How Most People (Unknowingly) Break the First Commandment I am the Lord thy God; thou shall not have strange gods before me. Basically, this says we won't worship but the one true God. Unless you don't believe in God at all this is no problem for most people; because every one knows there is just one God. We are not like the early Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans who worshipped a variety of different gods. Or like the primitive people through out the world today who have a multiplicity of gods they worship. This is the good old U.S.A. so we don't have to worry about this one. Wrong - This is the commandment unknowingly broken the most often. some of the most popular ways of breaking this commandment are the strong beliefs in astrology, which includes the use of horoscope readings, psychics (soothsayers), tarot cards, crystal balls and ouija boards. All designed to predict the future and hidden events about others and places. Although these usually start out as amusement, games or recreation, it isn't long before those involved have stronger and stronger beliefs in their power. The devil has designed step-by-step progressions, which lead directly to devil worship. The latter is found in witchcraft, satanism and occults. The evils of astrology go back as far as Babylon and are explained in the Old Testament. The prophet Isaias clearly speaks of God's judgment on Babylon (Kings 23:5 and Is 47:13-14) because of beliefs in astrology. God, and God alone, can tell the future. The devil, whose intelligence is second to God's alone, can use logical conclusions to make reasonable predictions regarding future events, but never knows their exact outcomes. This is the key danger of getting involved in any of the numerous movements that promise to give you the power to know and control the future, control other people and to give you a continuous tranquil and superior life. The devil makes these sound like the answers to life. A few of the devil's tools include the following: Mediums and Channelers - Those who reach and speak to the spirit world. This is usually to contact a deceased loved one who speaks through the medium in a different voice. Most of these are a fraud, but Satan himself, or one of his demons, have been known to take over these sessions for the ruin of souls or to get those attending to commit horrible evil acts. Violent and Hateful Music - Music that promotes satanic practices, hatred for parents, lust, suicide, violence against others, and the desecrating of Catholic Sacraments has been the cause of many young people entering the satanic church; the complete worship of the devil and the world of darkness. Especially loud, dissonant music does violence to the mind and can do violence to the soul - deadening the conscience. The New Age Movement - The New Age Movement and the occult go hand-in-hand with evil and demonic influences. They consist of a variety of non-traditional religious organizations. They are very popular because they emphasize awareness training and self-help programs. This leads to the belief in satanic groups and modern witches. It is occult in nature and embraces the influences of Lucifer. Transcendental Meditation - This was very popular in the 1970s and 1980s and is still very strong. It is a form of Hinduism in which Hindu gods are worshiped. It emphasizes meditations by saying a mantra over and over again. The mantra is a secret Sanskrit word given to participants during an initiation. After a period of time advanced sessions have been known to lead to demonic possessions. These are just a few of the more popular ways that the First Commandment is broken. The Church has always warned and fought against such beliefs. More thorough explanations are found in the official Catechism of the Catholic Church. We Become Gods Probably the most frequent way that this commandment is broken is when we place our individual beliefs above God's Law. In other words, we become our own god and we think we know more that the One True God. The First Commandment requires us to worship God and forbids us to worship images or anything other than the One True God. What is "anything other than"? How about that brand new car, SUV, new furniture, or a much larger home, instead of helping those in dire financial need, the ill, the lonely, the destitute, or our Church. In these situations you know God wants you to come first or you might want to go to the Sunday football game and the time schedule doesn't fit the Mass schedules. You are certain that going to the game is more important than going to Mass. God understands that you need the relaxation rather than a little worship. How about, "We can't afford a baby because we need all these other things!", so we can practice artificial birth control or kill the baby if a pregnancy develops. As you can readily see, when you become bigger than God in your own mind, you can easily break more than on commandment at the same time. (First and Fifth Commandments) Christ by his very examples on Earth isn't going to buy this "can't afford" excuse. He didn't show much interest in the material things of this world. Sins Against the Virtues of Faith and Hope come under this commandment. Sins against faith include our refusal to believe all that Christ has taught through his One True Catholic Church. To pick and choose what we want to believe is perfectly all right when you think you know more than God and the Catholic Church. It includes not searching out the faith preferring to think what you want to think. This is heresy. If we totally abandon our beliefs in the One True Faith, then we have committed apostasy. The sin of schism is when one separates himself from the rightful leadership of the Pope. This is what King Henry the Eighth did when he formed the Church of England and Martin Luther did when he formed the Protestant movement. We sin against hope when we presume that God will give us enough time to repent or we can renounce our sins at a convenient later date, or our sins aren't really bad enough to confess. We sin by despair when we believe that God will never forgive us for what we have done, or he doesn't want to help us save our soul and he will not help us. All of us are only one confession away from complete forgiveness. |
|