Dr. R. Albert Mohler Jr. is the ninth president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and a member of the Focus on the Family board.
Time.com has called him the "reigning intellectual of the evangelical movement in the U.S.'
He hosts a live daily nationwide radio program and also writes a popular blog and a regular commentary. Dr. Mohler's mission is to address contemporary issues from a consistent and explicit Christian worldview. He holds a Master of Divinity degree and a Doctorate of Philosophy from Southern Seminary.
Dr. Mohler recently spoke with CitizenLink about his latest book — Words from the Fire: Hearing the Voice of God in the 10 Commandments — which was released this month.
1. What got you thinking about the Ten Commandments?
Just in terms of trying to get a handle on biblical theology, it's really hard to get past the Ten Commandments. And all my life, I've been fascinated with them. I had the privilege of being raised by Christian parents and in the context of a Christian family and warm-hearted Christian churches. And the Ten Commandments were as close as any part of the Bible and closer to my memory. I was taught them by my parents and raised by them.
And there are contemporary controversies all over the nation. There have been Supreme Court cases related to the Ten Commandments. It just seemed this was one of those projects that a theologian ought to take up, and I preached and studied and taught and then wrote the book. And I'll tell you, it was a transformative experience.
2. There's a lot more to the Ten Commandments than we know, isn't there?
Absolutely. The Ten Commandments frame the moral aspect of the covenant God made with his chosen people. Just imagine that: God summarized himself. It's one thing if we try to summarize the law. But here, the God of Israel summarized the law. And this was such good news for Israel. This is so counterintuitive, but in our day most people think, "Well, here come the rules and there goes the party.” But for Israel, this was understood to be an incredible gift. They did not have to wonder what God expected of them, what was good for them, how they should live. God spoke to them with these 10 words, and that clarified everything. And it's good news now, just as well.
3. What if God had not spoken?
Well, that gets not only to the question of the Ten Commandments, but to the question of meaning in life. If God had not spoken, we would know nothing. There's no way human beings can come up with any kind of adequate moral principles or moral laws for an elementary school, much less for civilization (or) for the totality of our lives. But our Creator knows what we need, and out of the silence, God spoke. The title of my book is Words from the Fire because in Deuteronomy 4, Moses speaks to the children of Israel and asks, "Has any other people heard the voice of God speaking from the midst of the fire and survived?” Israel got through the wilderness because it listened to the words from the fire. And so must we listen to the words that come from the fire.
4. Regarding the third commandment, we often think we haven't taken God's name in vain because we haven't used the word "God." But it doesn't mean just that, does it?
Every mom has a list of bad words. And every little boy figures out pretty quickly what those bad words are. And oftentimes, our parents will say to never use the name of God recklessly. You never use it in a curse expression. You never use it profanely. And certainly that is included in this commandment, but it actually means so much more. For Israel, they knew, first and foremost, not to speak falsely about God. It's not just using God's name in an inappropriate way; it is ascribing to his name what is not true about him. And we can do this by our worship. We can do this in conversation. We can say, "God did this or God did that," and if it's not scriptural, we have just taken his name in vain. Liberal theology is taking God's name in vain. We have to be very careful about that.
5. What commandment stood out at you as you were doing the research and writing? And how can we make all of them more relevant today?
Every single one of them, but "Honor thy father and thy mother” was most transformative. I was raised as a child required by my parents to be obedient, and I was told that my responsibility was to obey my parents. Now, I'm 50 years old. Am I now 35 years away from that commandment? The answer is absolutely not. The first meaning of that commandment was not children obey your parents. That's in the Bible, and that's certainly implied. The first and most important meaning Israel was given in this is, "You take care of your parents." It's to adults that this commandment was addressed. You honor your parents. You honor their name. You honor their faith. You honor the covenant they kept. You honor your patrimony. You did not bring yourself into this world. You owe respect and honor to those from whom you have come.
To make them relevant, we need to actually know them. I'm not sure the average person sitting in the pews or visiting a Sunday school class could come close to (listing) seven commandments. We have to know what they are. And before we get too involved in battles over where they should be hung, we better make sure that for those who are of Christ, they're hanging in our hearts first and foremost.
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