Most of the Ten Commandments are negative. The purpose of law is not to mandate good behavior. That concept comes from the French Revolution.

Meaning of the quote

The quote suggests that most of the Ten Commandments focus on what we shouldn't do, rather than telling us how to behave well. The purpose of laws is not to force people to be good, but rather the idea of using laws to promote good behavior came from the French Revolution. This means that the concept of using laws to make people moral is relatively modern, rather than being the original purpose of laws.

About Randall Terry

Randall Terry is an American politician and activist who founded the anti-abortion organization Operation Rescue. He has been arrested over 40 times for his activism and has run for political office several times, including in the 2012 Democratic Party presidential primaries and the 2024 Constitution Party presidential election.

More about the author

More quotes from Randall Terry

You don’t know how to love God and your neighbor unless you look to the law to define it.

Randall Terry

American activist

We are saved by grace, not by the works of the law. But don’t be so quick to write the law off.

Randall Terry

American activist

For us to think we can enjoy, understand and practice the Christian religion with just Matthew to Revelation is foolishness.

Randall Terry

American activist

If we don’t believe in moral absolutes and then we get into a cultural-political debate, how are we going to win?

Randall Terry

American activist

It’s come to the point where you have people saying it’s our Christian duty to embrace the homosexual movement. This is absurd.

Randall Terry

American activist

If the Christians who were alive in the 1770s behaved and believed like the Christians of today, there wouldn’t be an America as we know it.

Randall Terry

American activist

It’s the Law of God that gave the stability to Christian civilization.

Randall Terry

American activist

So many Christian leaders have been so tepid or downright silent on the advance of the homosexual agenda.

Randall Terry

American activist

If my duty does involve heralding His law in every arena, then the Church in America is failing radically today.

Randall Terry

American activist

The homosexual community has more acceptance in America than it ever has, and the suicide rate is as high as it’s always been.

Randall Terry

American activist

Christians take Scriptures out of context to try to justify or to vindicate retreat and cowardice.

Randall Terry

American activist

George Washington understood that the Bible is the place where God’s records of right and wrong are kept.

Randall Terry

American activist

Most of the Ten Commandments are negative. The purpose of law is not to mandate good behavior. That concept comes from the French Revolution.

Randall Terry

American activist

What kind of America do people want to leave for their children? What horrors are down the road, stuff that was unthinkable 30 years ago?

Randall Terry

American activist

I’ve traveled all over the country for years speaking in churches, teaching the Ten Commandments. It’s amazing if 2 percent of any congregation knows the Ten Commandments.

Randall Terry

American activist

If you want to understand Jesus, you have to study the whole Bible. Christian duty is not defined solely by the words in red.

Randall Terry

American activist

In a world without the law of God, you have chaos, oppression, tyranny, and everyone doing what is right in their own eyes.

Randall Terry

American activist

It’s kind of fun to listen to Christians who say: I’m a New Testament Christian. What other kind of Christian is there?

Randall Terry

American activist

How long before we have, not just homosexual marriage, but homosexual unions between adult men and small boys?

Randall Terry

American activist

We want every human being in the womb to be safe, not have these babies be killed to solve some dilemma.

Randall Terry

American activist

The early Church had nothing but the Old Testament. The New Testament lies hidden in the Old; the Old Testament lies open in the New.

Randall Terry

American activist

The Law of God reaches into every area of life, and it brings about incredible blessing and incredible freedom.

Randall Terry

American activist

Once you depart from the Ten Commandments as being the foundation of right and wrong, you are in a free fall.

Randall Terry

American activist

If it squares with the Scripture, then let’s go. If it’s in conflict with the Scripture, then it’s heresy.

Randall Terry

American activist

Behaviors are a choice. Feelings are sometimes out of our control. Behavior has to do with choices.

Randall Terry

American activist

I have to believe that people can change, otherwise I deny the Gospel, and I will not do that.

Randall Terry

American activist

Homosexuals reject the process of healing because it’s too painful and time-consuming.

Randall Terry

American activist

It’s interesting to note that all revolutionary literature was written by pastors. These guys were involved in a revolution against the mightiest power that the world had ever seen.

Randall Terry

American activist

The Law of God in the Christian religion is the schoolmaster that leads us to Christ.

Randall Terry

American activist

A Christianity that is in conflict with the Scriptures isn’t Christianity at all.

Randall Terry

American activist

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

Randall Terry

American activist

I didn’t run off with the secretary. It made it seem like I had committed adultery and then ran off with a secretary, neither of which happened.

Randall Terry

American activist

If someone doesn’t know their Old Testament, they don’t know right doctrine, right correction, and they can’t be equipped for good works.

Randall Terry

American activist

The government forces you to give your money to things you don’t believe in, to have your money go to projects that might be inherently immoral.

Randall Terry

American activist

Let’s use the opportunities before us to stand for Christ. If we will do, God himself will honor our efforts and America can be restored.

Randall Terry

American activist

I believe that Clinton is the most wicked and vile President that this nation has ever had.

Randall Terry

American activist

We are not at the same place we were in 1973. This country today is drifting, moving steadily towards the pro-life position because the data is with us.

Randall Terry

American activist

He who frames the question wins the debate.

Randall Terry

American activist

If God is sovereign, then it is impossible for civil government to be neutral on issues of law. All law is based in some religious code.

Randall Terry

American activist

The enemies of the Christian religion and the Law of God confuse law with faith.

Randall Terry

American activist

America should function as a Christian nation.

Randall Terry

American activist