For generations, Seventh-day Adventists have believed and taught that the Ten Commandments would become a special object of public interest and public policy, eventually leading to Sunday laws. This very year, the Supreme Court will decide two cases involving the legal status of public displays of Ten Commandments monuments in and around courthouses.

Today, the same churches that have preached against the necessity of keeping the Commandments are urging their public display. Churches that claim to be “new covenant” put the Commandments on stone monuments, so very old covenant, and fail to teach the new covenant promise of the law written in the human heart.

By necessity, since American churches have largely abandoned the real new covenant — the promise of a heart transformed by love and brought into obedience to Christ — they have lost the power of God, and now rely upon the power of the state to promote morality and even religion.

Adventists have been given unique prophetic insight into just such a progression from a pure church, intimate with Christ, to a powerless church, engaged in a mutually corrupting intimacy with the state. Behind the current enthusiasm for public display of the Ten Commandments is a justified outrage over the moral decay in American life.

The Supreme Court may resolve the legal battle over public display of the Ten Commandments, but the next step is for the battle to shift to legal enforcement of their teachings. The political battle over gay marriage and abortion are already grounded in a religious understanding of God’s law. How long before Sunday becomes a political issue again?

At such a time as this, Adventist clarity and insight about the law of God are urgently needed. For this reason, the North American Religious Liberty Association – West, has published “Written on the Heart” as a poster and brochure for mass distribution. We are working in cooperation with Liberty magazine, which is publishing a special issue devoted to the Ten Commandments issue.

The Ten Commandments campaign conveys a simple two-fold message: the solution to America’s moral crisis will not be found in political action, but only as we permit God to write His law upon our hearts and change our lives. The state cannot do for us what God alone can do — transform us from the inside out. If ever there was a time for the Adventist Church to enthusiastically champion the law of God, it is now, while interest in the Ten Commandments is running high. The Religious Liberty department is urging widespread distribution of the posters and brochures. They are available at bulk prices at www.religiousliberty.info or directly from the Pacific Union, 805-413-7396.