The Ten Commandments made headlines in the news again.
A chorus of endless “Amens” filled Christian social media posts. But when I ask, “Do you teach them to your children?” Silence reigns.
God’s Assignment: Teach Your Children His Word (linked)
The Scandal of Biblical Illiteracy: It’s Our Problem (linked)
Twenty years before that, the head of a denomination spoke at our church. He offered a ten dollar bill to any child or youth who could tell to him the Ten Commandments in any order or form. Not one child made any attempt at a start. As he put the bill back into his pocket, he noted that he had never been able to give it away in any church where he had preached.
News through the years of monuments, or plaques, or postings of some sort, being removed, always provokes a different Christian chorus. Monuments and postings of various sort give us all much needed reminders.
Yet, my comment encouraging parents to teach their children the Ten Commandments, with a link to the McGuffey’ Reader poem that helps parents with an easy start, was banned. This on a Spurgeon fan site with this meme.
Many Evangelicals wear blinders that only let their eyes see “legalism,” blinding them to the other ditch filled with “antinomians.” No “holy conjunction” here.
Luther, Calvin, Wesley, and other faithful leaders through the centuries battled this in their day.
The Reformation exemplified ‘a regular pattern of presenting the “elements and fundamentals of Christian knowledge and life four times each year”. –John Dillenberger
On the Ten Commandments:
ZEITGEIST 