"Turn Ye, Turn Ye!"
By Harold Stoddard

We've done it again! The courts of Alabama, following the modern trend to defy God, have removed the 10 Commandments from public display at the Courthouse. Chief Justice of Alabama Judge Roy Moore, refused to have the tablet which was inscribed with the 10 Commandments removed, so he is now under indictment for refusing the orders of his superiors. Thank God for Justice Roy Moore, and may his stand for the Word of God saturate our land that we all may be willing to stand with him for that which is holy -- whatever the penalty may be. Whatever his sentence will be makes little difference... the important thing is that again our nation has taken a stand against God's Word. We will never destroy the Word.-- Psalm 119:89 says,"For Ever, O LORD, they word is settled in heaven." -- but we may well destroy our great nation by such stupid antics which have become all too common in America. Methinks it all started back in the 1960's when the Supreme Court judged the Bible to be a sectarian book. That judgment gave the Courts of our land authority over the Bible -- and HOW they have used that authority time and time again to violate the Word of God which made this nation great in the first place! Every judgment against the Bible is one more step downward for America.

We have been warned and warned repeatedly, but seemingly to no avail..
The report on TV says that the 10 Commandments in Alabama are hidden away from public view in a private room in the courthouse, with no windows and behind a locked door. Our Court's stand against the Word of God is ridiculous, to put it mildly. God's record, the Bible, tells us of the turning away of the children of Israel time after time and of the call of God to that nation and, I think to America today, to turn from their wicked ways and return to Him. One example is given in Ezekiel 33:11, " Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye, from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?" They did not turn; hence the condition in Israel even today.

We surely must be reminded of the time recorded in I Samuel, chapters 4-7. The Philistines, at war with Israel, had captured the Ark of God. What a prize that was for them; for the Ark indicated God's Presence with Israel. To be sure to keep the captured prize safe, they locked it away in the house of their god Dagon...but Lo! as they came to view the prize the next day, they found that their god Dagan had fallen down before the Ark of God (I Sam. 5:3). They set Dagon (their man-made god) upon his place again; but the next day they found Dagon fallen down before the Ark, with his head cut off as well as his hands. This was getting a little scarey! --- Perhaps the God of the Jews was real after all --- so they began to avoid the house of Dagon.... The hand of the Lord was heavy upon the inhabitants of Ashdod (verse 6), and he smote them with emerods (various forms of cancerous running sores). Then the men of Ashdod recognized they had bit off more than they could chew by tampering with that which was Holy unto God. They had decided in I Samuel 5:7 that the God of Israel was laying a heavy hand upon them and upon their god so they called for a conference and decided to move the Ark to another city, Gath. So the hand of God came against Gath with very great destruction and He smote the men of the city with emerods as He did in Ashdod. Then they took the Ark to Ekron, against the will of the people, for they said, "They have brought about the Ark of the God of Israel to us to slay us". The cry went up from the people to send the Ark back to its own place, Israel, for there was great destruction throughout all the city. The hand of God was very heavy there. Some men were slain and others died of their emerods. For seven months the Philistines held the Ark of God.

Finally, they were beginning to see that you did not tamper with the Holy things of God. So their decision was to send the Ark back to Israel with an offering -- images of their plagues, emerods and mice (mice also had infested their land). All were made of gold as an offering to the God of Israel.

They were reminded that God had already given them an example -- the record of the penalty to Israel when they hardened their hearts against the only true God.

The story goes on, and is most interesting to read as they returned the Ark and how it was received, but it is sufficient for our purpose here to simply bring to mind what happened to the heathen Philistines when they despised that which God deems Holy.

When will America learn? We have had warnings enough ------yet we seek to shut up the Holy Word of God, thinking we, finite creatures that we are, can control the very Word of God!

I heard one newsman say, "Now the 10 Commandments are GONE we can take care of Judge Moore" One wonders how ignorant normal people can be -- the 10 Commandments are NOT gone by any means, as we saw in Psalm 119:89....they are forever settled in Heaven.

Surely we cannot ignore the trials and troubles that are tormenting our America today -- disease -- riots -- shootings --fear of terrorists, etc. etc. It seems we must go back to the language of the past and say, "How stupid can we be?" We have the record of what happened in the past to those who despised and misused what God calls Holy, and we are seeing the results in America today -- the results of our own treatment of God's Holy Word. Now we lock it away in a private room so it cannot be seen. I guess we must say in view of the past and present happenings, it's just plain foolish to think that finite man can successfully defy our infinite God.

We must turn to God's messge to Israel in Ezekiel 33:11, "Say unto them As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: TURN YE, TURN YE FROM YOUR EVIL WAYS; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?"

Personally, you may turn in true repentance to Jesus Christ. He will recover you from the stupidity of this evil world and give you Life Eternal, for He is a great and merciful God. His GRACE is sufficient to save you.

"For by Grace are ye saved through Faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works lest any man should boast." Ephesians 2:8,9.