It is virtually impossible to fully reflect the influence that the Bible has had on so many nations around the world.   Many books could be written on this subject and still not exhaust the many ways that God’s Word has influenced so many people and nations over a long and sustained period of time.   However, in an increasingly secular and disbelieving world, its contents are ridiculed by many as being irrelevant and out-of-date, but how wrong are they who believe such things.   The Word of God has much to say to those who would mock and ridicule its relevance and veracity. We read in Proverbs 1:7: “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, But fools despise wisdom and instruction.”

Because of the enormity of the subject and to help us achieve this in a relatively brief way, we will quote selectively from different sources to make the point that the Bible has impacted society enormously; much more than we may at first realise.

The Guinness Book of Records states as of June 2020, the following:

“Although it is impossible to obtain exact figures, there is little doubt that the Bible is the world’s best-selling and most widely distributed book. A survey by the Bible Society concluded that around 2.5 billion copies were printed between 1815 and 1975, but more recent estimates put the number at more than 5 billion.

“By the end of 1995, combined global sales of Today’s English Version (Good News) New Testament and Bible (copyright for which is held by the Bible Societies) exceeded 17.75 million copies, and the whole Bible had been translated into 349 languages; 2,123 languages have at least one book of the Bible in that language.”

The influence of the Bible on society has been important throughout history. As the 18^th century philosopher Immanuel Kant wrote, “The existence of the Bible, as a book for people, is the greatest benefit that the human race has ever experienced.  Every attempt to belittle it is a crime against humanity.”

On the website crossfire-it.info, we read the following:

“The Bible in English Culture”:

“A unifying factor

“The Bible has been a significant component of English life for many centuries, particularly since the publication of the Authorized Version of the Bible in 1611, with which every citizen was expected to be familiar. It has contributed to developments in civil life, the arts and science.

“Influence on the law

“The Bible features heavily in the architecture and decoration of the Houses of Parliament paying silent tribute to its significance in English jurisprudence. Many old parish churches still have copies of the Ten Commandments on the walls, underlining the importance of the Bible for providing the moral cohesion of society. Most British law is ultimately derived from the codes of law within the Bible, of which the Ten Commandments is pre-eminent. The equality of all people before the law is another of its legacies.

“Cultural influence

“The Bible has for centuries fired and filled the imaginations of artists of all genres. The great masters – the painters of the European Renaissance and those who followed them- frequently re-presented the great stories of the Bible, including the annunciation, birth, baptism, and temptations of Jesus at the beginning of his ministry, the Last Supper and the crucifixion, followed by scenes of his resurrection. Sculptors have portrayed its characters such as Michael Angelo’s David or Epstein’s Jacob.”

To clarify at this point, we are in no way endorsing depictions of Jesus Christ, as they violate God’s Second Commandment. We just quote these excerpts to show the influence the Bible has had even on artists, however inappropriate their depictions might have been. Continuing:

“Words and music

“The Bible is the main source of inspiration for some of Britain’s greatest works of literature such as Milton’s Paradise Lost or John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress. The foundations of English theatre were laid by medieval plays based on biblical events. Frequently biblical teachings are the sub text of Shakespeare’s plays, which often refer to them. Even when authors may have been hardly conscious of the connections, the Bible’s phrases have enriched their language and its themes provided them with avenues of exploration.

“Many composers have produced major works exploring biblical accounts, such as Handel’s Elijah and The Messiah, or more recently Jesus Christ Superstar, GodSpell and Joseph and the Technicolour Dream Coat.”

Again, this is just quoted to show the impact the Bible has had on composers, without endorsing some of those pieces. Continuing:

“The Bible and science

 “Most people imagine that there is an inevitable conflict between Genesis and Darwin’s theory of evolution, but right from the start there have been ministers and biblical scholars who have supported his essential insights, and scientists who have challenged them, as continues today.

“More fundamentally, there is a strong case for claiming that it is the consistency and coherence of the biblical understanding of God, and the reliability of the universe which follows from this, which provided a substantial contribution to the development of the Enlightenment and the sciences which have flowed from it. From a philosophical standpoint these fundamental assumptions are a necessary foundation for science.”

There can be no doubt, however, that Darwinism and the teaching of the Bible are incompatible. Any attempt to reconcile the two is doomed to failure. Continuing:

“Wider social impact

 “The Bible has also contributed to the wider cultural and social context in the United Kingdom.  In short the social institutions and safeguards, as well as many of the benefits people take for granted, were supported by the understanding of human life which was found within the Bible. In this sense, the foundations of Britain’s culture and society can truly be said to be biblical.

“The Bible and the environment

 “Today, as people are facing ever more clearly the perceived threats of global warming (there are protagonists on both sides of this argument), the Bible, with its vision of man’s position within creation and responsibility under God to care properly for it, still has a major contribution to make to the future of all humankind.”

However, society in the 21^st century has strayed so far from the ways of God that even the very basic understanding of biblical knowledge seems far beyond the man in the street.   We read the ideal in Joshua 8:35: “There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded which Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel, with the women, the little ones, and the strangers who were living among them.”

It is worth mentioning that a programme on BBC radio called “Desert Island Discs,” which was first broadcast on 29 January 1942, is still running today. The format is that each week a guest, called ‘a castaway’ during the programme, is invited to choose eight pieces of music, a book (in addition to the Bible – or a religious text appropriate to that person’s beliefs – and the Complete Works of Shakespeare) and a luxury item that they would take to an imaginary desert island, where they will be marooned indefinitely. In 1942, a copy of the Bible was considered a necessity, and even in 2020 where our society is much more secular now, the Bible is actually still on the list to be given out!

The following was taken from an article in the Washington Times on Thursday, December 11^th 2014:

“Every year two million visitors file past the famed Liberty Bell in Philadelphia. As they look at the cracked bell, they read these words: “Proclaim LIBERTY throughout all the Land unto all the Inhabitants thereof.” The inscription comes from the Bible (Leviticus 25:10).

“When presidents of the United States raise their right hand to take the oath of office at their inauguration, they place their left hand on a copy of the Bible.

“When Martin Luther King stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D. C., and delivered his famous ‘I Have a Dream’ speech, he said, ‘We will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.’ Those words come directly from the Bible (Amos 5:24).

“Why does the Bible appear in these places? Because it is the central and foundational book of Western culture, including American culture. Everywhere we turn in the cultural past, we find the Bible. We cannot avoid it if we tried, and we will not understand our past without a knowledge of the Bible.

“George Lindbeck, former professor of theology at Yale University, once described the cultural position of the Bible in American culture this way: ‘Its stories, images, conceptual patterns, and turns of phrase permeated the culture from top to bottom. This was true even for illiterates and those who did not go to church, for knowledge of the Bible was transmitted not only directly by its reading, hearing, and ritual enactment, but also indirectly by an interwoven net of intellectual, literary, artistic, folkloric, and proverbial traditions. There was a time when every educated person, no matter how professedly unbelieving or secular, knew the actual text from Genesis to Revelation.’

“The evidences of this cultural influence permeated every sphere of life. Theodore Roosevelt correctly observed of the English Bible that ‘no other book of any kind ever written in English has ever so affected the whole life of a people.’

“When American pioneers rode westward with two books in their covered wagons, they signaled the foundational importance of those two books for the civilization that they hoped to preserve amid circumstances that threatened it. The two books were the King James Bible and the complete works of William Shakespeare. Part of what was being preserved was a standard of excellence for the English language.

“Among the cultural influences of the Bible, none is more obvious than literature. English and American literature scarcely exist apart from the Bible. Titles of literary works can be regarded as the tip of the iceberg: The Power and the Glory. Measure for Measure. The Sun Also Rises. East of Eden. Absalom, Absalom. Evil under the Sun. Literary scholar T. R. Henn has written that the Bible ‘becomes one with the Western tradition, because it is its single greatest source.’

“An obvious conclusion to be drawn from the centrality of the Bible in literature is that the Bible should be part of every literature curriculum. In fact, Northrop Frye, the most influential literary scholar of the second half of the twentieth century, believed that the Bible should form the basis of literary education. He famously wrote that ‘the Bible should be taught so early and so thoroughly that it sinks straight to the bottom of the mind, where everything that comes along later can settle on it.’ Frye’s vision was never fully realized, but it remains a beacon toward which we can aspire.”

(To Be Continued)

Lead Writer: Brian Gale (United Kingdom)

Following on from the previous two instalments of this series, we continue to review and respond to the antinomianism arguments set forth by the adherents of this belief system, claiming that the law is dead; look at where some who don’t espouse this “understanding” can go wrong; and come to the biblical conclusion on the matter.

Edgar Andrews is another supporter of antinomianism. He wrote: “As regards sanctification, the law can be accorded no special place today in the life of the believer, that is, no place over and above [his emphasis] the rest of Scripture. To suggest that the ten commandments are in some special way the Christian’s rule of life does an injustice to the whole body of New Testament teaching on Christian conduct.” Commenting on Galatians 5:18, he writes: “Had Paul intended to teach that the law, or any part of it, should be the Christian’s rule of life, here was his opportunity to do so. What does he say? He tells us that those led by the Spirit are not beholden to the law with respect to righteous living. Indeed, he seems to go further; being led by the Spirit and being ruled by the law are mutually exclusive in the area of Christian conduct” (compare Welwyn Commentary on Galatians).

OUR RESPONSE:

In our booklet, “Paul’s Letter to the Galatians – How to Understand It!”, we quote Galatians 5:15-18 and explain this passage on pages 58-59:

“‘(Verse 15) But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. (Verse 16) This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. (Verse 17) For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. (Verse 18) But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.’

“Paul describes again (especially in verse 17) two ways of life, as he had done earlier in his allegory of the two covenants. We can choose to walk in the Spirit (verse 16), which will motivate and empower us to KEEP the law of love, and when we do, we will not fulfill the lust of the flesh which will induce us to sin and to break the law (compare 1 John 3:4: “Sin is the transgression of the law.”)’

“But if we chose, instead, to walk in the flesh, we don’t show love, but selfishness, and we will engage in biting and devouring one another (verse 15). Vincent’s Word Studies adds: “Partisan strife will be fatal to the Christian community as a whole. The organic life of the body will be destroyed by its own members.’

“And Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible says: ‘… in their contentions they would destroy the spirituality and happiness of each other; their characters would be ruined; and the church be overthrown. The readiest way to destroy the spirituality of a church, and to annihilate the influence of religion, is to excite a spirit of contention.’

“To walk in the Spirit and not in the flesh is a constant struggle, as Paul explains in verse 17. There is a battle going on in our minds between God’s Spirit and our fleshly desires. And as Abraham had to cast out the bondwoman, so we have to cast out those fleshly desires. When we are led by God’s Spirit and do the things which are pleasing in God’s sight, we are no longer “under the law” (verse 18). When we walk after the Spirit and are led by it, we will keep the law. And since and as long as we don’t break it, we are not under the penalty of the law.”

Rather than being silent on the law or doing away with it, Paul makes it very clear that we must keep it if we want to walk in the Spirit.

Another supporter of antinomianism is Christopher Bennett. He wrote: “The Mosaic law was an expression of God’s holiness in terms of Israel, one nation long ago, and in terms of the people of God in their immature state before Christ came. It is fulfilled by Jesus, both in his life and death, and in his teaching and that of the apostles… The law of Moses, including the ten commandments, is not the direct set of regulations for the Christian – we are not under it any more. Instead we are obliged to obey Jesus’ commands, the ‘law of Christ’(Article in Foundations: Not under law, but not without God’s law).

OUR RESPONSE:

“Not under law, but not without God’s law,” says this writer. If by this he means that we are not under the penalty of the law but have God’s spiritual law which we must follow, then that “puzzling” phrase can be understood; otherwise he makes very little sense.

Jesus said to that He had not come to do away with the law (see Matthew 5:17-20) and he also counselled the rich young ruler to “keep the commandments” where he quoted a number of them (see Matthew 19:16-19). As was pointed out in Dave Harris’ recent Editorial, “Loved and Kept,”  “The Worldwide English (New Testament) presents Matthew 5:17 this way: ‘Do not think that I have come to take away the law and the writings of the prophets. No, I have not come to take them away. But I have come to do what they say must be done.’”

Further, when answering a question from the religious elite at that time, we read the following exchange when a lawyer asked Him: “‘Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?’  Jesus said to him, ‘“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’  This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like it: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets’” (Matthew 22:36-40).

It simply could not be clearer; the first four of the Ten Commandments show our love for God and the final six show our love for fellow man in spite of the current theological stance taken by many “learned” theologians who think otherwise.   This has been the teaching of the Church of God throughout its existence.

Jesus, as the God of the Old Testament, gave the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20, and in Exodus 31:18 we read: “And when He had made an end of speaking with him on Mount Sinai, He gave Moses two tablets of the Testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God.” (Also see Exodus 32:16).  We read in Revelation 15:5: “After these things I looked, and behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened.”   This testimony is mentioned in Exodus 25:21-22, and 40:20-21, which was placed inside the ark. The ark, in turn, was placed in the tabernacle in the wilderness and later the temple.  If the 10 Commandments were no longer relevant, why would they be in heaven as referred to in Revelation 15:5? After all, the tabernacle and its contents under Moses were patterned after the heavenly tabernacle.

Richard Brooks, previously mentioned, states in his answers to “what is ‘antinomianism’?” that the word itself was first coined, he understood, by Luther. He goes on to say:

“A tendency of both antinomianism and New Covenant Theology is, quite arbitrarily, to remove the fourth commandment from its nine other companions and argue that it no longer applies. As a result, ‘Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy’ (Exodus 20:8) comes in for its own separate treatment.

“They urge that the Sabbath was an essentially Jewish institution, that in the New Testament the keeping of special days is looked upon negatively, and that the Lord’s Day is mentioned only once (Revelation 1:10—unconnected to the fourth commandment and without any specific directions as to how the day should be observed). It will be seen that they do not accept the principle of ‘the day changed but the Sabbath preserved’ and reject an Old Testament Sabbath/New Testament Lord’s Day tie-up.

“Once again, how do we respond?  The Sabbath is a creation ordinance, predating the law given at Sinai, and so for all mankind at all times and what God sanctifies, it is our business to do all that we can to preserve the holiness of and not let it be profaned;

“So then: are the Ten Commandments for Christians today? Indeed they are. As Jonathan Bayes puts it: ‘They sum up the life of holiness to which we are called. They are the channel for the Spirit’s sanctifying power.’

“Let the Lord Jesus Christ himself have the last word. ‘If ye love me, keep my commandments’ (John 14:15).”

He goes on to say:

“While it is true that the New Testament indicates that Old Testament festal sabbaths were destined for oblivion as fulfilled in Christ (Colossians 2:16). This does not bear directly upon the fourth commandment itself, which stands tall above all those ceremonial occasions.”

OUR RESPONSE:

He misunderstands and comes to a wrong conclusion when addressing Colossians 2:16, which we have written about many times – please see our Q&A titled “Would you please explain the meaning of Colossians 2:16-17?” for a full explanation.   Below is just a part of what is written in this thorough exposition of the correct understanding of this passage of Scripture, which upholds and enjoins the keeping of the weekly and annual Sabbaths:

“Professor Troy Martin wrote an article entitled, ‘But Let Everyone Discern the Body of Christ (Col. 2:17),’ which was published in the Journal of Biblical Literature in the Summer of 1995. In that article, he confirms—based on the Greek structure of the sentence—that the second part of the statement in Colossians 2:16–17 explains who is doing the judging.

“He first points to a parallel passage in 1 Corinthians 10:24 that states: ‘Let no one seek his own, but each one the other’s well being.’ In order to understand this passage correctly, one has to repeat in the second phrase the opposite of the beginning of the first phrase. In other words, the clear and intended meaning of this passage is: ‘Let no one seek his own, but let each one seek the other’s well being.’

“This Scripture is grammatically structured in the same way as Colossians 2:16–17. Therefore, according to Professor Troy in regard to both 1 Corinthians 10:24 and Colossians 2:16–17, ‘The verb judge determines the action that is forbidden [by the first phrase = let no one judge you…] and then enjoined [or commanded, by the second phrase].’

“With this understanding, the sentence in Colossians 2:16–17 has to read this way: ‘So let no one judge you… regarding a festival or Sabbaths…, but let the body of Christ judge you.’”

Mr Brooks, having spent much time repudiating antinomianism, then falls into a common trap when he writes about the weekly Sabbath and the annual Holy Days, and, on the other hand, Sunday, which is NOT a holy day, but merely a workday, the first day of the week: “The principle of ‘the day changed but the Sabbath preserved’ very much applies, the practice being testified to as the New Testament period developed, and the first day of the week having particular (what we might call) ‘New Testament sabbath appropriateness’, following the glorious resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead upon that day.”   We know that Jesus was not resurrected on the first day of the week but towards the end of the true Sabbath – Saturday sunset, and, again we have covered this many times.  Please see our Q&A for a full exposition on the days Jesus was both crucified and resurrected.

There is no biblical evidence to suggest that we ought to keep Sunday holy, either in addition to or in place of the weekly Sabbath—the seventh day of the week. The common argument that we ought to do so because Christ was allegedly resurrected on Sunday fails in that He was resurrected at the end of the Sabbath, and NOT on Sunday. The “inbuilt” repudiation of the weekly and annual Sabbaths which is introduced later in Mr Brook’s whole repudiation of antinomianism is disappointing and shows how error can be slipped into what can be otherwise a very accurate understanding of the subject.   And that is where many can be led astray…

Ken Raggio is very forthright in his condemnation of antinomianism and we quote, selectively (due to space constraints) from his blog as follows:

“Antinomianism would have you believe that the Holy Spirit magically puts both the law and perfect righteousness into your heart without your actually observing any laws or commandments of God, as written in His Holy Word; and that you will become righteous without actually being told what to do… Antinomianism therefore attempts to squash or silence all mention or teaching of the Laws of God, and urges ignorance and rejection of the law.

“The Antinomian preacher insists that God does not see your sins after you believe. He demands that your righteousness miraculously appears like Tinkerbell sprinkles magic dust. He insists that you should NOT concern yourself with knowing God’s laws, or in making ANY attempt to obey God’s laws. You will be made perfect by GRACE alone… Antinomianism is ANARCHY. It is LAWLESSNESS. And that is the Modus Operandi of Lucifer himself.”

Mr Raggio calls antinomianism “absolute hogwash” and mentions two high–profile names (which we omit), and an army of mega-wealthy TV preachers who have discovered that antinomianism sells hotter than iPads and iPhones. They have made hundreds of millions of dollars telling people that Christianity really has no rules. They live in palaces and jet-set all over the world, telling packed arenas full of people that Heaven waits for all those who do nothing more than love Jesus and ignore everything else in the Bible.

CONCLUSION:

Christianity has spawned theologians who simply don’t love the Ten Commandments as God said they should.  No amount of theological “legerdemain”; i.e., sleight of hand, deceitful cleverness or trickery can change the clear teaching of the entire Bible that we must keep the Commandments of God.     The twisting of Scripture is a practice that is condemned by God (see 2 Peter 3:16-17; 1 John 2:26; 1 John 4:1; Galatians 1:6-9).

We have provided much material in our Q&A’s, booklets and sermons over the years showing that the people of God are to be commandment-keeping people, the views of dissenting theologians notwithstanding.   These further three Q&A’s are reinforcing that understanding for the people of God and those others who may be coming into the knowledge of the Truth.

We have also printed a booklet entitled “God’s Law… or God’s Grace?” where we read on page 6: “The teaching of the Bible is consistent. In order to inherit eternal life, we must keep God’s law—the Ten Commandments—as well as the statutes and judgments that further define and explain the Ten Commandments. Christ did not come to ‘fulfill’ the law by doing away with it or by destroying it. Rather, Christ came to ‘fulfill’ the law by making it more honorable (Isaiah 42:21), by MAGNIFYING it, by showing us HOW to obey it both in the letter AND in the SPIRIT. This includes ALL of God’s commandments, including the Fourth Commandment, which enjoins us to keep God’s Sabbath holy (Exodus 20:8).”

It is astonishing that a few of those who argue against antinomianism may themselves be guilty of the very thing they seem to be against, by seeming to substitute the 10 Commandments for some other vague law which usually finishes up as some sort of variation on the 10 Commandments themselves.  In addition, the 4^th Commandment is acknowledged by some but changed to become a “1st day of the week” Sabbath!

1 John 2:3-4 reads: “Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.  He who says, ‘I know Him,’ and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.”

1 John 3:4 reads: “Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law” (Authorized Version), and in the New King James Bible, it reads: “Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.”

And there we have it!

For much more information, please read our free booklet, “The Ten Commandments.” 

Lead Writer: Brian Gale (United Kingdom)

In the first part of this series, we discussed that antinomian is one who takes the principle of “salvation by faith and divine grace” to the point of asserting that the saved are not bound to follow the moral law contained in the Ten Commandments. As mentioned, the Bible refers to the Ten Commandments as the “spiritual law,” not the “moral law.” In this second part of this series, we will look at additional arguments put forward by those who fall into this category.

From the “Banner of Truth” website, the author gives further information about others who have their own say, in their own way.   He states: “In order to have as clear a view as we can of the present confusion, it is important to let some of the leading contributors to it be ‘heard’ in their own words.” Below are these together with our observations.

Statements of some of the leading contributors:

“John Reisinger… is one of the major exponents of New Covenant Theology. One of the chapter headings in his book Tablets of Stone is this: ‘The Tablets of Stone, or Ten Commandments, as a Covenant Document, Had a Historical Beginning and a Historical End’. He writes: ‘The Bible always considers the Tablets of Stone [i.e., ten commandments] as the specific covenant document that established the nation of Israel as a body politic at Mount Sinai’. ‘The Scripture nowhere states or infers that we are to think of the Tablets of Stone as “God’s eternal unchanging moral law”. We are always to think “Old Covenant.”’”

OUR RESPONSE:

The author confuses the “tablets of stone” with the “old covenant.” As we explain in our free booklet, “And Lawlessness Will Abound,” and in our recent 7-part series of Q&As on the topic of covenants, the Law of the Ten Commandments and the “old covenant” (whatever covenant is described or identified as the “old covenant”) are by no means identical. We also explain in our booklet:

“… a covenant is something altogether different from the law. A covenant is based on law–it does not bring law into existence. And when a covenant ceases to be in force, that has absolutely no influence on the validity or invalidity of the law, on which the covenant was based. A covenant is simply an agreement, and the parties can decide that the agreement is no longer valid. Unless the lawgiver revokes the law on which the covenant is based, the law continues to be in effect.”

Let us briefly review our Q&A entitled “Would you please explain the two covenants, as mentioned in Galatians 4:21-31? Doesn’t this passage teach that the Old Covenant with all of its Old Testament laws was abolished and is no longer in force and effect?”:

“In order to fully comprehend what Paul is referring to with his symbolism or allegory (compare Galatians 4:24), we must carefully review the context. We should note, first of all, to whom Paul is writing. The letter is addressed to ‘the Galatians’ — non-Jewish peoples who had come to the faith. These peoples never were part of the Old Testament relationship between God and the ancient nation of Israel. They were never part of the Old Covenant. IF Paul had in mind to address the so-called ‘Old’ and ‘New’ Covenants in Galatians 4, then his concluding statement in Galatians 5:1 would make little sense. There, he says: ‘Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled AGAIN with a yoke of bondage.’

“Most commentaries say that Paul used his allegory to show that the Old Testament laws were abolished. They reason that Christ came to set us free from the ‘bondage’ of the Old Testament law. However, as we prove in our booklet, “And Lawlessness Will Abound,” Christ did not do anything of the kind. He did NOT come to do away with the Ten Commandments, and the statutes and judgments which define the Ten Commandments even further. Paul taught the Gentiles to keep the Sabbath. He taught them to follow him, as he followed Christ, and Paul kept the Sabbath, as did Christ. Paul taught the Gentiles on the Sabbath. Paul could not possibly have told the Galatians that they were no longer under the ‘bondage’ of the Old Testament law, when he told them not to be entangled AGAIN with a yoke of bondage. Whatever that yoke of bondage is, it is something the Galatians were entangled with before— and they were never ‘entangled’ with the Old Testament laws and covenants.

“Even IF Paul had in mind the abolition of the Old Covenant, that still would not mean that he was also stating that God’s law was no longer in force.”

In Jeremiah 31:31-34, we read: “Behold, the days are coming,’ says the Lord, when 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 lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord.   But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.   No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

Richard C. Barcellos (“In Defense of the Decalogue”) explains this Scripture in this way:  “The law under the new covenant is God’s law… This promised blessing of the new covenant of the law written on the heart is to be enjoyed by the whole new covenant community… God is both the author of the law itself and the one who writes it on the heart.” He concludes: “The text of Jeremiah clearly assumes that the law of God under the new covenant is referring to a law that was already written at the time of writing of Jeremiah… Jeremiah clearly teaches that the law of God under the new covenant is a law that was written on stone by God and that will be written on hearts by God’. In other words: identical law. The law was first written upon tables of stone, whereas the great work of the Holy Spirit is to write it upon the table of the heart.”

Another writer trying to dismiss and reject God’s Law is Michael Eaton. He states:

“Christians are in no way under this tyrannical figure, the law” (Westminster Record). “If you walk in the Spirit deliberately you will fulfil the Mosaic law accidentally” (How to Live a Godly Life).

OUR RESPONSE – This is such a ridiculous assertion that the law is a tyrannical figure.  Merriam Webster Dictionary’s definition of tyrannical is: “…being or characteristic of a tyrant or tyranny: DESPOTIC”   How can the Law of God fit into such a description?   Romans 7:12 gives the opposite description: “Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.”

Continuing with another proponent of antinomianism is R T Kendall who wrote: “The moral law is not the Christian’s code of conduct, for true godliness is never to be achieved by being under the moral law. It will make you a legalist – long-faced, grouchy, without joy or peace” (sermon preached at Westminster Chapel). He claims that the Law of Christ is “a much higher law than the moral law, far more demanding. It presents a far greater challenge than the moral law, which is really the easy way out. It’s just so easy to keep the moral law and hate the Law of Christ” (Westminster Record).

OUR RESPONSE:

How can the Law of Christ be more demanding than The Ten Commandments?   Such theologians do not understand that the God of the Old Testament was the Logos who became Jesus Christ.   It was He who gave the Ten Commandments and He mentioned them as the commandments to be kept when He answered questions when He was here on earth – please review Matthew 19:16-19; 22:37-40; Mark 10:17-19; Luke 18:18-20.

It is significant that those who hate the Law of God try to undermine those who do love God’s Law and keep it as King David did: “Oh, how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day” (Psalm 119:97).  Such people are derided and can be called long-faced, grouchy, without joy or peace. It is a way of undermining the Truth and those who adhere to God’s clear instructions.

Another writer who rejects God’s Law is Gerald Coates, who wrote: “When the believer properly fulfils the royal law of love for God and neighbour, he renders the law obsolete” (What on Earth is this Kingdom).

OUR RESPONSE:

This is such a ridiculous and at the same incongruent and contradictory argument. The law is not obsolete (see Mathew 5:17-19).  Verse 18 of this passage is particularly significant: “For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.”

Mr Coates, like so many, talks in riddles.  As we have said, love for God and love for fellow man is enshrined in the Ten Commandments.   They are one and the same but some refuse to acknowledge this.

Peter Meney is the editor of New Focus. He strenuously refutes any accusation of antinomianism, in the light of some editions of the magazine having “questioned the emphasis in some quarters on the ten commandments and their role in the life of a believer”. He writes: “… despite rumours to the contrary we regard the law of God to be holy, just and good.” He urges “that Christians are not duty bound to the ten commandments” but that “it does not follow that there are no objective laws, or rules for Christian living. There are. For these we enlist all of Scripture as our final authority and inerrant guide, interpreted and displayed in the life and teaching of our precious Lord Jesus and his apostles… We believe in the unconditional acceptance of a sinner with God on the sole basis of Jesus Christ’s blood and righteousness without reference to works and acts of obedience on the part of the believer. We believe that this assurance, personally received, is the only effective motive for holy living.”

OUR RESPONSE:

Even though Peter Meney refutes the “accusation” that he is a proponent of antinomianism, his statements quoted above prove that he is. These are duplicitous and contradictory remarks.  He refutes any accusation of antinomianism but says that Christians are not duty bound to the Ten Commandments.   He follows this up by saying, “it does not follow that there are no objective laws, or rules for Christian living.”   This is ridiculous.   He further asserts: “We believe in the unconditional acceptance of a sinner with God on the sole basis of Jesus Christ’s blood and righteousness without reference to works and acts of obedience on the part of the believer.”   Perhaps he ought to look at Acts 2:38 which reads: “Then Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’”   Repentance is required, and that is an act of obedience in itself.   We then have to live a life of keeping the Commandments, as Jesus, Himself, taught.

Don Fortner is the last example in this instalment of a person who is antagonistic to the Law of God and a proponent of antinomianism and the “New Covenant Theology.” He argues as follows:

“Those who tell us that believers are under the law as a rule of life have a hard time proving their position from the New Testament. This is because every statement about the believer and the law in the entire New Testament asserts exactly what Paul says in Romans 6:14 – ‘ye are not under the law’!…

“If you are a believer, if you trust Christ, you are not under the law for justification, for sanctification, for holiness, or for any other reason. This is the teaching of the New Testament. It is simply wrong for Christian ministers and teachers to bind believers to the law as a rule of life and conduct….

“The believer’s rule of life is not one section of Scripture but the whole revealed will of God in holy Scripture” (the New Focus website).

“The law of God is holy and just and good. But it becomes a very great evil when it is perverted and used for something other than its divine purpose… The law of God has but one singular purpose. It exposes man’s guilt before God, shutting him up to faith in Christ alone for salvation… To use the law for any other purpose is to pervert and abuse the law… When true love reigns in the heart there is no need for law.

“Not only is it unwise, it is a sinful practice, contrary to the faith of the gospel, for a believer to make the law a basis for his life before God” (Grace for Today).

 OUR RESPONSE:

The remarks by Don Fortner show a terrible ignorance and misunderstanding of the biblical teaching as to what it means that we are no longer “under the law.” We have this to say in our free booklet, “And Lawlessness Will Abound,” on page 18:

“… Others quote Romans 6:14, stating that we are no longer ‘under law but under grace,’ saying this means we don’t have to obey the law anymore. However, the correct meaning of this passage is that when we violate the law, we are no longer under the curse of the law—the death penalty—as the blood of Christ, given to us by grace, has covered and forgiven our sins—has paid the death penalty that we earned. Paul explains in the very next verse (verse 15), that this does not mean that we can now continue to sin—that is, to break God’s law. Rather, we are now to be ‘slaves of righteousness’ (verse 18), in keeping God’s law.”

Mr Fortner comes to an unbelievable conclusion when he writes: “Not only is it unwise, it is a sinful practice, contrary to the faith of the gospel, for a believer to make the law a basis for his life before God.” He ignores, either on purpose or because he simply doesn’t understand the many Scriptures that show that a believer has to keep the Law and that Jesus, the founder of Christianity, preached this obedience message too. For an in-depth discussion of this vital and salvational question, please read our free booklet, “God’s Law… or God’s Grace?”

Christ will reject those at His return who claim that they practiced “Christianity,” but instead practiced “lawlessness” (Matthew 7:23).  The Amplified Bible writes: “.. depart from Me, you who act wickedly—disregarding My commands.” The revidierte Lutherbibel 2017 says: “… depart from Me who transgress the law.” And John adds in 1 John 2:4: “He who says, ‘I know Him,’ and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.”

(To be continued)

Lead Writer: Brian Gale (United Kingdom)

It is an unusual word in that it is not in common usage in everyday life.   However, the understanding of its meaning is vital to the true Christian.   It is pronounced as “an-tin-o-mi-an-ism”.

Wikipedia observes as follows:

“Antinomianism (Ancient Greek: ἀντί, ‘against’ and νόμος, ‘law’) is any view which rejects laws or legalism, and argues against moral, religious or social norms (Latin: mores), or is at least considered to do so. The term has both religious and secular meanings.

“In some Christian belief systems, an antinomian is one who takes the principle of salvation by faith and divine grace to the point of asserting that the saved are not bound to follow the moral law contained in The Commandments.

“The distinction between antinomian and other Christian views on moral law is that antinomians believe that obedience to the law is motivated by an internal principle flowing from belief rather than from any external compulsion.”

In short, it is a doctrine by which Christians are freed by grace and need not obey the law.

In our booklet “Biblical Prophecy—From Now Until Forever,” we read the following on pages 3-4 where Jesus was talking about religious deception as described in Matthew 24:

“Christ responded in verses 4 and 5 by warning them against religious deception, stating that many would come in His name, proclaiming that He was the Christ, yet their messages would be deceiving. This deception actually began shortly after Christ’s resurrection and the birth of the New Testament Church. The apostle Paul would later say that there were many of his time who preached another gospel and another Jesus (2 Corinthians 11:4; Galatians 1:6)—one who had come to do away with the law of God. By the time of the destruction of the temple, much of the truth had been lost due to false teachings that had entered the Church. Subsequently, John was compelled to emphasize that anyone who would proclaim God but refuse to keep His law would be a liar, and no truth would be in him (1 John 2:4).

“The religious deception that Christ warned against would be ongoing. Even in the end time, just prior to and during the Great Tribulation…, religious deception would abound (verses 11, 24; compare Mark 13:22).”

In the introduction in our booklet, “And Lawlessness Will Abound,” we state:

“Almost two thousand years ago, Jesus Christ, under the inspiration of God the Father, prophesied that the very last generation of mankind would be so evil and wicked that it would be willing to even destroy ‘all flesh’ in a worldwide war (Matthew 24:22). At that time of impending cosmocide ‘the love of many’—even in God’s Church—’will grow cold’ (Matthew 24:12). There is a reason for such indifference and God tells us in the same verse what the reason is, ‘…because lawlessness will abound.’

“At that very time it will be as if people were to say, ‘The law is no more!’ (Lamentations 2:9). Instead, they will have been misled by the ‘mystery of lawlessness’ (2 Thessalonians 2:7). This mysterious concept was already at work in the days of the apostle Paul but it grew worse and worse over the centuries. The overwhelming majority, not having ‘received the love of the truth,’ will accept, support and even worship that man, thinking that he is God (2 Thessalonians 2:10).

“How could this be, given the fact that most people, especially in the Western World, are professing Christians, and as such, supposedly embrace the teachings of the Bible? Don’t they agree with, and keep, the fundamental and, we might say, constitutional law of the Bible, the Ten Commandments as well as God’s statutes and judgments that further define and explain the Ten Commandments? How could professing Christians be referred to in the Bible as people who follow ‘lawlessness’?”

“Most professing Christians do not believe that the Ten Commandments are still in force and effect, so they don’t see a need to keep them—neither in the letter, nor in “spirit and in truth” (John 4:24).”

It is fundamental, as we will see, to understand that the keeping of the Law of God is not something that we can make up in our own minds or some twisting of Scriptures to prove a different version of the Law to suit our own leanings.   It can be seen on the internet that a number of sources state that an antinomian is one who takes the principle of salvation by faith and divine grace to the point of asserting that the saved are not bound to follow the “moral law” contained in the Ten Commandments and they condemn this approach. In passing, the Bible nowhere speaks of the “moral law,” but it says that the Law is “spiritual” (Romans 7:14). They then contradict themselves by accepting their own form of understanding rather than taking the Ten Commandments at face value as the rule of law that we must keep.   Some even infer that those who keep the Ten Commandments are legalists!

On the website Christianity.com, we read their answer to the question: “What Is Legalism?  Definition and Examples”:

“Legalism exists when people attempt to secure righteousness in God’s sight by good works. Legalists believe that they can earn or merit God’s approval by performing the requirements of the law,” Thomas R. Schreiner said a legalist believes that their good works and obedience to God affects their salvation. Legalism focuses on God’s laws more than relationship with God. It keeps external laws without a truly submitted heart. And legalism adds human rules to divine laws and treats them as divine.”

The problem arises in mainstream Christianity that anyone who asserts that the Law of God has to be kept, can immediately be defined as a legalist and, quite probably they will belong to a cult.   This is often used just to try and further their antagonism to those who are, in actual fact, obedient to the Word of God.

To bring a practical everyday example of (often deliberate) misrepresentation is the word “homophobe”.  The Merriam Webster Dictionary defines this word as: “irrational fear of, aversion to, or discrimination against homosexuality or gay people.”   Others may use slightly different or varied definitions, but the above definition is commonplace today and anyone opposing homosexuality, and quoting the Bible which describes this behaviour as perversion, is almost always vilified.   In other words, man’s definition is better and more acceptable today than the definition of the great Creator God!   What most people do today is misrepresent, on purpose, or through ignorance, what is a wrong interpretation.  A true Christian will not hate homosexuals, but disagree with their behaviour because God states that it is a perverse and wrong behaviour.  However, that usually doesn’t fit in with those who want to vilify anyone who does not approve of this wrong behaviour!

A typical, clever, response can be found on many websites that opine as follows:

“The moral law God expects us to obey is the law of Christ—’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets’ (Matthew 22:37-40). If we love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, we will do nothing to displease Him. If we love our neighbors as ourselves, we will do nothing to harm them.”

In essence, they quote nine of the Ten Commandments but don’t agree with the 4^th Commandment which is to keep the Sabbath day holy.   Those keeping the weekly Sabbath and the annual Holy Days, which are also called Sabbaths, are seen as legalists whereas God describes these days as His days as we read in Leviticus 23:1-2: “And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘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.  Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work on it; it is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings.”’”

We are the New Testament Israel today—“spiritual Israel”—and this still applies to the people of God in 2022.   If there is anyone reading this Q&A who is not familiar with our teachings on keeping God’s weekly and annual Holy Days, please see the many Q&A’s on the same subject, and also see the following free booklets:

• How to Keep the Sabbath
• Is That in the Bible? Man’s Holidays or God’s Holy Days
• The Meaning of God’s Spring Holy Days
• The Meaning of God’s Fall Holy Days
• The Ten Commandments

Another “clever” answer by an internet blogger is: “So now we live, not by being forgiven our constant shortcomings, but by being out of the law’s bailiwick altogether; not by imitating Christ, the archetypal practitioner of holy obedience to God’s law, but by burrowing ever deeper into the joy of our free justification, and of our knowledge that Christ himself actually does in us all that his and our Father wants us to do.”

Let us allow Scripture to answer some of the above.

In the model prayer, Jesus says that: “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.  But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Matthew 6:14-15).

Also, “Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ,” said the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 11:1.

In the past, there have been members of the Church of God who have known the Truth but have succumbed to false teaching and the ways of this world which is a very dangerous spiritual state to be in.   It is described this way in 2 Peter 2:20-22: “For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: ‘A dog returns to his own vomit,’ and, ‘a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire.’”

We know that those who interpret the plain Truth of Scripture in a different way to the Church of God will unlikely be persuaded to the Truth; but, it is our desire to strengthen Church members in the right knowledge of God as well as those who are genuinely seeking the Truth.

(To be continued)

Lead Writer: Brian Gale (United Kingdom)

Until very recently, this would have seemed a really stupid thing to ask as we should all know the answer.   Throughout the history of mankind, for some 6,000 years, there is no record of this question needing to be answered because male and female genders were clearly understood.

On the website zfacts.com, we read: “The woke position currently amounts to this: women should not talk about themselves as an identity group. That group is apparently now politically incorrect and undeserving of a name, especially undeserving of its old and well-respected name.”  It goes on to say that “woke ideology (but not woke individuals) should be erased. Claiming to be woke — alert to injustice — is just a cover for authoritarian excess.”

However, it seems that this is an ongoing issue and one outcome is the confusion concerning the use of gender-neutral toilets.

Wikipedia writes under the heading of “transgender” the following:

“Transgender people have a gender identity or gender expression that differs from the sex that they were assigned at birth.   Some transgender people who desire medical assistance to transition from one sex to another identify as transsexual.  Transgender, often shortened as trans, is also an umbrella term; in addition to including people whose gender identity is the opposite of their assigned sex (trans men and trans women), it may also include people who are non-binary or genderqueer.”

And then comes along the “trans” lobby and a nominee for the US Supreme Court who said she couldn’t define what a woman is.

Quoting from thefederalist.com, we read the following:

“Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, who was nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court by President Joe Biden in large part because of her sex, said she couldn’t define what a woman is on Tuesday during her confirmation hearings.

“Jackson was chosen to replace retiring Justice Stephen Breyer in fulfillment of Biden’s identity politics pledge to install a black woman on the Supreme Court. Despite those reasons for her nomination, Jackson stumbled through giving a definition of ‘woman’ when Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn asked the straightforward question. ‘Can you provide a definition for the word “woman”?’ Blackburn asked during the hearing. ‘No, I can’t,’ Jackson said after confirming the question.

“The progressive judge claimed she was unable to provide a definition because ‘I’m not a biologist.’ ‘The meaning of the word woman is so unclear and controversial that you can’t give me a definition?’ Blackburn pressed. ‘Senator, in my work as a judge, what I do is I address disputes. If there’s a dispute about a definition, people make arguments, and I look at the law and I decide,’ Jackson said.

“As Blackburn noted in her response, the fact that Jackson couldn’t give ‘a straight answer about something as fundamental as what a woman is underscores the dangers of the kind of progressive education that we are hearing about.”

It is worth repeating that exchange to show how common sense is so under threat from the woke brigade and the liberal left.

And it doesn’t stop there.

Kirrin Medcalf, head of trans inclusion at the controversial LGBT lobby group, made the following comments during an employment tribunal hearing when he was asked, “Do you define women as anyone, including men who say they are women?”  Medcalf replied, “Bodies are not inherently male or female. They are just their bodies.”

It appears that we can read from the comments of some “luminaries” that there is no longer a definition of what a woman is, and that bodies are not inherently male or female.

In our 2018 booklet, “God’s Teachings on Sexual Relationships,” we covered much information including all of the wrong sexual practices that the world now, in general, seems to approve of in direct opposition to what the great Creator God instituted when man was formed some 6,000 years ago.   On page 111 of this booklet, we write as follows under the headline “God Created Male and Female”:

“The Bible is very clear on this matter. We previously discussed in this booklet that God created human beings as man and woman (Genesis 1:27–28; 5:2; Matthew 19:4–6)—two genders with no other variation—and told them to be fruitful and multiply. That cannot happen with a number of wrong sexual practices that exist today.”

God is not the author of confusion (1 Corinthians 14:33), but Satan the devil is.   We read in John 8:44:

“You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.”

Wherever there are problems, and the world is full of them, it can be guaranteed that our adversary, Satan the devil, will be in the mix somewhere.

In the Washington Examiner on 22^nd March 2022, the headline read: “It’s not just Jackson: Even scientists and ‘philosophers of biology’ can’t define what a woman is, says USA Today.”

As Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson cannot define what a woman is nor, apparently, can “scientists and ‘philosophers of biology’”, let us educate them all on this matter.

Wikipedia (amongst others) gives the following information:

“A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or adolescent). The plural women is sometimes used in certain phrases such as ‘women’s rights’ to denote female humans regardless of age.

“Typically, women have two X chromosomes and are capable of pregnancy and giving birth from puberty until menopause. Female anatomy is distinguished from male anatomy by the female reproductive system, which includes the ovaries, fallopian tubes, uterus, vagina and vulva. The adult female pelvis is wider, the hips broader, and the breasts larger than that of adult males. Women have significantly less facial and other body hair, have a higher body fat composition, and are on average shorter and less muscular than men.”

In spite of what man might be trying to engineer, only women can conceive and give birth to children.

In the first book of the Bible, the book of Genesis, we read in Genesis 1:26-28: “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’  So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.  Then God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’”

We appreciate that there is so much antagonism towards the Word of God today where the numbers of believers in an all-powerful Creator God seem to reduce by the year, but that, in no way, negates the Truth that it contains. Had God not made male and female, the only two genders that there are, none of us would be here today.

Trends, styles, crazes, fashions and fads will come and go but the Word of God, the Holy Bible, is constant in its instructions and guidance.   It defines who we are, what we are, and what we can look forward to in the soon-coming Kingdom of God.   When we take notice of the Bible, we reap the rewards of its unending urging, direction and answers.

In 2 Timothy 3:15-17, the apostle Paul wrote to Timothy: “…from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.   All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

Taking note of what the Almighty says is of far more importance and infinitely wiser than listening to the thoughts and musings of fallible men and women who come up with their own theories, philosophies and considerations.

God says that He created a man and a woman, and they were to multiply on the face of the earth, and they have done and are doing that.

And that has been achieved with just two genders, male and female.

God has designed male and female as both equal and different.   Both have different roles in life.   We read in Titus 2:3-5: “…the older women likewise [are to] be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things— that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed.”

Of course, that doesn’t go down well with the “women’s lib” movement, but it is taken from the Word of God which is written for the good of mankind, and there are many other Scriptures which attest further to the roles of men, women and children.

In short, a woman marries a man, bears children where possible, nurtures and protects her family, is a homemaker and a support for her husband.   He, in return, has the responsibility to provide for his family in the best way possible.  There are biological and emotional differences, and they complement each other as God ordained it so.

Proverbs 31:10-31, which is a wonderful description of a virtuous woman, would be a good starting point for anyone to read, particularly those who can’t define what a woman is and those who ridiculously state that “bodies are not inherently male or female.”  However, that would probably be a leap too far to ask strident, God-defying people to look at, or review anything other than their own perceived wisdom.

That’s a shame because they could learn much from the Word of God!

Lead Writer: Brian Gale (United Kingdom)

The literal act of littering is not directly and expressly addressed in the Bible, but neither are such areas as smoking, vaccinations and other matters. But there are many principles that show that we can learn from God’s Word even if a specific area cannot be found in Scripture.

 We will find out in this Q&A that littering is something that we must take seriously. There may be those who see this question and think that it is so obvious that it need not be addressed in the Church of God. But it does because we can all fall short in this area even though it may be considered a little thing.  After all, Christ said: “He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much” (Luke 16:10).  As a spin-off to littering, we will also address neatness and tidiness.

Life is made up of many small things, and we do need to take those small things seriously.

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines litter as: “trash, wastepaper, or garbage lying scattered about; an untidy accumulation of objects.”

Let us bring to mind how big a problem this can be.  It was reported in July 2019 that the “Glastonbury (music) Festival has been left with a sea of litter left to be cleaned up – just hours after Sir David Attenborough appeared on the Pyramid stage to praise the festival’s anti-plastic campaign. But some were left asking about Glastonbury’s ‘Plastic free’ mantra as photos showed the devastating mess left in the wake of the world’s most famous festival.

“Around 1,300 volunteers are taking on the gargantuan task, using bin bags from recycled plastic to hand sort debris left on the ground and across the festival site’s 15,000 bins.  The clean-up of the festival takes an estimated six-weeks to complete.”

Mr Armstrong, the late human leader of the now defunct Worldwide Church of God, used to comment on the yearly Rose Parade in Pasadena as one of the most beautiful things this world was able to offer, but also bemoaned the terrible amount of trash and litter being left behind after the event, saying that in this world, even the most beautiful things are being polluted and defiled.

There was a series of programmes on British television in 2021 about the workings of Chatsworth House showing all that goes on behind the scenes as well as the facilities that are available. The Church held the annual Feast of Tabernacles at this site for 10 years between 1999-2009 in what is a truly millennial setting.  However, one day that it was opened to the public during different lockdowns during 2020, an area was designated for use by those wishing to have a picnic.   The amount of waste left was staggering with many staff taking hours just to clean up the area.

We read on the website trashhero.org the following: “Litter is what we call trash when it ends up outside a bin or landfill.  Litter is bad for animals and people. Plastic waste suffocates, disables and kills thousands of animals each year. Litter is dirty and spoils our environment.

“Turtles, seals, birds and dolphins often mistake plastic waste for food. Plastic bags floating in the water can look like jellyfish, for example. After animals eat plastic, their intestines get blocked and their normal food can’t be digested properly. If they eat too much plastic, their stomachs always feel full, so they don’t eat anything else. Eventually they can starve to death. Plastic also contains lots of nasty chemicals that can poison animals and cause internal injuries.

“Animals often get entangled in plastic bags. This means they can suffocate, starve or drown. It also makes it easier for predators to catch them. Plastic bags constrict an animal’s movement which means they can get exhausted, or sometimes develop an infection from wounds caused by material wrapped around them. Plastic packaging can sink to the ocean floor, get wrapped around and smother coral reefs. Inland, plastic blocks drains, allowing mosquitoes to breed and spread dengue fever. Litter makes the beach look dirty. Sharp objects like broken glass can cut your feet. Because of this, there may be fewer visitors and local people will have less income from tourism.”

We should be able to see that litter is a real problem which so many seem to treat with disdain or contempt.

In an article by the Los Angeles Times, dated April 14, 2022, the following was stated:

“The Los Angeles City Council passed two motions… to address illegal dumping on the streets and in vacant lots of trash and junk like appliances, furniture, tires and other waste… ‘We live in a very trashy city,’ [Councilmember Kevin] de León said… ‘In terms of a large metropolitan city, we are the trashiest largest city in America.’ The city controller’s office reported last year that illegal dumping of trash, debris and hazardous items in public areas increased 450% between 2016 and 2020.”

Let us review a few Scriptures which reflect the Way of God.

In Genesis 2:15, right at beginning of civilization, we read: “Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it.”

In bibleref.com, we read: “One of the most important lessons which jumps out from this verse is that immediately after he was created, the first man had a God-given purpose. God placed him into the paradise of the garden of Eden with a job to do. God had created a world which included work needing to be done; He created man with a mission to do that work. Logically, God didn’t need to structure the world in this way. He could have created a world that was fully self-sustaining. He could have made human beings to simply live in luxury and enjoy all of God’s creation without ever having to contribute anything. That, however, was not God’s design. Even before [human] sin entered the world, human beings were meant to work, to help to accomplish God’s purpose. That is built into us.”

We should note what the angels say to God about those who pollute and destroy the environment: “We give You thanks, O LORD God Almighty… Your wrath has come, And the time… that you… should destroy those who destroy the earth” (Revelation 11:17-18).

Likewise, today we are not to dismiss looking after our gardens, if we have one.  To keep it neat, tidy and functional is the way that we are expected to deal with this.

In Matthew 7:12, we read about how we should treat others: “Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.”  Those who leave litter on someone else’s grounds would probably not appreciate others littering their own place. Therefore, we should treat other people’s property with the respect that we would ourselves expect to receive.

There is a graphic example in Mark 6:38-44 with Jesus and the loaves and fishes as we read: ^“But He said to them, ‘How many loaves do you have? Go and see.’  And when they found out they said, ‘Five, and two fish.’ Then He commanded them to make them all sit down in groups on the green grass.   So they sat down in ranks, in hundreds and in fifties.   And when He had taken the five loaves and the two fish, He looked up to heaven, blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to His disciples to set before them; and the two fish He divided among them all.   So they all ate and were filled.   And they took up twelve baskets full of fragments and of the fish.  Now those who had eaten the loaves were about five thousand men.”

They didn’t leave all the fragments for others to clear up as would probably happen today, but they cleared up after the event. Of course, Christ made clear that He wanted the fragments to be gathered up “so that nothing is lost” (John 6:12). In addition, picking up food from the ground might not have been very hygienic.   Perhaps showing the magnitude of the miracle that 5,000 men plus women and children had been fed with five loaves and two fish was astonishing only to be compounded even further by the amount of fragments that had been left.   It also showed that littering was not the way it should be and they would have left the area in the same way that they had found it. It is a good principle not to leave a place dirtier than how we found it.

We see the aspect of service that is not in evidence when serving others is not shown.  In Galatians 5:13 we read: “For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.”   Loving and serving others is not manifested by selfishly leaving a pile of litter for others to dispose of.

Looking after the interests of others is clearly shown in Philippians 2:3-4: “Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better [higher] than himself.  Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.”

Do we as the people of God engage in littering of any kind?   Have we ever carelessly discarded a food wrapper or an empty drink can?  If there are no bins for depositing such rubbish, then we are obliged to take these home or to another place where they may be disposed of in the right way.  Have we ever thrown a discarded item out of our car window?

Have we ever engaged in some form of fly-tipping which is the illegal dumping of liquid or solid waste on land or in water?  The waste is usually dumped to avoid disposal costs and such a mess  that is created by such selfishness, has to be dealt with by others.

Do we always pick up after our dog once it has done its “business” on the front yard of somebody else’s property? After all, it isn’t exactly the most enjoyable chore we’ll ever engage in. It can be tempting to skip this task, but doing so may even be illegal in many places.

Part of rebellious mankind’s modus operandi is that man thinks that he can do exactly as he pleases without regard to planet Earth or any of his fellow human beings.   It is an attitude that is ugly and uncaring, and we must ensure that we don’t slip into doing the same thing, perhaps even thoughtlessly.

The above examples are a part of being neat and tidy.   Are our homes untidy, maybe even scruffy?   Of course, for some who have illness or disability problems, this can be a difficult area to keep control of.   We know that where there is dirt and litter, vermin can be attracted to such areas, and so it is vital that we eliminate any possibility of this happening in our own homes.   And home is where we spend the majority of our time, and so, why shouldn’t it be a delightful place to dwell?

A good question to ask is, are we always prepared for any visitors to enter our home or do we have to specifically prepare well in advance?   For those who are always clean, neat and tidy and keep their home that way, there is no such concern for any unexpected visit. Of course, we understand that there might be and oftentimes are valid exceptions, but we are speaking in general terms.

One website wrote about “Messy Home, Messy Life, Messy Saint” and observed: “And, your yard. What do you announce to the neighborhood about yourself if there is trash all around? Hoses wind around like green spaghetti. The flower pots still have desiccated geraniums in them that were killed last fall by freezing weather. Clean it up, and throw away the stupid stuff which you once thought you might use. And, if much of the junk is your kids’ stuff, make them help you. If your kids are too mean spirited to clean up their own trash, you are not raising them– they are raising YOU.”   Very straightforward advice but true to those who have eyes to see and ears to hear.

Let us think about heaven, God’s abode.   Of course, it is spiritual and not physical, and we really can only wonder about the spiritual realm but would the One who created the universe and everything we see, be dirty, untidy and uncaring about presentation?   We should all know the answer to that question and, as we are to be growing in grace and knowledge to become more like God, we would surely want to follow Him in all His ways.

God would surely disapprove of anyone leaving His creation in an untidy mess with trash and general litter marring the beauty that is our planet and it makes unnecessary work for others to do when we should be doing this ourselves.  Anything that reduces or inhibits the proper enjoyment and full use of our God-given environment will not be met with God’s approval. Leaving rubbish for others to clear up is selfish and unthinking.

What sort of message does it send out to the young people growing up today when their parents and family just throw rubbish anywhere they want?   And when they take little or no interest in keeping their home, clean, tidy and litter-free?

It is interesting that the Singapore project has produced amazing results showing that attacking the littering problem can be very advantageous.  We read the following in an article by the BBC::

“Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, there were campaigns that urged Singaporeans to keep toilets, factories and bus stops clean. The 1976 Use Your Hands campaign had students, parents, teachers, principals and civil servants cleaning up schools at the weekend. There were also numerous tree planting initiatives. The aim wasn’t just to make the city more pleasant. A cleaner city, Lee Kuan Yew reasoned, would create a stronger economy. ‘These standards will keep morale high, sickness rate low, and so create the necessary social conditions for higher economic growth in industry and in tourism. This will contribute to the public good, and in the end to everyone’s personal benefit,’ he said.

“On all of these counts, Singapore has done well. Life expectancy has grown from 66 to 83 (which is third best globally). In 1967, tourist arrivals were a little over 200,000 compared to a just shy of 10 million for the first three quarters of 2018. Inward foreign direct investment ballooned from US$93m in 1970 to US$39bn in 2010. It’s now the fifth largest recipient of, foreign direct investment receiving $66bn in 2017.”

Doing the right thing will always produce good results, as we see in the above example.   For anyone visiting Singapore, they will see a litter-free environment as littering is very heavily punished.  People have been “trained” not to litter and to keep things neat and tidy, and it is a joy to see this actually working, which is in great contrast to the many nations of the world who have little or no control on such matters.

There is no specific command in the Bible not to litter but if there was, it would probably be ignored by most people like all of the other Commandments of God are.  We shouldn’t litter because it is not the Way of God, nor is it helpful to man as we have seen.   Let us be the best example we can be to all people and do that which is pleasing in His sight.

If you have read this and feel that you have not been guilty or are totally on top of this matter, then congratulations to you.   Most will surely be able to identify with being slack in this area at times, and if that is so, then maybe this presentation may be just the nudge that you need!

Let us make ourselves a committee of one to ensure that we are not part of this problem and that we always set the best possible example!

Lead Writer: Brian Gale (United Kingdom)