Bethel

An area where there is a strong contrast between the Reformed and the Baptist is their differing views on the Ten Commandments.

Most evangelical/baptist churches consider the Ten Commandments as irrelevant for Christians today. They think along the same lines as Andy Stanley, who writes, “The Ten Commandments have no authority over you. None. To be clear: Thou shalt not obey the Ten Commandments”. ( Irresistible: Reclaiming the New that Jesus Unleashed for the World, p. 136)

Keven DeJong, a PCA pastor, writes from a reformed (and Biblical) perspective:

The church has historically put the Ten Commandments at the center of its teaching ministry, especially for children and new believers. For centuries, catechetical instruction was based on three things: the Apostles’ Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, and the Ten Commandments. In other words, for virtually all of church history, when people asked, “How do we do discipleship? How do we teach our kids about the Bible? What do new Christians need to know about Christianity?” their answers always included an emphasis on the Ten Commandments.

In the Heidelberg Catechism, for example, 11 of the 52 Lord’s Days focus on the Ten Commandments. The same is true in 42 of the 107 questions in the Westminster Shorter Catechism, in more than half of the Lutheran Larger Catechism, and in 120 out of 750 pages of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Across various traditions, there has been a historic emphasis on the Ten Commandments.

Historically, Reformed Christians have used the Ten Commandments both in teaching and worship because, as the Apostle Paul put it, The law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good. (Romans 7:12)

The Westminster Confession explains that the Ten Commandments are “of great use” to Christians, “as a rule of life informing them of the will of God, and their duty, it directs and binds them to walk accordingly; discovering also the sinful pollutions of their nature, hearts, and lives; so…they may come to further conviction of, humiliation for, and hatred against sin.”

As our nation turns away from God, disdains righteousness and embraces evil, it is disheartening to see Christians turn away from God’s moral law that is a “lamp to my feet and a light to our path” (Psalm 119:105) and is so needed in the moral darkness around us.

So Bethel, with reformed churches through the centuries, not only values the Ten Commandments but uses them in our worship services to remind us of God’s will and standard for us today as His covenant people.