America Adrift: Alabama’s Ten Commandments—
The Achilles’ Heel of Evangelical America
Study Guide
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• Evangelical America
  
  • ____ out of 10 Americans today consider themselves _________ or “born-again” Christians.
    
  • Sociologist Alan Wolfe describes their: “strongly personalist and therapeutic tendencies”—“market-savvy approaches to expanding the flock”—and “a certain theological fuzziness.”
    
  • “Particularly since 9/11, evangelical notions about God’s special covenant with the American people have contributed to a quasi-religious nationalism that casts America as the chosen nation engaged in a righteous struggle with evil.” (USNWR 12-8-03)
    
  • “The Lord has done more for the United States than for any other country upon which the ____ _______ .” (Maranatha 193)
    
• But note _________ 7:25-27 NIV: “When terror comes . . . . the teaching of the law will be lost.”
  
• The removal of Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore and his Ten Commandments
  
  • Q: What’s so wrong with Chief Justice Moore’s Ten Commandments in Alabama?
    A: ___________
    
  • Chief Justice Moore was not removed from office because of the _____ ____________ .
    
  • Chief Judge William C. Thompson (head of the ethics panel that removed Roy Moore), “In defying that court order, the chief justice placed himself above the ______.”
    
• James Dobson: “The media have not understood the issue at all, and that’s why I came here, to say to you, it’s not about the ___ __________ . It’s about everything else. It is most about an unelected, unaccountable, arrogant, imperious judiciary that is appointed for life and is determined to make all of us dance to their music.” (August 28, 2003, speech in front of Alabama State Judicial Center)
  
  • The ____ Commandments evangelical America is clamoring to defend are in actuality the ____ Commandments that evangelical America is willing to obey.
    
  • Judge Moore’s edited 4th commandment omits: “For the _________ day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God.”
    
  • What kind of moral leadership can you bring to this nation when the public discovers that the very Law you are _______ you are ________ ?
    
  • Unedited—the Fourth Commandment—Exodus 20:8-11
    
  • What kind of moral authority does a leader possess when he chooses to disregard the very Law he is attempting to defend?
    
• The Achilles’ heel of evangelical America
  
  • Jesus’ diagnosis: Mark _____:_____
    
  • “You have a fine way of setting aside the commandment of God in order to observe your own tradition!”
    
  • Christianity Today editorial, “Take Back Your Sabbath”: “Our churches and families need to return to a Sabbath consciousness that can provide a platform for countercultural witness.” (November, 2003)
    
  • But the only way God’s Sabbath will be truly endowed with a “countercultural witness” is when it is celebrated on God’s very ______________ day (the seventh day).
    
• Remember how high the calling of God—to a people who would be loyal to him:
  
  • Hebrews 10:15, 16—the promise of the everlasting covenant.
    
  • The call of God is not for the Ten Commandments to be in ________ —it is for the Ten Commandments to be ________ .
    
  • “I will put my laws in your heart and write them on your mind.”
    
    • Just like Joseph—“How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?” Genesis 39:9 (7th commandment)
      
    • Just like Daniel—“We will never find any basis for charges against this man unless it has something to do with the law of his God.” Daniel 6:5 (1st commandment)
      
    • Just like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego—“We want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.” Daniel 3:18 (2nd commandment)
      
    • Just like David—“Oh, how I love your law; I meditate on it all day long.” Psalm 119:97 (10 Commandments)
      
    • Just like Paul—“For in my inner being I delight in God’s law.” Romans 7:22 (10 Commandments)
      
    • Just like Jesus—“I desire to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.” Psalm 40:8 (10 Commandments)
      
    • Just like the 144,000—“Here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.” Revelation 14:12 (4th c / 10 C’s)
      
• Not in granite—but ingrained—just like Jesus and every close friend he has ever had!
  
• “When the law of God is most derided and brought into the most contempt, then it is time for every true follower of Christ, for those whose hearts have been given to God, and who are fixed to obey God, to stand unflinchingly for the faith once delivered to the saints. . . . It is time to fight when champions are most needed.” (RH, June 8, 1897)

Answers: 4, “evangelicals”, sun, shines, Ezekiel, nothing, Ten Commandments, law, Ten Commandments, Ten, Nine, seventh, defending, disobeying, 7:7-9, contercultural, granite, ingrained