Keeping the commandments means to love God with the whole heart, soul, mind and strength. God is all and over all He is sufficient to govern and keep us obedient and faithful.
But when men do not want to give God His place within their soul, they are no longer able to govern themselves, and therefore must be governed by others. This is how human government started. Christians will not rely on governmental power because they know that only God can truly make a man obedient.
In this book, comprised of studies given at the 1897 General Conference, A. T. Jones covers the history of the struggle to maintain true godly government (“keeping the commandments”), and the various apostasies that resulted in reliance on men, human governments, and false idols.
He also covers the need for all to come out of spiritual Egypt and Babylon, with their dependence upon human power and force of arms. Only when we are delivered from spiritual Egypt, or the bondage of sin, can we truly keep the commandments. This is why the commandments start with the statement, “I am the Lord your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.” (Exodus 20:2) 158p
Contents
- The First Great Commandment
- Serving God Where We Are
- Honest, Whole-Hearted Work
- Since the Beginning
- Is It Possible?
- The Source of Idolatry
- Human Rulers
- Nimrod
- Missionaries for God
- Abraham
- Leaving Your Country
- Hardship and Self-Denial
- Waiting for God’s Call
- The Example of Paul
- Egypt and Israel
- The Egyptian State
- Abraham Looked for a Country
- Missionaries in Egypt
- The Time of the Promise
- The Song of Moses
- Moses Chooses Church Over State
- Spiritual Egypt
- Deliverance from Spiritual Egypt
- A Parallel for Today
- Modifying the Ten Commandments
- The Bondage of Sin
- Jesus Called Out of Egypt
- The Apostasy of Israel
- A Mutilated Law
- The Real Land of Promise
- Not Reckoned Among the Nations
- Human Legislation a Result of Rejecting God
- Separation of Church and State in the Heart
- Rejecting the Government of God
- The Results of the Apostasy of Israel
- Solomon’s Time
- The Northern Kingdom
- The Southern Kingdom
- Out of Babylon and Egypt
- Hezekiah Learns Dependence on God
- Choosing Caesar over God
- A Lesson for the Final Days
- Your Kingdom Come
- No Place for Political Actions
- Keeping the Commandments
