Sex and Sin

I don't really want to immerse myself in this one at this time. so I hope you will be somewhat satiated with a suggestion. The base concept is that sexual interaction was designed to take place in a specific set of circumstances, namely a man and his wife. In the circumstances which it was designed to take place, there is absolutely nothing wrong with it. Hebrews even says the marriage bed is undefiled. May I then suggest you review some earlier passages of scripture and see what kind of specific activity the law of God outlaws? Specifically you might try the books of Deuteronomy and Leviticus to start.Russ

Again, I hope I can make you happy with a short answer. I have just immersed myself (no other word can be used to describe the size of that post) in another thread and I want to be careful of neglecting that one which I began in first.Anyway, let me say that if God makes any sort of punishment for an activity, however light, it is clear that He is not happy with that activity. In that light, having a physical relationship with a woman before marrying her, is not ok as long as you marry her. It is wrong. However, to rectify the situation, God commands that marriage take place. That doesn't mean its ok for a man and woman to have a physical relationship if they are getting married anyway. I know this may seem like I am reading into the text. Please excuse that. I am just trying to answer briefly. Also, you might consider the verse at the end of Genesis 3 which talks about the man leaving father and becoming "one flesh" with his wife. While this has a deeper meaning than a physical relationship, that is certainly included.Having covered (thought lightly I admit) the two dealing with virginity, let me say this: Concerning the other, and really all three, it stems from a biblical definition of what marriage is. Part of that is the phyical relationship and that was designed for the relationship of marriage only. Basically to partake outside of marriage is to violate God's design for life. A brief example (which I am sure might start a controversial rabbit trail): God never intended for man to be drunk but that can easily take place if grapes are allowed to ferment (sp?). Just cuz it is possible doesn't make it right. The limiting of a thing all gets back to God's original design for that situation.Thats all I can really afford to say on the matter for right now and hope that it helps.RussOk, one last thing - I couldn't leave this one alone. Throughout all of scripture sexual purity is connected to spiritual purity. An oversimplification of the idea being you can't extremely spiritual and extremely loose with your body at the same time. Zephyr kind of hit on this with his comment about pagan religions. And, if those pagan religions were formed by people who began by rejecting God (my assertion) it would be understandable for them to rebel sexually as well as spiritually. Anyway, I am not totally devoid of attention to this thread. It is simply not my priority right now. But let me know what you think.[edited to add postscript][This message has been edited by apostolos, 11-25-2003]

Because Genesis 1 says we were made in God's image, animals were not. And, yes, this principle extends to the rest of the argument.Russ

Yaro,Just wanted to throw out another thought briefly. I hope you will look into the reference I made to Genesis in post #11. But also consider that this whole discussion, IMHO(in my humble opinion?), revolves around who gets to define things, God or man. If God is the authority and is responsible for defining what is right and not right in life, then it is understood from scripture, although we can examine this further, that He has made sexual interaction a part of the marriage relationship only. Let me know what you think, I will try to keep my eyes on this one.And a request: I understand I am no administrator. I mean, I'm not even a full-fledged member yet. So I don't want to seem brash. However, given the fact of the topic, is it possible we could all agree to keep the language above reproach? My request is not mandatory, I just find the euphamisms a little bothersome.Russ

Being brief is not excuse for a lack of accuracy. The verse I had in mind appears in Genesis 2:24 but I have included verse 23 for context."And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh
of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was
taken out of Man. Therefore shall a man leave his father
and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they
shall be one flesh."This is the first appearance of marriage in the Bible and a good foundation for what God designed that relationship to be. 'This' being the larger context of Adam being given Eve as a helper. I would like to again suggest that it is up to God to define what should be reserved for marriage only. The passage in Genesis is only one proof text, there are others (which I am hoping someone else w/more time will bring up). And then I would like to ask this question: Is masterbation a sexual activity? I hope you can see where I am going with that one so I don't have to devote too much time to being redundant.I don't know when I will be able to follow up to this post seeing as how I have a couple of things on my plate right now. I will, however, try to check in over the next couple of days.Russ