The Biblical Ten Commandments in the Bible

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One Ohio Pastor, Ten Commandments in the Bible, 113,000 yard signs and a lawsuit

This is a timeline of the events leading to the formation of Adams County for the Ten Commandments, and its ongoing work. It is story that is far from over, for it is "history in the making." Key events will be added as they occur.

AUGUST, 1997

Four new high school/middle school buildings are completed at Manchester, Seaman, Peebles, and West Union in Adams County, Ohio. As part of each schools' dedication, a tablet-shaped granite monument inscribed with the Ten Commandments is placed near the flagpole.

The project was facilitated by the Adams County Ministerial Association at the urging of a number of residents of Adams County who expressed concern over the lack of a firm moral foundation for students in the county. It was entirely funded and is maintained by donations from private citizens and businesses.

The Adams County/Ohio Valley School Board permitted the monuments to be placed on school grounds. The placement of the monuments is widely reported by local and regional news media.

JANUARY - SEPTEMBER, 1998

An unmarried man from Peebles, with no children in the school system, writes several letters to the Superintendent of the district proposing the placement of monuments which he asserts represents his religious group, "The Center for Phallic Worship," of which he represents himself as the "Interim Director."

The proposed monuments were to be four 6' "anatomically correct" penises, with the words "Love One Another" inscribed on the bases.

The school board ignores these requests.

FEBRUARY 8, 1999

The ABC, CBS, & NBC affiliates in Cincinnati, Ohio report from Adams County that a lawsuit will be filed against the school district challenging the placement of the Ten Commandments monuments on the school lawns.

FEBRUARY 9, 1999

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) files suit in federal court demanding the removal of the monuments from the school lawns. The suit names the entire school board, as well as each individual board member and the Superintendent by name, as defendants in the litigation.

This is the first time individual school board members have ever been named in an ACLU lawsuit against a school board. Several lawyers regard this as a "scare tactic" designed to intimidate the board to remove the monuments.

The plaintiff is Peebles resident, Berry Baker, Interim Director for the Center of Phallic Worship. A number of community residents begin to formulate a plan to organize support for the school board in fighting the suit, and to stand for the morality espoused by the Ten Commandments.

FEBRUARY 11, 1999

A decision is made by a newly formed steering committee to hold a community-wide rally the following Sunday, February 14. Leaflets are printed and distributed at local basketball games. Peebles Church of God is chosen as the rally site because of its 300+ seating capacity.

FEBRUARY 14, 1999

Over 600 community residents attend the "standing room only" rally, offering passionate support for the placement of the monuments. The event is a picture of small-town America at its best: A grassroots movement that is part patriotic rally, part revival. The Cincinnati ABC affiliate described the rally as "a call to action," as indeed it was. Numerous volunteers signed up to be part of a citizens committee to support the school board in the fight against the lawsuit. Over $5,300 is collected in an offering, helping to establish a firm financial base for the committee. The community is poised to stand firm. Read more at: Ten Commandments

Requirements to obey the Bible Ten Commandments
Numbers 36:13
These are the commandments and the judgments, which the LORD commanded by the hand of Moses unto the children of Israel in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho.
Ten Commandments explanation

Genesis 26:5
Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.

Leviticus 26:14
But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments;

Leviticus 26:14
And if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments, so that ye will not do all my commandments, but that ye break my covenant:

Leviticus 26:14
I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.

No one had a clue that the baby boy named George Washington Goethals, born on this day in 1858 in Brooklyn, NY, would someday change the way the world did business. As an adult, Mr. Goethals became army officer and chief engineer over thousands of workers who completed the passage we know as the Panama Canal. The engineering marvel took eleven years to complete at a cost of $337 million. The U.S. President at the time, Theodore Roosevelt, said it was “the greatest task of its own kind that has ever been performed in the world.” The United States government maintained control and payed rent to the Panamanian government until December 31, 1999, when it relinquished control of the canal to Panama.

We wonder if even Col. George W. Goethals knew how important the Panama Canal would be, both strategically and in commercial trade throughout the century.