10 Commandments – Evangelical Dwight L. Moody surprises twice

English

Within the evangelical world, a transformation has undeniably taken place. From once-taught, binding laws of God, to commandments now largely declared non-binding, even abolished. It was enough to examine the legacy of their own church pioneers and figureheads to at least begin to reflect on this. Their view of the gospel, especially of God’s law, was entirely different.

Evangelical preacher Dwight L. Moody

Dwight L. Moody (1837–1899) is anything but an insignificant evangelical preacher who is only occasionally remembered. His name is still commemorated today by the Illinois Street Church he founded in Chicago, the Avenue Church, also in Chicago, which was renamed Moody Church in his honor, and the Moody Bible Institute. Eisenhower’s mother took Moody as a role model and also named her son Dwight. He, in turn, surely welcomed the fact that the Navy had a ship named SS Dwight L. Moody patrolling the waters during World War II.

Moody was active during the so-called Revival Movement. Even in Sweden, the evangelical preacher was more than welcome. He was anything but a “no-name, one-hit wonder.” The preacher was also the author of several books, one of which bears the simple title “The Ten Commandments” (1896). The work is also known as “Weighed and Wanting.” As suspected, Moody gives the Ten Commandments a central place.

10 commandments fully valid

A remarkable statement can be found on pages 16 and 17:
“The commandments of God given to Moses in the Mount at Horeb are as binding today as ever they have been since the time they were proclaimed in the hearing of the people. The Jews said the law was not given Palestine (which belonged to Israel), but in the wilderness, because the law was for all nations.“

Moral laws and ceremonial laws

This completely contradicts the widespread narrative that the law was abolished with the crucifixion of Jesus. Moody, and this must be emphasized today, even surprises us by clearly distinguishing between the Ten Commandments and the Laws of Moses. Moses, who lived in a time of widespread barbarity, came up with a body of law that was unique. Moody points out that neither the Greeks nor the Romans, all pagans, ever established such a set of moral rules. So, where did Moses get this law from? (Page 16)

“It came down from heaven. It has convinced me of the truth of the religion of the Bible. The former infidel remained to his death a firm believer in the truth of Christianity. We call it the ‘Mosaic’ law, but it has been well said that the commandments did not originate with Moses, nor were they done away with when the Mosaic law as fulfilled in Christ, and many of its ceremonies and regulations abolished’ […] God Himself wrote the commandments on tables of stone.“

The Evangelical here refers to the statement of Jesus Christ according to Matthew 5:17-18.
“Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.“

The 10 commandments are fully valid today.

Particularly interesting is what Moody says about the Fourth Commandment, the commandment to remember and observe the Seventh-day Sabbath. If the aim is to attack a specific law, in addition to the simple, fictitious abolition of God’s entire law, then it is the Fourth Commandment. The evangelical author discusses this on pages 47 and 48:
“I honestly believe that this commandment is just as binding today as it ever was. I have talked with men who have said that it has been abrogated, but they have nver been able to point to any place in the Bible where God repealed it. When Christ was on earth, He did nothing to set it aside.“

The Sabbath has been observed since Eden.

But then this only applies from Mount Sinai onwards, where God gave the two stone tablets to His servant Moses, right? Moody states the following on page 48:
“The Sabbath was binding in Eden, and it has been in force ever since. The fourth commandment begins with the word ‘remember’, showing that the Sabbath already existed when God wrote this law on the tables of stone at Sinai. How can men claim that this one commandment has been done away with when they will admit that the other nine are still binding?“

“I believe that the Sabbath question today is a vital one for the whole country. It is the burning question of the present time. If you give up the Sabbath the church goes, of you give up the church the home goes; and if the home goes the nation goes […] The church of God is losing its power on account of so many people giving up the Sabbath, and using it to promote selfishness.“

And yet Moody surprises

Then, and this is on the one hand not surprising, but on the other hand always astonishing, Moody relates the Sabbath to Sunday, as a matter of course, e.g. page 50:
“I believe we are breaking God’s law by using the cars on Sunday and depriving conductors and others of their Sabbath.“

and on pages 53-54:
“When I was a boy the Sabbath lasted from sundown on Saturday to sundown on Sunday, and I remember how we boys used to shout when it was over.“

Everything identified, yet it’s still day 1 instead of 7?!

Moody clearly states that the law, the Fourth Commandment, like all the other nine commandments, has not been established since Sinai, but since the Garden of Eden, that is, immediately after God’s creation (Info). Furthermore, the evangelical is quick to point out that God’s law has by no means been abolished and remains fully valid to this day. Moody also distinguishes between God’s commandments (Ten Commandments) and the commandments of Moses (ceremonial laws – Info). All of this is “surprisingly” correct. But he takes it for granted that the Sabbath refers to Sunday. The first day of the week, not the seventh day of the week.

This is just as unmistakably connected to creation as creation itself and the sequence of six days of creation, followed immediately by the seventh day, which is the Sabbath declared blessed and sanctified by God. Genesis 2:1-3:
“Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.“

No formula collection required

One-Two-Three-Five-Six-Seven – One-Two-Three-Four-Five-Six-Seven – etc.

This is the way the days of the week have been counted since creation. A simple “formula.” God rested on day seven, not day one. This formula also shows that it doesn’t matter who creates any calendar, when, or how, cuts out 10 days, and then declares it binding. Be it the Gregorian calendar, the predecessor of the Julian calendar, or the temporary 10-day week in Egypt. It doesn’t matter, because: One-Two-Three-Four-Five-Six-Seven. That the first day was named “Sunday” and the seventh day “Saturday” is irrelevant; they could have been called anything.

The sun is used to distinguish the days, and the moon the months and years (Genesis 1:14). A new moon marks the beginning of a new month. God established the first month in this sequence shortly before the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt (Exodus 12:2 – Passover – Nisan – Info)

The reason for designating the first day as “Sunday” lay in the pagan worship of a fictitious “sun god,” the very deity who was venerated almost uniformly across various cultures and eras by pagans, and therefore naturally also by the Roman Catholic Church (Info). Claims that “Saturday” is nowhere mentioned in the Bible and therefore the Sabbath cannot truly be this day are merely the confusion of the confused and, frankly, quite foolish. The Gregorian calendar was introduced in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII (bull “Inter gravissimas”), the pontiff whose coat of arms was adorned with a red dragon.

Bible verses from King James Version (1611)