A Biblical Perspective on Current Events

"This is the covenant I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them" 
(Heb. 10:16).

Ten Commandments Where?

May 8, 2001

The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), an international public interest law firm, is becoming heavily involved with the legality of displaying the Ten Commandments in public places (such as schools and federal, state, and local government office buildings). If the Supreme Court hears the case, which is in question in some states, Jay Sekulow of the ACLJ believes the high court will uphold the constitutionality of the Ten Commandment displays. Sekulow said, "These displays represent the historical and cultural heritage of America…and does not violate the separation of church and state and can constitutionally co-exist with other displays marking our nations history and heritage." The American Civil Liberties Union opposes the Ten Commandments being shown publicly.

The original intent of the framers of our constitution has been severely misinterpreted. Our forefathers were concerned about the government interfering with the Catholic and Protestant church of that time.
They knew the history of how state-ran Christianity had proven to be a moral failure because government leaders and the people had lacked the inward control of the Holy Spirit.

Our constitution was not a divinely inspired document like the original autographs of the Holy Scriptures. However, it has served us better and longer than any other nation's form of government in the history of civilized people. Our founding fathers knew it would require a people of high moral standards to sustain the freedoms of speech, press, and religion and the rights to assemble and challenge the government.

I agree with Sekulow and the ACLJ concerning the Ten Commandments being publicly displayed. However, from a spiritual perspective, these spiritual laws seemingly are not being written on the hearts and minds of confessing New Covenant believers in Christ today. Scripture says, "This is the covenant I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them" (Heb. 10:16).

After a person comes from spiritual death unto spiritual life, the Holy Spirit writes the laws of God on the heart and mind through the written word of God. This touches the spirit, mind, will, emotions, and conscience of that new creation believer in Christ. As individuals yield to the inward control of the Holy Spirit, they will keep all the moral laws of the living God of the Bible.

It is apparent in modern American cultural Christianity that we can be legally right, but morally wrong. Jesus said, "You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not commit adultery.' But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart" (Matt. 5:27,28). Perhaps God is talking to His church to get their act together, so that we will be both morally and legally correct. Our democracy cannot survive without the inward moral restraint to live as our Lord commands us as the New Israel of God.

Scripture says, "For as he (man) thinks in his heart, so is he" (Pro. 23:7a). We must get our hearts right, otherwise we will continue on this "slippery slope" of legal wrangling. (Remember President Clinton's infamous line "it depends on what 'is' is?")