HAVE NO OTHER GODS | 10AM
Sep 6, 2026 · 21 min · 7 segments
Exodus 20:1-2 John Adams www.emmanuelcroydon.org.uk
Sep 6, 2026 · 21 min · 7 segments
Exodus 20:1-2 John Adams www.emmanuelcroydon.org.uk
There probably isn't a part of the Christian and indeed the Jewish religion that is more well known than the Ten Commandments.
As Natasha was pointing out earlier, as part of what happened actually all the way back in 1560, Queen Elizabeth ordered a copy of the Ten Commandments to be put in every parish church in our nation.
That's why we've got that board up there.
They've been the staple for reflection as people have come up to take the Lord's Supper ever since.
Almost half a millennium.
The Ten Commandments had a deep and lasting effect on the laws of our country, on the whole of Western civilization.
They appear in art, in cinema, in novels.
At the same time, the Ten Commandments meet with varied and often challenging concerns and even objections, even for Christian people.
Some people look at the Ten Commandments and all they can see is a great big moral mountain to climb.
Maybe they don't disagree with the content of the laws, but they're just so hard.
And so the overwhelming feeling that they generate is guilt or at least a resigned kind of maybe even defeated sense of, all right, this week I must do better.
Other people, in a slightly similar vein, but again, a little bit different, see it not so much as a mountain, but they see the commandments as tripwires for the imperfect.
Problem is, you've got to keep all 10.
Who knows which one I might forget today? And that occasions worry.
Other people don't so much feel distress, they just feel distance.
Aren't they outdated after so many thousands of years superseded by human progress? In 2011, the 500-year anniversary publication of the King James Bible, the Center for Christianity and Culture rather ironically ran a competition in which they asked the entrants to create new sets of Ten Commandments.
That's how people think, isn't it? Oh, we've got this book with ten.
I mean, to be honest, they don't really apply, but maybe we can think up some new ones.
And then finally, other people, and often Christians, don't so much reject the Old Testament law, but they fear it just kind of leads to the wrong place.
Maybe when they tell their own story of coming to faith, it goes something like this.
There came a point where I realized that being a Christian is not about being a good person.
There probably isn't a part of the Christian and indeed the Jewish religion that is more well known than the Ten Commandments.
As Natasha was pointing out earlier, as part of what happened actually all the way back in 1560, Queen Elizabeth ordered a copy of the Ten Commandments to be put in every parish church in our nation.
That's why we've got that board up there.
They've been the staple for reflection as people have come up to take the Lord's Supper ever since.
Almost half a millennium.
The Ten Commandments had a deep and lasting effect on the laws of our country, on the whole of Western civilization.
They appear in art, in cinema, in novels.
At the same time, the Ten Commandments meet with varied and often challenging concerns and even objections, even for Christian people.
Some people look at the Ten Commandments and all they can see is a great big moral mountain to climb.
Maybe they don't disagree with the content of the laws, but they're just so hard.
And so the overwhelming feeling that they generate is guilt or at least a resigned kind of maybe even defeated sense of, all right, this week I must do better.
Other people, in a slightly similar vein, but again, a little bit different, see it not so much as a mountain, but they see the commandments as tripwires for the imperfect.
Problem is, you've got to keep all 10.
Who knows which one I might forget today? And that occasions worry.
Other people don't so much feel distress, they just feel distance.
Aren't they outdated after so many thousands of years superseded by human progress? In 2011, the 500-year anniversary publication of the King James Bible, the Center for Christianity and Culture rather ironically ran a competition in which they asked the entrants to create new sets of Ten Commandments.
That's how people think, isn't it? Oh, we've got this book with ten.
I mean, to be honest, they don't really apply, but maybe we can think up some new ones.
And then finally, other people, and often Christians, don't so much reject the Old Testament law, but they fear it just kind of leads to the wrong place.
Maybe when they tell their own story of coming to faith, it goes something like this.
There came a point where I realized that being a Christian is not about being a good person.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.