The three 'new light 'views and the dangers of.

[Ron Amnsn]

2 hours ago, The Wanderer said:

There is no logical purpose, doctrinal or hermeneutical that would mandate we use the term "Ten Words."  Such use thereof makes it sound quite odd and out of context, and far from what the obvious intentions of the author obviously was intending.

It's true that the term "Ten Words" sounds odd to people who speak English. 

If people always read the Bible in its full context without any influence of man-made traditions it wouldn't matter whether we called the Ten Words the "ten commandments" or the "ten statements" or the "ten words".  However, in English many people have come to believe that God gave to the Israelites only ten "commandments".  That erroneous idea causes them to irresponsibly limit the meaning of the word "commandments" when it appears elsewhere in the Bible.  I think that's the reason we are having this discussion.  Many people want to believe that when Revelation 12:17 and Revelation 14:12 tell us that God's people "keep the commandments of God" that Revelation is talking only about the ten "commandments" that God spoke from Sinai.  A person who was fluent in either Hebrew or Greek would never think that because in both those languages the Decalogue is referred to as the "ten words" rather than as "ten commandments".   A person who is fluent in either Hebrew or Greek and reads the Scriptures in those languages would already know that God gave many more commandments than just ten, and that Revelation is referring to much more than just the "ten commandments".

[phkrause]

I'm not agreeing or disagreeing with either one of you. But having been brought up in a Jewish/Adventist Church/Temple, the first Adventist church we went to was called "the Bronx Temple." The pastor was J. M. Hoffman and the assistant was pastor Herb Silver. As time went by, we had other pastors that were also Jewish/Adventist. From what I can recall, all of them would mention that originally the "Ten Commandments" that God gave to the Hebrews at Mt Sinai, were 10 words!! Now at that time, being just a young boy, I never really thought about asking them how or where they got that from. But as the years have gone by, in my mind I kind of mull that around in my head!! Like lets take the 4th Commandment, how do we see that being one word?? Having said that, I have also understood from these pastors and other Jewish/Adventist pastors today like Batchelor, Wahlberg, etc., that in Hebrew you can do that?? Even a number of Theologians that I have met at AUC, in there SS classes have said the same. It would be interesting to have them explain that!! Anyway that's my 2 cents worth of thought!!