Ten Building Blocks For Mankind - Part One

What Came First? The Chicken Or The Egg?

What's The Big Deal About The Ten Commandments?

Recently a man destroyed a monument showing the Ten Commandments, and his argument was that it violated the separation of church and state clause in U.S. law because it was on public (government) property.

A similar incident occurred in Oklahoma in 2014.

Perhaps some people fear losing their current identity, whether it be national, religious, both, or something else.

Perhaps some people also fear intimidation or the suggestion of adopting an identity they reject or think they do not relate to.

Perhaps some people would like to form a new identity.

Are identities developed from out of the air, or derived from previous ideas?

An overtone sometimes repeated: “for God and a country”, is evoked by some to reflect a particular cultural identity in America...although that phrase is older than America; the ideals that formed that phrase are ancient.

Since before the reformation and the later revolutions in Europe, there has been a popular movement to remove any connection between the church and the government in western cultures, or God and the cultures that a belief in God have developed.

It is a challenge arguing either for or against any particular form of popular government since the kingdom of God is beyond human imagination.

Man has desired to manifest what is unseen - the invisible kingdom within - in material forms like a nation-state or some other thing.

Much harm has been done in the name of religion, and this is the concern the reformation and revolutions have argued.

Very difficult to justify the wickedness religious people have done in pushing their religion through a government apparatus.

The Ten Commandments were established for ancient Israel.

We can read how that ideal ebbed and flowed considerably...eventually being graduated into the Roman empire through the Christ expression, continuing to saturate the entire world Today.

What is challenging is the attempt to remove certain foundations from the world's laws.

Some people desire to extract any notion of God (or religion) from their lives, especially in the public realm.

But what is usually overlooked is the manner the Ten Commandments have influenced the entire world in ways unimaginable.

Some people argue that man's natural evolution would have led mankind to form laws preventing murder, or thievery (two of the commands).

I think this is wishful thinking and in the realm of “what if”; theories of man.

Men are free to theorize, but to rationalize outside of reality can in one instance be called creative, while in another instance an obvious form of denial.

Such a notion is nearly impossible to fully determine since culture cannot be separated from historical development.

Can an image be fully seen and understood when not having a certain piece of a puzzle?

Some people do try and argue such things.

The piece of the “puzzle” that some people desire to remove is the bedrock that all laws are derived: God.

Could the issue be that deep down in our carnal hearts, one cares not obey those ten commands?

Yet at the same time, the rational person desires most of those commands to be enforced by the state.

It is a matter of benefit to those who would desire protection, and also a moral disconnect for those who would benefit by disobeying any or all of them.

If you were being tried in a court of law, and you were innocent of the charges against you, you would NOT want someone to give false testimony in order to find you guilty.

Haven't we all been tempted to lie in even the most unimportant of situations?

How about lie to prevent severe embarrassment or humiliation to our person...or prevent a situation that would cause us great loss?

The Ten Commandments as found in Exodus:

“I Am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 

“You shall have no other gods before Me. 

“You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love Me and keep My commandments. 

“You shall not misuse the Name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses His Name. 

“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but He rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. 

“Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you. 

“You shall not murder. 

“You shall not commit adultery. 

“You shall not steal. 

“You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. 

“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.” 

- Exodus 20: 2-17

Continued in Part Two.