The BBC’s Political Editor hit the nail on the head when he claimed that two recent Parliamentary decisions highlight ‘a socially liberal shift’. He was referring, of course, to the vote to amend abortion legislation which will stop women in England and Wales being prosecuted for ending their pregnancy and the vote that backed a change in the law that will allow assisted dying (suicide).

Both decisions have enormous implications. I am very much aware of the pain and turmoil that would lead people to take advantage of any changed legislation of course, but I am also conscious of the disagreeable consequences that may well flow from this ‘liberal shift’.

The change in abortion legislation for example would in effect permit abortion on demand up to full term i.e. up to the moment of and even during birth, and in theory any medical professional who assists a woman in having such an abortion will be liable to prosecution.

In the same way, an Anglican bishop has helpfully pointed out, the Assisted dying Bill "does not prevent terminally ill people who perceive themselves to be a burden to their families and friends from choosing ‘assisted dying’, and that we could become ‘a society where the state fully funds a service for terminally ill people to end their own lives but shockingly only funds around one third of palliative care. ‘Let’s hope and pray then, that the Senedd will continue to reject it.

There’s much to ponder then, but I would go further and suggest that these Bills point to more than a ‘liberal shift’. They reflect a rejection of traditional Christian values, such as the sanctity of life.

This is why I will continue to argue that both lives matter in every pregnancy and that a just, caring society will protect unborn babies as well as their pregnant mothers.

I can’t help noticing that one important Christian truth doesn’t seem to have been mentioned at all in the current debates. I referring to the Biblical insistence that life does not end at death, and that we will have to give an account for all we have said and done.

No one made this clearer than Jesus. He promised a ‘dying thief’ that he would join Him in Paradise but He didn’t give the same assurance to the other man being crucified alongside Him. In the same way He could tell His disciples that those who put their trust in Him would not perish but enjoy everlasting life.

CS Lewis put it neatly and succinctly when he said: “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, in the end, ‘Thy will be done.’ All that are in Hell, choose it”.

The Biblical writer summed it up very starkly: each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment, We all need to reflect on this - just in case it’s true!