” In the first
Commandment, it is “There shall not be to
you any other gods beyond Me.” Freedom in the
Garden depended upon observing a negative prohibition; and freedom in a
national entity depends upon observing a negative prohibition. When man broke the Divine
Law in the Garden, ruler-ship of the world went to Satan and his angelic
followers; and when a maximum number of people in a nation breaks God’s Divine
Laws, that nation comes under the control of Satanic false teaching of the Word
and of course religion. (The NUMBER ONE enemy is
the very first sin; self-worship; Isa
14:13-14; Satan does it and so do we when we
are not proud of the Lord and His Thoughts; Mar
8:38; we must live and Think with God's
declared Reality; or we are living by one of
Satan's; and worshiping ourselves and our old sin nature's thoughts: SATAN'S! Php 3:18-19) Negative prohibitions give the
opportunity for the daily exercise of free will, which is crucial to the
resolving of the angelic appeal trial. Therefore, the first Commandment is
directly related to the angelic conflict — in fact, all of the Commandments
are, but especially the first one. (Exod 20:3)
The Basis of Freedom in the Church Age.
Believers in both
the Jewish Age and the Church Age are set free from the sentence of the Lake of
Fire by faith in Christ. (Psa 2:12; Col 1:13-14) And then
have the chance to be set free; from slavery to sin, the sin nature and Satan. (Joh 8:31-36) But while
the Mosaic Law was the basis for NATIONAL freedom in the previous dispensation,
the basis of Spiritual freedom for the
believer in the Old Testament; was the indwelling of God the Holy Spirit. (Gen 41:38; Exod
31:3; Num 27:18; Pro 1:23; Mat
22:43-45; Luk 2:26) And now in this dispensation (The Church Age) until
the completion of the Millennium is the completed Spiritual life of the New
Covenant. (Isa
11:2; Mat 12:18; Mar 13:11; Luk 3:16;
Joh 4:24; After
His resurrection: The completed resurrection
Spiritual life; Joh 7:38-39; Joh 14:26; Php 3:10)
Three verses bring out this Principle.
First, (Gal 5:1) “It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore
keep standing firm [In fellowship] and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.” [The control of the old sin
nature] Interestingly
enough, the “yoke
of bondage” includes the Mosaic Law. How is the Law converted to
bondage? Through legalism! (Using God's Word; without the filling of God the Holy Spirit;
1Co 4:20) and or using the Law; that is for both unbelievers and
believers; using the Gospel for unbelievers; and using the Bible for BELIEVERS
ONLY, (1Co
2:13-14) these were given in grace,
but legalism converts grace into something which it was not intended. Legalism, therefore, makes
the Law, the Gospel, the Word, Divine establishment and the Divine institutions a system of works for Salvation rather than Principles for
freedom! A right thing done in a wrong way is
wrong. A wrong thing done in a right way is wrong. (Psa 39:5; Pro 14:12; Pro 26:9)
The First Priority and Order is: God, Nation,
Family, Job, Friends! (Mat 6:33)
A RIGHT THING MUST BE DONE IN A RIGHT WAY!
THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT
THEIR HEART IS FAR AWAY FROM ME. BUT IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME, TEACHING AS
DOCTRINES THE PRECEPTS OF MEN. [Teaching
false satanic human thoughts; and saying they are God's]
(Mat 15:8-9)
You worship what you do not know; we
worship what we know, for Salvation is from the Jews.
But an hour is coming, and now is, when
the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit [In
fellowship] and Truth; [Thinking
with God's Thoughts and His Reality]
for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God
is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and Truth.
(Joh 4:22-24)
Which
things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom,
but in those taught by the Spirit, combining Spiritual Thoughts with Spiritual
Words. But a natural man [Unbeliever
and or a believer not in fellowship] does
not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for
they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them,
because they are Spiritually appraised. (1Co 2:13-14)
For the kingdom of God does not consist in
words but in power. (1Co 4:20)
Next, compare the
above passage with (Gal 3:1-6) “… Did you receive the Spirit by the works
of the Law?... (Gal 3:2) Of course you didn’t!
Now compare this with the fantastic passages found in, (Rom 8:1-8) which is
the “Standard for Salvation and growth to Spiritual maturity!”
Now
we have been given, as believer-priests in the New Covenant Age; the completed
resurrection Spiritual life and the ministry of God the Holy Spirit to fulfill
the Law and reach Spiritual maturity! (Eph 4:13-15) When I say the Law is fulfilled, I do not mean keeping six Commandments out of the ten, or keeping
any of the ten; I am
talking about the ministry of God the Holy Spirit in providing freedom! (Fellowship; Integrity;
complete; holiness; Spiritual maturity; Experiential Death and Experiential
Sanctification: are all synonymous terms) (Being in fellowship with God the Holy Spirit; is how we
automatically carry out EVERY REQUIREMENT OF BOTH THE OLD AND NEW COVENANTS! Rom 8:4)
Since
the first two Commandments have to do with the prohibition of mental idolatry,
and or soul slavery; and if rejected, negative volition develops toward the
Divine institutions. God has
designed one man for one woman, and this relationship was designed to bring
great happiness. The soul in slavery has moved
beyond God and is therefore not interested in God’s design of singleness /
freewill, marriage, family and or nationalism. (Neh 4:14; Mat 19:12; 1Co 7:7) This was the case with the
women in Jerusalem; they went to the mountains and to the places beneath the
green trees where, in the name of Baal, they practiced all kinds of sexual
perversions. They rejected God's will of staying
in fellowship and growing to Spiritual maturity; therefore, they rejected the
only Person who could fulfill them. On the
other side of Personal Love for God and Impersonal Love for all mankind;
there is
nothing! Therefore, in there futile search
for happiness, they tried to fill this nothingness with dope, drink, and all
manner of sublimation in order to stand up under the group sex and other
perverted practices.
When
you walk out beyond the Lord, you may be walking out on your BLESSING PACKAGE FROM GOD! (Mar 8:36-37) Your right soul, (The New
Man; Christ's Thoughts, Will and Nature completed in us; 1Co 2:16; Gal 5:22-23) right man
or woman, your right church, your right country, capacity for life, love,
respect and appreciation for Who and What God IS! — even your right money and material things — into nothingness and self-induced misery!
The second Commandment: (Exod
20:4-6)
You shall not make for yourself an idol,
or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the
water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the
LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the
children, on the third and the fourth generations of
those who hate Me, [Unbelievers and or carnal
believers] but showing lovingkindness to
thousands, to those who love Me [By living in fellowship] and keep My Commandments. [Thinking with My Thoughts and Reality] (Exod 20:4-6)
The Pattern of Slavery.
This is a rather
long passage, and it deals with some very important Doctrines. “Make” in verse 4 means “to construct something out of something”
— that is, out of existing materials. In this case, reference would be to the
manufacturing of idols out of such materials as wood, metal or bone. (Idols of
these materials have come down to us from the ancient world) The word “graven” indicates that the materials
used were formed into something of one of the types now mentioned: the “likeness of anything which is in heaven
above or that is in earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.”
The various
graven images, under the “any likeness”
category, included many things, such as angels, birds, snakes and people —
often in combination. The Philistines, for example, worshipped a fish god,
called Dagon, which they carved into a form that was half fish, half human. Also, every ancient people involved in the practice of
idolatry worshipped both the male phallus and also the female form; they called
the female form anything from Venus and Aphrodite to Ishtar or Ashtaroth, which
is the name mentioned in the Old Testament.
In, (Exod 20:5) the verb “You shall not worship them” is reflexive, the Concept being that
you do this yourself. You practice idolatry because your soul is in slavery,
and the volition of your soul is acting in obedience to your soul slavery. Your
free will operates according to a pattern of slavery, and in this pattern, you
actually bow down to a carved form that either you yourself or some other
person, perhaps of inferior intellect, has carved out for the purpose. The idiocy of this is the slavery of it! By bowing down of
your own free will, you have enslaved yourself.
The next phrase
says, “or serve them.” This verb is
in the passive voice, meaning “to be caused to be enslaved,” or “to receive enslavement.”
The Principle is that when people by their own volition
practice idolatry, their body becomes subservient to an enslaved soul. Enslavement of the soul leads to enslavement of the body.
That is why a degenerate or an emotionally enslaved people, such as those in
Jeremiah’s day, always, invariably, without exception, had some form of overt
manifestation of their soul slavery. In our
sophisticated society; the main idol “now is” the same one that Satan has,
“HIMSELF,” Isa 14:13-14; AND FOR MAN, “THEMSELVES,”
Php 3:18-19! But we must BECOME; PROUD OF GOD AND HIS THOUGHTS AND OF
KNOWING HIM!
For whoever is ashamed of Me and My Words
in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also
be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy
angels. (Mar 8:38)
But let him who boasts boast of this, that
he Understands and Knows Me, that I am the LORD who exercises
lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things, declares the LORD. (Jer 9:24)
God’s Possessiveness.
The
passage continues with “for I the Lord am
a jealous God.” The word “jealous”
in the Hebrew means “to permit no rival.”
Now this word has two
meanings: one, the well-known mental attitude sin of jealousy, and the other; a reference to
proper possessiveness. Here, of course, it refers to possessiveness. God’s possessiveness is based on the fact that He has
purchased every believer from the slave market of sin.
All men are born into slavery because all men are born with
an old sin nature. (Rom 5:12) The one exception is the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was born free, without an old sin nature,
(Virgin birth; no human father; the sin nature is
handed down from the male) and as a free Man
was qualified to purchase our freedom. He did
this; by paying for our sins on the cross! (Gal
3:13) We are born the first time into
slavery; but by believing in the Lord Jesus
Christ, we are born again into the family of God! (Gal 3:26; Gal 4:6)
The Believer, God’s Possession in the Church Age.
In the Church
Age, one of the forty plus assets you receive at the point of Salvation is
union with Christ, and that union is eternal! Christianity is based on that
relationship. As believers, each of us is in Christ;
(Eph 2:6-7)
therefore, Christ possesses us. In fact, we
are said to be His possession. (Eph 1:14)
This expresses the exclusiveness of God's love. But the fact that God loves us
with a perfect love does not in any way guarantee our response. Since God's love is exclusive, grace demands maximum
capacity for love response. The capacity to
love comes through a grace Principle — “Operation
Z” — the Word of Truth, communicated by a
pastor-teacher, this is taken into the left lobe where it is understood through
the filling of God the Holy Spirit. It is
then transferred by faith to the human spirit where it is stored as residual
Truth. From the human spirit it is cycled to the right lobe. Capacity to love
comes through Truth in the human spirit and in the right lobe.
We
should be thankful, then, for God’s possessiveness, for it includes His
faithfulness, the provision of Truth and happiness for us as believers. But it is impossible to respond to God’s perfect
love when we are under soul slavery. We
cannot serve and bow down to the old sin nature; and at the same time serve and
worship God!
Then
Jesus said to him, Go, Satan! For
it is written, YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD,
AND SERVE HIM ONLY!!! (Mat 4:10)
Judgment of Negative Volition.
In the next
phrase of, (Exod 20:5) God states a
Principle connected with His possessiveness: “visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and
the fourth generations of those who hate Me.” In order to understand this
Principle, it is necessary to look first at the last four words in the verse — “those who hate Me.” Soul slavery causes
the believer to “hate” God. The word “hate” is used for negative volition. Rejection of God’s love is negative volition toward Truth.
(Pro 8:36) Although God loves us with a
perfect love, He will not violate the volition of the individual. However, He
states very clearly in His Word that such negative
volition (Iniquity) will be visited unto
the third and fourth generation.
The word “visiting” indicates a Divine Law and
really means “to punish”; “punishing the
iniquity of the fathers upon the children down to the third and fourth
generation.” But note the qualifying phrase, “of those who hate Me.” The Hebrew of “hate” indicates that a father hates, then his son hates, and so on
down the line, each generation and person is, DOING
THEIR OWN HATING! In other words, a father’s hate does not cause the
fourth generation to be punished; each generation must do its own hating. (Deut 24:16) What this passage is saying is that
the negative volition never goes past four generations, or the human race would
be wiped out. If you have four generations of negative volition, there is going
to be a break.
Because of much
general confusion on this point, let’s look at the fourth-generation curse.
The Fourth-Generation Curse
1. The Doctrine is directly stated in the Decalogue itself.
(Exod 20:4-6; also Deut 5:8-10)
2. The fourth-generation curse as a part of the rejection of
God’s grace. (Exod 34:6-7; Num 14:18) You will
never have the fourth-generation curse where people respond to grace.
3. The mechanics of the fourth-generation curse are given
in. (Pro 30:11-14)
4. The fourth-generation curse cannot be understood apart
from the Law of culpability. (Deut 24:16;
Jer 31:29-30) Children are not
responsible for their parents’ sins without culpability of their own.
5. The Principle of God’s fairness to children is given in.
(Deut 21:15-17) It is incompatible with God’s character for Him to be unfair. God is sovereignty, righteousness, justice, love, eternal
life, omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence, immutability and veracity,
objectivity, severity, finesse, sense of humor, perfect happiness and it is
impossible for a righteous and a just God to be anything other than His
essence! Immutability and veracity add up to fairness!
6. A Principle existed in the Old Testament times — which is
not in effect during the Church Age — namely, maximum discipline for a negative
or rebellious son. There were some teenagers who would
never accept authority and were permanently in a state of rebellion. They
were put on trial, and if convicted, were executed. (Capital punishment) They were part of a revolution, and revolution is never
condoned by God. (1Sa 15:23) The war fought to establish America as a free,
independent nation was a war for independence and was not based upon
revolutionary Principles.
7. Truth breaks the
fourth-generation curse. (Deut 6:1-25) “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God [Elohim]
is one Lord. [Jehovah]” (Verse 4) “Elohim”
is plural, indicating that the Jews believed in the Trinity. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are coequal and
coeternal, possessing the same essence. When all three are mentioned together, the word “Elohim” (Our God) is used. When one
Person specifically is mentioned, the word “Jehovah” (Lord) is used. “The Lord our God is one Lord” and refers to Jesus Christ as the
God of Israel. (The unique God-man Who has
always existed; Isa 44:24)
“And you shall love the Lord your God with
all your heart ...” Why the heart? The heart refers to the right lobe and
is the authority of the soul. “… With all
your soul...” You cannot love God with your soul
until it is filled with God's Thinking; (The Mind of Christ) because it is the right lobe that contains Truth and all
that is necessary for capacity to love. “… And with all your might” — literally, “all your
energy.” (Verse 5) This is Truth, (God's Reality) and the filling of God the Holy Spirit producing in the
soul MAXIMUM CAPACITY FOR LIFE!
“These Words which I am Commanding you
today, shall be...” WHERE? In your emotions? NO!
The emotions do not contain THINKING! “These Words … shall be in; your HEART.” [New human spirit: Spiritual Thinking] (1Co 2:13)
(Verse 6) “You
shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in
your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise
up.” (Verse 7) The intake of Spiritual
Thinking should be a part of your daily routine at home; and any and everywhere
you can! (Mat
4:4)
“You shall bind
them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead.”
(Verse 8) A frontlet was a phylactery which the Jews
carried around the head; they just opened it, unrolled the scroll in it and
read it. It was one of the original Jewish training aids.
“You shall write them on the doorposts of
your house and on your gates.” (Verse 9) A place
where everyone could see it, talk about it, and Think about it. This is one of several passages that shows how in the Old
Covenant; Truth breaks the fourth-generation curse. (Cf. also Deut 7:9; Psa 61:7;
Jer 31:15-17)
8. In the New Covenant Age: from
the Church Age until the end of the Millennium: a maximum Knowledge of Truth is
what breaks the fourth-generation curse! (Jer
31:29-34; 2Co 6:16; Heb 8:10-12) The
personal reign of Jesus Christ on earth will give the world the greatest
freedom it has ever known! (Isa 2:3; Mic 4:2)
9. In the time of Jeremiah, the
fourth-generation curse reached its peak, and the fifth cycle of discipline was
administered. (Jer 16:10-21)
The Manufacture of Grace.
Continuing now
with the second Commandment, in, (Exod 20:6)
we see the grace of God toward those who break away from slavery: “but showing lovingkindness to thousands of those that love Me, [By
living in fellowship] (Joh 14:15; Joh 14:21) and keep my Commandments.” [Think with God's Thoughts] (1Co 2:16) The word “showing” does not mean “to show,” but rather “to manufacture something out of something else”; and in this passage it means to manufacture grace out of
the Nature of God. Grace is manufactured as
Truth is taken in, Understood, transferred by faith to the human spirit, and
cycled into the right lobe of the soul — the
function of Operation Z. (Gal 5:22-25)
The Hebrew word
here is actually not “lovingkindness,”
but grace: “manufacture
GRACE to thousands of them that love Me.” The
word “love” is the basic Hebrew word
for “love,” but here it refers to the
constant presence and reception of Truth in that right lobe. “Keep” is better translated “to guard.” Therefore, this portion
should read: “manufacturing grace unto thousands of them
that keep on loving Me, and keep on guarding My Commandments.” How
do you guard the Commandments? You guard them through
the continuous intake of Truth as you establish GOD'S THOUGHTS as the authority
of your soul! (2Co 10:5)
The Third Commandment: (Exod
20:7)
We shall look at
this Commandment as it stands in the English and then examine it exegetically
from the Hebrew. “You shall not take the
name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not leave him unpunished
who takes His name in vain. More accurately translated, “you shall not take” should
read, “you shall not lift up.” The lifting up implies purpose, as in the lifting up of
the sins of the world upon Christ on the cross. In the present context,
it is used for the lifting up of the voice against God. The Hebrew for “in vain” means “for worthlessness or wickedness,” or “for an evil purpose,” and includes
false testimony in the name of God; in a court of Law or in any phase of life
including false teaching. Thus, the Commandment
does not have anything to do with “exclamations” — it covers far more than profanity.
It refers to claiming God as one’s witness that what one says
is true, when in fact it is not. The prohibition involves using the name of God
to cover a lie, such as, “May God strike me dead”; or, “God is my witness.” It
also covers the attachment of God’s name to some project or action that someone
would like to see undertaken or adopted by claiming that “It is God’s will.”
An Understanding of the Principle involved in this
Commandment contributes greatly to the preservation of human freedom. It is designed to keep people free from being falsely
accused or convicted, or erroneously coerced into some action by bringing in
God’s name. God’s
name is rightly and legitimately used in prayer, praise, thanksgiving as love
response toward God on the part of a believer; likewise Doctrinal
communication. We might add worship to the list, although basically, worship is
listening to the communication of Truth.
In the phrase, “the LORD will not leave him unpunished who
takes His name in vain,” the verb “leave
him unpunished” is actually “to
acquit.” The Lord will not acquit him that takes His name in vain! In the framework of the Decalogue, this indicates that when a
maximum number of people in a national entity habitually take the name of the
Lord in vain, national disintegration follows!
But realize this, that in the last days
difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money,
boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,
unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal,
haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather
than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied
its power; Avoid such men as these. (2Ti 3:1-5)
The Fourth
Commandment: (Exod
20:8-11)
The fourth
Commandment, dealing with the Sabbath, has been the
basis for the creation of great confusion and false Doctrinal ideology, (False Biblical thinking) both in the Jewish Age and in
the Church Age. The first thing that must be settled is the fact that the Sabbath (Meaning
“rest or cessation” Heb 4:10) is Saturday; it is the seventh day of the week, while Sunday is the first day of the week.
How, then, you
ask, did we begin worshipping on Sunday? The first
day of the week was Resurrection Day; (Sunday) the day the Church began, Pentecost, fifty days later, was
also on a Sunday; and finally, the Bible tells
us that the early Church Age believers assembled together for worship on the
first day of the week. (Act 20:7;
1Co 16:2; Col
2:16-17)
The fourth
Commandment reads: REMEMBER THE SABBATH
DAY, TO KEEP IT HOLY. (Exod 20:8) “Remember” implies exercise of the right lobe, “regenerated human spirit” the
memory center. It is a Thinking verb. On the Sabbath, the BELIEVING Jews were instructed to
manufacture grace and grace orientation by calling on Truth in the memory
center and keeping it in the frame of reference. The object of the verb “remember” is the Sabbath day. As we have already noted, the
Hebrew word for “Sabbath” means “to rest.” The phrase, “to keep it holy,” is literally, “to set it apart.” They were Commanded to set aside Saturday, the seventh day,
in order to DO something they were mentally to DO every day; and physically on
Saturday — REST.
The Principle in view here is that freedom
demands meditation, prayer and rest-trust in God for ALL our needs. (Mat 6:31-34) You cannot have freedom
when you stop SPIRITUALLY Thinking. Let’s look at the Doctrine of the Sabbath
categorically.
The Doctrine of the Sabbath
The Sabbath Teaches Grace.
(Gen 2:2-3)
The original
creation of the earth was instantaneous at a point in eternity past. (Gen 1:1) The Creator was the Lord Jesus Christ.
(Joh 1:3; Col
1:16) Because of the angelic conflict, the
original earth became “without form and
void.” (Jer 4:23-25) The earth was restored by God the Holy Spirit, (Gen 1:2) but Jesus
Christ did the creating. On the seventh day,
God rested, having done or provided everything needed by man. Did He rest because He was tired? No! He rested because
there was nothing left to be done!
Since man had
received everything by grace in only six days, and nothing could be added to
it, God rested on the seventh day to commemorate the grace Principle. The Sabbath was to be
observed by the Jews to remind them that they, too, had received everything by
God’s grace. Observance of the Sabbath was
designed to teach them how to reach Spiritual maturity! (REST-TRUST IN GOD AND
HIS WORD; AND WHAT GOD DECLARES TO BE: REALITY!) (Heb 4:1-13)
Two Sabbaths for the Believer.
The
first of these is the PHYSICAL SABBATH and pertains to the believer’s life on
earth. (Were
everywhere we go; (As a mature believer) is the Promised Land!) The
second is a MENTAL SABBATH and it refers to the faith-rest technique, the
moment-by-moment Sabbath of, (Heb 4:1-11)
and of believers of every Age, “dispensation” they are to rest on the Promises of God, by Thinking
with them, along with the Doctrines and Divine Principles as given in the
Scripture; from Abel to Christ and until the end of the millennium. (Heb 11:1) thru (Heb 12:2; Heb
12:22-24)
In
the Spiritual life, every believer is indwelt by God the Holy Spirit from the
moment of Salvation; and the filling of God the Holy Spirit is the basis for
Spirituality and Spiritual maturity.
(Joh 4:24; Eph
5:18; 1Jn 1:9) This is recorded in: (Jer
6:16; cf. Mat 11:28) “Come to Me, all
who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.”
The Sabbath of Israel a Memorial to the Grace of God (Deut 5:12-15; Lev 23:3; Isa
58:11-14).
Therefore, the
Principle of the Sabbath was instituted as the fourth Commandment. The Jews were specifically commanded TO THINK In the
spirit; and NOT TO WORK in the flesh. (Exod 17:11; Zec 4:6) “Remember” means to Think and to draw upon the resources of the right
lobe. Therefore, it is a Command that Spiritual Thinking control the soul, and
this control is the basis for freedom. One of
the primary factors in the Doctrine of freedom is the ability to Think. So God says, “You work hard for six days, during which
time you may do some Spiritual Thinking; but set aside the seventh day as the
DAY FOR THINKING AND ENJOYING THE SPIRITUAL LIFE!”
The Jews were to do no work on the seventh day in
recognition and commemoration of God’s grace. Under God’s plan, He does the
work, and the believer receives the benefit. (Psa 127:2) Jesus Christ purchased Salvation in entirety, and
we cannot earn it or work for it, for “it
is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that
no one may boast.” (Eph 2:8-9)
Since all blessing in time has been provided for in
God’s plan, not working on the seventh day was a very wonderful way to bring
home this lesson!
The fourth Commandment also contains a Principle related to
the necessity of periodic rest for the body and a change in pace and routine
for the individual. Remember, the Decalogue is designed for both the believer
and the unbeliever. The believer receives
direct blessing from God, for he belongs to God, while the unbeliever receives indirect blessing through the recognition
of Divine Principles; he can sit down and rest his body. This Commandment is
designed to protect physical health as well as soul stability, both of which
are necessary for the protection of freedom.
The Principle of the Sabbatical Year.
The Sabbatical year belonged solely to the
Age of Israel and has no counterpart in the Church Age. (Exod 23:10-11; Lev
25:3-4; Lev 26:3-6) It is
not part of the Decalogue. Under the agricultural economy, the Jews were to
stop all agricultural production in order to give the
people and the land a rest, and to live
off the production of the previous six years of work. It
was essentially a test of their faith-rest capacity. The question was, could they trust God to provide for them
in the seventh year? The Jews failed the test! For 490 years they failed to
observe the Sabbatical year. This added up to a total of seventy Sabbatical years, and God based the length of
their fifth cycle of national discipline; on this figure of missed Sabbaths. (586 to 516 BC)
The Year of Jubilee. (Lev 25:8-24) As another feature of the Sabbath
Concept, the Year of Jubilee was also designed by God to teach grace to the
nation Israel. It, too, is non-operational during the Church Age. After they had observed seven Sabbath years during a
forty-nine-year period, the Jews were Commanded on the fiftieth year, the Year
of Jubilee, to return all real estate to the original owner, to free all
slaves, and to return all businesses to their former owners. In short, everything
reverted to the status of ownership that had existed fifty years previously.
(Freedom from the outside slavery to human reality)
Also, anyone
working under some bondage system was freed immediately, and whatever portion
of land had been allotted to him by tribe and by the system was returned to
him. The Principle taught by observance of the Year of Jubilee was that
everything acquired was theirs on a lease basis. It
was God’s way of teaching the nation Israel to depend upon Him and His plan for
all things. (God's Reality) (Lev 25:23) cf. (Heb
11:13-16)
Profaning the Sabbath.
This was
associated with idolatry and the apostasy of the Jews. (Eze 23:37-39) (Religion,
tradition, sincerity and sentimentality; is cruelness in action) Sabbath
violation, which occurred after the restoration of the Jewish nation to the
land, is discussed in. (Neh 13:15-21)
The Sabbath in the Church Age.
Believers in this
dispensation are not under the Laws pertaining to Sabbath observance. These
have been set aside since the beginning of the Church Age. (the Book of Galatians; Gal
2:16-20; Col 2:16-17) Now,
back to the fourth Commandment in. (Exod 20:9)
Orientation to
the Grace of God. SIX DAYS YOU SHALL LABOR AND DO ALL YOUR WORK. The “six days” include Sunday through
Friday. “You shall labor” is an
expression of serving or working very hard. One cannot read into the phrase any
provision for loafing on the job, but rather a Command to keep on working hard
and to do all your work. The word for “do”
is one that is found throughout the rest of the Commandments. Literally in the Hebrew is expresses “manufacturing something out of something else.” It means that
whatever your abilities are, your talents, your skills, your profession, out of
these abilities you “manufacture”
labor or work. It also means that you make a profit or wage from these
abilities.
BUT [Conjunction of contrast] THE
SEVENTH DAY IS A SABBATH OF THE LORD YOUR GOD IN IT YOU SHALL NOT DO ANY WORK…
(Exod 20:10) “you shall not do any work” is a negative which means that whatever
their talents, abilities, skills or professions, they were not to use these on
that day of the week. All work was to stop on the Sabbath day for the purpose
of orienting to the grace of God. Man is under the curse
of working; (Gen 3:17-19) and was created on the sixth day, so for six days man worked; on
the seventh day God rested from all His work;
and by consistently Thinking according to and or with God's Reality we enter
His completed work. REST-MATURITY
…You or your son or your daughter, your male
or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you.
(Exod 20:10) Not only the adults were
to stop work, but also the children, the servants, the cattle (Oxen for plowing
in an agricultural economy) and the strangers were to rest. No one worked on
the Sabbath. The basis of this Commandment is given in the next verse.
FOR IN SIX DAYS THE LORD MADE THE HEAVENS
AND THE EARTH, THE SEA AND ALL THAT IS IN THEM, AND RESTED ON THE SEVENTH DAY…
(Exod 20:11) As has been previously
noted, in the beginning, when God created heaven and earth, He did so in an
instant of time. The word “created”
in, (Gen 1:1) is the Hebrew word “bara,” The word “made” in (Exod 20:11) is
the Hebrew word “asah,” “Made” refers
to a restoration and not an original creation. In six days the Lord restored
heaven — that is, the first heaven, (The atmosphere around the earth) the
earth, and the seas and all that are within them. The earth had been in
existence for many years; possibly millions of years. The length of time that
elapsed between creation, (Gen 1:1) and the fall of Satan — and the earth being
turned into an abyss, (Gen 1:2; Job 38:16-17; Job
38:30; Jer 4:23-25) “A ball of ice
water” is unknown. Archeologically, it is categorized as
“prehistoric times.”
…AND RESTED ON THE SEVENTH DAY...(Gen 2:2) The sense of the word “rest” is not so much that of “resting”
as “cessation of activity.” On the seventh day, God stopped providing because He had
already provided everything.… THEREFORE THE LORD BLESSED THE SABBATH DAY AND MADE IT
HOLY. The
word “blessed” indicates that God
pronounced it a source of blessing and or intensity of happiness. This one day of rest, each week is not only a Principle of
blessing, it is also a Principle of freedom. Freedom and blessing go together;
you cannot have one without the other. The
word “holy” means “to set apart.” Belonging to God, not of
this world, integrity, complete: A Mature Spiritual Life; Joh 14:30; Joh 15:5;
Rom 7:18; Heb
13:12-14) and the verb tense in the
Hebrew indicates that this setting apart would last for a long time — in fact, for ETERNITY. SO THE SABBATH IS
USED TO TEACH: REST, SPIRITUAL MATURITY, THE SPIRITUAL LIFE, THE MILLENNIUM, A
SUPERNATURAL LIFE, AND A NEW CREATION! (Exod
20:11; Lev 23:34-36; cf.; Joh 7:37-38; Mat
17:1-5; Rom 8:19-23;
The fifth Commandment: (Exod
20:12)
Respect for authority.
The fifth
Commandment is contained in a single verse, as is true of all the last six
Principles of the Decalogue. In the English we read:
Honor
your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which
the LORD your God gives you. The word “Honor” is the key to understanding this Commandment. It refers to respect for the AUTHORITY of your father and
your mother. This is not a Commandment to love your parents or even to
respect their person, but it is a Commandment TO
RESPECT THEIR AUTHORITY. The capacity to love develops with Spiritual
maturity. The primary responsibility of parents is
not to win the love and affection of their children, but to instruct and teach
them — not sparing the rod — thereby to establish parental authority.
Although the
fifth Commandment Commands children to respect parental authority, that
authority must be exercised justly and fairly. Respectfulness
in the home is a part of the general Principle of the necessity for the
establishment of and respect for authority. It must be learned early in life,
first of all in the family, so that later it will be applied to the teacher,
the athletic coach, the law officer, the drill instructor, and so on.
The fifth Commandment forms the basis for the whole
Biblical Principle that no one can have
freedom and happiness in life without learning respect for authority. Only those
who themselves learned respect for authority are ever qualified to exercise
authority. The Principle of authority exists in every facet of life and
is designed for the protection of individual and national freedom. When there is general loss of respect for authority on a
national scale, disintegration and destruction of that national entity will
surely follow!
It is a tragedy
to launch a person into adult life without a Concept of respect for authority.
If your parents did not use or establish their authority when you were young,
then you are really behind the eight ball. Now God gave everyone the right of
protection from the standpoint of anatomy. The real you is in the soul; and
just as the cranium is the protective casing for the anatomical structures in
which the soul functions, so also has the gluteus maximus been provided for the
administration of discipline and the establishment of authority. Children
should be spanked there. “Honor
your father and your mother” Commands respect; it therefore implies
parental responsibility as well.
Our
nation has declined and degenerated in every possible way. One of the most basic of the
destructive influences existing in our country is the Concept of permissiveness
in rearing children; furthermore, there are many
efforts to encourage young people to reject the authority of their parents. Unless children are taught respect for authority and the
Principles of freedom it protects, they will destroy their freedom. This pattern of self-destructiveness was very evident in
Jeremiah’s day, and the same pattern is becoming increasingly evident in our
day. The “New Age” movement in this country is a sign of national suicide.
The enemies of
our nation are hard at work seeking to destroy all aspects of authority, for
they know that a generation that does not recognize authority can never resist
Communist conquest, and in fact, the present generation seems willing to bring
it about. The conspirators, as is so clearly stated in “Jeremiah,” always have their dupes running about and doing their
errands. Divine Institution #3, the Family, is the basic authority-teaching
institution in a national entity. There can be no freedom apart from
recognition and respect of the various structures of authority. There cannot be happiness apart from conditions of freedom
in which there is respect for authority.
Next, the word “that” introduces a purpose clause, after which follows the word “days.” The latter word is used to
indicate a life span. “That your days may
be prolonged” means that in general, life span in a
national entity is shortened when authority is rejected. But longevity is granted to those who learn respect for
authority, first from parents. Finally, this verse concludes with “in the land which the LORD your God gives
you.” The verb “gives” in the Hebrew is a
continuous action and indicates that God is its ultimate source and authority.
The verse ends with the Lord giving a land, but it starts with the Principle of
authority. There is no freedom in the land given by
the Lord unless there is enforcement of authority and respect for authority. God has established freewill as the authority of the soul,
the man as the authority in marriage, the parents as the authority in the
family, and objective Law as the authority in a nation. These structures of
authority have been designed by God for the preservation of freedom during the
course of the angelic appeal trial.
Therefore, in summary, the Concept being taught by this
Commandment is that when those in a national entity begin life with Concepts of
authority, they will live their life in a free nation. When Principles of
authority are taught and learned early in life, in the family, a pattern is
established throughout life that will protect individual and national freedom.
The sixth Commandment: (Exod
20:13) cf. (Mat 5:21-22)
The Prohibition of Murder.
In the English.
this Commandment reads: YOU SHALL NOT
MURDER. The Hebrew word in this verse is “ratsach,” which does not mean “to kill,” but “to murder,” and there is a vast difference between killing and
murder. The correct translation, therefore, is YOU SHALL NOT MURDER. (Cf. Mat 19:18)
Murder denotes homicide!
Once again we
have a Commandment designed for the protection of freedom. Did you ever notice
that if you are dead you cannot exercise your volition? Amazing, isn’t it? This
Commandment deals with the crime of murder; it prohibits murder. It is a restraint on the operation of every old sin nature;
and a civilized society is preserved by the observation of this Commandment.
The Word of God calls for capital punishment for the violation of this
Commandment. (Gen 9:6; Lev 24:17; Rom
13:1-4) The prohibition of murder is designed for the preservation
of Divine Institution # 1 — Volition. In committing
murder, you are depriving another of his life and freedom. The operation of
free will is the basic issue in the angelic conflict, and the Decalogue is
designed to protect every free will, (Human
soul) during the course of the angelic
conflict.
Salvation by
faith in Christ requires non-meritorious exercise of free will, and free will is cut off abruptly by an act of murder.
Those of you who have received Christ as Savior are possessors of eternal life.
Your position in Christ required an act of free will,
as positive volition expressed itself through faith. You are no longer under
condemnation; (Joh 3:18) you are on your way to heaven. You are going to a
place of perfect happiness where there is no more sorrow, no more tears, no
more pain, no more death; the old things are passed away. When you die you will
be absent from the body and face to face with the Lord. Since you had to be alive to receive Christ as Savior, somewhere along
the line someone observed this Commandment!
Observation of this prohibition is basic to human liberty
and to the function of civilized society. Suppose
that every time you got angry at someone, you killed him and or them. (Mat 5:21-22; 1Jn 3:15) (The thought and the action are both condemned) Their freedom would be wiped out. Suppose you were
to get angry and kill a thousand people in one year. There would be a thousand
people who no longer possessed freedom. How can people live close together, get
angry at each other and still survive? Because of the Divine law, “You shall not commit ‘homicide’”— that is how!
Murder and
killing are two entirely different Biblical Concepts. Murder
is prohibited by the Word of God, whereas
killing IN DEFENSE of one’s own person or nation is sanctioned by the Word of
God and is absolutely necessary in many instances for the preservation of
freedom. If our country is to survive as a
free and independent nation, this Principle must be Understood!
The seventh Commandment: (Exod
20:14) cf. (Mat 5:27-28)
The Protection of Marriage.
Once again we
have a Commandment designed for our protection: YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY.
Let us reiterate here a Principle of which we should never lose sight of in our
study of the Ten Commandments. The Decalogue is the
“Touchstone of Human Freedom,” and as such includes certain prohibitions that
must be recognized if freedom is to be preserved. All of the Commandments are designed to sponsor, to maintain or to
protect freedom. This particular Commandment
is for the protection of the privacy and the freedom of the relationship
between one man and one woman. Divine
Institution # 3, Family, is protected by the Commandment, “Honor your father and your mother.” Divine Institution # 1, Volition, or individual freedom, is protected by
the Commandment, “You shall not murder.” Now we will focus on
Divine Institution # 2, Marriage.
It is difficult
in this day of apostasy for many people to realize that God has designed just
one man for one woman. The seventh Commandment has been given to protect every
man and woman, even before they meet, and to protect their relationship after
they marry. In order to understand the Principles involved, let’s look
categorically at the Doctrine of adultery.
The Doctrine of adultery
1. Adultery is prohibited by the Word of God. (Exod 20:14; Deut
5:18)
2. Mental adultery is also condemned. (Mat 5:27-28)
3. Adultery produces “scar tissue” on the right bank of the
soul. (Pro 6:32; Eph 4:19)
4. Adultery carries certain laws of punishment, such as
frustration, and leads to certain forms of slavery. Adultery
is one of the manifestations of both sublimation
(Escapism) and emotional revolt of the soul.
This Principle is taught by the use of a Greek noun translated “greediness” in (Eph 4:19) and “covetousness” in, (Eph 5:3)
and means a “frantic search for happiness”; it
indicates the built-in punishment that goes with adultery.
5. Adultery has a destructive effect on the body of both
male and female, as well as on the soul. (1Co
6:13-18) Promiscuity can result in male impotence and inability to
enjoy fully the woman for whom he was designed. Promiscuity can result in
female frigidity, or the antithesis, nymphomania, and destroys the woman’s
ability to respond to God and or the right man and to receive from him the
fulfillment for which she was designed. Now this may
come as a shock to some, but God is the Author of sex, and as such, he has laid
down rules to protect the happiness for which it was designed.
6. Adultery is a bona fide basis for divorce. (Mat 5:32; Mat 19:9;
Luk 16:18) The resultant scar tissue on
the soul destroys mental and physical compatibility between husband and wife. (Deut 24:4)
7. Adultery is used in the Bible to describe both apostasy
and negative volition toward the Bible and Thinking with Truth. (Jer 3:8-10; Eze
16:23-43; Eze 23:24-30; Rev 17:1-5)
8. Marriage is the sanctification of love. (1Th 4:3-8; Heb 13:4)
9. God's Spiritual love relationship with the believer is
presented by analogy as in. (Eph 5:23-32)
The analogy in, (1Co 11:3) is that just
as the Edification Complex completes the soul of the believer, (Christ completes us) so
the man completes woman. The woman becomes the glory of the man just as the
Edification Complex in the soul, of the believer becomes the glory of the Lord.
The Edification Complex of the soul is built upon
Truth that has been taken into the left lobe, Understood and transferred to the
human spirit.
As Truth builds
up in the human spirit and is cycled up to the right lobe, a structure is
erected which when completed consists of five “floors”: (1) The filling of God the Holy Spirit; (2) The faith rest drill and mastery of the details of life;
(Money, sex, food, clothing, family, job and social
life) (3) Grace orientation and a relaxed
mental attitude, and or a mental attitude free from mental attitude sins;
(4) Doctrinal orientation (Thinking with God's Reality: THE BIBLE) (5) Personal love for God and Impersonal love for all mankind;
(6) Inner
happiness. In, (Eph 5:23-32) the
relationship between husband and wife is analogous to the relationship between
Christ and the Church.
“You shall not commit adultery” is
designed for the protection of freedom and happiness in marriage. God’s design of the marriage of one man to one
woman is under severe attack today through the promotion of promiscuity,
pornography, dating clubs, sensuality, premarital sex, polygamy, legalized homosexual
marriage and drugs.
The eighth Commandment: (Exod
20:15)
The Right of Private Property.
The next
Commandment, YOU SHALL NOT STEAL, is
for the protection of private property. It establishes
the Divinely given right of the individual to own personal property and
possessions, and it limits the role of government to the protection of this
property. The Concept of privacy and private
property is basic to the survival of individual liberty, and this Commandment
is another of God’s provisions for the protection of the human race during the
course of the angelic appeal trial.
Stealing, then, is a violation of your privacy and your right
to own property. This Commandment says that if you don’t have a right to a
certain piece of property, keep your hands off —
it doesn’t belong to you! If you steal
something, you are encroaching on someone else’s freedom. When this occurs on a
national scale, there is anarchy and consequently a destruction of all freedom.
A nation that goes beyond God’s Principles for the protection
of human freedom, (Mat 6:33) is opening the door to Satanic thinking; and when these
false doctrines are accepted, freedom is destroyed. Both socialism and Communism are characterized by the
destruction of privacy and property. The
Concept of government ownership of property is contrary to the Word of God, as
is the concept of revolution. A revolution seeks the destruction of the Divine
institutions, whereas the American War of
Independence was fought to restore the Divine institutions. (Freewill, marriage, family
and nationalism)
The Hebrew word
for “steal” refers not only to
stealing something that you can carry off, but to steal something you cannot
carry off. Under an agricultural economy, that means property, and today it
would include industry. The government does not have
the right to own your property, nor does the
government have the right to interfere with industry, much less own industry.
The sanctity of private property is one of the most
basic Concepts of freedom. Therefore, at any
time the government gets into industry or business, a nation is already in
industrial slavery. We are in industrial slavery
today in this nation because the government has violated this Commandment
through taxation of industry, through pressure upon industry and through
legislation against industry. The result of such practices is economic
disaster.
God has set up
Divine laws to regulate the economy of nations, and these laws are defined
under the Concept of free enterprise. When a government rejects God’s
Principles for the regulation of economy, the result is national
self-destruction. When a government attempts to
superimpose its own laws; over God’s Divine laws; that government is on its way
out. The role of government is to protect the
operation of the four Divine institutions; (Freewill, marriage, family
and nationalism) but when this Concept is attacked and the government assumes
the role of regulating and controlling the operation of the Divine
institutions, (Gay
marriage, gay people adopting children, global warming, internationalism,
socialism and or redistribution of wealth) personal freedom and national sovereignty are destroyed!
The ninth Commandment: (Exod
20:16)
YOU SHALL NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS AGAINST
YOUR NEIGHBOR. The first Principle that must be understood is the Concept
of “your neighbor.” “Your neighbor”
does not refer to the person next door but to persons of the same national
entity, and might be translated “fellow
citizen.” “Your neighbor” recognizes that law must exist in the framework
of national entities, and any law that breaks over the boundaries of a national
entity is an attack upon freedom. Therefore, the United
Nations has no legal jurisdiction under God. (Gen 10:32) Any time you have a United
Nations organization trying to pass or enforce laws, you are witnessing a
Concept forbidden by the Word of God and actively promoted by Satan. Satan is
the author of internationalism. God has
ordained the Principle of national entities for the protection of human
freedom, (Act 17:26) and national Law
must exist within the national entity and must never overlap into another
national entity. Every
nation must have its own Law with its jurisdiction limited to that national
entity.
“You shall not bear false witness” means
“to answer as a false witness,” “to give
testimony under Law.” No nation can function without objectivity in Law.
The Principle of objectivity in Law demands that a person is innocent until
proven guilty. The person must be demonstrated guilty through proper laws of
evidence furnished through accurate testimony in court. The guilt of the defendant
must be established apart from hearsay. Evidence is gathered through testimony,
and that testimony must be proved. Correct administration of Law demands
truthful evidence, and evidence demands truth upon which to make a judgment.
Literally, then, this Commandment would read: “You shall not answer [In a court of law] against your fellow citizens
as a false witness.”
Law based on Biblical Principles does not
encroach upon freedom; it preserves freedom. Many of our laws today are an
encroachment upon freedom and privacy rather than the protection of them, which
again points out the intensity of the angelic conflict in our nation.
The
final Commandment in the “Standard of Freedom” establishes the individual’s
rights of privacy, property, person (Freewill) and protection.
The tenth Commandment: (Exod
20:17)
YOU SHALL NOT COVET YOUR NEIGHBOR’S HOUSE,
YOU SHALL NOT COVET YOUR NEIGHBOR’S WIFE, OR HIS MALE SERVANT OR HIS FEMALE
SERVANT OR HIS OX, OR HIS DONKEY OR ANYTHING THAT BELONGS TO YOUR NEIGHBOR.
To “covet”
means “to desire.” This Commandment
forbids the coveting of the property, the persons or the personal status of
other citizens in a national entity, or of their businesses or assets or of
anything belonging to fellow citizens and or in CREATION ITSELF. (Rom 1:25)
The tenth
Commandment was the basis for Paul’s discovering the old sin nature. How did
Paul find out about it from this Doctrine? In, (Rom 7:7) he writes, “May it never be!” On the contrary, I
would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have
known about coveting if the Law had not said, “YOU SHALL NOT COVET.”
Paul is saying, “I would not have known the
existence of the Principle of the sin nature were it not for the tenth
Commandment.”
Every member of the human race is born with an old sin
nature. When the first man and woman exercised negative volition to the
single prohibition of God in the Garden, they died Spiritually and acquired an
old sin nature, which is now passed down through the male in procreation; By one man sin entered into the world and
death through sin; and so [Spiritual] death spread to all men… (Rom 5:12) The one
exception to this is the humanity of Christ through the virgin birth. The essence of the sin nature is characterized by an area of
weakness which produces personal sin; (Heb
12:1) an area of strength which produces
human morality, declared to be as a “filthy
garment” in God’s sight; (Isa 64:6)
a lust pattern; and trends toward asceticism and
lasciviousness.
The fact that man is born with a sin nature
excludes his own good works as a means of Salvation. Man can produce only relative
righteousness, and God demands absolute
righteousness! Also, God’s perfect justice
demands that a penalty be paid for sin. The Lord Jesus Christ paid that
penalty, (1Jn 2:2) when He bore all the sins of every sin nature on the cross (1Pe 2:24) Therefore,
sins are not the issue in Salvation, for they have been judged once and for all
in Christ, and the justice of God the Father has been satisfied.
The issue that the unbeliever faces is whether to stand on
his own good works, (Rom 8:8) or to accept the finished
work of Jesus Christ. The Scripture clearly
declares that there is no Salvation outside the work and Person of Jesus
Christ. (Act 4:12) The plan of God is always characterized by God’s doing all
the work and man’s receiving the benefit. Salvation is a gift of God,
not of human works, and is appropriated by FAITH IN THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. (Eph 2:8-9) Grace found a way to redeem man from
the slave market of sin, and that way is to “Believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved...” (Act 16:31)
In
studying the Ten Commandments, Paul discovered, as we have seen, that they were
designed as Principles of freedom. The tenth Commandment forbids covetousness because, when unchecked,
it destroys individual freedom. Covetousness is an expression of the lust
pattern of the old sin nature; and when the lust pattern is allowed to control
the soul, emotional revolt of the soul results. When a maximum number of people
in a national entity are under the emotional revolt of the soul, freedom is
destroyed.
So, as has been repeatedly emphasized, the Ten Commandments
were given by God for the promotion, the maintenance and the protection of
freedom. They are a part of the Word of God, which lives and abides forever.
(Mat 24:35) In
every generation the Commandments have formed the basis for human freedom in
spite of every conspiracy formed against them. These Principles are the very
foundation upon which America was built, and they constitute a marvelous
heritage. Today these Principles are being
rejected by us as a people and undermined by those dedicated to our destruction
as a free nation.
As a result of their rejection of the Principles of freedom,
the Exodus generation wandered in the desert for forty years, never able to
claim the Land designed for them by God. Jeremiah’s generation broke the Covenant and ignored the
existence of a conspiracy, and their nation was destroyed. Our freedom as individuals and our independence as a nation
rests upon first the Understanding, (Learning) and then the Application,
(Thinking) of God’s Principles, (Thoughts) of human freedom. Only then can the effectiveness of any
conspiracy formed against us be neutralized!
The LORD nullifies the counsel [Conspiracy]
of the nations; He frustrates the plans [Thoughts]
of the peoples. The counsel [Plan]
of the LORD stands forever, The plans [Thoughts]
of His heart from generation to generation. Blessed is the nation
whose God is the LORD, The people whom He has chosen for His own
inheritance. (Psa
33:10-12)
END
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