We should not provoke God to further anger (From Bucks Free Press)

We should not provoke God to further anger

1:10pm Monday 25th June 2012 in Your Letters

RE: “So does the Reverend also ask women to sacrifice pigeons?” – Letters, May 18 on the subject of gay marriages.

MARK Tillman asks why the Leviticus law against homosexual practices should be insisted on and not the sanitary laws of the Old Testament. One of these laws is moral, the other Jewish ritual.

If you were a Jew in Old Testament days, both laws would be insisted on. Christians, being under the New Covenant, are required to follow the New Testament, where Jewish rituals are not enjoined upon us, but the moral laws are reiterated. These moral laws have always been in existence, known intuitively by man generally, and more perfectly by the Jew to whom the ten commandments were given.

The Christian does not observe Old Testament ritual, but, however, does find its spiritual (not literal) counterpart in the teaching of the New Testament. Another writer asks why Christians are obsessed with the homosexual debate. They are not. They are equally concerned about adultery, covetousness, theft, murder and idolatry – all increasing in this country.

The reason the homosexual debate has arisen particularly is its topicality. Christians are not out to be censorious, but, knowing that all must give account to God, warn men and women of the inevitable consequences of their actions if they do not turn. God says: “I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.”

Do we hate God or love him?

At a time when judgment is gathering over Britain and Europe we should not be further provoking God to anger.

Bob Berry, Horsemoor Lane, Winchmore Hill