Should we Keep the Ten Commandments?

Should we still follow the Ten Commandments? If so, all of them? I have heard several arguments about how we are now free from YHWHs law and we no longer need to worry about doing any of these things that were from the “old testament.” These arguments state something along the lines of this, Christians only need to love God with all of their heart and love their neighbor as themselves. I agree that these things are what we are supposed to do. But I think there is more to it than that.

Jesus says the most important commandment is that we love YHWH with all of our hearts. So, what does that mean? How do we DO this? It is my opinion that we do this is by being obedient to Him by following His word.

Let’s take into account a few scriptures concerning these things.

1 John 5: 1-3

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. ² This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. ³ In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, 

This passage is referring to BOTH the Father and the Son. These verses clearly point out that God wants us to keep his commandments. Verse three, goes so far as to say exactly what is expected to show love for God, “to keep his commands”.

John 14: 12 & 15

12 Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 

15 If you love me, keep my commands.

These two verses are the words of Yeshua (Jesus). In both of them He is telling us to follow His example by keeping His commandments.

2 John 1: 6

And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.

Again we can see that to show love is to be obedient. Christ tells us what “His” commandments are in the book of Matthew

Matthew 22: 37-40

‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ ³⁸ This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁴⁰ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

I believe that Christ came to teach love. I also believe that we are saved through grace by faith alone. That being said, Christ wants us to love YHWH with all of our heart, mind, and soul. The bible tells us how to do so. My question here is this, are the two commands given by Christ different than the ten given by YHWH in the Old Testament?

The first four commandments from the Old Testaments are these…

You shall have no other Gods before me.

You shall not make any carved images of anything in heaven, on the earth, or under the water of the earth, or bow down to or serve any of these images.

Do NOT take YHWHs name in vain.

Remember the Sabbath day.

In just these first four, I think we can sum up what Jesus was saying when He said the first commandment was to love YHWH with all your heart. YHWH does not want us worshiping other gods; that seems pretty straight forward. We cannot allow ourselves to become so glamorized by anything that we start putting it first in our lives. Many people do this with money, in our society today. I am sure there are other things as well, but money is definitely the biggest problem in this area.

The second is not to make any carved images. I would suggest when YHWH put forth this commandment He was referring to the fallen angels that had previously been on the earth. They had come from the sky, many cultures knew them as “sky people” or “star people” and they allowed themselves to be worshipped as gods. Greece, to this day, still has many statues of these ancient “gods” standing all over the country. I also have witnessed certain religious groups bowing and praying to a statue of “mother Mary.” I would suggest this is not something that is pleasing to YHWH. Christianity also has sects that bow to an image of the cross. This one is hard for me personally. I don’t necessarily bow or pray to the image of the cross, but I have been raised to think that the cross symbolizes everything Christ did for all of mankind to ensure that the believers in Him would have eternal salvation.  

As for using YHWH’s name in vain, this is a tough one to try to understand. I do NOT believe that He even cares about the phrase “God damn it”. I say this for several reasons. The first being God’s name is NOT God, but rather YHWH which is pronounced something like Yahweh. Second, damning something simply means to condemn it. Therefore, asking God to condemn something doesn’t seem to be all that unbiblical. The book of Psalms we read of the people asking for YHWH to condemn their enemies. I found this excerpt written by C Michael Patton in 2007 that takes into consideration the time frame and events of what was happening during the time of the exodus. I feel he does a good job at explaining what taking YHWH’s name in vain really means.

“The nations to which the Israelites were going had many gods. They were highly superstitious. Their prophets would often use the name of their god in pronouncements. The usage could be in a curse, hex, or even a blessing. They would use the name of their god, to give their statements whatever they may be, authority. To pronounce something in their own name would not have given their words much weight, but to pronounce something in the name of a god meant that people would listen and fear. They may have said, “In the name of Baal, there will be no rain for 40 days.” Or “In the name of Marduk, I say that you will win this battle.” This gave the prophet much power and authority. But, as we know, there is no Baal or Marduk. Since this is the case, they did not really make such pronouncement and therefore the words of the prophet had no authority and should neither have been praised nor feared.

God was attempting to prevent the Israelites from doing the same thing. God was saying for them not to use His name like the nations used the names of their gods. He did not want them to use His name to invoke false authority behind pronouncements. In essence, God did not want the Israelites to say that He said something that He had not said. This makes sense. God has a reputation to protect. He does not want anyone saying “Thus sayeth the Lord” if the Lord had not spoken. All of you have experienced this. You have had people say you said something you did not say. This can be very damaging to your character. It is very destructive to your name. Why? Because it makes you out to be something that you are not. How much more important is it for God to protect His character? It is fitting that God would have put this as one of the ten most important commandments as the nation of Israel moved towards Canaan.”

Remembering the Sabbath day seems to be the biggest problem western Christians have with following the Ten Commandments as we know them. The reason I put commandment number four in with loving YHWH with all your heart is because remembering the Sabbath seems to be VERY important to Him. The Sabbath day IS the day He said all should rest. This includes, man, woman, children, slaves and animals. NO work should be done on this day. The reason this has become a problem for western Christians is because they are influenced so heavily by the Catholic version of Christianity. Saturday is the seventh day; therefore, it IS the actual Sabbath day. I find it amazing that this is the ONLY commandment that starts with the word “REMEMBER”. YHWH knew what He was doing when He gave these commandments to Moses. He knew that one way or another; man would “forget” which day to celebrate the Sabbath. He knew that even those that chose to believe in Him would have trouble keeping this day holy.

The last five commandments from the Old Testament are these….

Honor your Father and Mother

Do not murder

Do not commit adultery

Do not steal

Do not bear false witness

Do not covet

It is my belief that these six commandments sum up the second commandment given by Yeshua, to love your neighbor as yourself.

Honoring your father and mother seems pretty open and closed. They are the first people we know once we come into this world. They are our bedroom neighbors for the first 18 years of our lives. Honoring them sets the foundation for our lives as far as learning how to love our neighbors. YHWY also has this to say about commandment number five.

Exodus 20: 12

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

By honoring them, YHWH grants us a long life. So obeying this one not only pleases YHWH and Christ, but also allows us a longer life.

Do not commit murder is pretty basic. If you love someone you will not murder them; even those that you are not particularly fond of. I also want to point out that the commandment states not to murder, which is different than to kill. I have heard people claim that if we kill someone in a car accident, or in some other unpreventable way, or even in self defense, then we have broken this commandment. Murder is quite different than killing. Murdering someone entails premeditation or a plan to kill.

Committing adultery not only is sinful for you but also for the person you are having sex with. A man that discovers that another man is sleeping with his wife will become enraged.

Proverbs 6: 32-34

³² But the man who commits adultery is an utter fool,
    for he destroys himself.

³³ He will be wounded and disgraced.
    His shame will never be erased.
³⁴ For the woman’s jealous husband will be furious,
    and he will show no mercy when he takes revenge.

            Yeshua also has something to say about adultery, that makes this sin less avoidable.

Matthew 5: 28

²⁸ But I say, anyone who even looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

James 1: 14-15

¹⁴ Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. ¹⁵ These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death.

            As we can see, if we allow ourselves to be tempted by the flesh, we invite the possibility of sinful actions. This is why Yeshua says we have already sinned if we look upon a woman with lustful eyes.

Stealing from anyone causes them pain and emptiness. It violates a person’s comfort levels and their feelings of security. Causing this level of discomfort to any person definitely is a breach of the second command of Yeshua.

            Do not bear false witness. What does this mean? Plainly put, it is lying. Lying in a manner that directly causes someone else pain or suffering. This could mean claiming someone broke the law, when in fact you know it was not this person. Again we can see how breaking this commandment goes directly against the second commandment of Yeshua.

            Covet: an intense longing to posses something that is not yours. To covet anything carries with it the potential to steal it, or even place it above everything else in your life, including God. This final commandment has the likely-hood to cause you to break both Yeshua’s first and second commands. The previously quoted verse from James 1: 14-15 applies here as well. To covet and allow ourselves to desire something in this way gives birth to sinful actions.

             I have come to conclude, from the several ideas that are floating around the Christian community; these ideas seem to be completely wrong. I have already mentioned them but I would like to repeat it here after you have read my theory on this. Since Christians are saved by grace, we no longer need to observe God’s law. Some of these groups go so far as to say they do not even need to follow the Ten Commandments. I find this troubling, especially since even the “New Testament” seems to point out that we should be following at least the Ten Commandments.

Romans 2: 12-13 (NIV)

¹² All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. ¹³ For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous. 

            The definition of perish according to Google dictionary is this, “suffer death, typically in a violent, sudden, or untimely way.” This is what happens to those that sin apart from the law. It sounds, to me at least, similar to the wrath of God from Revelation. All those who sin UNDER the law, will be judged by the law. These verses go on to say that only hearing the law does not make you righteous in God’s eyes, but rather everyone who OBEYS the law WILL be looked upon as righteous.

Romans 3: 20

²⁰ Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.

            Here we see that following the law will NOT make us righteous, but rather it only serves to convict us, or make us realize that we ARE sinners and we NEED faith to be saved. It does NOT, however, say that we should avoid following the law.

Romans 3: 31

³¹ Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.

            This verse just reiterates the idea that we need faith, but also SHOULD follow YHWH’s law.

Romans 6: 1-2

What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? ² By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?

            One more time, the book of Romans tells us that we should not continue in sin. Even though, Grace becomes greater due to sin. Because we are saved through FAITH by the blood of Christ, we should NOT continue to sin, especially purposefully. 

             I want to end with this excerpt from the book of James

James 2: 21-24

²¹ Don’t you remember that our ancestor Abraham was shown to be right with God by his actions when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? ²² You see his faith and his actions worked together. His actions made his faith complete.²³ And so it happened just as the Scriptures say: “Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.” He was even called the friend of God. ²⁴ So you see, we are shown to be right with God by what we do, not by faith alone.

Passover or Easter

Passover

Before you read this, I must warn you. What I am about to say can be considered quite offensive to some. I intend to expose the religious practices of Easter from their beginnings.

One of the first things that I hear concerning Easter is that it is mentioned in the Bible. I agree that the King James Version does mention the word Easter, but is it talking about the same thing we think of?

Acts 12: 4

And when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him; intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people.

            The word here used for Easter was translated from the Hebrew word pascha (3957). The definition of this word is the Passover feast, Passover lamb. There is no word that means Passover in Greek. This word has only one meaning and it is Passover. Other translations get this correct. Unfortunately, King James did not. Passover is a feast day that was still being celebrated by the first Christian churches. It originated from the book of Exodus.

Leviticus 12: 12-13

‘For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment:  I am the Lord. ¹³ Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

            This feast day is a celebration of life. YHWH passes over all the households in the land which had done those things He had asked of them. It was because they did these things their firstborn(s), animals and children, were saved. The same thing can be said about Yeshua (Jesus) being killed on the Passover day just over 2000 years ago. Again, this is a celebration of life, only this time, it is eternal life.

The verse from Acts takes place roughly ten years after the death of Christ, and does not endorse Easter but rather shows that these early churches were still celebrating the “Jewish” holiday Passover. I quote Jewish because I do not agree that these holidays are only for the Jews, but rather everyone that believes Christ is the son of YHWH. Here’s why…

Leviticus 23: 2

“Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘The feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are My feasts.

            As we can see, even the idea that the feast days are Jewish holidays is incorrect. YHWH says Himself that these feast days are His feasts. That being said, I believe all believers should celebrate them as such.

            I have found several biblical passages that show Yeshua was crucified on Passover.

Luke 22: 1-2

Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread drew near, which is called Passover.² And the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might kill Him, for they feared the people.

            Passover is the first of two holidays that run 8 consecutive days. They have been interchanging concerning their names. Sometimes it is said that the day of Passover is the first day of the Feast of Unleavened bread. Other times it is said that Passover runs for eight days. Either way there are two of YHWH’s Feasts that take place in these eight days.

Mark 14: 1

After two days it was the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take Him by trickery and put Him to death.

            As we can see the Passover was only two days away when the priests and scribes were plotting the death of Yeshua. The next passage even shows the He, Himself knew His time was up on the Passover day.

Matthew 26: 17-18

¹⁷ Now on the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying to Him, “Where do You want us to prepare for You to eat the Passover?”

¹⁸ And He said, “Go into the city to a certain man, and say to him, ‘The Teacher says, “My time is at hand; I will keep the Passover at your house with My disciples.”’”

            My time is at hand. I take this as if he were saying, my time is up. From verse 17 we can clearly see this is the Passover day. One thing I must point out is that the “Jewish” day begins at twilight, or when the third star is spotted in the sky. Passover is the 14 day of the New Year. The first month of the New Year is called Nisan. So Passover is the 14^th day of Nisan. This verse from Exodus is concerning the Passover lamb being sacrificed on the original Passover.

Leviticus 23: 5

⁵ On the fourteenth day of the first month at twilight is the Lord’s Passover. ⁶ And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord; seven days you must eat unleavened bread.  

Exodus 12: 6

⁶ Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight.

            As we can see from both of these passages, twilight starts the new day. We also see another reference to the Feast being YHWH’s and not the Jew’s.

When Yeshua goes and has His Passover meal with the disciples, He does so just after the third star in the sky appearred, or at twilight, making it the beginning of Passover. The next morning, still being the Passover, He would be crucified.

Yeshua rose on First Fruits. First Fruits is the first day of the week after the High Sabbath, which would be the 17^th of Nisan. So if I am correct here, Yeshua was crucified on Wednesday, put into the tomb on what we would call Wednesday night, stayed there, Thursday, Thursday night, Friday, Friday night, Saturday (Sabbath), then rose on what we call Saturday night. However, this would be considered Sunday if it happened just after twilight on Sunday. This would give us the three days and three nights in the tomb that Friday to Sunday does NOT.

Matthew 12: 40

⁴⁰ For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 

            This version of the biblical events makes much more sense than the idea of making Easter out to mean something that it was never meant to be.

Easter

            Now that we know that Passover is all about the death and resurrection of Christ, what exactly are Easter’s origins?

            When we think of Easter, we think about, the early sunrise church service. We think of painting and hiding eggs so that our children can go on an Easter egg hunt. We think of the big juicy ham dinner, and the resurrection. Many people even take part in abstaining from certain types of food they had given up for lent, that will be ending around Easter day.

            Unfortunately, these things had been around for almost 2,000 years before Christ was born. They were ancient Babylonian practices in worship of their god Tammuz, who was brought back from the underworld by his mother/wife Ishtar (Easter is an English translation of the name Ishtar). These same traditions can also be traced back to a Phoenician family worshipping Adonis and Astarte, or a heretic Israelite family honoring the Canaanite Baal and Ashtoreth. This depiction could just as easily represent any number of other immoral, pagan fertility celebrations of death and resurrection—including the modern Easter celebration as it has come to us through the Anglo-Saxon fertility rites of the goddess Eostre or Ostara. These are all the same festivals, separated only by time and culture.

            All of the traditions celebrated around Easter are rooted in pagan religions. Here is a quote from historian Steve Englehart.

“In Babylonia…the goddess of spring was called Ishtar. She was identified with the planet Venus, which, because… [it] rises before the Sun…or sets after it…appears to love the light…In Phoenecia, she became Astarte; in Greece, and in Germany, Ostara.”

I want to point out that this Easter goddess has also been known by the name Ashtoreth. This stands out to me because that is a name that YHWH tells His followers to stay away from.

Judges 2: 13

¹³ They forsook the Lord and served Baal and the Ashtoreths.

1 Samuel 7: 3-4

³ Then Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel, saying, “If you return to the Lord with all your hearts, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths from among you, and prepare your hearts for the Lord, and serve Him only; and He will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines.” ⁴ So the children of Israel put away the Baals and the Ashtoreths, and served the Lord only.

            Messing with this goddess really seems to upset YHWH. It makes me wonder if it is because when the Israelites would worship her along with Baal, maybe they were doing so in the name of YHWH, just as we do today with Easter. Baal is a topic I can get into at a later time. But I do want to mention this. Baal and Ashtoreth are from my understanding a couple. Ashtoreth is worshipped during the spring solstice and Baal is worshipped during the winter solstice, somewhere around December 21^st. Either way, it seems as if Baal is the husband of Ashtoreth.

            The widely-known historian, Will Durant, in his famous and respected work, Story of Civilization, pp. 235, 244-245, writes, “Ishtar [Astarte to the Greeks, Ashtoreth to the Jews]”. So who was Ashtoreth?

                Worship to her included sexual immorality, prostitution, divination, and fortune telling. She is known as the bare breasted fertility goddess. This goddess was also known as the queen of heaven. Many ancient depictions of her show her naked. One of her symbols is the star within a circle, also known as a pentagram. In Greek mythology she was known as Aphrodite. The Encyclopedia Britannica has this to say concerning Ashtoreth, “Through her identification with the Greek Aphrodite and the Roman Venus, Inanna-Ishtar, the queen of heaven, still survives in Roman Catholic iconography - e.g., as the Virgin Mary standing on the moon."

Jeremiah 44: 19 & 23

¹⁹ The women also said, “And when we burned incense to the queen of heaven and poured out drink offerings to her, did we make cakes for her, to worship her, and pour out drink offerings to her without our husbands’permission?”

²³ Because you have burned incense and because you have sinned against the Lord, and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord or walked in His law, in His statutes or in His testimonies, therefore this calamity has happened to you, as at this day.”

            I have one more excerpt from Jeremiah concerning the queen of heaven, and also her husband Baal.

Jeremiah 7: 9-10

⁹ Do you really think you can steal, murder, commit adultery, lie, and burn incense to Baal and all those other new gods of yours,¹⁰ and then come here and stand before me in my Temple and chant, “We are safe!”—only to go right back to all those evils again? 

            It really seems that YHWH does not like His people worshipping other gods. In fact that is His number ONE commandment.

Exodus 20: 3

³ “You shall have no other gods before Me.

            According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, the English term Easter is relating to “Estro, a Teutonic goddess of the rising light of day and spring”.

            I have done a little research and I came across the ancient text of the historian Josephus. He has written some of the pagan practices concerning ancient Ishtar worship.

            Nimrod, from the book of Genesis and the tower of Babel, was punished for his rebellion at the tower. Noah’s son Shem had him killed, and his body cut into many pieces and sent to all surrounding communities as a warning against idolatry. Nimrod’s wife Semiramis claimed that he did not actually die, but instead ascended into heaven and became the Sun god. Of course this would make her a goddess because she was his wife. She later claimed that the moon was a goddess and that she fell from the moon in a giant moon egg and landed in the Euphrates River. Once the egg hatched she emerged as the bare breasted goddess Ishtar. This happened after the first full moon of the spring equinox. This is the time she became known as Ishtar and the egg she fell in became known as Ishtar’s egg. She later claimed to have become pregnant by the rays of the sun (Nimrod as a deity), and gave birth to Tammuz.

            Tammuz became very fond of rabbits. Ishtar made rabbits sacred because the child of the sun god adored them. Tammuz also became a great hunter, just as Nimrod was a great hunter. During his 40^th year while out hunting, he was killed by a wild boar (pig).

            Ishtar implemented the rabbit into her religion after her son’s death, to give tribute to him. They became a sign of sexual desire and fertility. Rabbits are still a sign of sexual desire and fertility today. Think Playboy bunnies.

            Eventually, she became known as the queen of heaven. She went on to create a 40 days of sorrow in her mystery religion. This was practiced every year prior to anniversary of the death of Tammuz. During this 40 day period of Weeping for Tammuz, no meat was to be eaten (meat was given up for 40 days). At the end of the 40 days, a feast was held in which a boar (pig) was killed and eaten. This ham was a representation of the boar that killed Tammuz.

Ezekiel 8: 13-14

¹³ And He said to me, “Turn again, and you will see greater abominations that they are doing.” ¹⁴ So He brought me to the door of the north gate of the Lord’s house; and to my dismay, women were sitting there weeping for Tammuz.

            Once this mystery religion was popular worldwide, every year on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox, a sunrise mass or sacrifice was made to Ishtar. This sacrifice involved the priest of Ishtar impregnating virgins on the altar of Ishtar at sunrise. Those virgins became pregnant and the following year during the same time period, the infants would be sacrificed on the altar, then the priest would dye Ishtar’s eggs in the blood of the killed babies.

            As we can see, everything about Easter is based on a horrific false religion. Easter eggs, bunnies, lent, and ham dinner are all connected with Ishtar and not our salvation. YHWH does not want us to practice this tribute to the untrue goddess of heaven, or her son. 

I am going to end this with a quote from Ephesians….

Ephesians 5: 8-11

⁸ For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light! ⁹ For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true. ¹⁰ Carefully determine what pleases the Lord. ¹¹ Take no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness; instead, expose them.