The Ten Commandments (Part 1)

Fred McKinney

In the Old Testament Law of Moses, there are 613 Commandments. By way of grievous error, the religious world around us, and the general population, have discarded 603 of those commandments, the statutes, and judgments. In Deuteronomy 7:11 and 8:1, the Lord said, “Every commandment which I command you, today, you must be careful to observe, that you may live.” These words are repeated in Deuteronomy 8:11 and 10:13. Over and over the Israelites were reminded to observe ALL of the rules and regulations of the Law of Moses, the LAW of God covenanted ONLY with the Israelites. (Deuteronomy 11:32, 12:1). Circumcision of the HEART was a necessity in the lives of the Israelites (Deuteronomy 10:16). With keeping the commandments, God then promised blessings upon His children (Deuteronomy 11:13-28).

The Israelites and ONLY the Israelites were commanded to tithe (Deuteronomy 14:22-23). In like manner, the keeping of the three feasts, the Passover, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Tabernacles, were given to ONLY the Israelites (Deuteronomy 16:1-17). There were laws considered as miscellaneous laws; however, even the miscellaneous laws were not merely ceremonial rules that were relatively speaking, “unimportant”. The summary of the entire package of regulations and rules, all 613 statutes, judgments and commandments were binding to distinguish the special people of God (Deuteronomy 26:16-19). In the New Testament, the book of James, 2:10, offers divine commentary, “For whoever shall keep the whole law (613 commands) and yet stumble in one point (613 - 1 = 612 obeyed commands) is guilty of all.” Ignorance shall not prevail when arguing that being guilty of one makes a person guilty of all. For it was a covenanted package, therefore, the contract was broken, null and void, because the terms of agreement were violated. Compare this to Olympic Game Rules where one of the athletes is found guilty of using steroids. There are many Olympic rules, and he or she may have broken only one rule by so doing. But by breaking one rule only, the ultimate result would be the same as breaking every one of the rules. The rules stand or fall together. Disqualification applies and the rights of the athlete are thereby forfeited.

The argument of so called Christians that believe they are going to go to Heaven because they keep the Ten Commandments, but none of the other 603 commandments, is an argument that utterly fails the test of the Holy Scriptures. They are binding on themselves a recipe for disaster. The argument of binding only the 10 Commandments upon the Israelites utterly conflicts with God’s Word a thousand times over. ALL of the Hebrew people knew better than that; for they were repeatedly instructed about what to do, and what would happen if they chose to do otherwise. And no less ignorance and futility is in view when Gentiles claim they are pleasing God by binding ONLY 10 of the 613 Commandments. Nehemiah 9:13-14 says God made a covenant with them. Specifically, a Sabbath Day was with Israel ONLY. Following only 10 of 613 Commandments makes about as much sense as following a treasure map with a dozen markers to locate where the treasure is buried; you complete step one and two and skip the rest of the instructions. And you start digging a hole to China and coming up empty. It would be like trying to open a pad lock on a locker with three numbers. You dial the first number, skip the others, and expect to gain access while trusting that getting one number correct will be plenty good enough!