A Biblical Catechism on Sex and Marriage: Sexual Sins: Orgies, Incest

[This post continues a series of posts entitled 'A Biblical Catechism on Sex and Marriage'.  The intention is to provide basic material for further instruction by a trusted teacher of God's Word in a church that is committed to Biblical authority.  The Church’s mission is to invite all people to live under God’s righteous rule.]

Question 3. What sexual sins are mentioned in the Bible?

Answer: Any sex outside of marriage between a man and a woman is sin.


Comment 1: The following sexual sins can be found in the Bible:

[Previous Posts on this question: Adultery, Sexual Immorality, Bestiality, Homosexuality, Transgenderism, Prostitution, Temple Prostitution]

Orgies

Romans 13:13 Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy.

Galatians 5:19-21 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality …  drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

1 Peter 4:3-5  The time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry.  4 With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you;  5 but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.

Incest

Leviticus 18:6 None of you shall approach any one of his close relatives to uncover nakedness. I am the LORD.  [Note: ‘Close relatives’ is further defined in Leviticus 18.7-20.  Forbidden sexual relationships are those with one’s father, mother (cf. 1 Cor. 5), sister, granddaughter, father’s or mother’s sister, uncle’s wife, daughter-in-law, sister-in-law, both mother and daughter, the granddaughter of a wife, two sisters while one is still alive, a menstruating woman (perhaps unclean sex outside marriage that is intended to avoid the possibility of pregnancy—cf. Ezekiel 18:6 and 22:10), and a neighbour’s wife.  The list is repeated in part with appropriate judgements in Leviticus 20.10-21.  Another list is given in Deuteronomy 27:20, 22-23.  Cf. Ezekiel 22:9-11.]

2 Samuel 13:11-12 [Amnon wanted to have sex with his sister, Tamar.]  But when she brought them near him to eat, he took hold of her and said to her, "Come, lie with me, my sister."  12 She answered him, "No, my brother, do not violate me, for such a thing is not done in Israel; do not do this outrageous thing.

A Biblical Catechism on Sex and Marriage: Sexual Sins: Transgenderism, Prostitution, and Temple Prostitution

[This post continues a series of posts entitled 'A Biblical Catechism on Sex and Marriage'.  The intention is to provide basic material for further instruction by a trusted teacher of God's Word in a church that is committed to Biblical authority.  The Church’s mission is to invite all people to live under God’s righteous rule.]

Question 3. What sexual sins are mentioned in the Bible?

Answer: Any sex outside of marriage between a man and a woman is sin.

Comment 1: The following sexual sins can be found in the Bible:



[Previous posts: adultery, sexual immorality, bestiality, homosexuality]


Transgenderism [to identify one’s gender with that of the opposite, biological sex]

Genesis 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.  [There are only two genders, male and female, and these correspond to biological sex.  Note: Romans 1:26-27, as in the Greek version of Genesis 1:27, uses the words for females and males rather than for women and men.  This focuses the point on gender and not only on biological sex.  Thus, one’s gender is the same as one’s biological sex. When one distorts one’s own gender/biological sex to engage in same-sex acts, one is going against creation/nature, and one sins against God.]

Deuteronomy 22:5 "A woman shall not wear a man's garment, nor shall a man put on a woman's cloak, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the LORD your God.

1 Corinthians 11:14-15 Does not nature itself teach you that if a man wears long hair it is a disgrace for him,  15 but if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For her hair is given to her for a covering.  [Note: Paul is insisting on gender distinctions in 1 Cor. 11.2-16.  As some cultures in Paul’s day did have long-haired men, Paul’s point about nature has to do with male and female gender distinctions, not that men cannot grow long hair naturally or that they could have long hair if it did not signify the blurring of gender distinctions.]

            Prostitution


Some example texts from Scripture about this sin are:

Leviticus 19:29 "Do not profane your daughter by making her a prostitute, lest the land fall into prostitution and the land become full of depravity.

Proverbs 23:27 For a prostitute is a deep pit; an adulteress is a narrow well.

1 Corinthians 6:15-16 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never!  16 Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, "The two will become one flesh."

Temple Prostitution

The Israelites encountered temple prostitution in the Canaanite religions.  It involved having sex at shrines with either women (heterosexual sex) or men (homosexual sex).  God forbade Israelites to adopt this sinful practice, which, apart from its association with idolatry, entailed various sins, such as sex outside of marriage, prostitution, and homosexuality.  This connection between idolatry and prostitution (and adultery and homosexuality) at shrines of fertility gods and goddesses is the basis for describing idolatry (sinfully pursuing other gods than the true God) and sexual immorality (sinfully pursuing other desires outside of marriage between a man and a woman).

Deuteronomy 23:17-18 "None of the daughters of Israel shall be a cult prostitute, and none of the sons of Israel shall be a cult prostitute.  18 You shall not bring the fee of a prostitute or the wages of a dog into the house of the LORD your God in payment for any vow, for both of these are an abomination to the LORD your God.  [Note: ‘dog’ was a term used of male prostitutes.]

1 Kings 14:23-24 For they also built for themselves high places and pillars and Asherim on every high hill and under every green tree,  24 and there were also male cult prostitutes in the land.

1 Kings 15:11-12 And Asa did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, as David his father had done.  12 He put away the male cult prostitutes out of the land and removed all the idols that his fathers had made.

1 Kings 22:46 And from the land he [King Jehoshaphat] exterminated the remnant of the male cult prostitutes who remained in the days of his father Asa.

2 Kings 23:7 And he [King Josiah] broke down the houses of the male cult prostitutes who were in the house of the LORD, where the women wove hangings for the Asherah.


Jeremiah 13:27 I have seen your abominations, your adulteries and neighings, your shameless prostitutions on the hills of the countryside. Woe to you, O Jerusalem! How long will it be before you are made clean?

A Biblical Catechism on Sex and Marriage: Sexual Sins: Homosexuality

[This post continues a series of posts entitled 'A Biblical Catechism on Sex and Marriage'.  The intention is to provide basic material for further instruction by a trusted teacher of God's Word in a church that is committed to Biblical authority.  The Church’s mission is to invite people to live under God’s righteous rule.]

Question 3. What sexual sins are mentioned in the Bible?

Answer: Any sex outside of marriage between a man and a woman is sin.

Comment 1: The following sexual sins can be found in the Bible:

[Previous posts: adultery, sexual immorality, bestiality]

Homosexuality

Genesis 19:5 And they [i.e., the men of Sodom] called to Lot, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, that we may know them."  [Note: ‘to know’ someone in the Old Testament can mean to have sex with someone, as here.]

Leviticus 18:22 You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.

Leviticus 20:13 If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.

Romans 1:24-28, 32 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves,  25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.  26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature;  27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.  28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done…. 32 They know God's decree, that those who practice such things deserve to die -- yet they not only do them but even applaud others who practice them.

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 Or do you not know that they will not inherit the kingdom of God?  Do not be misled: neither sexually immoral persons nor idolaters nor adulterers nor ‘soft’ men nor homosexuals nor thieves nor coveters nor drunkards nor abusive persons nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God.  Indeed, some of you were the likes of these.  But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were made righteous in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. [My translation.]

1 Timothy 1:9-10 … understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers,  10 the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine….

Jude 7 … just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.  [Jude focuses the sin of these cities on sexual sin, particularly homosexuality.]


2 Peter 2:6-7 … if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly;  7 and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked.... [Note: the sin of these cities, following Jude 7, is ‘sensual conduct’; specifically, homosexuality, as seen in Genesis 19 and Jude 7.]

A Biblical Catechism on Sex and Marriage: Sexual Sins: Bestiality

[This post continues a series of posts entitled 'A Biblical Catechism on Sex and Marriage'.  The intention is to provide basic material for further instruction by a trusted teacher of God's Word in a church that is committed to Biblical authority.  The Church’s mission is to invite people to live under God’s righteous rule.]


Question 3. What sexual sins are mentioned in the Bible?

Answer: Any sex outside of marriage between a man and a woman is sin.

Comment 1: The following sexual sins can be found in the Bible:

[Previous posts on adultery and sexual immorality]

     Bestiality

Leviticus 18:23 And you shall not lie with any animal and so make yourself unclean with it, neither shall any woman give herself to an animal to lie with it: it is perversion.

Leviticus 20:15-16 If a man lies with an animal, he shall surely be put to death, and you shall kill the animal.  16 If a woman approaches any animal and lies with it, you shall kill the woman and the animal; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.


Deuteronomy 27:21 "'Cursed be anyone who lies with any kind of animal.' And all the people shall say, 'Amen.'

A Biblical Catechism on Sex and Marriage: Sexual Sins: Sexual Immorality

[This post continues a series of posts entitled 'A Biblical Catechism on Sex and Marriage'.  The intention is to provide basic material for further instruction by a trusted teacher of God's Word in a church that is committed to Biblical authority.  The Church’s mission is to invite people to live under God’s righteous rule.]

Question 3. What sexual sins are mentioned in the Bible?


Answer: Any sex outside of marriage between a man and a woman is sin.

Comment 1: The following sexual sins can be found in the Bible:

     [Previous post: Adultery.  This is the second topic under Question 3, Comment 1.]

Sexual Immorality

The early Church warned against ‘sexual immorality.’  This general term, as well as other general terms like ‘impurity,’ ‘sensuality,’ ‘debauchery,’ and so forth, covered every kind of sexual union outside of marriage between a man and a woman.  Sexual sins had already been identified in the Old Testament, and Christians relied on the Old Testament to explain what ‘sexual immorality’ was.  General terms for sexual immorality, therefore, often intentionally include specific sexual sins.

Acts 21:25  But as for the Gentiles who have believed, we have sent a letter with our judgment that they should abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality."  [The content of the letter is also recorded in Acts 15:20, 29.  This shows that Christian sexual ethics re-affirmed Old Testament sexual ethics.]

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral … will inherit the kingdom of God.

1 Corinthians 6:13, 18 the body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body…. Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.

Galatians 5:19-20  Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality … orgies …. [Note: What the ESV translates as ‘sensuality’ the NRSV translates as ‘licentiousness’ and the NIV translates as ‘debauchery.’  Sinful, sexual indulgence is captured in English by all three words.]

Ephesians 5:3  But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints.

Ephesians 5:5  For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous ( that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

Colossians 3:5-6  Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.  6 On account of these the wrath of God is coming.

1 Thessalonians 4:3  For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality….

Hebrews 13:4  Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.

Revelation 2:14  But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality.

Revelation 2:20-21  But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols.  21 I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality.

Revelation 14:8  Another angel, a second, followed, saying, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who made all nations drink the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality."

Revelation 21:8  But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death."

Revelation 9:20-21 The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands nor give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk,  21 nor did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.

              Revelation 22:15  Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and                everyone who loves and practices falsehood.

[to be continued....]

Parable of the Rescuer at Sea

On a sunny, summer day, the disciples and their master sat talking on a grassy knoll in the Welsh town of Hay-on-Wye.  One disciple told the others about some trustees of a diocese who would not release finances for ministry.  A young man had been encouraged to explore ministry in the diocese and had arrived to begin his training and work, but the wealthy diocese would not put up any funds for his accommodations, let alone a stipend or even funds for education.  'The trustees appear to have understood their role to be to guard the diocese’s investments, not to deplete its funds through expenses incurred for actual ministry,' concluded the disciple.

‘I will tell you a story that I heard as a schoolboy,’ said the master to his disciples.  ‘There was a dairy farmer by the name of Wolraad Woltemade living in the Dutch Cape Colony of South Africa.  In the early hours of the 1st of June, 1773, one of the Cape’s violent storms put the Jonge Thomas, anchored off Table Bay, at great risk.  The captain fired his cannon to alert those on shore of his ship’s distress.  Woltemade heard the cannon, saddled his sturdy horse, and hurriedly headed to the bay.  Meanwhile, the ship broke from its anchor and wrecked on the rocks, breaking in two.  Soldiers stood along the shore, helplessly witnessing the catastrophe.  They feared for their lives were they to attempt a rescue.  Woltemade, however, pressed by them and coaxed his faithful steed into the turbulent waters.  His horse swam out to the wreck, and Woltemade called for two seamen to jump into the water and grab the horse’s tail.  Two hesitant sailors abandoned the sinking hull, dove into the sea, grabbed Vonk by the tail, and were pulled through the waters to the safety of the shore.  Woltemade and Vonk repeated this rescue again and again, until fourteen survivors were rescued by them.  Woltemade and his horse entered the stormy waters an eighth time.  When they reached the Jonge Thomas, the remaining shipmen feared that Woltemade would not be able to return again.  The battered hull of the Jonge Thomas was breaking apart.  Too many of those still stranded at sea, however, jumped ship for the only rescue offered by the colony.  Holding on to Woltemade and Vonk, everyone disappeared beneath the waters.’

The disciples sat in silence, with thoughts of a far off colony at the tip of Africa, the Jonge Thomas wrecked on the rocks, and dying men holding on to Woltemade and his horse in the raging sea.  ‘It is just so in the Anglican Communion,’ said the master.  ‘The Episcopal Church in the USA, closing a church every week, has spent millions in litigation to wrestle church properties from faithful members, crippling the Church’s mission and opting for a false gospel.  In the UK, the Church sits with wealthy properties but dwindling memberships, like soldiers standing on the shore while people are dying in the storm.  The institutional Church has turned itself into a trust and has forgotten its mission.  Ministerial training has faltered, and those willing to serve are under-resourced.  Imagine if the Church were once again to become a mission.  Imagine if it rediscovered the salvation it is supposed to offer.  Imagine if it released its resources to save the lost.  Imagine if it cared enough to risk itself in ministry. Imagine if it left the comfort of its parishes and dioceses and entered the stormy waters to seek and to save the lost and dying. Indeed, imagine the outcome if the Cape colony had developed a Coast Guard and equipped it with all it needed to rescue people from the storms and tend to their injuries.  Imagine the Church about its mission.'

A Biblical Catechism on Sex and Marriage: Sexual Sins: Adultery

[This post continues a series of posts entitled 'A Biblical Catechism on Sex and Marriage'.  The intention is to provide basic material for further instruction by a trusted teacher of God's Word in a church that is committed to Biblical authority.  The Church’s mission is to invite people to live under God’s righteous rule.]

Question 3. What sexual sins are mentioned in the Bible?

Answer: Any sex outside of marriage between a man and a woman is sin.

Comment 1: The following sexual sins can be found in the Bible:

Adultery: sexual desire or acts with another person’s spouse

Genesis 39:9  [When Potiphar’s wife wants to commit adultery with Joseph, he says:]  How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?"

Exodus 20:14  "You shall not commit adultery.  [Note: accusing a wife of committing adultery is explored in Numbers 5.11-31.]

Deuteronomy 22:20-21  But if the thing [i.e., that the wife was not a virgin at the time of marriage] is true, that evidence of virginity was not found in the young woman,  21 then they shall bring out the young woman to the door of her father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death with stones, because she has done an outrageous thing in Israel by whoring in her father's house. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.

Deuteronomy 22:22  "If a man is found lying with the wife of another man, both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman, and the woman. So you shall purge the evil from Israel.

2 Samuel 12:9  [When King David has sex with another man’s wife, kills the man, and then marries the woman, God sends a prophet to him.  The prophet says:]  Why have you despised the word of the LORD, to do what is evil in his sight?  [See the whole story in 2 Samuel 11:1-12:25.]

Proverbs warns repeatedly against adultery.  For example:
Proverbs 5:3-23  For the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil,  4 but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.  5 Her feet go down to death; her steps follow the path to Sheol;  6 she does not ponder the path of life; her ways wander, and she does not know it.  7 And now, O sons, listen to me, and do not depart from the words of my mouth.  8 Keep your way far from her, and do not go near the door of her house,  9 lest you give your honor to others and your years to the merciless,  10 lest strangers take their fill of your strength, and your labors go to the house of a foreigner,  11 and at the end of your life you groan, when your flesh and body are consumed,  12 and you say, "How I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof!  13 I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my instructors.  14 I am at the brink of utter ruin in the assembled congregation."  15 Drink water from your own cistern, flowing water from your own well.  16 Should your springs be scattered abroad, streams of water in the streets?  17 Let them be for yourself alone, and not for strangers with you.  18 Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth,  19 a lovely deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight; be intoxicated always in her love.  20 Why should you be intoxicated, my son, with a forbidden woman and embrace the bosom of an adulteress?  21 For a man's ways are before the eyes of the LORD, and he ponders all his paths.  22 The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him, and he is held fast in the cords of his sin.  23 He dies for lack of discipline, and because of his great folly he is led astray.
Cf. Proverbs 2:16-20; 6:23-35; 7:1-27; 9:13-18; 30:20.

Malachi 3:5 "Then I will draw near to you for judgment. I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, against those who thrust aside the sojourner, and do not fear me, says the LORD of hosts.


Matthew 15:19  For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.

A Biblical Catechism on Sex and Marriage: The Purpose of Sex

[This post continues a series of posts entitled 'A Biblical Catechism on Sex and Marriage'.  The intention is to provide basic material for further instruction by a trusted teacher of God's Word in a church that is committed to Biblical authority.  The Church’s mission is to invite people to live under God’s righteous rule.]

Question 2. What is the purpose of sex?

Answer: The purpose of sex is for marital union (‘becoming one flesh’) and marital procreation. 

Genesis 1:27-28  So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.  28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth."

Genesis 2:24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.  [Note: Regarding marriage.]

Matthew 19:4-5 [Jesus] answered, "Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female,  5 and said, 'Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh'?  [Note: Regarding divorce and remarriage.]

1 Corinthians 6:16 Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, "The two will become one flesh."  [Note: Regarding prostitution.]

Ephesians 5:31 "Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh."  [Note: Regarding marital permanence and devotion.]

Comment 1: The pleasure of sex cannot be separated from the purpose of sex.  Sex, while a pleasure, is a physical union of a male and a female (‘one flesh’) that also symbolizes and seals marital union.  The purposeful union of marriage is the right context for sexual pleasure: sex is a marital pleasure.

Comment 2: The pleasure of sex is celebrated through anticipation in the Song of Solomon.  This book also warns the reader not to awaken love before its time (2:7; 3:5; 8:4).  These texts say, ‘do not stir up or awaken love until it pleases.’  The NRSV seems to capture the point: ‘…until it is ready!’  The pleasure of sex must not get ahead of the proper place for sex, which is within marriage.  Every couple needs to establish boundaries and not unite sexually before marriage.

Comment 3: The act of sex seals the marriage.  Only the woman can demonstrate virginity at the time of marriage if her hymen is torn during her first act of sex.  The bloodied cloak was kept as proof, and any evidence of pre-marital sex could call for the end of the betrothal or marriage (Deuteronomy 22:13-24; Matthew 1:18-19; 5:32; 19:9).  Note that, if the young women of Israel remained virgins until marriage, this would automatically mean that the men would also be virgins when they married.

Comment 4: Sex is not simply a bodily function or pleasure; it is a matter of morality.

1 Thessalonians 4:1-8 Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to live and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more. 2 For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. 3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; 4 that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, 5 not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; 6 that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. 7 For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. 8 Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.


1 Corinthians 6:13-15, 18-20  The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.  14 And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power.  15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never!...  18 Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.  19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,  20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

Abortion, Culture, and the Church: Moving from Questions of Viability to Concerns for Vulnerability


This post, under the same title, has been edited and moved to 5 May, 2017.  It now follows a post on primary sources on abortion from Judaism, the Graeco-Roman era, and early Christianity.

A Biblical Catechism on Sex and Marriage: the Bases for Christian Teaching on Sex and Marriage

[This post continues a series of posts entitled 'A Biblical Catechism on Sex and Marriage'.  The intention is to provide basic material for further instruction by a trusted teacher of God's Word in a church that is committed to Biblical authority.  The Church’s mission is to invite people to live under God’s righteous rule.]

Question 1. What are the bases for Christian teaching on sex and marriage?

Answer: God’s revelation through creation and His commandments in Scripture are the bases for Christian teaching on sex and marriage.

Comment 1: The Church of the New Testament took its teaching on ethics, including sex and marriage, from the Old Testament.  There is, therefore, a consistent Biblical teaching on sex and marriage.

2 Timothy 3:16-17  All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,  17 that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.

Comment 2: There are two sources of revelation from God: creation (Psalm 19.1-6) and the Law (Psalm 19.7-11).  There are two sources of teaching in Scripture on sex and marriage: the way God the Creator made male and female for each other (not for homosexual unions; Romans 1.24-28), and what God has revealed in his Law.  1 Timothy 1.8-11 interprets the Ten Commandments for the Church, with the commandment not to commit adultery explained more broadly as a law against sexual immorality and homosexuality.

Comment 3: Jesus and New Testament authors repeatedly warned of false teachers who will misguide people, including about sexual ethics.

Matthew 24:10-13 And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another.  11 And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray.  12 And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.  13 But the one who endures to the end will be saved. [Note: ‘Lawlessness’ does not mean disobedience to a country’s laws but disobedience to God’s Law.]

Acts 20:26-30 Therefore I declare to you this day that I am not responsible for the blood of any of you,  27 for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God.  28 Keep watch over yourselves and over all the flock, of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God1 that he obtained with the blood of his own Son.2  29 I know that after I have gone, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock.  30 Some even from your own group will come distorting the truth in order to entice the disciples to follow them.

2 Timothy 3:1, 6-7 But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty…...6 For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions,  7 always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.

2 Peter 2:1-2, 10, 14, 19-22; 3.2-3 But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.  2 And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed…. 10 and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority…. 14 They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children!... 19 They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved.  20 For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.  21 For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.  22 What the true proverb says has happened to them: "The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire."… 3:2 you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles,  3 knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires.


Jude 3-4, 17-18  Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.  4 For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ….  18 But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ.  18 They said to you, "In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions."

A Biblical Catechism on Sex and Marriage: Introduction

[This post begins a series of posts entitled 'A Biblical Catechism on Sex and Marriage'.  The intention is to provide basic material for further instruction by a trusted teacher of God's Word in a church that is committed to Biblical authority.  Both Jesus and Paul saw teaching on sex and marriage as part of their missionary proclamation: a catechism or teaching on this subject, and ethics overall, is an essential part of Christian missions.  After all, missionary proclamation is an invitation to live under God's righteous rule, the Kingdom of God.]

Note: All quotations from Scripture in this series, unless otherwise noted, are from the New Revised Standard Version.

Formation as God’s people is first and foremost a matter of being instructed in and of obedience to His commandments.  Through Scripture, God teaches His people to walk in His ways.

In the Old Testament, God instructs Israel in the ways of righteousness.  He says,

Deuteronomy 6:4-9  "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.  5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.  6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.  7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.  8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.  9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

As we will see in this guide, the instruction God gives to His people includes clear teaching on sex and marriage.

Jesus, too, taught his disciples how to live according to the righteousness of the Kingdom of God (Matthew 5-7).  To enter God’s Kingdom is to begin to live under His reign and according to His commands.  Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount begins with invitation, continues with moral teaching, and ends with a warning.  His invitation is a promise of blessing for all who will leave their exile in sin and return to God’s reign: ‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied’ (Matthew 5:6).  One of the topics in Jesus’ teaching on the righteousness of the Kingdom of God is that of this study: sex and marriage (cf. Matthew 5:27-32).  Jesus concludes the Sermon on the Mount with a warning to those choosing not to live according to God’s commandments, whether average persons or those in active ministry:

Matthew 7:21-23 "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.  22 On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name?'  23 Then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers.'

Paul’s ministry also involved a welcome through the Gospel, a teaching about how to live righteously, and a warning about God’s coming judgement.  The apostle proclaimed the good news of salvation from sin through the death of Jesus Christ.  This was a message of welcome to everyone, even the worst of sinners (and Paul included himself in that).  He then taught new converts about how to live righteous lives.  He established the church in Thessalonica in just a few weeks, but in 1 Thessalonians he writes to remind these new believers what he had already taught them in that short time (1 Thessalonians 4:1-2).  His ethical teaching included personal, sexual ethics (4:3-8), community ethics (4:9-10), and their relation to those outside the church (4:11-12).  He concludes with a warning not to be caught unprepared when the Day of the Lord—God’s judgement—comes swiftly.  Rather, Christians are to live for Christ:

1 Thessalonians 5:8-10 But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, and put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.  9 For God has destined us not for wrath but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,  10 who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep we may live with him.

Being a Christian involves being part of a community, regular worship, sharing the history and culture of a particular people, and affirming its convictions, practices, liturgies, and mission.  It is about all such things, but it is firstly a matter of walking in the ways of the Lord.  Certainly we affirm that salvation is by grace through faith and not of our own works (Ephesians 2:8-9), but we also affirm that this salvation is a matter of our being ‘created in Christ Jesus for good works’ (Ephesians 2:10).  By God’s grace—His forgiving and transforming grace in Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit—we are a people committed to walk in the ways of the Lord (Romans 8:3-4).  By the same token, if we do not walk in His ways and continue in sin, including sexual immorality, we will not enter the Kingdom of God (cf. 1 Corinthians 6:9-11; Galatians 5:19-21; Ephesians 5:5; 1 Thessalonians 2:12).  We embrace the ‘Welcome’ of the Good News to all; we follow the teaching on righteousness in God’s commandments; and we live soberly, aware of God’s coming judgement.

The eleven lessons in this booklet are meant to guide communities in God’s teaching for their lives in one area of God’s commandments for holy living: sex and marriage.  Hear, then, the teaching of God in His holy Word.

Announcing Global Christian News: Getting a Christian slant on the news--and Christian news

The news is really a story, created by narrators (reporters and anchormen) and editors whose reporting produces a symbolic universe paralleling but not to be equated with reality in which we choose to dwell or struggle not to do so.

Anyone interested in the Church and its mission is constantly frustrated with the story told day after day in the newspapers, magazines, or on television.  Televised news is largely entertainment.  Objective reporting is almost impossible to come by, as is world news or news relevant to the Church.  In a word, we need a different perspective to balance those telling the world's story from a single or secular perspective, or from a predominantly western or American perspective.  Such reporting is helpful, but insufficient, myopic, and distortive without additional input from alternative sources.

Christians need a news service that tells their story on the world stage.  They need to hear the story of the Church that mentions people and countries never even making the regular news.  They need to hear about the powerless and persecuted, Christians and churches around the world, and religion and public life as it affects their lives.  They need to hear from people in other parts of the world, not just people from the west reporting on those other places.  They need, in a word, a Christian news service.
This is what Global Christian News now offers.  It is a recently developed news service that picks up relevant stories from other sources as well as reporting and analysing news on its own.  I would like to recommend it to everyone interested in the Christian, global story.

See:

http://www.globalchristiannews.org/

The Parable of the Plague

[another modern-day parable]

‘We are going to Ross-on-Wye today,’ announced the master to his disciples.  It was market day in the popular, English town near Wales, and this plan did not seem all that surprising to the disciples.  When they arrived, however, the master led them to St. Mary’s churchyard.  There, in front of the Plague Cross, the master began to teach.  A small crowd began to gather, thinking that they might overhear a tour guide explain some things about the old church and the town’s history.

‘A plague of death has descended upon this land,’ began the master.  ‘It has taken the lives of thousands.  Within a few days of contracting this awful disease, people die.  They are sealed up in their houses, abandoned by fearful relatives; their deaths are painful and lonely.  Bodies are hastily dumped into a pit each night.  Lime is thrown on top, then some dirt, and the process is repeated the following day.  The plague is spread from person to person, but people do not know how.  They say that they are clean, but they are not.  The towns and villages are laid waste.’

The crowd continued to gather, enjoying the vivid description of the plague given by the master.  Then he said, ‘This plague cross commemorates the 315 people killed here in 1637.  Our fair isle has seen waves of plague since the 14th century.  Yet in our day, a plague far worse of a different kind has spread far and wide.  People do not even know that there is a plague, but more are taken by it than the plague that killed the people buried here nearly 400 years ago.  It is a plague marked by the falling numbers of persons in the Churches of England, Wales, and Scotland.  It is the plague of unbelief.  The plague in the 17th century was spread by a small flea; this plague is spread by a small doubt that God has spoken in his Word, the Holy Scriptures.  That plague was spread as fleas jumped from the dying to the living; this plague is spread by the priests and professors of those dying in the churches of Wales, Scotland, and England.  The administration of doubt has become the Eucharist of these ministers who say that God has not revealed the way of righteousness in His Word to a people walking in darkness, that God has not offered in Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross the way of reconciliation, and who teach that other faiths offer equally valid ways to God and truths by which they might live despite the Church.  They call evil good and good evil, put darkness for light and light for darkness, and put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!’

The crowd was astonished.  The master picked up a handful of dirt from the ground and threw it into the air.  ‘You say that you are clean, but you are not.  God alone can make you clean through Jesus Christ.  Repent and believe that Jesus is the only way to the Father, and you will find his forgiveness and cleansing.  If you love Him, you will obey his commandments.’  Then the master began to walk along the Wilton Road to the Wye River.  The people followed him to see what else he might do or say.

When they arrived, the master entered the river.  ‘Who will receive a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins?’ he asked.

‘But we are already baptized,’ someone said. 

‘Was it a baptism of repentance?’ 

‘We do not know.’ 

‘Can you repent and not know it?’ 

‘Perhaps someone—a parent—repented on our behalf?’ 

‘A noble hope,’ said the master, ‘but does not repentance mean that it is yours and yours alone?’ 

‘Must we not be baptized in the church?’ someone else asked. 

‘Would that it could be so,’ replied the master.  ‘But not everyone who says to Jesus, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven.  Only those who do the will of God the Father will enter.  But to evildoers who pretend to follow Jesus, our Lord will say on the day of judgement, “Depart from me, I never knew you.”  Thus, those who worship God will worship Him in Spirit and in truth.’

Another said, ‘Do we really need to repent rather than just accept everyone as they are, warts and all?  To speak of sin creates such disunity and intolerance.  Doesn’t love mean never having to say you are sorry?’

‘All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God,’ replied the master.  ‘Our unity is found in the fact that we are all sinners, not in pretending that we have not sinned.  Our unity is found in that Christ has died for all, the just for the unjust.  And our unity is found in the good news that whoever believes in Jesus will not perish but have eternal life.’  Then he added, ‘Unless Jesus washes you, you will have no share in him.  But if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  For he alone is our source of life, our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and our redeemer.’

An elderly man of 86 years asked someone to help him into the water.  With tears of repentance and joy, he said, ‘I was baptized as a baby by a priest who ran off with the secretary.  My parents went to church as everyone else, but they were not believers in Jesus Christ.  I have lived long enough to know again and again that I have sinned and need Jesus’ righteousness.  Even my own goodness, such as it is, is as filthy rags before him.  I cannot stand before a holy God and expect to be accepted except by His grace.  I come in repentance to be baptized today.’

The master welcomed him.  ‘By the confession of your sin and your profession of faith in Jesus Christ, I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,’ he said.  Then he immersed the man in the waters of the Wye.

The master said to the man and all those standing on the shore, ‘All of us who are baptized are baptized into Jesus’ death.  We are buried with him so that, as Christ our Saviour was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so too we might be raised to walk in newness of life.  For if we have been united with Jesus in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.  We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin.  For whoever has died is freed from sin.  But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.  We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.  The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.  So also you must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.’

No one else entered the waters of baptism that day.  ‘I tell you,’ said the master, ‘there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.  Will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night?  Will he delay in helping them?  Indeed, he will grant to them justice.  And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find much faith in our fair land?’


[Note: Scripture passages have been quoted heavily in this story.  The New Revised Standard Version was used.]

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