Order paperback or hardcover

CHAPTER NINETEEN
IMMOVABLE

According to news reports, a nine-member judicial ethics panel removed Chief Justice Roy Moore from office on Thursday, November 13, 2003, for defying a federal judge's order to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the rotunda of the state Supreme Court building. The controversy surrounding this monument is significant. Supporters of displaying the monument state that it was a violation of the judge's right to acknowledge God in his courtroom when he was ordered to remove it. Further, they state that he is not only free, but also obligated to exercise his right to uphold the truths of the Ten Commandments in his courtroom, because they comprise the foundation of law in the state of Alabama, as well as in the United States judiciary.

Those in favor of the 2.6-ton monument's removal and Moore's disbarment, say that displaying the Judeo-Christian monument in a government building is a violation of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution that states:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

They further claim that his refusal to remove the monument by the deadline, despite the court order to do so, demonstrates that he thinks he is above the very law he claims to uphold.

No matter what anyone's view is on this hotly debated issue, it cannot be denied that we must pay attention. Anytime God's holy law is being discussed, we should be attentive. Also, when people's free exercise of religion is in jeopardy, we must be equally attentive. It is our duty to do our best to preserve an individual's rights to worship the Lord according to the dictates of his or her consciences, as well as making certain that the separation between church and state remains in tact. Historically, whenever civil governments decided how one must worship his or her God, which the first four commandments highlight, persecution ensued. Only the Lord can direct such a delicate balance.

One of the things I have observed is that God's people seem to be unnecessarily confused about His holy Ten Commandment Law. Some people spend lots of time using the term loosely and say that it is the foundation of a civil society; however those same people are often quick to explain away its authority in actual life. Many have decided, based on an unfortunate misunderstanding of the scriptures, to remove it from the "rotunda" of our actual daily lives. They would have us believe that the safeguard God etched in stone with His own finger, signifying its perpetuity, can be abridged or nailed to the cross of Christ despite the fact that He came to uphold it (Psalms 40:8; John 15:10). In fact, in your spare time, you might want to look at a picture of the controversial monument Roy Moore passionately defended. Compare it to the commandments of Exodus 20 and see if there is anything missing or different. You may be amazed.

Here is the point in context of this book: If we profess to love the Lord by wearing the name of Christ, we would be remiss to relegate the truths of His immovable law to the Old Testament. We would be equally remiss to relegate its importance to a politically charged debate concerning an abridged display in a courtroom rotunda. The Lord says, "Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them" Psalms 119:165. Our decision to love the protection God has implanted in the transcript of His own divine character will determine if we love Him and have the peace that He freely gives. This peace can be found in His promise to the heirs of salvation in whom He also implants His truth and sealed it with His own precious blood (Galatians 3:26-29).

Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. Jeremiah 31:31-34

During the reign of a Medo-Persian king named Darius, the faithful prophet, Daniel, served as a special advisor in the royal courts. For many years, evil men sought ways to destroy Daniel, because his stark dedication to God was offensive to their irreverent lifestyles.

At one point, the king's presidents and princes devised a diabolical plan to accomplish their objective of destroying Daniel. Because they knew that his custom was to pray only to the God of heaven, they convinced the king to sign a decree stating that anyone who did not exclusively worship the king should be cast into the den of lions. They said to the king, "Now, O king, establish the decree, and sign the writing, that it be not changed, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not. Wherefore King Darius signed the writing and the decree." (Daniel 6:8-9). They knew that even the king could not change the law.

The enemies of Daniel's God came to the king when they witnessed Daniel's predictable homage to God and charged him with the crime of not worshipping the king.

Then the king, when he heard these words, was sore displeased with himself, and set his heart on Daniel to deliver him: and he laboured till the going down of the sun to deliver him. Then these men assembled unto the king, and said unto the king, Know, O king, that the law of the Medes and Persians is, that no decree nor statute which the king establisheth may be changed. Then the king commanded, and they brought Daniel, and cast him into the den of lions. Now the king spake and said unto Daniel, Thy God whom thou servest continually, he will deliver thee. Daniel 6:14-16

In the end, God delivered Daniel just as the king had hoped.

The plots of evil people to persecute God's people continued even until Jesus' day. One day at a party that King Herod hosted, his niece came in to dance for him and his guests. Since he was drunk and well pleased, he told her to ask for anything she wanted and he would grant her wish. She consulted her mother, Herodias, who was angry with John the Baptist for reproving her unlawful marriage to the king and so she asked for the head of John the Baptist.

And the king was exceeding sorry; yet for his oath's sake, and for their sakes which sat with him, he would not reject her. And immediately the king sent an executioner, and commanded his head to be brought: and he went and beheaded him in the prison. Mark 6:26, 27

Here we have two examples of kings who were obligated to follow evil edicts because the laws were irreversible. Even the kings could not abrogate their own laws. In these cases, the laws were evil and devised to hurt the cause of God. God's law is different.

Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin" Romans 7:12, 14. Just as a king could not change their evil laws, the King of kings cannot change His holy law, which He set in place for our protection. Matthew 5:17, 18

Just as the offense of the laws of human kings bring the consequence of physical death, so the unrepented of offenses of God's holy law bring eternal death.

The fact that God's law is immovable brings stability to the universe. It is the foundation of His government. Otherwise, safeguards would not exist to ensure a blissful eternity. Sin is the violation of God's law and a holy God cannot tolerate it (1 John 3:4; Romans 6:23). The blessing in all of this is that, while God does not change His law in order to free those He loves from the penalty of transgression, He does provide the perfect plan to satisfy justice and also deliver offenders from eternal death.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. John 3:16-17

If God's law were changeable, Jesus would not have needed to die for our sins. No, God cannot change His law, but He can?and did?take the punishment that we deserve in order to give us the righteous reward that we do not deserve.

For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Romans 8:3-4

The peace of every creature depends on God's rule of law and His demonstration of love through redemption. When these two powerful forces remain in tact in the hearts and minds of His people, we are inoculated against spiritual anarchy and eternal death. Moreover, we are better able to appreciate the blessed gift He gave through His Son Jesus Christ.