HARDLY A LOGICAL ARGUMENT.
A writer in the Pacific Christian of July 24 presents the following wonderful statement and proof:— “The strongest argument used by seventh-day people, and the most delusive, is that the Ten Commandments is the law of God. But let me say, perhaps to the astonishment of the reader, that the Bible never calls the Ten Commandments the law of God. They are not the law of God and never were. Not a text in the Bible referring to the Ten Commandments calls them ‘the law.’ They are always called ‘the covenant,’ or ‘my covenant,’ ‘the covenant that I made,’ etc. Now let me bring the proof.” And what is the proof which he gives of this strong statement?—Simply this: He proceeds to quote five texts which do not call the Ten Commandments the law of God. It is as tho a man should attempt to prove himself a truthful man by bringing five persons who never heard him tell a lie. In order to prove that the Ten Commandments are not called the law of God every text referring to them would have to be quoted with its connection, and then shown to be in harmony with the above statement. But here are a few points worth considering:— 1. “And the Lord said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mount, and be there; and I will give thee the tables of stone, and the law and the commandment, which I have written, that thou mayest teach them.” Ex. 24:12, R. V. “And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him . . . two tables of the testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God.” Ex. 31:18, R. V. “And the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables.” Ex. 32:16. “The law,” then, written by the Lord, was the law of Ten Commandments, and therefore God’s law. And this is confirmed by Deut. 33:2: “From his right hand went a fiery law for them.” Again, when Jehu went into idolatry he “took no heed to walk in the law of the Lord God of Israel” (2 Kings 10:31), he broke the second commandment of the Decalog. 2. It will be evident to every candid reader that the one law is referred to throughout the epistle to the Romans. In chapter 2:21, 22 the apostle shows that it is the law of Ten Commandments referred to; for he refers to three of them, the second, seventh, and eighth. He intimates that the breaking of this law dishonors God. In verse 18 he shows that this law expresses God’s will, and in verse 20 he declares that in its form the Jews had the truth. The trouble was they knew not its power. In chapter 7:7 the tenth commandment is referred to as convicting Paul of sin, and thus he speaks of the same law in chapter 8:7: “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” 3. Again, in James 2:8-12 the law of liberty is referred to, (1) as a royal law, the law of the great King; (2) as the law which has the two commands, “Thou shalt not kill,” “Thou shalt not commit adultery;” and (3) it is the law by which all will be judged. As God is the Royal One and the Judge of all, it follows that this law, the Decalog, is the law of God. We would not mean by the above that “the book of the law,” often called “the law of Moses,” is not the law of God; for it is many times called this. See 2 Chron. 31:3, 4; Luke 2:24. But in the book of the law were written the Ten Commandments. All laws ever given of God are God’s laws, but the morality of them all is in the Decalog.