You shall not commit murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not commit pederasty, you shall not commit fornication, you shall not steal, you shall not practice magic, you shall not practice witchcraft, you shall not murder a child by abortion nor kill that which is begotten. You shall not covet the things of your neighbour, you shall not forswear yourself, you shall not bear false witness, you shall not speak evil, you shall bear no grudge. You shall not be double-minded nor double-tongued; for to be double-tongued is a snare of death. Your speech shall not be false, nor empty, but fulfilled by deed. You shall not be covetous, nor greedy nor grasping, nor a hypocrite, nor evil disposed, nor haughty. You shall not take evil counsel against your neighbour. You shall not hate any man; but some you shall reprove, and concerning some you shall pray, and some you shall love more than your own life.

Be not a liar, since a lie leads the way to theft; neither money-loving, nor vainglorious, for out of all these thefts are engendered. Be not a murmurer, since it leads the way to blasphemy; neither self-willed nor evil-minded, for out of all these blasphemies are engendered. But be meek, since the meek shall inherit the earth. Be long-suffering and pitiful and guileless and gentle and good and always trembling at the words which you have heard. You shall not exalt yourself, nor give over-confidence to your soul. Your soul shall not be joined with lofty ones, but with just and lowly ones shall it have its intercourse. The workings that befall you receive as good, knowing that apart from God nothing comes to pass.

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Notice how this earliest record of the teaching of the Apostles, written before the Gospels, speaks firmly against three headline issues of our time: Homosexuality – Paedophilia (pederasty) and abortion.

Christians have taught uncompromisingly against these repulsive practices from the very beginning. This isn’t some ideology that seeks to limit “fun” or “freedom” it is the revealed teaching of God Himself from the beginning. Christianity recorded it once again beginning two thousand years ago. The Judeo-Christian Scriptures had taught against these practices for literally thousands of years, it is no new thing, it has always been against the way we should live.

The whole of the short document The Didache (the two ways) is worth reading since it sets out clearly the basic teaching of the Apostles as taught to them by Christ, from the very earliest days. It shows clearly how far modern churches in the west have drifted from real Christianity, and itv shows how far our secular society has deliberately drifted from its roots.

We are basically, in our institutions and laws even our language, a Christian culture. To take such radical directions as modern society is taking is literally – and deliberately – tearing us from our roots. This is already having dire results for our society. We have brought all of this on our own heads and it must eventually cause a reckoning. That reckoning won’t come from an angry God, it will come from the direct results of our own actions. We think to control all the world around us, but I rather suspect we are close to finding that we have no control over that natural world, and that our actions have consequences which will affect us all

Is it coronavirus? Probably not. Is it an asteroid hitting us? Probably not. Is it major earthquakes? Possibly, there are in fact endless possibilities …. remember the words from the Gospel “And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.” No because there are other things that must follow, of which I will write later.