If Christians are not bound by the "Old" Law, why the debate over the Ten Commandments in gov't. buildings?

Question

I have read - in a number of posts - some say, based on an interpertation of Matthew 5:17-19, that Jesus fulfilled the "Old" Law and they are no longer bound to it.

If so, then why are we, as a nation, battling over whether or not the Ten Commandments should be displayed in government buildings, like courthouses?

Or is this not the "Old" Law that Jesus fulfilled?

Carol M: if I have no idea what I am talking about - which is an interesting claim, given that you know nothing about me and I must Know something, or I couldn't ask the question - then why not shed some light on the subject? I did, after all, ask the question in search of an answer. This is Yahoo! Answers, right?

BTW-You are welcome for the two points.

Why is it that some folks just can't address the question? Ever notice that?

The Ten Commandments were not "the first written documented law." See the Code of Hammurabi and compare the dates to his reign to the Biblical Exodus.

Reign of Hammurabi c. 1792-1750 BC
Code: c. 1780 BC

Exodus: "Early Date" c. 1440 BC Late Date c. 1290 BC

link to article on biblical, historical and logical support
http://www.cresourcei.org/exodusdate.html

eyeheartmydog: "Because people who do not follow the christian religion,
such as myself, cannot understand freedom of religion and the constitution."

You wanna reread this? Are you saying that anyone who is NOT Christian CANNOT understand freedom of religion and CANNOT understand the Constitution.

*YOWZA* that's news to me.

Emily B: Theo-kratia ("theocracy") is rule by the power of God

Demos-kratia ("democracy") is power of the people

Which do we have in the U.S.?

Which do many Middle Eastern countries have?

Which is the U.S. trying to spread in the Middle East?

Not all of our "Founding Fathers" were Christians. Even if they were, they provided for religious freedom and separation of church and state.

Answer 1

The separation of church and state has its roots in our founding fathers not wanting one particular religious sect become part of the government. In other words, there is no "state government." It does NOT prohibit government agencies or officials from praying, having In God We Trust printed on our money, or having the ten commandments printed on government walls. It simply prohibits the government from forcing people to adhere to a particular religion.

That being said, lets look at the ten commandments. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not covet they neighbor's goods, Thou shalt not commit adultery, and so forth. Other major religions of the world have similar missives. What do you object to? Are these not generally moral tenets that we should live by whether we are Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, Atheist, etc? I would be perfectly fine with seeing not only the ten commandments, but the very similar directives from the other religions put on a wall. It all has to do with the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have done unto yourself.

As for your statement about Christians being bound or not bound by the "Old" law, it has much to do with the transition in ancient history from traditional Jews to Christianity. All religions are legitimate. And your right to believe or not believe, as you wish, is in the Constitution.

Answer 2

You have taken the view of Christains not being bound by the Old Law out of context. This simply means that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior redeeming us for our sins. This does NOT do away with the Old Law but fulfills it. The Ten Commandments is God's Laws for eternal Life that tells us what actions condemn us. As such, Christians desire for all to know how to live in Justice by observing God's laws and will.

Also, the issue of having the Ten Commandments displayed on government property is a Constitutional issue that has gotten lop-sided. The Court has declared a "separation of church and state" which is a falasy. What the Constitution says is that "Congress shall not enact any laws respecting the establishment of a religion". This was done so that no one religious denomination would dominate to persecute other religions such as it was in England. The other clause is the "free exercise" clause saying government shall not inhibit the free-exercise of religion, which the Courts have done in their rulings. Such hypocrisy.

Prayer in school is not an establishment of a religion! Just look the definition of "religion" up and the whole society will come to realize that this is not so as the ACLU says it is. God bless America because we are in a culture war between life and death; blessing and curse. Good question to think about.

Answer 3

You're not accusing christians of being inconsistent and hypocritical, are you?

*shock!*














Now, some fool is going to post that US law is based on biblical law, which is factually not the case. Not only are few of the 10 represented in US law, but the 10 were plagerized from Hammurabi's code, which predated the OT (so the OT can't logically be the "origin" of such laws, since they weren't even the first anyway). US law is based on English law.





Yup, like I predicted, it happened. I particularly liked the one poster who said that the 10 were the first written rules of law. What has happened to our educational system??? Hammurabi's Code (which was a tribute to the sun god Ra) is the first written rule of law that we know of, predating all OT texts by centuries.

Are people just ignorant of the facts, or are they just plain liars?

Answer 4

What Christian's believe has nothing to do with keeping Church and State separate and that is what the argument over the Ten Commandments is about. Religious people think that those statues can be place on public grounds, others think it violates that separation. But it doesn't make sense that Christians still obey the ten commandments besides the fact they are a good guide to how to be a nice person.

Answer 5

There is not enough sayings in the new testament that can be directly traced to Jesus. mostly letters written by some of his apostles in the form of letters expressing their own view of what Jesus said or meant. The Christians have built a religion of shame and fear. so the more complete old testament fills their needs better than the new.
Real Christians(the Gentiles) are supposed to keep the words of the Jesus the Christ in pure form and not change a word until the Jewish people recognized him as there true savior.
The Jewish people are supposed to keep the words of their God pure and unchanged also.
It was at the first council of nice that the church split . throwing out some books as being to Jewish or not in keeping with their ideas of what the church should be preaching when things fell apart . so we do not have the whole true story anymore.

Answer 6

Christ did fullfill the "old" law by dying for our sins. However, this is taken out of context. For man to obey the law, we would have to be perfect, but we are not perfect, therefore we fall under the curse of the "old" law which is punishable by death, which Christ did for us. We are still held to the law in a way such as not commiting murder, stealing, etc, which are all things that we should not be doing in the first place. By trying our hardest to follow the law and having faith that Christ fullfilled it is all apart of worshiping God, and that is pleasing to him. The Ten Commandments are moral laws that are fought over in the courts on a daily basis, i.e. I want a divorce because my husband had an affair with this women (one of the 10 commandments). These basic laws are good reminders to everyone.

Answer 7

Great question I must say!!! We do need law to guide us all and nobody here in this planet earth can fulfill all law from old and new and that's why Jesus fulfilled all so that it won't be counted against us because as mentioned nobody can do all things as we're not perfect like him. I'd like to think of it this way, one of his commandment is to love and love is peace, kind, patient, etc...so we go live it but guess what we'll try and fail, try and fail but Jesus saved us all so we won't no longer have that burden that whatever sin we commit we'll be punished because he took all the punishment that we all deserve. Here's an example, a parent will tell you not to steal because it's the right thing to do, not to take what's not yours. But if you didn't listen and did it anyways, does your parent love you less? of course not. It's just a parent way to guide us but love is always there no matter how we feel.

Answer 8

.The ten commandments are our laws given down by God. It does matter. Even though we live under a new covenant doesn't mean we should ignore previous laws. They should still be obeyed. We should battle more over upholding the rights as Christians, we need to stand up and take our rights back. Every day we are loosing more and more ground. It is our heritage that this nation was founded on christian principles

Answer 9

The old law was fulfilled and set aside by Christ when he instituted the new covenant of grace, in his blood.

The ten commandments were so fundamental to humanity, that the new covenant church offcially re-adopted them, moving them from the old covenant into the new.

In the old covenant, no one could keep the commandments, so everyone was on the way to hell, hence the ten commandments never saved anyone. They just pointed out how sinful man was, and how badly man needed a Messiah.

In the new covenant, the commandments are here to guide us in love. Jesus says, "If you love me, keep my commandments."

Thanks to Jesus' sacrifice and his grace, when we break a new covenant commandment, all we have to do is say we're sorry, repent, and God forgives.

There's several ways of accomplishng this, depending on your particular faith tradition.

St. Paul speaks about this a lot.

Answer 10

When you are saved by grace you strive to do your best because God knows our true heart. The old testiment must be there for some reason, and we are all sinners but need to strive to follow the ten commandments. The law as far as the Old Testiment concerning going through a priest was broken when the long cloth was torn while Jesus was on the cross has changed. We can now go through Jesus in prayer to God as his blood was shed for us and covers our sins.