God’s Law– Lessons from “Animal Farm” Brad Nelson God’s way of life is simple and He wants everyone to reap the benefits. Mankind only complicates it by trying to make it “better.”
I n 1945, George Orwell published a book, “Animal Farm”, which some of us may remember reading. The tale begins with animals secretly discussing what they believed was mistreatment by the farmer. From these private meetings, the animals develop a plan that leads to rebellion and a “takeover” of the farm. Before their revolt, the animals craft seven commandments to maintain law, order, and a sense of “Animalism.” These rules were meant to unite the animals and prevent them from adopting the bad habits of humans. The commandments represented the “unalter- able” principles of Animalism. Yet, because not all animals could read or remember them, the rules were eventually simplified into a single phrase: “Four legs good, two legs bad.” Over time, the pigs break every commandment for their own per - sonal gain and can not remember the original laws. Eventually, Squealer, a pig, condenses all of the commandments into a singular law to control the other animals. The law, “All animals are equal”, is changed to: “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others”. Many readers recognize a parallel between Orwell’s story and what can be seen in some forms of government today. Leaders, whether in government or other institutions, can forget their origins and op- Consider the example of Alabama’s Chief Justice who was ordered to remove the Ten Commandments from his courthouse over two decades ago. Not many years later, in 2015, a former news anchor told him, “our rights do not come from God, but rather from collec- tive agreement and compromise,” in reference to the constitution- ality of same-sex marriage. By June 26, 2015, same-sex marriage was legalized across all 50 states—a turning point reflecting the ongoing redefinition of laws originally based on the Bible. Society today is becoming more and more lawless, as people in- creasingly turn away from fundamental teachings of God—in favor of rights granted by human governments. erate above the law. A History of Law
This trend is not new. Early Christians expe- rienced similar shifts, including the chang- ing of Passover to Easter at the Council of Nicaea and the Sabbath to Sunday worship under Roman Emporer Constantine. Doc - trines such as the nature of God and the mortal soul were altered, while worship practices were redirected toward Roman deities and sun worship. Just as in Orwell’s book, yesterday’s orthodoxy (truth) became today’s heresy (lies). Avoiding the Trend The original Church, time and time again
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