I read in the London Times yesterday a rather shocking article entitled that
Britain is no longer a Christian country say a Frontline clergy
and the article is an exclusive for the Times states that they had done a huge survey of Church
of England clergy of Vicars and Priests and so on to find out their views on a whole range of issues
and for many people they will find these survey results to be quite shocking and I want to share
there is some of the results with you and then offer a few comments by way of comparison with
what Pope Francis said recently head of the Catholic church and what the Quran says at
the very end so back to the survey in the times and I'll link to it in the description below as
I say the article is headed Britain no longer a Christian country say Frontline clergy the times
survey shows priests desire for dramatic shifts in Doctrine on issues such as sex sexuality marriage
and the role of women Britain can no longer be described as a Christian country three-quarters of
the Church of England's priests believe according to a landmark survey conducted by the Times
the most wide-ranging poll carried out among Anglican clergy for a decade has found a strong
desire among priests for big changes in church doctrine on issues such as sex sexuality marriage
and the role of women to bring it into greater line with public opinion I like this public
opinion is what we must do we must change our views to uh uh so that the the people who are
not Christians are satisfied and happy with what we believe that's the litmus test of uh
what's acceptable it seems the article continues a majority of priests want the church to start
conducting what they call same-sex weddings and drop its opposition to premarital and gay sex in
results like described as absolutely huge by campaigners this is enthusiastic uh response
so they want most priests now in the church not only want to um conduct what they call
same-sex weddings between obviously a man and a man or a woman a woman but also now to approve of
fornication this is now to be approved of the survey also uncovered high levels of stress
among priests many of whom feel overstretched they fear that the church's efforts to arrest
the decline in attendance will fail and this may ultimately lead to Extinction so priests are
worried their church is going nowhere fast it's declining it's losing its hemorrhaging members
incredibly fast and the church may be extinct in the future now the church at the moment
currently teaches that only weddings between a man and a woman are permitted says the child the
times in church and that sex is only permissible within heterosexual marriages Bishops recently
however said that they will allow priests to bless gay couples and are under pressure to go further
and permit what they call same-sex weddings they are under they are considering now whether to drop
the teaching that gay sex is quote incompatible with Christian teaching and whether to allow gay
priests to have civil weddings themselves so Vicars two men two male priests will be
able to marry each other perhaps and this will be presented uh to the church's assembly the general
Synod in Autumn this recommendation now this is a reversal these survey findings is a reversal
of the proportions the last time Anglican priests were asked about the issue in 2014
after the legislation of same-sex civil marriage when 51 percent of priests declared
that same-sex marriage to be wrong compared with 39 who said they backed it so the church has now
changed its what the priests have changed their mind most of them now agree with the idea that
all these things should be approved of it strikes me that the the priest's attitude the clergy's
attitude tracks quite closely with the change in social attitudes in wider Society so as the
society changes most of whom are not Christians the church's priests attitude changes as well it
may lag behind a little bit but it follows along it copies ultimately what unbelieving people think
and feel about any given issue so that seems to be what the church is doing now you may say
well what does this really matter well it is interesting isn't it if we look at the Bible
here's my copy uh this the NIV this is the study Bible is the most popular English
translation of the Bible anywhere I just want to quote for you two verses one from what Christians
call the Old Testament or the Jews call of course the Torah the Torah or the Jewish Bible or the
Tanakh they don't call it the Old Testament because it's still very much their Bible they
followed today anyway in that in in that uh book in Leviticus chapter 18 we have a whole series
of lists of unlawful sexual relations and they include things like you know you don't have sexual
relations with your neighbor's wife don't and you file yourself with her don't have sex relations
with animals and defile yourself with it and it says also do not have sexual relationships with a
man as one does with a woman that is detestable so this is the Commandments of God given to
Moses upon him be peace on Mount Sinai don't have sexual relations with a man as one does
with a woman so that is very clear in the Jewish Bible what about the new so-called New Testament
that Christians follow does that say anything different well um let's look at one Corinthians
chapter 6 verse 9 and this lists a whole bunch of sins which exclude you from the kingdom of God
and 1 Corinthians 6 9 says do you not know that the wrong doers will not inherit the kingdom of
God do not be deceived it says neither these sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers
nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor Slanders nor swindlers
will inherit the kingdom of God and that is what some of you were and it goes on so in that list
of those who are excluded from God's kingdom includes and I quote here the sexually immoral
and men who have sex with men so echoing the verse in Leviticus as I say that's from the
very popular NIV Study Bible a very popular translation into English so the Bible is clear
God in the Old Testament and the New Testament I say that this kind of behavior is will
exclude you from God's presence and is detestable so why is the church choosing to why the the
clergy in the church choosing to follow the opposite teaching that's a good question I think.
Maybe the church is following public opinion it doesn't want to be unpopular and it's particularly
acute now because the church is declining rapidly fewer and fewer people are going they don't people
don't like the church they don't want to go there anymore and so of course maybe we should change
our teaching just so we don't have this as a problem most people then won't object to our
teaching so let's change our Doctrine Let's ignore what God has says and let's follow unbelieving
public opinion and this strategy many things will work will it work well I doubt it but anyway
that's their strategy now by coincidence uh I came across another article in the Catholic Herald this
is Britain's leading Roman Catholic paper which I I read religiously every week just to
keep up with what the Catholic church is up to and in the current edition it says as a headline
Pope Francis says Church must be more flexible on homosexuality and sins of the flesh this is an
article published on the 29th of August a couple of days ago in a wide-ranging conversation with
Jesuits in Portugal the article says during his visit to Lisbon earlier this month uh Pope Francis
touched on several hot button topics including the church the need for the church to be more flexible
when it comes to homosexuality and so-called sins of the flesh now it's interesting what
he means by this uh in the article by the way he criticizes Conservative Catholics in America
for being react having a reactionary attitude these are people who are quite strict on on
Doctrine but what he argues for the pope and he quotes some um a monk from the fifth century is
that the idea that that Doctrine Christian doctrine develops and evolves and changes
uh and to what quote the pope he says Doctrine expands and progresses with time uh but is always
progressing says the pope change develops from The Roots upward growing in accord with these
three criteria and this is very interesting he then points to changes in the church's teaching
already on a number of issues and one of them is the death penalty now he says which now the church
is abolished the church is completely against the death penalty in any circumstances now this
is a big change the church used to say the death penalty should be implemented for murderers or you
know rapists and and so on uh but not anymore and the pope is quoting this example of change
in the church's teaching because he says this implies upward movement and shows that change is
necessary quote unquote so he seems to be saying because we've changed the teaching of the Bible
uh before we can do so again with homosexuality that seems to be what he's implying much like
the Church of England is doing it's interesting how the Church of England the Catholic Church are
following a similar trajectory which is to become more liberal and to be more in accord with Western
secular public opinion and and ignoring what the Bible says now when it comes to the death
penalty I mean I'm actually just re-reading the Bible at the moment I do that every couple of
years just to remind myself uh what it says because a fascinating book obviously and in
um I'm just up to uh in Genesis now and I want to share with you what it says about Noah and
Noah as as we know is a prophet of God and um he was a very much sort of appointed by God chosen
by God to build the ark and survive the great worldwide flood when everything was destroyed
and after the floods and other kind of receded and um God initiates a covenant with Noah and
this is the first Covenant we read of in the Bible actually and it's not just with Noah this
Covenant it's and with Mankind and also with all living things it says in in Genesis chapter nine
there's one interesting statement where God tells Noah in this foundational moment in this Primal
Covenant with mankind you know represented by this man Noah God says. 'Whoever sheds human blood,
by humans shall their blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made mankind.'
Now here clearly God is saying that whoever murders another human being deliberately obviously
not by accident not manslaughter um then they shall forfeit their life and in the Bible in
our Bible it says because man is made in the image of God it's a really serious offense to
kill a creature made in the image of God it's not just like any creature it's a very special
creature the human being in in our Bibles so this is a foundational Covenant with God and Mankind
and of course there are plenty of laws in the mosaic laws which talk about the death penalty
for murder and other crimes as well including apostasy and so on but it's interesting that the
church uh for most of its existence agreed with this teaching it accepted it and said
yes the scriptures teach that there's a death penalty for premeditated and deliberate murder
but not today the Catholic church today and you can check this online States clearly that murder
sorry that uh the death penalty is really really bad and we shouldn't implement the death Panic
we have pro-life they say um so it's interesting how the church feels that it can um overturn God's
Commandments uh in you know in these fundamental covenants with mankind by what Authority do they
do do they do do this so that's very interesting but it's the way that this example is given by
Pope Francis of overturning the scriptural teaching to justify further overtonings of
scriptural teaching on other subjects I quoted the verse Leviticus and 1 Corinthians 6 9. so
we know the logic the the kind of liberal logic that's used because we've done it before we could
and we can open up new doors of change if we feel we want to abolish other Commandments of God in
the scriptures very interesting Lord now I can't help thinking that Muslims are hearing this will
be reminded of some verses uh in the Quran uh um that may be applicable uh many may think and
um I I was certainly thought of this particular verse in uh Surah 9 and also Hadith the comments
on this verse and this verse in verse 31 says they the people of the book the Christians and the Jews
they have taken their rabbis and monks as well as the Messiah son of Mary as Lords besides God
even though they were commanded to worship none but one God there is no God worthy of
worship except him glorified is he above whatever they associate with him now there's a fascinating
comment I'm reading from the clear Quran it's a rather good translation uh fairly new and at the
bottom it says when uh ADI IBN hatim a companion of the Prophet upon whom BPS heard this verse
he said but the Jews and the Christians do not worship their rabbis and monks the prophet said
do the rabbis amongst not forbid the permissible and permit The Forbidden and they obey them
Addie answered yes they do the prophet concluded this is how they worship them
interesting and that's Hadith in termidi so the Muslim accusation or the quranic accusation here
is that monks or bishops priests Christian leaders basically forbid what is uh permissible and permit
The Forbidden so what would be permitting The Forbidden well they they will permit so-called gay
weddings uh and get a blessing of fornication is the other thing the the most priests now approval
fornication which is expressly forbidden obviously in Revelation but the also of course forbid the
permissible permissible meaning in this case uh the the death penalty for murder they now forbid
that we we're done away from that so it's I was struck when I read this verse and this Hadith
how it might be seen as incredibly relevant to what's actually going on not just today
but it's always been going on um amongst some people of the book the people of the book who
um as the Quran uh as a Quran understands it they have taken their rabbis and monks as well
as the Messiah son of Mary as Lords beside God even though they were commands to worship
none but God in other words it's God who gives the Commandments we don't make up Commandments
ourselves particularly when they are in direct opposite opposition to God's Own Commandments
so this so I just wanted to share this with you um the churches unfortunately and I say
Unfortunately they are continue to decline because we need I I want strong churches and synagogues
that bear witness to Traditional Values that they mentioned God and have a theocentric understanding
of life even if we disagree on who who Jesus was or the Trinity and so on but at least on
many other things we can find we hope to find a common word as the Quran calls it between the
people of the book but the way things are going the churches are emptying and you know but and
on the opposition to that we have um what's happening in Masjid in in mosques around the
world and I'm going to speak from my experience in the UK and some of the European countries
wherever I go whatever mosques I go to it's the same problem over and over they're always packed
they're full of young people and where do we put everyone if you go to Juma prayer on Friday it's
the same thing you know bursting at the seams they're so popular uh mosques and many uh famous
people and influencers I won't mention names uh are getting uh what Islam is about as a as a Dean
as a complete way of life that remains unchanged from the very beginning of the revelation of to
the prophet Muhammad upon him be peace in the Quran the Quran offers solutions to all our
social issues and spiritual uh loneliness and and dis-ease and how we get to heaven and how
our sins are forgiven and how to live our lives uh in ways which people find very impressive
um and our secular world doesn't offer and whilst the churches appear to be busily trying to keep
up with public opinion which of course isn't Christian at all all Muslims are not they uh
they tend to very much to be following God himself and the Revelation that he vouched safe to His
prophets including uh Noah and Moses and Jesus and Muhammad peace be upon them all until next time