Body: | The 10 Commandments are called "Statutes, Ordinances and Decrees"
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False Distinction #5:
Commandments vs. Statutes, Ordinances and Decrees
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I. Introductory summary:
Every time a Sabbatarian sees the expression "the commandments" or
"My commandments", they automatically think exclusively of the 10
commandments! Yet here are many passages where these common expressions
refer to what Sabbatarians would call "the Ceremonial Law of Moses" and NOT
the 10 commandments!
Click to View The phrases "commandments", "The commandments" "my
commandments", "the Lord commanded", "what Moses commanded" are uses so
many times in the Old Testament in reference to what Adventists call the
Ceremonial law to the exclusion of the 10 commandments, it would take 10
pages to list all the verses!
Click to View Lev 27:34 These are the commandments which the Lord commanded
Moses for the sons of Israel at Mount Sinai.
Click to View Num 36:13 These are the commandments and the ordinances which
the Lord commanded
Click to View Deut 30:10 obey the Lord your God to keep His commandments
and His statutes which are written in this book of the law
Click to View Jesus defined the commandants to include the Law of Moses: Mt
19:17-19 Jesus said: "keep the commandments." The man replied "Which ones?"
And Jesus said, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself"
Every time a Sabbatarian sees the expression "Statutes, Ordinances
and Decrees", they automatically exclude the 10 commandments and apply it
only to what they falsely call, "the ceremonial law" Yet here are many
passages where these common expressions refer to the 10 commandments
exclusively: (or at least in part include)
Click to View Deut 5:1 The Ten commandments are called "My statures and
all My ordinances"
Click to View Ezekiel 20:19-21 The weekly Sabbath is called "My statures
and all My ordinances"
Click to View Mal 4:4 Book closes with a call to keep "statutes and
ordinances" which obviously include the 10 commandments because it would be
unthinkable for such a doxology to leave them out completely!
Click to View Neh 9:13-14 the weekly Sabbath is included without
distinction: "right judgments, true laws, good statutes, commandments"
Click to View Lev 19:1-37 The Ten commandments and the ceremonial law are
mixed together without distinction and called "My statures and all My
ordinances"
Click to View Deut 5:1-6:25: Two whole chapters that deal exclusively with
the 10 commandments and the following 5 terms are used interchangeably
without distinction: "statutes", "ordinances", "commandments", "judgments",
"testimonies".
Click to View Lev 23 The Weekly Sabbath is lumped in with all the yearly
Sabbaths without distinction and they are all called "The Lord's appointed
times" and "holy convocations".
Click to View Ezek 20 calls the first and fourth commandment, "My statutes
and My ordinances"
Click to View Neh 8 uses interchangeably without distinction, the following
terms: "the book of the law of Moses", "the law", "the book of the law",
"the law of God", "book of the law of God" and includes
Click to View Col 2:14 & Eph 2:15 refer to the whole of the Old Covenant
law including the ten commandments
II. 10 proofs that the 10 commandments are called "Statutes, Ordinances and
Decrees":
(In no particular order so read them all carefully.)
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Proof #1:Deuteronomy 5:1
Moses introduces the 10 commandments with "Statutes & Ordinances", but doesn't use the word commandment.
This verse is most powerful, because the very first statutes and the
ordinances Moses speaks is the 10 commandments! "Then Moses summoned all
Israel and said to them: "Hear, O Israel, the statutes and the ordinances
which I am speaking today in your hearing, that you may learn them and
observe them carefully. " (Deuteronomy 5:1)
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Proof #2:Ezekiel 20:19-21
The weekly Sabbath is referred to twice as "my statutes and my ordinances".
This is powerful because the weekly Sabbath is referred to twice as "my
statutes and my ordinances". "I am the LORD your God; walk in my statutes,
and keep my ordinances, and do them; And hallow my sabbaths; and they shall
be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am the LORD your God.
Notwithstanding the children rebelled against me: they walked not in my
statutes, neither kept my ordinances to do them, which if a man do, he
shall even live in them; they polluted my sabbaths: then I said, I would
pour out my fury upon them, to accomplish my anger against them in the
wilderness." (Ezekiel 20:19-21)
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Proof #3:Malachi 4:4
Malachi closes the book with an admonition to keep God's law and only mentions "statutes and judgments" that obviously must include the 10 commandments. I would be unthinkable for such a doxology to exclude the decalogue
This is powerful because Malachi closes the book with an admonition to keep
God's law and only mentions statutes and judgments that obviously must
include the 10 commandments. It would be unthinkable for him to give a
grand call to keep God's law and leave the 10 commandments out of this
call! "Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him
in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments." (Malachi 4:4)
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Proof #4:Nehemiah 9:13-14
The weekly Sabbath is lumped in with "right judgments, true laws, good statutes, commandments" without any differentiation.
This is powerful because the ten commandments given at Sinai, specifically
the weekly Sabbath, are called "right judgments, true laws, good statutes,
commandments" without differentiating between any of them. Sabbatarians
will argue that the Jews would apply "commandments" to the Sabbath and
"statutes" to the cerimonial law, but such a distinction was never used by
the Jews, nor can it be proven in the Bible. This distinction is a
Sabbatarian myth unsupported by the Bible and the record of history. "Thou
camest down also upon mount Sinai, and spakest with them from heaven, and
gavest them right judgments, and true laws, good statutes and commandments:
And madest known unto them thy holy sabbath, and commandedst them precepts,
statutes, and laws, by the hand of Moses thy servant:" (Nehemiah 9:13-14)
They had the "the book of the law of the Lord their God" (9:3) read to them
and all the people "all they cried with a loud voice to the Lord their God"
(9:4) and said, you gave us the weekly Sabbath! In other words, they
learned about the Sabbath from the book of the law!
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Proof #5: Leviticus 19
The chapter is a complete unit that lists 5 of the 10 Commandments as well as 24 references to the "ceremonial law" and calls them My statures and all My ordinances without differentiation. The words "law" and "commandment" are absent!
Lev 19 is perhaps the most powerful chapter in the Bible to prove the
Sabbatarian distinction between the ten commandments and the ceremonial law
is a false distinction.
The chapter represents a complete unit of thought. This proven by
the fact it opens with "Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying" and closes
with "Thus You shall observe all My statures and all My ordinances".
There is no distinction between the 10 commandments and the
ceremonial law in this chapter. Such a distinction simply does not exist
and cannot be shown in any way. The laws are randomly given as a well
shuffled deck of cards.
In the very middle of the section, it calls the contents: "My
statures"
The section concludes by calling the contents of the chapter "My
statures and all My ordinances".
To the horror of Seventh-day Adventists, the words "law" and
"commandment" is not found even once. It is almost as if the Holy Spirit
wanted to prove once for all that there is no distinction between what
Adventists call the 10 commandments and the ceremonial law.
Of course Adventists would love to merely call the references to
Sabbath in this text as the yearly feast day Sabbaths, and boldly proclaim
there is no reference to the weekly Sabbath. But that won't help in Lev 19,
because the section quotes a total of 5 of the ten commandments, the weekly
Sabbath being only one. So if the section does not refer to the weekly
Sabbath, there are 4 of the ten commandments left that are still called,
"My statures and all My ordinances".
The final nail in the coffin, of the false doctrine that there is a
distinction between what Adventists call the 10 commandments and the
ceremonial law, is the fact that Deut 5:1 starts off by saying, "Then Moses
summoned all Israel and said to them: "Hear, O Israel, the statutes and the
ordinances which I am speaking today in your hearing, that you may learn
them and observe them carefully. " (Deut 5:1) Then to the horror of all
Sabbatarians, the very next thing Moses says is the 10 commandments!
Lev 19:1-37
Ten commandments
Ceremonial law
Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: v1
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Every one of you shall reverence his mother and his father
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keep My sabbaths
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Do not turn to idols or make for yourselves molten gods
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offer a sacrifice of peace offerings
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shall not reap to the very corners of your field
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You shall not steal
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nor deal falsely, nor lie to one another.
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You shall not swear falsely by My name
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You shall not oppress your neighbor, nor rob him.
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You shall not curse a deaf man
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You shall not go about as a slanderer
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You shall not take vengeance
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you shall love your neighbor as yourself
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You are to keep My statures.
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You shall not breed together two kinds of your cattle
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you shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed
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nor wear a garment upon you of two kinds of material mixed together.
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a man lies carnally with a woman who is a slave
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He shall bring his guilt
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You shall not eat anything with the blood
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practice divination or soothsaying.
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You shall not round off the side-growth of your heads
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nor make any tattoo marks on yourselves
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Do not profane your daughter by making her a harlot
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You shall keep My sabbaths and revere My sanctuary
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Do not turn to mediums or spiritists
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You shall rise up before the
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You shall have just balances, just weights
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I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from the land of Egypt.
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'Thus You shall observe all My statures and all My ordinances and do them; I am the Lord.' V37
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Proof #6: Deut 5:1-6:25
Two whole chapters that represent a unit, deal exclusively with the 10 commandments starts off by calling them "statutes and ordinances", then goes on to mix together for without differentiation and interchangeably: these five terms: "statutes", "ordinances", "commandments", "judgments", "testimonies". None of the section deals with the "ceremonial law".
Deut 5:1-6:25: Two whole chapters that deal exclusively with the 10
commandments:
Most importantly please notice that these two chapters, that deal
exclusively with the 10 commandments, starts off with "statutes and the
ordinances" and does not use the word "Law" or "Commandments". This is most
troubling and confusing to Sabbatarians who view the 10 commandments as
"Law" or "Commandments" and not as "statutes and the ordinances"
The word "Law" is never found in the two chapters!
It begins calling the 10 commandments statutes and the ordinances
(5:1) and concludes the section calling the 10 commandments "God commanded
us to observe all these statutes"
Through out the two chapter section the following 5 terms are used
interchangeably: "statutes", "ordinances", "commandments", "judgments",
"testimonies".
Most troubling for the Sabbatarian who want to create a false
distinction between 10 commandments and the ceremonial law, all these 5
terms are applied exclusively to the 10 commandments, yet Adventists would
normally apply 4 of the 5 terms exclusively to what they falsely label the
ceremonial law.
Within the two chapters, the exclusive context is the 10
commandments and no "ceremonial laws" are recorded! This means that
Seventh-day Adventists cannot try to say, as they do in other passages,
that the term, "commandments" applies to the ten commandments and the
terms, "statutes", "ordinances", "judgments", "testimonies" refers to the
ceremonial laws listed in the two chapters. But none are listed, only the
10 commandments!
Deuteronomy chapters 5-6 proves interchangeability of terms and disproves any distinction between the 10 commandments and what Sabbatarians falsely call the ceremonial law.
Then Moses summoned all Israel and said to them: "Hear, O Israel, the statutes and the ordinances which I am speaking today in your hearing, that you may learn them and observe them carefully. " (Deuteronomy 5:1)
'But as for you, stand here by Me, that I may speak to you all the commandments and the statutes and the judgments which you shall teach them, that they may observe them in the land which I give them to possess.' " (Deuteronomy 5:31)
"You shall walk in all the way which the Lord your God has commanded you, that you may live and that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which you will possess." (Deuteronomy 5:33)
"Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the judgments which the Lord your God has commanded me to teach you, that you might do them in the land where you are going over to possess it, so that you and your son and your grandson might fear the Lord your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged. " (Deuteronomy 6:1-2)
"These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. " (Deuteronomy 6:6)
"You should diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and His testimonies and His statutes which He has commanded you. " (Deuteronomy 6:17)
"When your son asks you in time to come, saying, 'What do the testimonies and the statutes and the judgments mean which the Lord our God commanded you?' " (Deuteronomy 6:20)
"So the Lord commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God for our good always and for our survival, as it is today. "It will be righteousness for us if we are careful to observe all this commandment before the Lord our God, just as He commanded us." (Deuteronomy 6:24-25)
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Proof #7: Leviticus 23
The Weekly Sabbath is lumped in with all the yearly Sabbaths without distinction and they are all called "The Lord's appointed times" and "holy convocations".
Lev 23 The Weekly Sabbath is lumped in with all the yearly Sabbaths without
distinction and they are all called "The Lord's appointed times" and "holy
convocations".
The section introduces and concludes calling the all the special
days, "The Lord's appointed times" and "holy convocations".
The Weekly Sabbath is lumped in with all the other yearly Sabbaths
without distinction!
It also concludes saying, "These are the appointed times of the Lord
which you shall proclaim as holy convocations, to present offerings by fire
to the Lord-burnt offerings and grain offerings, sacrifices and drink
offerings, each day's matter on its own day- besides those of the
sabbaths of the Lord".
This is critical to proving there is no distinction because the
weekly Sabbath was revealed weeks before the yearly Sabbaths.
So the expression, "besides those of the sabbaths of the Lord" shows
that the yearly Sabbaths are more of the same kind of holy day without
distinction.
The final proof is that all these days, including the weekly Sabbath
had animal sacrifices directly associated with them, without distinction,
hence they are all called "appointed times and holy convocations" ... "to
present offerings by fire to the Lord".
Lev 23 proves no distinction between the weekly Sabbath and the other Sabbaths!
'The Lord's appointed times which you shall proclaim as holy convocations-My appointed times are these:
'weekly Sabbath"
'These are the appointed times of the Lord, holy convocations which you shall proclaim at the times appointed for them.
'the Lord's Passover.
the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord
wave the sheaf
You shall count fifty days
day of atonement
Feast of Booths
'These are the appointed times of the Lord which you shall proclaim as holy convocations, to present offerings by fire to the Lord-burnt offerings and grain offerings, sacrifices and drink offerings, each day's matter on its own day- besides those of the sabbaths of the Lord, and besides your gifts and besides all your votive and freewill offerings, which you give to the Lord.
So Moses declared to the sons of Israel the appointed times of the Lord."
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Proof #8: Ezekiel 20
The whole chapter charges Israel with breaking the 1st and 4th Commandments: Idol worship and breaking the Sabbath, and calls them "My statutes and My ordinances" 7 different times! The chapter contains no "ceremonial laws", and never uses the terms "feasts, festivals, holy days". Neither the word, "law" or "commandment" are found in the section. The 1st and 4th commandment (the weekly Sabbath)
Ezek 20 calls the first and fourth commandment, My statutes and My
ordinances:
100% of the context deals with the first and fourth commandments.
There are only two sins discussed, Idol worship and breaking the weekly
Sabbath!
There are no "ceremonial laws" in the section even hinted at.
Neither the word, "law" or "commandment" are found in the section.
The words, "feast, festivals, holy days" etc are not found in the
section.
The 1st and 4th commandment (the weekly Sabbath) are called "My
statutes and My ordinances".
Ezek 20 calls the 10 commandments, "My statutes and My ordinances"
do not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt; I am the Lord your God.' V7
But they rebelled against Me ... nor did they forsake the idols of Egypt. V8
I gave them My statutes and informed them of My ordinances, by which, if a man observes them, he will live. V11
I gave them My sabbaths to be a sign between Me and them v12
Israel rebelled ... they did not walk in My statutes and they rejected My ordinances, by which, if a man observes them, he will live; and My sabbaths they greatly profaned. V13
because they rejected My ordinances, and as for My statutes, they did not walk in them; they even profaned My sabbaths, for their heart continually went after their idols. V16
I am the Lord your God; walk in My statutes and keep My ordinances and observe them. V19
Sanctify My sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between Me and you, that you may know that I am the Lord your God.' V20
did not walk in My statutes, nor were they careful to observe My ordinances, by which, if a man observes them, he will live; they profaned My sabbaths. V21
because they had not observed My ordinances, but had rejected My statutes and had profaned My sabbaths, and their eyes were on the idols of their fathers. V24
I also gave them statutes and ordinances v25
As for you, O house of Israel," thus says the Lord God, "Go, serve everyone his idols; but later you will surely listen to Me, and My holy name you will profane no longer with your gifts and with your idols. V39
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Proof #9: Nehemiah 8
Nehemiah 8 uses interchangeably without distinction the following terms: "the book of the law of Moses", "the law", "the book of the law", "the law of God", "book of the law of God" and 10 commandments are included within the context but are never called "commandments"!
Interchangeability of terms in Nehemiah 8:1-18 proves there is no
distinction found in the Old Testament laws of God and Moses! Nehemiah 8
uses interchangeably without distinction the following terms: "the book of
the law of Moses", "the law", "the book of the law", "the law of God",
"book of the law of God".
Nehemiah is seen reading from the book of the law, which contained
two copies of the ten commandments, every day. V18. This went on for some
time.
Within the same section of thought, on one particular day of reading
"the book of the law of the Lord their God" (9:3) the people "all they
cried with a loud voice to the Lord their God" (9:4).
They then write a document that runs from 9:5-9:37. "Now because of
all this We are making an agreement in writing; And on the sealed document
are the names of our leaders, our Levites and our priests." Nehemiah 9:38.
Most significant is Nehemiah 9:13-14: "Then You came down on Mount
Sinai, And spoke with them from heaven; You gave them just ordinances and
true laws, Good statutes and commandments. "So You made known to them Your
holy sabbath, And laid down for them commandments, statutes and law,
Through Your servant Moses. " (Nehemiah 9:13-14)
They had the "the book of the law of the Lord their God" (9:3) read
to them and all the people "all they cried with a loud voice to the Lord
their God" (9:4) and said, you gave us the weekly Sabbath! In other words,
they learned about the Sabbath from the book of the law!
This proves that the section in Nehemiah 8 does refer to the 10
commandments, yet Nehemiah 8 uses interchangeably without distinction the
following terms: "the book of the law of Moses", "the law", "the book of
the law", "the law of God", "book of the law of God".
This effectively refutes the Sabbatarian notion that Neh 8 deals
only with what they falsely call the ceremonial law.
Verse
phrase from Nehemiah 8:1-18
v1
the book of the law of Moses
v2
the law
v3
the book of the law
v5
the book
v7
the law
v8
the book
v8
the law of God
v9
the law
v13
the law
v14
the law
v18
the book of the law of God
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Proof #10: Col 2:14 & Eph 2:15
10 Commandments are called Ordinances and Decrees
Col 2:14 & Eph 2:15 refer to the whole of the Old Covenant law including
the ten commandments
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"you are seeking to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth" Jn 8:40
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