God's Law is For Our Protection!
Some people accuse me of being a legalist, a Communist, a Nazi, a despotic ruler, an oppressor, a killjoy whenever I insist on implementing God's Law and that God must be such and such. I also hear of how often atheists whine calling God as a cruel monster for punishing sin (strange that they also say God doesn't exist). The scoffer I usually hear whines about why God does not allow things that are allowed by society like homosexuality, pornography, adultery and the like. Then there is always the problem of a double standard with atheism with how they react to sin. They love sin until they are victims of it and then they love it again, it is a cycle of self-contradiction!
Some people say, "You Christians create a safe society but your people are miserable!" I would like to address that Christians do not do good works as a burden but as a delight. The Apostle Paul said in Romans 7:22, "For I DELIGHT in the Law of God after the inward man." The delight of the new man is the law, it is to please God. That's why I always state the fact that "How can you claim to be a Christian and you are living sinfully and habitually a sinner? While I do believe that the redeemed will sin daily but the difference is, the amount of sin they do and the degree of sinfulness. I may sin every day of my life because the flesh is not redeemed but... I am not living a life of sin nor do I love sin."
Let us think about how the Law is actually protecting everyone. Does it produce miserable citizens as the scoffer says? Why does Christian education demand to be radically different from the worldly education? Let us think about how these laws are actually protecting people promoting greater joy later.
Here are a few examples of God's Law as protection based on the Ten Conmmandments:
Here are a few examples of God's Law as protection based on the Ten Conmmandments:
1.) God forbade the people to worship other gods and to worship graven images.
Is God merely just jealous? No but the gods of the world cannot save the man, they are a snare to people who worship them and the graven images are there too. The gods of the world are all idols, produced by Satan to blind people. Just go to a pagan temple and see a man who prays to an idol. He claims that he is not worshiping the image but the one portrayed by the image. It is blinding the person from the truth that only God saves. They are clinging towards gods that will damn them that is why God hates idolatry very much. God wants to be number one in your life because only He knows what is best for you, it's for your own good! God forbids marriage with unbelievers because they break this commandment as Amos 3:3 says that the two cannot walk together except they be agreed.
Is God merely just jealous? No but the gods of the world cannot save the man, they are a snare to people who worship them and the graven images are there too. The gods of the world are all idols, produced by Satan to blind people. Just go to a pagan temple and see a man who prays to an idol. He claims that he is not worshiping the image but the one portrayed by the image. It is blinding the person from the truth that only God saves. They are clinging towards gods that will damn them that is why God hates idolatry very much. God wants to be number one in your life because only He knows what is best for you, it's for your own good! God forbids marriage with unbelievers because they break this commandment as Amos 3:3 says that the two cannot walk together except they be agreed.
2.) Why does God disallow the worship of graven images?
Just think of the problem in Exodus 32... how dare they call the golden calf a representation of God who you cannot see? One thing is certain, you can claim to worship God but you are actually worshiping the image. People say, "Well I don't worship the image but the one portrayed by the image." The opposite is true when this when an idol falls down, the priests tried to fetch it. When Gideon attacked Baal's altar, the image of Baal was not able to defend itself. God hates the worship of images because of its makes people stupid in trusting gods that cannot save. Jeremiah 10:3-5 and Isaiah 44:17 shows the foolishness... just imagine after carving the idol, then the maker prays to it. What kind of a god is that?
Just think of the problem in Exodus 32... how dare they call the golden calf a representation of God who you cannot see? One thing is certain, you can claim to worship God but you are actually worshiping the image. People say, "Well I don't worship the image but the one portrayed by the image." The opposite is true when this when an idol falls down, the priests tried to fetch it. When Gideon attacked Baal's altar, the image of Baal was not able to defend itself. God hates the worship of images because of its makes people stupid in trusting gods that cannot save. Jeremiah 10:3-5 and Isaiah 44:17 shows the foolishness... just imagine after carving the idol, then the maker prays to it. What kind of a god is that?
3.) Not taking the name of the LORD God in vain is an issue of God's holiness.
God cannot go against His holy nature. Why He forbids men from using his name in vain is simple. God does not want people to misuse His name for mischief. He forbids His name to be used in vain because He is holy and he must punish people who misuse His name in vain. He does not want anybody to perish but He is a good Judge who will do what He has to do.
God cannot go against His holy nature. Why He forbids men from using his name in vain is simple. God does not want people to misuse His name for mischief. He forbids His name to be used in vain because He is holy and he must punish people who misuse His name in vain. He does not want anybody to perish but He is a good Judge who will do what He has to do.
4.) Why has God set the Sabbath?
Today we have Sunday, not Saturday for worship services. Why is there Sunday? It's not just a rest day or family day, fellowship with other believers is important. Gathering as a community is important. When a Christian joins with other Christians, He is strong. God ordained a separate day for His worship because He knows the need of man to be refilled with the Spirit, not with worldly pleasure. Worldly pleasure may be pleasing to the flesh but it is a guarantee that the effects will not be good in the long run.
Today we have Sunday, not Saturday for worship services. Why is there Sunday? It's not just a rest day or family day, fellowship with other believers is important. Gathering as a community is important. When a Christian joins with other Christians, He is strong. God ordained a separate day for His worship because He knows the need of man to be refilled with the Spirit, not with worldly pleasure. Worldly pleasure may be pleasing to the flesh but it is a guarantee that the effects will not be good in the long run.
5.) God demands we respect our parents.
Why is that so? Remember God ordained the family and our parents are set there for our own good. This does not mean God tells us to obey our parents when they are wrong but this is not to hate them even when they are wrong because they are still your parents. God had set every rule of marriage and abstinence from sexual immorality. As I've noticed, when the family system is twisted, the children become twisted. When a child does not learn to submit to parental authority, he or she has a very high chance of becoming a morally decayed person. People today have a wrong concept that freedom means doing what they want without rules to do when it is not. Freedom means doing good without coercion. I always love to raise the issue of the Ozone Disco incident. The parents told them not to go to the disco house, go home straight but they insisted on going there. Just think, the fire hit and many of them went to the flames of Hell.
Why is that so? Remember God ordained the family and our parents are set there for our own good. This does not mean God tells us to obey our parents when they are wrong but this is not to hate them even when they are wrong because they are still your parents. God had set every rule of marriage and abstinence from sexual immorality. As I've noticed, when the family system is twisted, the children become twisted. When a child does not learn to submit to parental authority, he or she has a very high chance of becoming a morally decayed person. People today have a wrong concept that freedom means doing what they want without rules to do when it is not. Freedom means doing good without coercion. I always love to raise the issue of the Ozone Disco incident. The parents told them not to go to the disco house, go home straight but they insisted on going there. Just think, the fire hit and many of them went to the flames of Hell.
6.) God forbids murder no matter what.
Now I cannot deny that I do have the temptation of murder because of the flesh and hatred is already murder (Matthew 5:21). It's not easy to be insulted or to be a victim of an assault. The problem is some people today are willing to kill another person because of a minor argument and one wrong does not justify the other. To make it legal to kill a person for a mere slight promotes chaos. God condemns hatred as good as murder because murder is usually rooted in hatred. You hate someone, you want to harm him and then it can grow into murder. Just think why did Hitler kill a lot of Jews? The answer is rooted in hatred. Why did the Spanish Inquisition target the Baptist Christians and Protestant Christians? The answer is rooted in hatred. As you see, hatred is already condemned as murder in God's Law!
Now I cannot deny that I do have the temptation of murder because of the flesh and hatred is already murder (Matthew 5:21). It's not easy to be insulted or to be a victim of an assault. The problem is some people today are willing to kill another person because of a minor argument and one wrong does not justify the other. To make it legal to kill a person for a mere slight promotes chaos. God condemns hatred as good as murder because murder is usually rooted in hatred. You hate someone, you want to harm him and then it can grow into murder. Just think why did Hitler kill a lot of Jews? The answer is rooted in hatred. Why did the Spanish Inquisition target the Baptist Christians and Protestant Christians? The answer is rooted in hatred. As you see, hatred is already condemned as murder in God's Law!
7.) God forbids adultery and every form of sexual immorality.
Both fornication and adultery are sex outside the bed of marriage. Now but one must realize that adultery is not merely limited to sex outside marriage, it also starts with the mind. In 1 Samuel 11, remember the sin of David already started when he was late at night, peeping at Bathsheba's bath, he was 50 years old and Bathsheba was young enough to be his daughter. The sin was already in the mind then it blossomed into adultery which led to murder. Remember out from that adultery of the mind came fleshly adultery, he stole her, he was lying (trying to cover up his sin) and then he murdered Uriah. Matthew 5:28 also declares this, the moment you lust after the opposite sex, you are already an adulterer. God goes against sexual immorality because of the moral effect it does. Just think, when pornography floods the streets you just don't see a man to woman sex in adultery and fornication... you get to see orgies, bestiality, pedophilia, homosexuality, and incest as "natural". Such acts are responsible for the spread of Sexually Transmitted Diseases (some of them are even incurable which makes that affair NOT WORTH IT) which again has become another reason for the atheist to hate God more because he or she cannot choose sin without its consequences.
Both fornication and adultery are sex outside the bed of marriage. Now but one must realize that adultery is not merely limited to sex outside marriage, it also starts with the mind. In 1 Samuel 11, remember the sin of David already started when he was late at night, peeping at Bathsheba's bath, he was 50 years old and Bathsheba was young enough to be his daughter. The sin was already in the mind then it blossomed into adultery which led to murder. Remember out from that adultery of the mind came fleshly adultery, he stole her, he was lying (trying to cover up his sin) and then he murdered Uriah. Matthew 5:28 also declares this, the moment you lust after the opposite sex, you are already an adulterer. God goes against sexual immorality because of the moral effect it does. Just think, when pornography floods the streets you just don't see a man to woman sex in adultery and fornication... you get to see orgies, bestiality, pedophilia, homosexuality, and incest as "natural". Such acts are responsible for the spread of Sexually Transmitted Diseases (some of them are even incurable which makes that affair NOT WORTH IT) which again has become another reason for the atheist to hate God more because he or she cannot choose sin without its consequences.
8.) God forbids stealing for many good reasons.
To steal from someone means to punish a person from his or her hard work. Whether the person owned something by donation or by labor will not make stealing any lighter. To steal something that was given to someone punishes the donor for his or her hard work because he or she worked hard to donate something. To steal something that a person worked for means to punish him or her of his efforts to attain something. Just think, when government officials steal from public funds, they are punishing the citizens of their hard work. When people steal from others, they are punishing others of their hard work. There's always my favorite expression that stealing is fun until you become its victim.
To steal from someone means to punish a person from his or her hard work. Whether the person owned something by donation or by labor will not make stealing any lighter. To steal something that was given to someone punishes the donor for his or her hard work because he or she worked hard to donate something. To steal something that a person worked for means to punish him or her of his efforts to attain something. Just think, when government officials steal from public funds, they are punishing the citizens of their hard work. When people steal from others, they are punishing others of their hard work. There's always my favorite expression that stealing is fun until you become its victim.
9.) God forbids lying because of the discord it sows.
Just think... why do I insist parents should not lie to their children? It's because children know not any better at a younger age. Knowing Christmas is coming, I know many will lie about Santa Claus again. As a child, I used to believe anything adults said and that's the problem. Children have a trust relationship and lying about Santa Claus is not any different from lying to your mom or dad that the homework has been done when it wasn't. Why are there many quarrels? It's because of lies. Why do children learn how to lie? It's because parents think it's okay to lie to their children about Santa Claus and the Boogeyman,.. saying it was just a fantasy game when it was pure outright deception!
Just think... why do I insist parents should not lie to their children? It's because children know not any better at a younger age. Knowing Christmas is coming, I know many will lie about Santa Claus again. As a child, I used to believe anything adults said and that's the problem. Children have a trust relationship and lying about Santa Claus is not any different from lying to your mom or dad that the homework has been done when it wasn't. Why are there many quarrels? It's because of lies. Why do children learn how to lie? It's because parents think it's okay to lie to their children about Santa Claus and the Boogeyman,.. saying it was just a fantasy game when it was pure outright deception!
10.) God forbids covetousness because it leads to stealing.
Just think, why did David steal Bathsheba (and even kill Uriah by deception) and today, many extramarital affairs happen? Covetousness. Why did Achan take the treasure and Babylonian garment which led to problems with the Conquest of Jericho? Again, it is covetousness. Why do a lot of robberies happen? Again, the answer is covetousness. Why do we have corrupt authority figures, rebels against the government and tax evaders? Again, the answer is covetousness. God may have placed covetousness as the tenth and last to emphasize how this sin leads to other sins!
Just think, why did David steal Bathsheba (and even kill Uriah by deception) and today, many extramarital affairs happen? Covetousness. Why did Achan take the treasure and Babylonian garment which led to problems with the Conquest of Jericho? Again, it is covetousness. Why do a lot of robberies happen? Again, the answer is covetousness. Why do we have corrupt authority figures, rebels against the government and tax evaders? Again, the answer is covetousness. God may have placed covetousness as the tenth and last to emphasize how this sin leads to other sins!
Closing words:
Christians are given commandments not because God is a killjoy but because He wants to fill them with genuine everlasting joy that the world cannot give. The joys of the world are just very temporary. It may be pleasurable to get drunk, play around with the opposite gender, seek sexual adventures, engage in homosexuality, steal, etc. but these joys aren't lasting. A womanizer may soon have to answer for all the illegitimate children he produced. An incest-driven family might as well fall down like the House of Herod. A lot of atheists who hate God because of His laws usually end up in miserable lives like how Madalyn Murray's hate campaign only led to her murder. Homosexuals may soon one way or another harvest their own bad fruits like STD. The truth is God makes consequences for sin in the hope that man may repent but many remain stubborn to the very end.
To close, here's a quote by Charles H. Spurgeon saying, "There is nothing of the Law of God that will rob you of happiness. It only denies you what will cause you sorrow."
To close, here's a quote by Charles H. Spurgeon saying, "There is nothing of the Law of God that will rob you of happiness. It only denies you what will cause you sorrow."