For our full pdf newsletter, further articles, educational resources and downloadable sermons, visit our website at www.SaintFrancisREC.org
The Pastor’s Pen by The Very Rev. Dr. Curtis Crenshaw, Th.D.
Not Ten Suggestions
If you haven’t noticed, Christianity has changed drastically in the last generation. From the righteous God who proclaimed the Ten Commandments, we now have a pretend god who has timidly made Ten Suggestions, or so we are led to believe. This is not to say that God Triune has changed, but that fickle people have changed their view of God and of His law. Just this past week it was reported that a priestess from The Episcopal Church worships with the Muslims on Friday and then leads her flock on Sunday in Christian worship. So whatever happened to the First Commandment: “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me”? Apparently, that commandment is meaningless. What is behind this laxity regarding God’s commandments is a low view of God and His law, and a very high view of mankind and their ability to create new moral law. But we should note that there is only one true and living God, and that His character is the basis for His law (Leviticus 19:2; 20:7, 26; 21:8; Matthew 5:48; 2 Corinthians 6:14-16). If His character could change, then His law could change. But since He is the “same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). His law cannot change. Change His character, and His moral code changes. If His character cannot change, neither can His moral code. It is recorded in James 4:12 that there is only one Lawgiver. Just as we cannot create physical laws into existence, neither can we create moral law into existence. Indeed, even God cannot create moral law, for He cannot create His character. Like Himself, His character is forever. To put this another way, when Satan tempted Eve to sin, he said that she should ignore God’s law, His command, and eat the forbidden fruit, for contrary to what God told her, she would not die. In other words, she could make up her own moral code. We know what happened: Adam, Eve, and the serpent were judged. There was only one law, and that was God’s law. We can see the unchangeableness of God’s law another way. Every “law” enacted by us humans—whether by Congress, a state, a city, or a church or denomination—is either an application of God’s law or an act of rebellion. For example, the USA has a law against murder, which is a reflection of the Sixth Commandment: “Thou shalt not murder.” But when the Supreme Count in January of 1973 ruled in Roe vs. Wade that abortion was legal, they sanctioned murder. That was an act of rebellion. Let us look at what Satan said again:
4 Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Gen 3:4-5)
Notice that Satan said Eve could be her own god (“you will be like God”), which further meant that she allegedly would “know good and evil,” which seems to mean that she could make her own law code. From Adam and Eve’s day to ours, people have wanted to be their own gods, to devise their own ethics to suit themselves. This means that people hate God’s law, or they would not constantly be trying to change it. And that in turn means that these people hate God since His law is a reflection of who He is. Make no mistake about it, there is no neutrality: one either loves the Triune God and His law, or one will seek to create a god after his/her own image, and also to remake the moral code. We hear such things as “affirm yourself,” “believe in yourself,” “feel good about yourself,” and so on. The new commandment has become: “Love the lord thyself with all your heart, mind, soul, body, time, and money.” The whole face of evangelicalism has changed, and now people will build mega-churches if you’ll affirm them, not talk of sin, but just make them the center of attention. Christianity has become a pop-psychology, another self-help gimmick. But the Ten Commandments will never change because God can never change, and though we can never earn our way to heaven, yet obedience to God’s law is the hallmark of true faith, and those who break it will be broken by God Almighty, not only now, but especially at the Last Day. Remember:
3 And by this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. 4 The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.” (1 John 2:3-4, NAS)
