A 6-foot-tall granite monument of the Ten Commandments, erected in 2012, now lay knocked over and smashed by a man who says the devil made him do it. He subsequently made threats against the U.S. President and the federal government. The man has admitted he is mentally ill and had stopped taking his medications.
For many years, certain Christian groups have worked to have the Ten Commandments displayed at the statehouse as a commemoration to a document that influenced the nation’s history. Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin said the monument will be rebuilt since it has “historical significance … in guiding our own laws and lives.” [1]
Soon after the monument’s debut, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed suit that the giant stone violates the separation of church and state. Additionally, while the local Satanic Temple has condemned the man’s actions, it wants a monument of its own set up near the Ten Commandments.
“If our monument stands at the state Capitol, we want it to complement and contrast the Ten Commandments, with both standing unmolested as a testament to American religious freedom and tolerance.” [2]
The Bible describes Satan’s ongoing effort to destroy God’s law since before our world was created. From his seducing lie to Eve in Eden to the very end of time, the devil speaks “pompous words” against God’s government “and shall intend to change times and law” (Daniel 7:25). It has always been his strategy to deceive the whole world about God’s law (Revelation 12:9).
Yet those who await the second coming of Jesus are described as keeping “the commandments of God” (Revelation 12:17). They live in harmony with Christ who said, “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill” (Matthew 5:17). They obey Jesus’ call, “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15).
Even though thousands condemn in their hearts the actions of the deranged man who drove his car into the Ten Commandments monument, millions more quietly walk over God’s law and say that it is no longer binding. The apostle Paul predicts that before Christ’s coming the “man of sin” will come. “The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders” (2 Thessalonians 2:3, 9, emphasis added).
Are you driving over God’s commandments with your own life?
If you’d like to learn more about what the Bible says
about the Ten Commandments, click here.