Unhitch From the Ten Commandments? No.

Current Events, Religious Freedom, ,

Last month we wrote about the unnecessary controversy surrounding Arkansas’ monument of the Ten Commandments. You may recall a group parked a satanic statue in front of the Arkansas Capitol Building for a short time to protest the state’s monument of the Ten Commandments.

As a result, more than a few Christians questioned whether or not the state should remove the Ten Commandments monument from the capitol lawn. We have written about why that’s a bad idea.

Today our friends at the Colson Center for Christian Worldview have published a commentary explaining why the Ten Commandments are still important for us today.

John Stonestreet writes,

What’s the only passage in Scripture personally written down by God? If you answered “the Ten Commandments,” you’re right on the money. Exodus tells us that God audibly spoke these laws at Mount Sinai and inscribed them on tablets of stone with His own finger.

Of course, that’s not the only reason the Ten Commandments have a central place in the Judeo-Christian tradition. Christians have long understood them to be the clearest expression of God’s eternal moral character. Not to mention, they played an instrumental role in shaping Western civilization, including forming the foundation of our legal system and our understanding of justice. It’s why Moses and those tablets can be found at the apex of the U.S. Supreme Court. . . .

The moral principles expressed in the Ten Commandments didn’t come into existence at Sinai. They’re part of God’s eternal character which He built into the very fabric of reality itself. Even more, Jesus relied on the Old Testament throughout His ministry and in His teaching, especially when making the moral case for something. The reason, from a Christian worldview, is clear: Whether we’re talking about the moral principles expressed in the Ten Commandments which Christ perfectly kept or the ceremonial regulations of Leviticus which foreshadowed our perfect High Priest, all of the Old Testament is relevant to Christianity.

We need to understand and appreciate the significance of the Ten Commandments — including their impact on our system government and their relevance to us still today.

You can read or listen to John Stonestreet’s entire commentary here.

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No Comparison Between Ten Commandments Monument and Baphomet Statue

Current Events

Last week the Satanic Temple caused quite a stir when it parked 7½-foot statue of baphomet — a satanic figure — in front of the Capitol Building for a couple of hours.

Protesters cheered, screamed expletives, and shouted, “Hail Satan” as the statue was unveiled on the back of a flatbed trailer.

To be clear, the statue did not stay on the Capitol lawn. It was hauled away after the protest finished.

The stunt was part of a rally the Satanic Temple organized to protest Arkansas’ monument of the Ten Commandments.

The Satanic Temple had threatened to place the statue on the Capitol grounds if the Arkansas Legislature went through with plans to install a monument of the Ten Commandments. However, the threats never went anywhere, because monuments require legislative authorization; not just anyone can put a permanent statue on the Capitol lawn.

However, a few Christians on social media have expressed concerns that the State of Arkansas ought to remove the Ten Commandments monument to ensure it’s never forced to allow a satanic statue on the Capitol lawn as well.

Here’s the problem with that line of thinking:

There’s no moral equivalence between the Ten Commandments and baphomet. 

The Ten Commandments are one of the earliest examples of the rule of law in the history of human civilization. They were meant to apply to everyone equally. They helped spawn the idea that people could be governed by constitutions and laws instead of kings. That’s why even secular historians down through the years have recognized the significance of the Ten Commandments.

Satanism and paganism did not do any of those things.

The Ten Commandments monument that Arkansas’ lawmakers voted to place on the Capitol lawn celebrates the impact and legacy of the Ten Commandments on Western Civilization, and it is identical to a monument the U.S. Supreme Court ruled constitutional in Texas a few years ago.

Does baphomet have that kind of legacy in our culture? Did Satan give us the rule of law or the idea of human equality? No.

Saying Arkansas’ monument of the Ten Commandments somehow forces the state to put a satanic statue on the Capitol lawn implies that the Ten Commandments and baphomet are somehow equal. They aren’t. One stands for righteousness, order, and the rule of law. The other stands for rebellion, chaos, and lawlessness.

There simply is no comparison.

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