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Refreshment in Refuge

    by Gina Burgess

Ten Commandments to lose first four?
Date Posted: March 17, 2013

There was a story last year that hardly caused a ripple in the new media. Very few news outlets took up the story, and hardly any followed it through to the “end”. Judge Michael F. Urbanski offered a tentative settlement between ACLU and a school district of just removing the first four commands of the Ten Commandments to make the document more palatable to the ACLU..

The case was ordered into mediation. In June of 2012, the school board not only voted to take down the Ten Commandments at the high school, but also in every other school in Giles County, Virginia. Then, after the "agreement", the school board was ordered to pay the ACLU more than $6,000 in their out-of-pocket expenses, all while the identity of the student and parents who started the fracas remained secret.

There are framed documents depicting American law and government of which one is the Ten Commandments. Whether they can see it or not, whether they like it or not, there is no changing the fact that the Ten Commandments played a major role in the development of United States law, in fact in the laws of any nation. The judge felt comfortable removing the first four commands because those dealt with the vertical relationship between God and Man. Earthly law deals with the horizontal relationships between Men.

Our forefathers are rolling in their graves, so to speak, at what America puts first. Our nation was built on Biblical principles by Christian men and women. One has only to do a bit of reading of historical speeches and writings of John Hancock, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Adams, and many others to know that the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Matthew, Mark, Peter, Paul and John was also the God of our forefathers. Nonetheless, today the battle cry is not “A Bible in every house” (Ben Franklin). It is “King size it” and “I’ll have it my way” for “If it feels good, do it” and “Just do it” because “I deserve a break today.” Regardless of lessons from times past, Americans have not learned how to let history be a teacher.

From as far back in time as 1689 when our ancestors dissented against England’s tyrannical ruling thumb, troubles abounded so the rebels rebelled. But, they all looked to one God. In 1775, John Adams said, “We recognize no sovereign but God, and no king but Jesus!” Inscribed in the front of Thomas Jefferson’s personal bible, “I am a real Christian, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus. I have little doubt that our whole country will soon be rallied to the unity of our creator.” He may have written in a letter something about the separation of church and state because of the freedom to worship God in the way it pleased each person, but he crafted one of the most famous documents in world history declaring our inalienably rights come from God Himself. George Washington said, “It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible.” Abraham Lincoln said, “I am busily engaged in study of the Bible.” Patrick Henry quoted both Matthew and Jeremiah in the very speech he cried, “Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!” Unfortunately, it is only the last that is usually quoted or remembered.

Our founding fathers knew who to lean on, who to pray to, who would carry them in times of travails so insidious their lives could have been forfeit. Down through the decades, Americans hark back to those first days of an infant nation, recognizing God as the founder. “It is necessary for the welfare of the nation that men’s lives be based on the principles of the Bible. No man, educated or uneducated, can afford to be ignorant of the Bible,” so said Theodore Roosevelt. President John F. Kennedy said, “The rights of man come not from the state but from the hand of God.” When the astronauts of Apollo 13 faced certain death, President Richard Nixon called for all Americans to pray for them. It wasn’t to pray to Fortune, or to Destiny, or to any other god, but to the Lord God Almighty. After 9/11, all of Congress, representatives and senators alike, gathered on the steps in the sun and prayed with one heart to the one true God to protect our nation. They prayed to God who laid America’s foundation on the bedrock of Jesus His Son.

The heart of biblical principles which is now called The Ten Commandments is the red in the Red, White, and Blue because of the bloodshed for freedom from tyranny. It is the white because of its purity, and the blue because of the truth of God's blessing on this Christian nation.

So this time, the Ten Commandments remain intact, but are removed from view, only to be replaced by a picture of the tablets with a single sentence about them. Christians sit by and allow God’s word to be scrubbed. American sleep while our heritage is being rewritten. Lord Jesus come quickly, we need you!


Read more: http://refreshmentrefuge.blogspot.com/2012/05/ten-commandments-to-lose-first-4.html#ixzz2Nizeav8X

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Biography Information:

Gina Burgess has taught Sunday School and Discipleship Training for almost three decades. (Don't tell her that makes her old.) She earned her Master's in Communication in 2013.

She is the author of several books including: When Christians Hurt Christians, The Crowns of the Believers and others available in online bookstores. She authors several columns, using her God-given talent to shine a light in a dark world. You can browse her blog at Refreshment In Refuge.

If you'd like to take a look at some Christian fiction and Christian non-fiction book reviews check out Gina's book reviews at Upon

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