The 10 Commandments. A gateway to conversion?

The 10 Commandments. A gateway to conversion?

Dr. John Jennings

There are a lot of good people in the world. They all don’t identify as Christian or Catholic. However, if you have a friend and want to try a little conversion or at least get them thinking about God; the 10 Commandments is a good way of introducing them to Catholicism.

There are people in the world who believe they are not Christians. The name of Christian can be triggering for some people. They have been brainwashed by media to believe that all churches are judgemental and condemn people and that convents are full of tormenting nuns. However, nothing could be further from the truth. But if you have a friend, sometimes their fear can emanate from conceptions of what a Christian is. So, start with the basics.

First, make sure you have the correct 10 Commandments and don’t get them mixed up with the Protestant Orthodox or Jewish versions; they have different orders and emphasis.

What you should be looking at is:

First Commandment: I am the LORD your God: you shall not have strange Gods before me.

Second Commandment: You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain

Third Commandment: Remember to keep holy the LORD'S Day.

Fourth Commandment: Honour your father and your mother.

Fifth Commandment: You shall not kill.

Sixth Commandment: You shall not commit adultery.

Seventh Commandment: You shall not steal.

Eighth Commandment: You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.

Ninth Commandment: You shall not covet your neighbour's wife.

Tenth Commandment: You shall not covet your neighbour's goods.

7 You Shall Not Steal

10 You Shall Not Covet your Neighbours Goods

So as not to scare a non-believer away, we can group some of the commandments together. So, let’s start with the 10th and the 7th.Commandments, the 10th is having the desire to steal and the 7th is stealing. Does your friend want to steal things or steal? Hopefully No.

6 You Shall Not Commit Adultery

9 You Shall Not Covet Your Neighbour’s Wife

Then you have the 9th and the 6th the 9th deals with desires and lusts and viewing others as objects, while the 6th deals with any sex outside of marriage. Does your friend engage in sex or watch porn or have desires towards women? Again, hopefully No

8 You Shall not bear false witness against your neighbour

The 8th to always speak the truth, even if it hurts and not to hurt other people with your actions. Is your friend truthful?

5 You Shall Not Kill

Fifth, you should not kill. This includes abortion, euthanasia, suicide, drug abuse, leading people to sin (Spiritual Murder). If your friend is like this, you will know. Run.

4 Honour your Father and Your Mother

Fourth, honour your mother and father. This is a tricky one, especially with the media illusion of the ‘breakup’ of the traditional family. However, this doesn’t only apply to family, it also applies to obeying the law and treating your employees well. It also applies to Blind obedience to unjust laws which is a sin too. It covers a lot. So, is your friend nice to their parents, employees and civil society? It should be kind of obvious from how they speak about people. But they should say Yes.

2 You Shall Not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.

This one may seem like a believer only one. But, cursing using the name of the Lord or any Religious figure is usually frowned upon. So, this should be an easy one.

3 Keep Holy the Lord’s Day

Unless your friend works in the hospitality or security industry they will have a Sunday off work. That’s half the battle right there. So avoiding manual labour and Stress. Ok getting close. All you have to do is get them to go to mass. The question is do you like having Sunday off? ‘Yes’ Now just to get them to church.

Looking at the interpretations above, most of the commandments seem quite reasonable, no cursing, murder, cheating, stealing or fantasising about these things and reflecting on a Sunday. Sounds like a normal person to me. Now, you can tell your friend. Look, you are already following 9 of the 10 commandments. Yes, they are following them from a secular viewpoint, which doesn’t really count; but when they see the similarities between the commandments and how they behave, it could open a little door or ‘the penny drops’ and they might start looking into the rest. They might start identifying their behaviours as Catholic. Now it is up to you to introduce them to the rest of the Bible and how you can get to work on the First Commandment.