There is a great battle going on in the world over the relevancy of the Ten Commandments—as they are presented in the Judeo-Christian Bibles. Many people, including the Supreme Court of the United States, view these commandments as merely the expression of religion; and therefore, they have concluded, that they must not be presented as such—lest we violate the separation of the church and state principle of the Constitution. While the laws of this government, and also many governments throughout the world, have patterned their laws after certain aspects of the Ten Commandments, any attempt to assign to them religious significance, or attach to them their source as coming from God, is vigorously fought against. Furthermore, while most people would agree that the commandments “Thou shalt not kill,” “Thou shalt not steal,” and “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour,” have some relevancy in our society—the other seven commandments are debatable issues.

There is also, even among religious circles, a great debate concerning the meaning and purpose of those ten laws. Many would question the validity of some of those edicts as they might apply to modern day religion. Others would spiritualize many aspects of those laws, while maintaining a firm belief that all of them are still in effect in some form or another. Jews and Seventh Day Adventist still adhere to Sabbath worship, while most Christians would now say that Sunday is the new Sabbath—and likewise much hair splitting goes on even among those two views as well as the other commandments.

The purpose then of this study is to present, from an entirely Biblical viewpoint, all of the important aspects, as well as the modern relevancy of those Ten Words—as they are sometimes called. We will include, as in all of our studies, the Scriptural texts that we base our viewpoint upon; and we would desire that the reader would carefully examine and compare what we say in the light of those, as well as the rest of the Scriptures. We realize that much of what we will say will go against the prevailing beliefs of many people—but what is the truth? Let us all have the attitude of those saints in Berea who “received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.”

Acts 17:10 And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea: who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews.
11 These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.