Mending the Ten Commandments by W. W. P.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 5, 1911

“Mending the Ten Commandments”

By W. W. P.

UNDER this title a liberal paper discusses the proposition which has been made in various quarters to abbreviate the decalogue. It evidently regards the moral code as a purely human production, and has an easy explanation of its “persistence, and world-wide acceptance.” In spite of this it is of the opinion that some changes would be advisable:—

The ten commandments expressed the common sense of the world up to date, and their charm and power lies in this, that they went so little outside human experience concerning right and wrong that they still stand good. To prune them somewhat of their local associations and their temporary explanations can do no harm whatever.

The pleasing assumption which is the real explanation of all this itching to put the law of God into better form, ministers to the conceit of man, and places human research above divine revelation.

It is very manifest in the following language:—

Unfortunately the fourth commandment does not have its purpose in the clause which is generally emphasized. Its real emphasis lies on the saying, Six days shalt thou labor, and on the seventh thou shalt have peace and rest. Nothing can be more absurd than for us to repeat what has been so long disproved—that the earth and the sea were made in six days, and that on the seventh the Lord Maker rested.

It does not seem to occur to the writer of these great swelling words that “nothing can be more absurd” than for the creature to claim to know more about the origin of this world than the Creator. It is, furthermore, worthy of note that the fourth commandment, which furnishes the seal of authority to the law, is most viciously attacked, and is set aside as absolutely out of date in view of the conclusions of modern science.

It is thus evident that Sabbath reform involves much more than a mere question of a day; that it is indeed the sign of the true God and of the integrity of the Word of God as against the assertions of human science. In fact, the Sabbath reform stands for the original gospel of salvation—the power of God—as taught by Christ and the apostles, and repudiates the modern idea of an evolutionary gospel resting upon research rather than upon revelation. To proclaim the Sabbath more fully is to proclaim a personal God as the Creator, a personal Christ as the only Saviour, and redemption as the new creation. There can be no compromise between this gospel of salvation and the false gospel of perfection attained by human effort according to the law of development. W. W. P.