Only six of ten commandments of God still important to British Christians

A YouGov pol has revealed that only six of the ten commandments of God are still important to British Christians.
Not to our surprise most Britain's the four which have fallen by the wayside are the requirement not to worship idols, use the God His name in vain, to worship no other God, and to keep the Sabbath day holy.

Concerning the Sabbath or the Sunday since the 2012 ruling by a High Court judge - the first on the issue in nearly a decade - Christians have no right to decline working on Sunday as it is not a “core component” of their beliefs. The fact that some Christians were prepared to work on Sundays meant it was not protected, the court said.

In 1994, when Sunday trading in England was liberalised shopworkers were given a guarantee that working would be strictly voluntary, but the guarantee did not apply to people in other sectors.
The Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations, published in 2003, say employers must justify Sunday working as a “legitimate business need” and does not give a blanket right to Christians not to work.
If employers fail to treat staff fairly and proportionately, the employee may be able to claim discrimination, the rules add.
The last ruling by judges was when a quarry worker claimed his Christian beliefs had been treated with “contempt” by employers who tried to force him to work on Sundays in 2003.

Stephen Copsey lost his case at the Court of Appeal in 2005, with judges ruling his employer had “compelling economic reasons” for insisting that he worked on Sundays.{Christians have no right to refuse to work on Sundays, rules judge}

When we look at lots of Christians and see what they do on Sabbath and / or on the Sunday it is no surprise courts consider it not of any religious importance.

Keeping the Sabbath Day holy is seen as the least relevant of the Commandments in the modern era. Fewer than one in five (19%) Britons say keeping Sundays holy is still an important principle to live by, including fewer than a third of Christians (31%) and 7% of the non-religious. Almost half of Catholics said they supported keeping the Sabbath day holy nut by that they mostly mean keeping the Sunday as rest day. Just 29 per cent of Protestants said they felt the same. 

Concerning the first commandment a real Christians must recognise that the majority of Christians do worship more than one god and mostly do not even know the Name of the Holy Father. As such they do not mind swearing or using one of more tittles of God to make their words stronger or to show their disgust over something.
Just under a quarter (23%) of the overall population say that you may not use the word "God" in or as a curse, including 38% of Christians and just 7% of the non-religious.

Less than one in three Christians believe in preserving Sunday as a day of rest, with 38 per cent against using the Lord's name in vain and 43 per cent condemning the worshipping of idols, though lots of them do not worry to bow down in front of graven images or statues and pictures of gods and saints.

On Tuesday the Archbishop of Canterbury signalled support for a day of rest, tweeting that he was "encouraged" by the Chief Rabbi's campaign for people to spend time offline over the Sabbath.
While almost half of Catholics said they supported keeping the Sabbath day holy, just 29 per cent of Protestants said they felt the same.
The Bishop of Chelmsford, Stephen Cottrell, said: " In an age as busy, frantic and feverish as ours I would have thought that keeping the Sabbath, or at the very least observing a balance between work and rest and play was more important than ever.
Sabbath is both a radical idea and a practically useful idea for it simply acknowledges that we need to rest and we need to play. Indeed, it says this is what we are made for."

The Rt Rev David Walker: 'Believers and non-believers alike support the simple, ancient statements which continue to provide the foundations of our legal system and our shared sense of right and wrong.' Credit: Martin Rickett/PA

He also lamented Christians' abandonment of the commandment about idolatry, saying:

 "Whether it is celebrity, wealth, a certain designer label pair of jeans jeans or a make of car, we have all construct a sense of worth in the desire to own and possess certain things that we believe will give value.

Today we do find lots of christians spending more time on their idols than on the Divine Creator God. In the United States we see a similar trend having 'money' or 'wealth' having become the most important god. There even in mega-churches people have special services to offer them more wealth.

Fewer than a third of Britons (31%) say that people should not worship idols (defined in the survey as statues or symbols). Christians are split on whether they still consider this to be an important commandment, with 43% saying it is and 44% saying it is not. Meanwhile, only one in five non-religious Brits (20%) say it is still an important rule, though most, not to say all, of the respondents who claim to be Christian worship a triune god and as such go in against the first commandment of God.

Only one in five Britons (20%) still believe that the Christian God’s monopoly on worship is still relevant in modern Britain (including 36% of Christians and just 5% of non-religious Brits).


The survey shows that believers and non-believers alike support the simple, ancient statements which continue to provide the foundations of our legal system and our shared sense of right and wrong.

Having been central tenets of Biblical teaching for several millenia 6 from the 10 commandments are still considered of value today.

"Thou shalt not kill" receives 93% of the votes. Most Brits think it is still important to live by this and by the command "thou shalt not steal". In the case of both Commandments, they were seen as still important by 94% of Christians and 93% of those with no religion.

Being honest about certain matters seems surprisingly still important for 87%, though we can see a lot of boasting and hear lots of fake stories and hear a lot of people not telling the truth.
Not bearing false witness (telling lies) about others came third among all groups, with 87% of all Brits, 90% of Christians, and 86% of those without a religion saying that it is still important to live by.

Honesty has also to do with how we treat others and how we behave ourselves in relationships. Though we hear a lot about people having good fun with different people of the opposite or even same sex, close to three quarters (73%) of the population at large say that not committing adultery is still a top life principle, including 69% of non-religious Brits and 76% of Christians. Which is strange that it is so high on the roster because we encounter lots of divorces and mixed families.

Today we also find lots of elderly people left alone in homes. Police also often have to come to help by violence against parents. Though the poll shows that "Honouring thy father and thy mother" is still an important rule to follow for 69% of all Britons, including 78% of Christians and 60% of the non-religious.



The Bishop of Manchester, David Walker, said:

 "This survey shows that the practical morality which has lain at the heart of the Judeo Christian tradition for the last 3500 years still finds favour with most British people today, even where explicitly religious commandments gain less support. 

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Additional reading

1. A New Reformation
2. The Anti-Reformation in Todays Evangelical Church
3. Let us make sure we now believe
4. Hoogdag voor vele protestanten
5. Gewortelden in Christus en factoren voor het succes van de reformatie
6. Relevantie van de de Tien Geboden bij Britten anno 2017
7. Zijn Beelden een Gevaar of de Redding voor het Geloof?
8. Hedendaagse protestanten tegenover Katholieken of de Antichrist

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Old orthodox Dissenters and Unitarians in 19° Century London

Aggressive Unitarians.

It is not often that Unitarianism is aggressive, or that it seeks the heathen in our streets perishing for lack of knowledge.  Apparently it dwells rather on the past than the present, and prefers the select and scholarly few to the unlettered many.

  Most Unitarian preachers lack popular power; hence it is that their places of worship are rarely filled, and that they seem tacitly to assume that such is the natural and necessary condition of their denomination.  It is with them as it used to be with the old orthodox Dissenters in well endowed places of worship some thirty or forty years ago.  Of them, I well remember one in a leading seaport in the eastern counties.  I don’t believe there was such another heavy and dreary place in all East Anglia, certainly there never was such a preacher; more learned, more solemn, more dull, more calculated in a respectable way to send good people to sleep, or to freeze up the hot blood and marrow of his youthful hearers.

  Once and but once there was a sensation in that chapel.  It was a cold evening in the very depth of winter.  There was ice in the pulpit, and ice in the pew.  The very lamps seemed as if it was impossible for them to burn, as the preacher in his heaviest manner discoursed of themes on which seraphs might love to dwell.  All at once rushed in a boy, exclaiming “Fire, fire!”  The effect was electric — in a moment that sleepy audience was startled into life, every head was raised and every ear intent.  Happily the alarm was a false one, but for once people were awake, and kept so till the sermon was done.  It is the aim of Mr. Applebee in the same way to rouse up the Unitarians, and in a certain sense he has succeeded.  He has now been preaching some eighteen months in London, in the old chapel on Stoke Newington Green, where, for many years, Mrs. Barbauld was a regular attendant, and where long the pulpit was filled by no less a distinguished personage than Burke and George the Third’s Dr. Price; the result is that the chapel is now well filled.  It is true it is not a very large one; nevertheless, till Mr. Applebee’s advent, it was considerably larger than the congregation.


  Before Mr. Applebee came to town he had produced a similar effect at Devonport; when he settled there he had to preach to a very small congregation, but he drew people around him, and ere he left a larger chapel had to be built.  I take it a great deal of his popularity is due to his orthodox training.  It is a fact not merely that Unitarianism ever recruits itself from the ranks of orthodoxy, but that it is indebted to the same source for its ablest, or rather most effective ministers.

In the morning Mr. Applebee preaches at Stoke Newington; in the evening he preaches at 245, Mile End.  It seems as if in that teeming district no amount of religious agency may be ignored or despised.  In the morning of the Sabbath as you walk there, you could scarce fancy you were in a Christian land.  It is true, church bells are ringing and the public-houses are shut up, and well-clad hundreds may be seen on their way to their respective places of worship, and possibly you may meet a crowd of two or three hundred earnest men in humble life singing revival hymns as they wend their way to the East London Theatre, where Mr. Booth teaches of heaven and happiness to those who know little of one or the other; nevertheless, the district has a desolate, God-forsaken appearance.  There are butchers’ shops full of people, pie-shops doing a roaring trade, photographers all alive, as they always are, on a Sunday.

  If you want apples or oranges, boots or shoes, ready-made clothes, articles for the toilette or the drawing-room, newspapers of all sorts — you can get them anywhere in abundance in the district; and as you look up the narrow courts and streets on your left, you will see in the dirty, eager crowds around ample evidence of Sabbath desecration.

  I heard a well-known preacher the other day say it was easy to worship God in Devonshire.  Equally true is it that it is not easy to worship Him in Mile End or Whitechapel.  The Unitarians assume that a large number of intelligent persons abstain from attending a religious service on Sundays in the most part “because the doctrines usually taught” are “adverse to reason and the plain teaching of Jesus Christ.”  Under this impression they have opened the place in Mile End.

  In a prospectus widely circulated in the district, they publish a statement of their creed as follows:

•  1. That “there is but one God, one undivided Deity, and one Mediator between God and man — the man Christ Jesus.” 
•  2. That “the life and teachings of Jesus Christ are the purest, the divinest, and truest;” His death consecrating His testimony and completing the devotion of His life; his resurrection and ascension forming the pledge and symbol of their own.
•   3. “That sin inevitably brings its own punishment, and that all who break God’s laws must suffer the penalty in consequence;” at the same time they “reject the idea with abhorrence that God will punish men eternally for any sins they may have committed or may commit.”

  Such is the formula of doctrine, on which as a basis the Unitarian Mission at Mile End has been established, and to a certain extent with some measure of success.  It is charged generally against Unitarians that they have no positive dogma.

  The Unitarianism of Mr. Applebee has no such drawback.  He has a definite creed, which, whether you believe it or not, at any rate you can understand.  In the eyes of many working men, that is of the class to whom he preaches at Mile End, he has also the additional advantage of being well known in the political arena.  As a lecturer on behalf of advanced principles in many of our large towns he has produced a very great effect.

  I confess I have not yet overcome the horror I felt when I saw at the last election how night after night he spoke at Northampton on behalf of Mr. Bradlaugh’s candidature.  Surely a secularist can have no claim as such on the sympathies of a Christian minister.  Yet at Northampton Mr. Applebee laboured as if the success of Mr. Bradlaugh were the triumph of Gospel truth, and as if in the pages of the National Reformer the working men, to whom it especially appeals, might learn the way to life eternal.  But Mr. Applebee is by no means alone.  In Stamford Street Chapel and in Islington you have what I believe the Unitarians would consider still more favourable specimens of aggressive Unitarianism.

- p. 205 - p 209 from The Religious Life of London by J. Ewing Ritchie

Release Date: June 16, 2010  [eBook #32844]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Religious Life of London, by J. EwingRitchie 

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Preceding articles:

 19° Century London Christadelphians and the Religious Life Of London

19° century London and Unitarians

19° century Londoners, religion and heretical opinions

19° century London, Unitarians and Evangelical Alliance

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Related articles

• Unitarian Worship
• Unitarian Universalism
• Sunday Assembly, Atheists, and Unitarian Universalism: The Mission is the Message
• 19° century London and Unitarians
• 19° century Londoners, religion and heretical opinions
• 19° Century London Christadelphians
• Sunday Services (February 2014)
• Challenging religious belief is not enough when individual self interest depends on it
• Challenging religious belief is not enough when individual self interest depends on it
• The plot of land time forgot: The Believers cemetery inside Sochi security ring

Kerstmis, Katholicisme en heidense feesten

Op   stond een artikel waar men het ook over de Christelijke feestdagen heeft en de Thora.

Wij gaan niet akkord met alles wat in het artikel staat maar willen het u wel even voorleggen als stof tot nadenken:

Christian holidays are based on the sun/son god Ra which is the secret reason Christians switched to a calendar based on sun cycle, Chri-smass (callout.sun). Sun-Day celebrates the Sun/son god Ra/Yhwh. It also explains the meaning of the words Vatican beti.can = my-house.here and Catho.lic = This-sect.for-me. Together Jews and Christians worship the mysterious Yhwh a.k.a Tho & Ra. Hanukah called the “Holiday of Light”, like Christmas celebrates the “god of Light” (light = Or) the god Ra.

Lees verder:

A Newly Developed Language Decoder Reveals the Torah is the Lost Book of Thoth Who is Hebrew God Yhwh-Elohim

In his upcoming book the Keys to the library, Joe Lanyadoo reveals a new decoder that offers a new understanding of the Torah, the origin of language and the origin of the human race. Using the decoder reveals that all religious writings tell the same story and were written by the same deity. The Tho-Ra was given to Moses 3500 years ago by its author Yhwh, E.l.h.i.m אֱלֹהִים who is none other than the Egyptian Moon god Thoth, the god of all knowledge and all writing who Lanyadoo claims wrote all religious myths.

> Torah is the Lost Book of Thoth

Do we need to keep the Sabbath

Is there still a difference between the days of the week? For most of the people every day looks the same. People want to have the shops, bars and places of entertainement open 24 hours a day, every day of the week. Sporting and other events are held on any day from Monday to Sunday.

Those who keep most to a sacred day in the week seem to be the Muslims who do not skip their Friday prayer.
We can wonder if God has commanded that there should be kept one day in the week by abstaining from all forms of self-indulgence? Should this then be the first, or seventh, a Friday, Saturday or Sunday, a special day of the week? Do the Jewish sabbath day laws have any meaning for today's society? Should they be kept by followers of Christ?

Quite apart from religious belief, most people accept that the pattern of five or six days of work, followed by a shorter period of relaxation or rest, is a healthy one. They would soon complain strongly if their employer suddenly decided to require them to work with no weekly break at all! It is not the pattern of work and rest that creates the difficulty. The question focuses on what men and women can or should do on their day of rest, and which day of the week that should be.

Did God say people would be punished for not resting on the seventh day? Was there a pattern of work and rest enforced for the nation of Israel?
Six days of gathering and one day of rest? We do find such an example in Genesis. Did God's activity in Creation became the example for His nation? Can we say that by resting on the sabbath, man would identify himself with God, and with the completion of His creation, when He was able to review "everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good" (Genesis 1:31)?

Did God provided the sabbath to confer benefits on anyone who was oppressed-it was "made for man"  and do you need to keep the Sabbath?

POSSIBLE ANSWERS:

- The Sabbath, NOT Sunday, is divinely ordained and must be kept.
- In Christ, every day is a Sabbath day, not just one day.
- Sunday is now the Sabbath for Christians.
- Keeping the Sabbath or not is irrelevant to a Christian.
- Don't know

Go to Do you need to keep the Sabbath? to give  your reply at This is yourbible.

Communion and day of worship

* Do Christadelphians keep Communion?
Yes. They usually call it the Breaking of Bread (Acts 2:42). The Lord Jesus has commanded us to meet together regularly to break bread and drink wine, in memory of his sacrifice until he comes back. The bread represents his body, and the wine represents his blood (1 Corinthians 11:23-26; John 6:53-56).

* Why is it necessary for us to break bread and drink wine?
(a) Baptism is described as a new birth. A growing child needs food at regular intervals. The breaking of bread is a symbolic meal, which provides us with spiritual food.
(b) In baptism our past sins are forgiven, but our weak human nature cannot stop sinning. The breaking of bread service reminds us of the sacrifice of Christ and gives us opportunity to ask for the forgiveness of our sins again.
(c) By the breaking of bread we are reminded of the vows we made at our baptism. It is a time for rededication. It reminds us that Jesus, though now in heaven, will come back to the earth.
(d) The Breaking of Bread also strengthens our fellowship with our fellow believers. We are told not to stay away from the assembly of believers, but to be present as an encouragement to those who share our beliefs. To stay away from the believers’ assembly is to wilfully sin (1 Corinthians 11:23-29; Matthew 26:26-28; 1 Corinthians 10:16-17; Acts 2:42, 46, Hebrews 10:24-25).

* Must we break bread and drink wine on any special day?
No. The breaking of bread was instituted on a weekday evening. Jesus said we should keep it ‘often’, but he did not say how often, or on which day. The early disciples usually kept this ceremony on ‘the first day of the week’ - Sunday. For most people nowadays, Sunday still seems to be the most convenient day (Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 11:25-26).

* What other services do Christadelphians hold?
They hold meetings for preaching the true gospel and for studying the Bible. Christadelphian meetings usually include hymns, prayers, and Bible readings. These should be supported as much as possible (Hebrews 10:24,25).

* Must we keep the Sabbath Day?
No. Jesus fulfilled the law of the Sabbath (Matthew 5:17). When God gave the fourth commandment, “Remember the Sabbath day …” (Exodus 20:8) He was providing one day a week rest from the curse placed on Adam to work “all the days of your life” (Genesis 3:17). For those who trusted God and kept the Sabbath, He made a special provision to sustain them (Exodus 16:22-24). To reject God’s Sabbath, therefore, was to refuse God’s gift of grace. But Jesus came as God’s gift of grace to all who believe in him. He performed God’s work on the Sabbath and declared himself ‘Lord of the Sabbath’ (Matthew 12:5-8; John 5:17). Jesus removed the burden of the curse of Adam (Matthew 11:28-30; 6:31-33). Now all days become a sabbath to the true Christian for whom God has prepared an eternal Sabbath of rest (Hebrews 4:8-10).
Some like to set aside a special day or special moments for dedication to God. This is good, and the principles for doing this are explained in Romans 14:5-9.

* Should a Christian pray every day?
Yes. God wants us to pray to Him regularly. Jesus gave a parable to teach that men ‘ought always to pray and not to lose heart’. Christians who do not pray soon lose contact with God. The Lord Jesus sometimes spent whole nights in prayer. Prayer should be a very important part of our lives too. Jesus Christ is our High Priest in the presence of God, and we pray to God through Christ (Luke 18:1; Matthew 6:5-13; Luke 6:12; James 5:16-18; Romans 12:12; Acts 2:42; Revelation 5:8).


- From the CBM booklet Preparing for baptism # The Christian Life

> Sabbath according to the Scriptures
> The Breaking of Bread
   To take the emblems of Christ's sufferings and sacrifice is the highest honour which a man or woman could have.
Along with prayer and Bible reading, regular obedience to Christ's command to break bread and drink wine in memory of his sacrifice is vital. "This do in remembrance of me", Jesus commanded (Luke 22:19). It was his wish that his followers should regularly do this until his second coming, when Jesus will share the bread and wine with them again (1 Cor. 11:26; Luke 22:16--18).

also of interest > Ecclesial Life

In Dutch:

> Avondmaal des Heren
> Teken van het verbond
> Sabbat of zondag
> Zondagrust of sabbatviering