The Ten Commandments and America’s History

Exodus 20:3-17

 

INTRO: There is, as you know, an all out attack on the Ten Commandments by the liberals in this country.

The Ten Commandments are absolutes that are sorely needed if America is to survive.

Gertrude Himmelfarb in her book On Looking Into the Abyss writes: Liberals have always known that absolute power tends to corrupt absolutely. [We] are now discovering that absolute liberty also tends to corrupt absolutely.  A liberty that is divorced from tradition and convention, from morality and religion, that makes the individual the sole repository and arbiter of all values and puts him in an adversarial relationship to society and the state-such a liberty is a grave peril to liberalism itself.

And as Tocqueville put it: Despotism may govern without faith, but liberty cannot.  Religion. . . .is more needed in democratic republics than in any other.  How is it possible that society should escape destruction if the moral tie is not strengthened in proportion as the political tie is relaxed?  And what can be done with a people who are their own masters if they are not submissive to the Deity.

John Quincy Adams, John Adams grandson and himself the 6^th president of the United States, echoed this sentiment when he said these words: The highest glory of the American revolution was this, that it connected in one indissoluble bond the principle of Christianity with the principles of civil government (The Pulpit of the American Revolution John Wingate Thorntum).

The Ten Commandments are sown into the fabric of this country.  There are hundreds of documents that link our nation to the Bible.  We can only cite a very few today.

 

I.          EXODUS 20:3, THOU SHALT HAVE NO OTHER GOD’S BEFORE ME

A.       America was founded on the belief in the one and only true God Jehovah.

B.       This belief is brought out by the leaders of the Virginia Colony in the following statement made in 1610: [S]ince we owe our highest supreme duty, our greatest and all our allegiance to Him from whom all power and authority is derived, and flows as from the first and only fountain, and being especially soldiers impressed in this sacred cause, we must alone expect our success from Him who is only the blesser of all good attempts, the King of kings, the Commander of commanders, and Lord of hosts, I do strictly command and charge all Captains and Officers of what quality or nature soever, whether commanders in the field, or in town or towns, forts or fortresses, to have a care that the Almighty God be duly and daily served, and that they call upon their people to hear sermons, as that also they diligently frequent morning and evening prayer themselves by their own example and daily life and duties herein, encouraging others thereunto.

 

II.          EXODUS 20:4-6 THOU SHALT NOT MAKE UNTO THEE ANY GRAVEN IMAGE....

A.       We are not to bow down to any God but the true God.

B.       Our founders were serious about the worship of God.  In 1680, a New Hampshire civil law stated: Idolatry.  It is enacted by ye Assembly and ye authority thereof, yet if any person having had the knowledge of the true God openly and manifestly have or worship any other god but the Lord God, he shall be put to death. Ex. 22.20, Deut. 13.6 and 10.

 

III.          EXODUS 20:7, THOU SHALT NOT TAKE THE NAME OF THE LORD THY GOD IN VAIN....

A.       Many laws can be found that prohibit blasphemy, swearing, and or profanity.

B.       Noah Webster (1758-1843), legislator and judge, said: When in obedience to the third commandment of the Decalogue you would avoid profane swearing, you are to remember that this alone is not a full compliance with the prohibition which [also] comprehends all irreverent words or actions and whatever tends to cast contempt on the Supreme Being or on His word and ordinances [i.e., blasphemy].

C.      General George Washington issued a number of orders against swearing.  His first was in 1756.  Others were issued in 1775, 1776, and 1778.  The July 4, 1775 order reads as follows: The General most earnestly requires and expects a due observance of those articles of war established for the government of the army which forbid profane cursing, swearing, and drunkenness; and in like manner requires and expects of all officers and soldiers not engaged on actual duty, a punctual attendance on Divine Service to implore the blessings of Heaven upon the means used for our safety and defense.

 

IV.          EXODUS 20:8-11 REMEMBER THE SABBATH DAY TO KEEP IT HOLY

A.       The U S Constitution recognized the Sabbath in Art. I, Sec. 7, Par. 2, stipulating that the President has 10 days to sign a law, “Sunday excepted.”

B.       Again we turn to the Father of our nation as an example of following Biblical principles.  On May 2, 1778, He issued this order at Valley Forge: The Commander in Chief directs that divine service be performed every Sunday at 11 o’clock in those brigades to which there are chaplains; those which have none to attend the places of worship nearest to them.  It is expected that officers of all ranks will by their attendance set an example to their men.

C.      In 1950, the Supreme Court of Mississippi had similarly declared: The Sunday laws have a divine origin.  Blackstone (Cooley’s) Par. 42, page 35. After the six days of creation, the Creator Himself rested on the Seventh.  Genesis, Chapter 2, verses 2 and 3.  Thus, the Sabbath was instituted, as a day of rest.  The original example was later confirmed as a commandment when the law was handed down from Mt. Sinai: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.”

 

V.          EXODUS 20:12, HONOUR THY FATHER AND THY MOTHER....

A.       Lack of honor for parents was a serious offence in Connecticut as seen in this 1642 law: if any child or children above sixteen years old, and of sufficient understanding shall curse or smite their normal father or mother, he or they shall be put to death; unless it can be sufficiently testified that the parents have been very unchristianly negligent in the education of such children, or so provoke them by extreme and cruel correction that they have been forced thereunto to preserve themselves from death [or] maiming. Ex 21:17, Lev. 20, Ex. 20:15

B.       In 1934, a Louisiana appeals court cited the fifth commandment: ‘Honor thy father and thy mother,’ is as much a command of the municipal law as it is a part of the Decalogue, regarded has holy by every Christian people.  ‘A child,’ says the code, ‘whatever be his age, owes honor and respect to his father and mother.’

 

VI.          EXODUS 20:13, THOU SHALT NOT COMMIT MURDER

A.       Early Massachusetts law shows how much influence the Ten Commandments had on early law.  The following examples are from 1641: Ex 21.12, Numb. 35.13, 14, 30, 31.  If any person commit any willful murder, which is manslaughter committed upon premeditated malice, hatred, or cruelty, not in a man’s necessary and just defense nor by mere casualty against his will, he shall be put to death.    Numb 25.20, 21. Lev. 24.17.  If any person slayeth another suddenly in his anger or cruelty of passion, he shall be put to death.   Ex. 21.14.  If any person shall slay another through guile, either by poisoning or other such devilish practice, he shall be put to death.

B.       A 1932 Kentucky appeals Court looking back to the Decalogue says: The rights of society as well as those of appellant are involved and are also to be protected, and to that end all forms of governments following the promulgation of Moses at Mt. Sinai has required of each and every one of its citizens that ‘Thou shalt not murder.’  If that law is violated, the one guilty of it has no right to demand more than a fair trial, and if, as a result thereof, the severest punishment for the crime is visited upon him, he has no one to blame but himself.

 

VII.          EXODUS 30:14, THOU SHALT NOT COMMIT ADULTERY

A.       A 1787 Vermont adultery law states: Whereas the violation of the marriage covenant is contrary to the command of God and destructive to the peace of families: be it therefore enacted by the general assembly of the State of Vermont that if any man be found in bed with another man’s wife, or woman with another’s husband,. . . &c.

B.       Back in 1898 a Texas criminal court stated that laws on adultery are Biblical: The accused would insist upon the defense that the female consented.  The state would reply that she could not consent.  Why?  Because the law prohibits, with a penalty, the completed act.  “Thou shalt not commit adultery” is our law as well as the law of the Bible.

C.      A 1955 Washington State Supreme Court ruling declared: Adultery, whether promiscuous or not, violates one the Ten Commandments and the statues of this State.

 

VIII.          EXODUS 20:15, THOU SHALT NOT STEAL

A.       In 1951, the Louisiana Supreme Court acknowledged the Ten Commandments as the basis for all civil laws prohibiting theft: In the Ten Commandments, the basic law of all Christian countries, is found the admonition, “Thou shalt not steal.”

B.       The Supreme Court of California made this statement in 1940: Defendant did not acknowledge the dominance of a fundamental precept of honesty and fair dealing enjoined by the Decalogue and supported by prevailing moral concepts.  “Thou shalt not steal” applies with equal force and propriety to the industrialist of a complex civilization as to the simple herdsman of ancient Israel.

 

IX.          EXODUS 20:16, THOU SHALT NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS...

A.       Perjury is a serious crime in God’s book.  As is seen in this 1924 Oregon State Supreme Court Declaration: No official is above the law. “Thou shalt not b ear false witness” is a command of the Decalogue, and that forbidden act is denounced by statute as a felony.

B.       In 1988, the Supreme Court of Mississippi went to the Decalogue to rebuke a prosecutor for introducing accusations in a case for which he had no evidence: When the State or any party states or suggests the existence of certain damaging facts and offers no proof whatever to substantiate the allegations, a golden opportunity is afforded the opposing counsel in closing argument to appeal to the Ninth Commandment. “Thou shalt not bear false witness....” Exodus 20:16.

 

X.          EXODUS 20:17, THOU SHALT NOT COVET

A.       The Framers of Pennsylvania’s original laws, William Penn, said: [H]e that covets can no more be a moral man than he that steals since he does so in his mind.  Nor can he be one that robs his neighbor of his credit, or that craftily undermines him of his trade or office.

B.       John Adams signer of the Bill of Rights declares the importance of this commandment: The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence.  If “Thou shalt not covet” and “Thou shalt not steal” were not commandments of Heaven, they must be made inviolable precepts in every society before it can be civilized or made free.