On bumper stickers and in the front yards of people here in Arab, Ala., you’ll see the words, “Keep the Ten Commandments,” which is an admonition that applies to Israel’s law program and not today’s Dispensation of Grace.

I’ll never forget how only about a month after 9/11 some Christian-oriented religious outfit sent out a mass mailing to New York City residents about the need to keep the Sabbath if they wanted themselves and our country to be blessed by God.

It was a whole 20-some page full-color, glossy-covered booklet on this Jewish Old Testament practice and they must have had every single citizen on their mailing list.

I know this because the weekend the book appeared in my mailbox, other copies were littered on the floor of my apartment building’s foyer, addressed to people who hadn’t lived in the building for years.

I then even saw copies discarded on the sidewalks near trash receptacles, almost as if they were extra Yellow Pages books no one wanted.

I remember thinking, “What kind of horribly insane amount of money went into doing this crap—advertising at length something that is totally unscriptural?!”

As Bible scholar Charles F. Baker writes in his 1994 book, A Dispensational Theology, “One of the Ten Commandments, that concerning the observance of the sabbath day, applied only to Israel as a distinctive feature of God’s covenant with that nation: ‘Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever’ (Exodus 31:16, 17).

“Thus, the sabbath and the ceremonial laws related only to God’s will for the nation of Israel and have no application to the Gentiles or to members of the Body of Christ in this dispensation.”

What’s funny is that the Christians today who follow this particular Jewish law out of doctrinal ignorance, don’t follow it the way the Bible strictly instructs.

“On the Sabbath, women are instructed not even to light a fire in the stove,” informs my pastor, Richard Jordan. “That’s not talking about working in the factory or down at the mill. It means you don’t even cook a meal. There’s to be no work of any service nature at all. Israel was to cook dinner the day before.”

Regarding the whole matter of the law program God gave Israel through the hands of Moses, Jordan explains, “The law principle gave them a condition in which God said, ‘If you do this, you get the blessing, but if you don’t it, my wrath’s going to be on you,’ and the nation Israel failed consistently.

“You know what Israel should have said when God first gave them that offer? They should have said, ‘No thank you, we’ve already got a promise without any ifs, ands or buts.’ But they’re just like you are—they thought they could do it and God demonstrated historically for 1,500 years in history, ‘You can’t do it, you can’t do it, you can’t do it,’ and they came back with, ‘We gonna keep tryin, we gonna keep tryin.’ ”

*****

Just the other week when I was home in Ohio for Thanksgiving, I saw on Fox cable news an interview with the Rev. Rick Warren (about his work with AIDS patients in Africa), in which he said, “I tell people I only want four words on my tombstone: ‘AT LEAST HE TRIED.’ ”

Hearing this, I thought, “Huh, that could not be more fitting!”

In Warren’s mega-mega-world-bestseller book, The Purpose-Driven Life, he pushes Israel’s law principle program practically down to every paragraph.

He even writes in what is pure diabolical deception, “Adopt Paul’s statement as your personal affirmation of faith: ‘I believe everything that agrees with the Law and that is written in the Prophets.”

Of course, we know from a bazillion-plus different verses in Paul’s epistles that we Believers today “are not under the law, but under grace.” (Rom. 6:14)

Warren, like the vast, vast majority of other preachers in apostate Christendom, is just who Paul is warning about when he writes, “For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him. (II Cor. 11:4)

Jordan explains, “You see the ‘another Jesus’ is not somebody denying the virgin birth of Christ, the bodily resurrection or His deity. That’s somebody preaching to you right out of the Bible about Jesus, but not preaching Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery. They take you out from under grace and put you under Israel’s law program and Romans 8 talks about the law being the ‘spirit of bondage again to fear.’ ”

To see first-hand this bondage and fear Warren purposely instills by falsely applying Scripture—and insidiously pushing the conditional-blessing law program for Israel’s Jews—just look at these two-dozen really quick examples (among hundreds more) in his book:

1. “James says, ‘Blessed are those who endure when they are tested.’ When they pass the test, they will receive the crown of life than God has promised to those who love him.”

2. “The Bible says, ‘Those who are trusted with something valuable must show they are worthy of that trust.’ ”

3. “At the end of your life on earth, you will be evaluated and rewarded according to how well you handled what God entrusted to you. That means everything you do, even simple daily chores, has eternal implications.”

4. “You say, ‘Yes, Lord’ to whatever he asks of you. . . You can’t call Jesus your Lord when you refuse to obey him.”

5. “Surrendered people obey God’s word even if it doesn’t make sense.”

6. “The Bible says, ‘Friendship with God is reserved for those who reverence him. With them alone he shares the secrets of his promises.’ ”

7. “Verse to remember: ‘Friendship with God is reserved for those who reverence him.’ ”

8. “In your friendship with God, you won’t always feel close to him. . . To mature your friendship God will test it with periods of ‘seeming’ separation—times when it feels as if he has abandoned or forgotten you. God feels a million miles away.”

9. “Floyd McClung describes it: . . .‘You confess every sin you can imagine, then go around asking forgiveness of everyone you know. You fast. . . still nothing.’ ”

10.“It is painful and disconcerting, but it is absolutely vital for the development of your faith: will we continue to love him when there’s no sense of his presence or visible evidence of his work in your life.”

11.“(God’s) presence is too profound to be measured by mere emotions. Yes, he wants you to sense his presence, but he’s more concerned that you trust him then that you feel him.”

12.“Becoming like Christ doesn’t mean losing your personality or becoming a mindless clone. . . Christlikeness is all about transforming your character, not your personality. . . God wants you to develop the kind of character described in the beatitudes of Jesus.”

13.“At least eight times in the New Testament we are told to ‘make every effort’ in our growth toward becoming like Jesus. You don’t just sit around and wait for it to happen.”

14.“True spiritual maturity is all about learning to love like Jesus, and you can’t practice being like Jesus without being in relationship with other people.”

15.“What God cares about most, is that whatever you do, you do in a Christlike manner.”

16.“Question to consider: ‘In what area of my life do I need to ask for the Spirit’s power to be like Christ today?’ ”

17.“Since God intends to make you like Jesus, he will take you through the same experiences Jesus went through.”

18.“God will use a sledgehammer and if we’re really stubborn, he uses a jackhammer.”

19.“Great Commission; this is your commission from Jesus, and it is not optional. These words of Jesus are the not the ‘Great Suggestion.’ If you are a part of God’s family, your mission is mandatory. To ignore it would be disobedience.”

20.“Are you an Acts 1:18 Christian? I urge you to serve and do whatever it takes to participate in a short-term mission trip overseas as soon as possible.”