Ten Commandments!

Christian History “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” Hosea 4:6

John Adams wrote to Thomas Jefferson, November 4, 1816: “THE TEN COMMANDMENTS and the Sermon on the Mount contain my religion.”

President Harry S Truman addressed the Attorney General’s Conference, February 1950: “The fundamental basis of this nation’s laws was given to Moses on the Mount … I don’t think we emphasize that enough these days… If we don’t have a proper fundamental moral background, we will finally end up with a totalitarian government which does not believe in rights for anybody except for the State.”

“THE TEN COMMANDMENTS are not the laws. They are THE Law” -stated Cecil B. DeMille, November 8, 1956, at the New York opening of his epic film, THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. Released by Paramount Pictures, the movie starred Charlton Heston as Moses and Yul Brynner as Pharaoh Rameses II. Adjusted for inflation, it went on to become the 8th highest grossing film of all time.

While filming on-location in Egypt, Cecil B. DeMille, then 75 years old, climbed a 107-foot ladder to shoot the famous Exodus scene from atop of the massive Per Rameses set. In the intense heat, DeMille suffered a near-fatal heart attack.

Though doctors ordered him to rest, DeMille finished directing the movie. He never fully recovered and died of a heart condition on January 21, 1959, before DeMille was anticipating doing a film on the Book of Revelation.

For almost five decades, Cecil B. DeMille produced monumental films in Hollywood, many relevant to Christianity: Joan the Woman (of Arc), 1916, Male and Female, 1919, Adam’s Rib, 1923, The Road to Yesterday, 1925, The King of Kings, 1927, The Sign of the Cross, 1932, Cleopatra, 1934, The Crusades, 1935, Samson and Delilah, 1949, The Greatest Show on Earth, 1952, for which he won an Academy Award.

Continuing his comments at the 1956 New York opening of THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, Cecil B. DeMille stated: “Man has made 32 million laws since THE TEN COMMANDMENTS were handed down to Moses on Mount Sinai more than three thousand years ago, but he has never improved on God’s Law … THE TEN COMMANDMENTS are the principles by which man may live with God and man may live with man. They are the expressions of the mind of God for His creatures. They are the charter and guide of human liberty, for there can be no liberty without the law … What I hope for our production of THE TEN COMMANDMENTS is that those who see it shall come from the theater not only entertained and filled with the sight of a big spectacle, but filled with the spirit of truth … That it will bring to its audience a better understanding of the real meaning of this pattern of life that God has set down for us to follow.”

President William McKinley stated in his Inaugural Address, March 4, 1897: “Our faith teaches that there is no safer reliance than upon the God of our fathers … who will not forsake us so long as we obey HIS COMMANDMENTS.”

Alfred Smith, four-term Democrat Governor of New York who became the first Catholic Presidential candidate, stated in May of 1927: “The essence of my faith is built upon THE COMMANDMENTS OF GOD. The law of the land is built on THE COMMANDMENTS OF GOD. There can be no conflict between them.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt stated on December 24, 1942: “We as a Nation and as individuals will please God best by showing regard for the laws of God. There is no better way of fostering good will toward man than by first fostering good will toward God. If we love Him, we will keep His COMMANDMENTS.”

President Dwight David Eisenhower said in 1954: “The purpose of a devout and united people was set forth in the pages of The Bible …

1) to live in freedom; 2) to work in a prosperous land; … and 3) to obey THE COMMANDMENTS OF GOD … This Biblical story of the Promised land inspired the founders of America. It continues to inspire us.”

President Reagan on March 8, 1983, at the National Association of Evangelicals in Orlando, Florida, stated: “There’s a great spiritual awakening in America … One recent survey by a Washington-based research council concluded … 95 percent of those surveyed expressed a belief in God. A huge majority believed THE TEN COMMANDMENTS had real meaning in their lives.”

At the time of the Exodus of the children of Israel from Egypt, sometime around 1,400 BC:

• the Hittite language had around 375 cuneiform characters;
• the Indus Valley Harappan language had around 417 symbols;
• the Luwian Anatolian language of had over 500 logographic hieroglyphs;
• the Akkadian language of Mesopotamia had over 1,500 Sumerian cuneiform characters;
• the Egyptian language had over 3,000 hieroglyphic characters;
• the Chinese language had nearly 10,000 pictogram and ideogram characters, invented by scribes of China’s Yellow Emperor.

When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, he not only had THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, but he had them in an easy-to-learn 22-character alphabet. With so few characters, everyone could learn to read, even children.

Israel’s Levite priests taught the Law, and also taught the people how to read it for themselves. It was not only a privilege to read but required to – as God’s Law addresses everyone in personally obeying Him. At that time, the whole world was virtually illiterate – only God’s people were literate. Ever since, wherever the Bible has gone literacy increased.