SHOULD CHRISTIANS KEEP THE TEN COMMANDMENTS?
By Albert Anderson
Strange, is it not, there are to-day thousands of professed Christians, who say that we are under no obligation to keep the Ten Commandments? Now the law expresses what may be done and what may not be done, and is our rule of conduct prescribed by the great Jehovah Himself. And if no such rule is given, or known, there can be no crime or sin in the world to-day. However, we know that such a law was given; but all will not acknowledge that it is sin to violate its holy precepts. If I should ask, Is it sin to worship any other gods besides the Creator? men will acknowledge that it would be sin. Is it sin to worship graven images?—“Yes,” they reply. Is it sin to take the name of God in vain?—“Yes,” again. Is it sin not to honor father or mother?—Again the solemn reply, “Yes.” Is it sin to kill, steal, or bear false witness against thy neighbor?—“Yes, of course,” they reply. Is it sin to be covetous?—“Yes, indeed; any child might know that it would be sin to violate the commandments you have referred to.” Is it sin not to keep holy the seventh day, the Sabbath of the Lord thy God? “Well,” is the reply this time, “I don’t know that it makes any difference which day we keep, just so we keep one day in the week.” But it does not make any difference what men think. That is not the question with any true Christian. The question is, What has the Lord said? Listen, “Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish aught from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you.” Deut. 4:2. “Well,” one may say, “that is found in the Old Testament. Christ destroyed or nullified all that when He came.” Did He? Listen! “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in nowise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” Matt. 5:17, 18. First try to pull down the stars of heaven, or switch the earth off from its orbit. For this, Jesus says, would be a less undertaking than to change one jot or tittle of the law of God. Then He continues: “Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven.” And this means not to get there at all; for Christ told the scribes and the Pharisees that they worshiped God in vain, “teaching for doctrine the commandments of men;” and when any other man or class of men substitute man-made creeds for Bible truth, or “commandments6of men,” for God’s commandments, their worship will also be in vain. Many say it is only a small thing to change the Sabbath; that it matters not which day we keep; that one day is as good as the other. But let us remember that God spoke what He meant, and meant what He spoke, and when He says that “sin is the transgression of the law,” and that “the wages of sin is death,” He meant what He said. “God speaks to us in blessings bestowed, but if they are rejected He speaks to us in blessings removed.” We should always be satisfied to know what He commands, without asking why; and keep this always in mind that God never made His work for man to mend. However small a sin may seem to us we should not refuse to amend our ways, when we see that we are in the wrong. If we do refuse, we are on the downward path that leads to eternal destruction. It was apparently a small thing that caused our first parents to lose their Eden home, and filled the world with wo and sorrow. Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, thought it was a small thing that they should use common fire in place of holy fire; but God destroyed them. Lev. 20:1, 2. Saul spared the best of his sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice unto the Lord, which was contrary to His command; and so God rejected him. Samuel asked Saul if he thought the Lord had as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord. “Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.” See 1 Samuel 15. God is now choosing His subjects, who will be obedient in the very least. God knows that whosoever “is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much; and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much.” Satan is cunning and full well knows that God will reject all who are disobedient in the least; and so he has in all ages sought to get the people of God to mix some error with truth. He would be at once rejected if he came in any other garb than an angel of light. He is a deceiver, and the real character of his deceitful plans must be so skilfully hidden that his snare will not be detected until his victims are hopelessly entangled in his net. Satan has always tried to thwart the plans of man’s salvation. Some he has deceived one way and some another. But his crowning effort is “the mystery of iniquity.” In this masterpiece of deceit he has attempted to change the law of God, not by openly working against it, but by causing a breach to be made in the law, by putting man’s word in place of God’s word and by substituting the human for the divine, and has “caused many to stumble at the law.” Remember “He” (the man of sin) should think himself able (that is efficient or powerful enough) to change times and laws. Of course, he has not really changed God’s law, for that, Jesus says, can not be done. Matt. 5:17, 18. He has, however, succeeded in making many professed followers of Christ think a change has been made, and that they are now justified in keeping a rest day which He never instituted. But of that living company upon which God stamps His approval, at the second coming of Christ it is said: “Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” Rev. 14:12. It will then be found that it was a fearfully serious thing to have broken and taught others to break the law of God. ALBERT ANDERSON.