2 posts tagged “bible”
A the recent Exodus Freedom Conference, a general session was devoted to answering delegates' questions on an expert panel. There were, of course, far too many questions submitted for them to answer entirely, so Randy has asked me to help address some of them in the blogosphere. So here I go!
Q: Biblically it's written that when we commit sexual sin, we win against ourselves and God; would you please provide an explanation that would clarify what "sinning against ourselves" means.
Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. 1st Corinthians 6:18
A: I honestly believe that in this verse Paul was getting way ahead of his time in matters of understanding sexuality. One of the things I've learned in my journey is what a powerful force sexuality is spiritually, mentally and physically.
One fact that this statement is (I believe) touching on, is how our bodies are affected by sexual release. We're wired to remember what we associate with orgasm--whatever person, scenario and/or image captured our attention during that ecstatic moment. The more it's imprinted on our minds through repeated behaviors, the more powerful the attachment becomes.
I think God made us that way so that, in the context of marriage, sex would have a transcendent effect--it would bring the spiritual, emotional commitment between man and wife into the physical in a powerful way. Imagine the impact on the intimacy between a man and woman if they associated sexual pleasure only with each other!
But in a broken world the design can work against us. We stumble into physical maturity often poorly guided--certainly in a culture that's a sexual mine field. Through no fault of our own we can associate sexuality with things we were never meant to--that's why things like homosexuality, fetishes and so on exist. Then through our own choices (the no fault part disappears here) we build on those bad connections and foul up what God designed for marital intimacy, because we become more connected to the counterfeit release.
In this way, when you sin sexually, you are totally doing yourself a disservice and making your own wonderful design work against you. You are sinning against your own body.
A lot of people don't want to accept the Bible as a truthful authority--on history, morality, eternity, etc. One of the most common arguments I hear in favor of rejecting Scripture concerns all the atrocities that are allegedly condoned and even promoted within it, particularly in the Old Testament.
And, one can seemingly put together a convincing framework of evidence using bits and pieces of the Scriptures themselves. In a culture where the decision of who should lead the free world can hinge on a few sound bites, this goes over pretty well. Plus, these drive-by arguments have an intrinsic advantage in that our nature finds them most welcome. Most people--and I can relate--really want to believe that the Bible's teachings (at least some of them) ought to be disregarded. So we find ourselves increasingly willing to accept that the Biblical authors were not so much God-inspired as they were homophobic, sexist, racist and so on.
But this isn't really a faithful interpretation of Scripture. The line of logic makes several assumptions, foremost (and most absurd) among them that any deed recorded in the Bible is also condoned by the Bible. This might seem at first glance to be true as the Scriptures denote many of the misdeeds done by the main characters, sometimes with little explanation. It makes no bones about who slept with, lied to, killed, etc whom, and the uppin's don't always seem to come--at least not right away--in some instances.
For example, King David took multiple wives for himself (as did other kings of Israel). This, however, was in direct violation of God's law:
But we see David seemingly getting away with it for quite some time. Ultimately, though, he falls big time with Bathsheba and life is never the same. The impression we often come away with from this story is that David had a one-time slip and it devastated him.
The king must not take many wives for himself, because they will turn his heart away from the Lord.
Deuteronomy 17:17
In his book The Game Plan, Joe Dallas was the first to make me aware that David had been living in self-created gray areas of sexual conduct for years, as evidenced by his illegitimate wives. Dallas contends that David's incident with Bathsheba was not an isolated stumble but the inevitable conclusion to an ongoing compromise. God may not have struck David down the moment he took his second wife, nor does the Bible specifically label the wrong done--but his sin still cost him in the end.
Secondly, a critical eye is often turned on God's orders to the Israelites to basically exterminate other nations. This can be one of the toughest aspects of Scripture to deal with because, let's face it, God is terribly harsh in some of these cases.
It's first important to realize that God is God. Often when I'm angry at Him, I find that I am picturing Him sort of as a self-important manager; just some guy who got luckier than me and happens to be in charge ("Who died and made you God?"). But He's always been God, He started everything and He'll finish everything. If He decides a civilization's time is up, it's up.
And these were some really wicked people, too. In giving Israel the Law, God used many of those nations as an example of what not to do:
Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, for the people I am driving out before you have defiled themselves in all these ways. Because the entire land has become defiled, I am punishing the people who live there. I will cause the land to vomit them out.
Leviticus 18:24-25 (emphasis added)
This statement comes right after God prohibits homosexuality, every kind of incest, bestiality and child sacrifice. It's evident that they were all common practice in the nations He sent Israel against--not that they were all the same, but they were all accepted and ongoing. This is also part of how Leviticus pretty plainly delineates the difference between the customary law (for Jews only) and the universal moral law.
It's also important to note that this radical upheaval in the Holy Land was not about race, as evidenced in the mercy God showed to people and nations outside of Israel who recognized who He was and repented. Here are some basic thoughts I have on this whole argument:
1. God used Israel to destroy nations that were completely corrupt and evil; He did not give them carte blanche to kill whomever they pleased.
2. God equally punished Israel when they were guilty of the same things.
3. God doesn't work that way today--it doesn't mean He feels differently about sin, He just took the judgment out on Jesus to spare those who would believe.
I'm sure there's more that could be said there, but I keep thinking about my next point, so I welcome your input!
Lastly, people often take certain Scriptures pertaining to women and slavery as Biblical justification of keeping slaves and mistreating women. This one bugged me for a long time, almost as much as my second point did, but all kind of came together for me with this one interaction between Jesus and the Pharisees:
Some Pharisees came and tried to trap him with this question: “Should a man be allowed to divorce his wife for just any reason?”
“Haven’t you read the Scriptures?” Jesus replied. “They record that from the beginning ‘God made them male and female.’ And he said, ‘This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.’ Since they are no longer two but one, let no one split apart what God has joined together.”
“Then why did Moses say in the law that a man could give his wife a written notice of divorce and send her away?” they asked.
Jesus replied, “Moses permitted divorce only as a concession to your hard hearts..."
God designed our sexuality for a Garden of Eden experience, but now that sin had entered the picture--corrupting the desires of men and turning gender complimentarity into a power-struggle (Gen 3:16-17)--He knew He had to work with people who could never quite reach that standard. So guidelines were created for divorce to ensure some very minimal safeties for the vulnerable parties.
To be sure, certain people groups have always gotten the short end of the stick. But God showed His heart for justice in the beginning, such as when he struck Onan for taking advantage of his duty to his dead brother's widow.
I think a lot of things were probably like that, including slavery. People weren't just primitive back in the day, they were sinful and in need of saving--a fact which remains unchanged. I'm sure when Jesus establishes his Kingdom on Earth, the "civilized" world we live in today will also appear pretty primitive as well.
But since Eden God has had to navigate humanity through a multitude of imperfect situations created not by Him, but by us. Just because He's helped us through it, that's never meant He was blessing the way we are.
