The Ten Commandments
I am going to be old fashioned and write about the Ten Commandments. Field Marshal Montgomery once said, ‘God spoke these words, and I agree with Him’.

Shortly after God brought the people of Israel out of Egypt, God called Moses to the top of Mount Sinai and gave him the Ten Commandments, which God intended to be the spiritual and moral absolutes for His people. They offer basic rules for behaviour; for guidance into an ordered life; Western nations have built their legal systems on them; society needs them to determine right and wrong. People will mutter ‘this is 2013, we don’t need some ancient words from the Bible to rule our lives’.

That is the view of many people, even some Christians, who say we don’t need rules and regulations. They were written thousands of years ago in a foreign land and don’t relate to our society. We don’t need to be told how to behave; all you need is common sense. Unfortunately sense is not very common

In Jewish homes children are taught the Commandments at an early age and learn them on their ten fingers. They are encouraged to observe them. Many parents these days have no time to spare for their children. Abraham Lincoln once stated, ‘the strength of the nation lies in the home’. If homes continue to break up, the threat to our nation will be as great as any other crisis; the nation needs a spiritual and moral reawakening.

There is also one essential requirement, they have to be enforced, which is why we are in such an awful state in this country. Police have given up enforcing many of our laws, and are under encouragement to do so, and indeed, on moral issues have been told specifically not to do so. Indeed, Police action has on several occasions been taken against those who are proclaiming the values of the Commandments by quoting Scripture, which offends a politically correct society and touches consciences.

Ours is a permissive society which doesn’t like authority and the Human Rights law takes precedence over God’s law. But just as loving parents want to protect their children from harm’s way, and human predators putting temptations in their path, so our heavenly Father wants to protect us from all evil and give us a balanced and happy life.

A big problem is that few people in today’s generation actually know the Commandments, even so called Christians. Young people have never been taught them and those that do know them see them as rather like an exam paper, try any four from ten. Test your knowledge and without cheating try and name them all. Or are considered as Ten Suggestions

How many times have I heard Billy Graham point out they are like a chain; when you break a link the chain is broken; when you break one Commandment, you break the lot. If you have a chain and a link breaks you don’t say ‘I have broken a link’, you say ‘I have broken the chain’, and the commandments are a chain. Break one and you have broken the lot

People do not like strict morality. Morality has been redefined to mean you can do anything provided you feel clear in your conscience. It is considered to be old fashioned to have religious instruction, but human nature doesn’t really change.
I am rather bemused when people start using the term old fashioned in a mocking manner. In our new fashioned society we have the highest number of abortions, the highest number of teenage pregnancies, the highest rate of alcoholism, the highest rate of unsociable behaviour in Europe. The only thing we are lowest in is Church attendance.

Schools (in the state sector)no longer teach Christianity as the country’s religion, often preferring to teach other faiths. They are taught all about sex from an early age and with particular emphasis now on alternative lifestyles. Consequently our children are growing up without knowing any spiritual or moral truths, but are full of sexual knowledge, often practised to cause much distress and social problems. They live in a world unable to distinguish between right and wrong.

The world in its misguided wisdom has decided to reject God’s authority and decide for ourselves how to behave. God’s laws recognise our duty to God, parents, society, property, marriage. and if they were generally obeyed there would be far less criminal, domestic and unsociable behaviour.

People once put faith in politics, but the politicians have shown us how they only look after themselves. No longer can we expect moral standards from them. Especially when we are told by a government minister we are a secular country and not entitled to make the Christian faith our standard of reference; when we have a Prime Minister who takes it upon himself to re-define marriage to canvass what he thinks will bring him a few more votes and produces anti-Christian legislation.

For too long the liberal intellectual establishment have influenced and guided society into the moral abyss. It is now time for the Church, and all Christians, to demand the kind of society God has laid down.

God spoke these words, and I agree with Him too.