Sex and the (Doomed) City

We never thought we would see the day come. Deep and dirty sexual acts, once too disgusting to talk about, are closer to becoming mainstreamed than ever before. Children as young as ten years old would shock you with their sexual knowledge. Not only do they know about it, they are experimenting with it in bathroom stalls, locker rooms, behind community buildings and in their friend’s bedrooms. They find willing tutors online, on cell phones and in some classroom textbooks. They know street names for body parts, depraved acts, and the celebrities who model them. Hollywood loves it. Humanists love it. Pornographers love it. This nation has become a sexual hell hole that grows more corrupt by the day.

Pastors, youth leaders, Sunday School teachers and parents need to rise up against the tide. Our kids are not informed about the drastic consequences of sexual wildness. Like innocent lambs to the slaughter, Hollywood and her ilk now lead this generation to shrines of sexual freedom. Unbridled lust, along with their own generation’s rebellion fuels their fire, not to mention the millions of dollars they rake in. They literally do not care about the aftermath. In fact, blinded by their distorted moral values, many of them believe that the aftermath will be good for America and good for the kids.

Unfortunately, too many Christian churches have reconfigured their ideas about sex. Youth groups are now told to practice safe sex, abortion is seen as an individual choice and alternative lifestyles find endorsement rather than condemnation. It is both amazing and sickening that so many true Biblical teachings have been tossed out in favor of liberal ideas in the popular culture. Let us begin a course correction.

Sexual sins are expressly forbidden by the Bible as destructive to the body.

1 Corinthians 6:15-17 says, “Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid. What? Know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? For two, saith he, shall be one flesh. But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.”   One of the sins of fornication is that the relationship between a man and a woman is extremely important and meaningful in the sight of God. Two people joined together sexually make themselves into one body. One set of values; one character; each share the same sin.

Our society believes that anything you do that doesn’t hurt anyone is totally private and nobody else’s business. But that’s not what God says. Paul continues in 1 Corinthians 6:18, “Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.”   Too many people consider fornication as a momentary sin, a little lapse in character, a stumble in the pathway, but otherwise harmless. Well, you really shouldn’t do it, but if you do, just ask God to forgive you and it’s all over. This attitude totally trivializes principles that have a monumental standing in life itself. Look at these scriptures. Proverbs 6:23-28. “For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life: To keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman. Lust not after her beauty in thine heart; neither let her take thee with her eyelids. For by means of a whorish woman a man is brought to a piece of bread: and the adulteress will hunt for the precious life. Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned? Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned?” See also Proverbs 7.

Let’s see what really happens when people commit fornication:

First, let’s look at the medical and physical risks.

• Sexually active people make themselves vulnerable to STD’s like syphilis, gonorrhea, herpes and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.
• They risk becoming the mother or father of another person. (If you believe it is wrong to take a father or mother away from an infant, by the same token you should believe that it is wrong to take away or deny a mother or father from an unborn child.)
• Those who take protection against pregnancy plan on committing the sin of fornication before the act takes place.
• If a child results from the union, they face a whole host of problems, like abortion, marrying the father or mother, entering into lifelong relationships with a family of in-laws, and radically changing their own life plans.

Even without pregnancy, people who commit fornication are not out of danger.

• The relationship between a man and woman deals with highly charged, emotional forces.
• Fornication is becoming intimate with somebody they really do not know.
• Questions will arise, like was the intimacy based upon lying statements about love?
• Was it based upon false promises about commitment to each other?
• When it happened, were they pressured, pushed, manipulated, forced?
• Are they ready to grow up as adults and see each other in a non-sexual way?
• Will they tell anyone else what happened?
• Will the other person tell? If other people find out, will it be used against them?
• Will they have to face it at the worst moment possible moment in their lives?

My counseling experience with young people who got into bed with each other without mutual commitment, without realistic thoughts of marriage and without a clear picture of their futures has not been positive. After their affair cooled, they had to deal with disappointment, embarrassment, hurt, disgust, anger and fear about the relationship, all of which long outlived any momentary pleasure they derived from it. The ones in recovery now have a heavy piece of baggage that they must carry for the rest of their lives. Those that have not yet recovered are obsessed with bitterness, rebellion and negative feelings about life.

Does God forgive fornication? Yes, just like he forgives bank robbery. God’s forgiveness, however, does not mean a human cost won’t be paid. Proverbs 6:30-35 says, “Men do not despise a thief, if he steal to satisfy his soul when he is hungry; But if he be found, he shall restore sevenfold; he shall give all the substance of his house. But whoso committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding: he that doeth it destroyeth his own soul. A wound and dishonour shall he get; and his reproach shall not be wiped away. For jealousy is the rage of a man: therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance. He will not regard any ransom; neither will he rest content, though thou givest many gifts.”

But there is an even greater reason to keep one’s body pure from sexual sin “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?” Fornication is the commission of sacrilege against God because we defile his temple. We are where God dwells. However, for the sake of illustration, how many would of us would go into your home church and vandalize it? How many would throw paint, rip pews and kick holes in walls? Of course not! Isn’t this exactly what fornication does to the real temple of God, the human body? “For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”

Fornication is wrong. Pre-marital sex and extramarital sex is wrong. Fornication is grand larceny against God. You are the redeemed possession of God. You have no right to do what you want to do with your body. If you resent this or rebel against it, you can steal your rights back. God will keep your individual free moral agency inviolate. But you also take the responsibility for aftermath. And, do not be deceived. The responsibility will be real. It will also be far greater any you ever imagined. You are not playing with matches. You are playing with nuclear warheads.

“Anyone who doesn’t respect the marriage vows before they are married will not respect them after they are married.” -Robert Trapani

Comments

[Tim Garcia]

I remember growing up and being totally clueless about sex. Without TV or movies, and very little exposure to anything other than whitewashed Christian music, safe classical and folk music, I found such concepts foreign.

Ironically, that had some serious drawbacks, but overall, I think this was wise parenting. Having seen the consequences, both positive and negative, I think the problem isn't that sex should be a taboo subject, but rather it should be a sacred subject, not one that is hidden, but neither one that is indiscriminately vulgarized, as popular culture does, to the great detriment of the mass consciousness, further poisoning the environment.

We live in a world where true (healthy) sexuality is undervalued and unexplored, but the masses are served a cheap imitation, because it is being sought (coveted) as an end unto itself (this is worshipping the creature more than the Creator), whereas it was designed as a powerful energy to fuse individuals together. Specifically, it was made to fuse complementary energies, classically demonstrated and easily discerned in the male-female energy fusion.