Let the Book of the Law Speak

I look at the issue of whether the 10 commandment law of the Bible is still binding upon man today.

This is a sample… only a small portion of this study is found here…

Topic: Should Man Still Be Keeping the 10 Commandments … A brief introduction to a full study

In looking at any topic, the first thing that is needful is an understanding of the subject under investigation. In this case the 10 commandments.

What are the 10 commandments?

The first thing I want to do is make it abundantly clear that our source material will be the KJV Bible. The bible because that is the place where the 10 commandments originated.

Our aim is to let the Bible speak, not me nor my opinions, but the word of God itself.

We first mean the 10 commandments in full in the book of Exodus, chapter 20, verses 1-17. However, we actually have allusion to the 10 commandments prior to Exodus 20. In 1 John 3:4 the scriptures tells us that “…sin is the transgression of the law” and the same scriptures speaks of the law of 10 commandments. Therefore we see that law and 10 commandments are synonymous or the same.

So, where in scripture do we first get an allusion to the law? It’s in the very first book of the Bible.

In Genesis 3:17 where God tells Man in reference to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, “in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” We also know that the scriptures say in 1 John 3:4 “…sin is the transgression of the law,” and in Romans 6:23 “…the wages of sin is death,” so man is threated with death if he eats of the forbidden tree. Since eating of the tree brings death, it therefore means it is sin and in eating of the tree man breaks the law or commandment.

Here is a second example, not in sequence of course. When Potiphar’s wife tried to entice Joseph to lie with her in Genesis 39:7, his response was, “…how can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?”

Thus we see that all three Adam, Eve, and Joseph knew of the commandments of God and that breaking them would be sin, and in consequence all the followers of God before we enter into Exodus knew of God’s commandments.

Why then do we get an outline of them in way in Exodus 20?

Well, the people of God (Israelites) were held in pagan captivity in Egypt as slaves for over 400 years (See Genesis 15:13 where God tells Abraham of this) where they learned the ways of heathen. Their children were born in Egypt and were daily seeing and partaking of the ways of the Egyptians (this is one of the reasons why it was so easy for them to demand the making of a golden calf to go before them as their god when Moses tarried on the mount (See Exodus 32:1-4).

Additionally, in Exodus 16:28 “The Lord said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws.” This compliant from the Lord was in response to the some of the children of Israel going out on the Sabbath day to search for manna, after the Lord had explicitly told them that there would be none on the Sabbath , (See Exodus 16:23-27)

We see then that the children knew of the Sabbath and all the commandments of God before Exodus 20. What God did in Exodus 20 was to write the laws on tables of stones, whereas before he had given them orally.

This is a sample… the rest of the study is not shown here…