The Law

The Law of God

I

Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

II
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

III
Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

IV
Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

V
Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which theLORD thy God giveth thee.

VI

Thou shalt not kill.

VII

Thou shalt not commit adultery.

VIII

Thou shalt not steal.

IX

Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.

X
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.

"Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned mine holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they shewed difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them."
(Ezekiel 22:26)

"And her prophets have daubed them with untempered morter, seeing vanity, and divining lies unto them, saying, Thus saith the Lord GOD, when the LORD hath not spoken."
(verse 28)

Notes -- Untempered mortar is that which is improperly worked, and will not therefore hold together or stand the test. Thus it is with the reasons advanced for keeping Sunday instead of the Bible Sabbath, the seventh day. They are not only unsound and untenable in themselves, but are utterly inconsistent, contradictory, and destructive one of the other, among themselves. They are like the witnesses employed by the Jewish leaders to condemn Christ. Of these the record says: "The chief priests and all the council sought for witness against Jesus to put Him to death; and found none. For many bare false witness against Him, but their witness agreed not together." (Mark 14: 55-56). The lack of agreement among them was evidence in itself of the falsity of their testimony. In nothing, perhaps, is a lack of agreement better illustrated than in the reasons assigned for Sunday-keeping. Note the following:

One says the Sabbath has been changed from the seventh to the first day of the week.

Another says that the Sabbath commandment requires only one day of rest after six of labor, and hence there has been no change.

Some reason that all ought to keep Sunday, because although, as they affirm, God did not appoint a particular day, yet agreement is necessary; and to have any day or every day a sabbath would be equal to no sabbath at all.

Others, to avoid the claims of God's law, assert that the Sabbath precept is one of those ordinances which was against us, contrary to us, blotted out, and nailed to the cross. Still, they admit that a day of rest and convocation (gathering themselves together) is necessary, and therefore the day of Christ's resurrection, they say, has been chosen.

Another class say they believe it is impossible to know which is the seventh day, although they have no difficulty in ascertaining which is the first.

Some are so bold even as to declare that Sunday is the original seventh day.

Others, with equal certainty, say that those who keep the seventh day are endeavoring to be justified by the law, and are fallen from grace. For this reason, they boldly announce that there can no longer be a requirement for a Sabbath at all! It is now only Sunday that is sanctified as "a day of praise and worship." So in their never-ending struggle to justify this unbiblical precept, they even say that they (the Protestants), not the Catholics, were the first to come up with the "idea" -- (Tantamount to arguing over "who", with all "inspired" wisdom, grace, and nobility, shot themselves in the foot first!).

Another class, with more liberal views, say they believe that every one should be fully persuaded in his own mind, whether he keep this day, or that, or none at all.

Still again, as if having found the great desideratum or missing link in the argument, men credited with even more than ordinary intelligence, will sometimes declare that it is impossible to keep the seventh day on a round and rolling earth; and yet, strange to say, they find no difficulty in keeping Sunday anywhere and believe that this day should be observed the world over!

Lastly, and more terrible and presumptuous than all the rest, some like Herod of old in slaying all the children of Bethlehem in order to make sure of killing Christ, have gone so far as to teach that all ten commandments have been abolished, in order to avoid the duty enjoined in the fourth. But as in the case of Herod, God's Anointed escaped the murderous blow of this wicked king, so in the judgment such will have to meet God over His broken law, and will find that the Sabbath precept stands there unchanged with the rest.

Said Christ,

"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: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven."
(Matthew 5:19)