Indulging One’s Self:
Like Ignoring a “Bridge Out!” Sign
By Jason Lovelace
This Article is written as a
Response to In_Reason_I_Trust
and his article Indulgence, Not Abstinence
I have always, always found
Agnostics’ views on life, on God, and on plain, old common
sense things to be entirely intriguing. In their
feeble attempts to usurp, mock, and discredit the Bible, we
often see Agnostics throw the baby out with the bathwater.
Such is the case with IRIT’s article mocking the values and
virtues of abstaining from sex. Time and again in the
before-referenced article, IRIT tells his readers to
disregard the Bible, to have fun as you see fit, and not to
worry about God and his ideas for things. He further
adds to the diatribe stating that Christianity is a racket
in which millions have given money to “facilitating the
payment towards the mortgages on the "temples of abstinence"
as a result of…guilt”. He further mocks the
institution of marriage, and tries to deflate the idea of
having one mate for life.
While I won’t divulge into IRIT’s
philosophy concerning God and His Institutions (though, if
you wish, you may read For What Do We Have
to ENVY Them? concerning the differences
between what Agnostics and Christians base their beliefs
on), I do want to counter some of his errors concerning the
taking of one mate for life.
IRIT seems to believe that
nowhere in nature does such a phenomenon exist; that in the
animal kingdom, there are no instances in which one male and
one female mate for life. Various species of ducks and
geese actually follow this practice, some of them never
taking another mate after the death of the other. In
the insect world, termite nests generally have a queen and a
king that mate for life as well, not choosing another
partner after the death of its first. Other insects –
particularly colonial varieties – the breeding female mates
once and is finished doing so for life. Wolves, as
well, generally have an Alpha Male and an Alpha Female,
which two are the only ones that mate. The Alpha Male
mates with no other, and neither does the Alpha Female.
In fact, if we take a good, hard look at nature, we can see
more instances of a male and female mating for life than we
see instances of homosexuality in nature. The fact of
the matter is that mating with one for life is not so
uncommon as IRIT would have his readers to believe: it
does happen, and it happens quite often.
IRIT would also have us believe
that marriage is simply about a “Signing a paper, and saying
‘I do’ in front of a congregation” and that it guarantees
nothing. The fact of the matter is that while IRIT
wants to believe in his own world that marriage is rare and
has always been so, the fact of the matter is that marriage
has been around for as long as there has been human history,
and pretty much has guaranteed human existence throughout
our history. It has also established the family unit
as one mother with one father producing children. Such
has been the case in every imaginable civilization
throughout history. Further, History also proves that
so long as the family unit stays as such, civilizations not
only survive, but thrive and prosper.
The crux of this response,
however, doesn’t intrinsically deal with IRIT’s views
concerning marriage per se, but his views concerning
indulgence in sex (in particular) and other forms of
hedonism (in general). Indulgence in sinful things
(oops! There’s that word “sin”, something we don’t
like to see!) not only brings the downfall of individual
people – we can see this in the lives of John Belushi, Chris
Farley, Rock Hudson, Janis Joplin, Jimmy Hendrix, and many
others – but also of civilizations in their entirety.
Above all of these, sex is generally deemed to be the most
destructive form of indulgence. The Apostle Paul has
this to say concerning sex:
“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 to
the Lord is one spirit. Flee fornication. Every
sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that
committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.”
– 1st Corinthians
6.16~18
Sex is not just a physical act.
It is not simply an act of procreation nor an activity meant
to be flouted about and flaunted as a recreational thing
with many partners. Sex is also the joining of the
spirit, the mind, and the person. Listen to what Jesus
has to say concerning it:
“For this cause shall a man leave
his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife:
and they twain shall be one flesh. Wherefore they are
no more twain, but one flesh.”
– Matthew 19.5~6
Sex is not just a physical act.
It is more than IRIT’s description, that “Sex is not THAT
big of a deal. It's not this "holy" and super special
thing.” Essentially, it is two people choosing to
become one. The problem comes when sex is misused.
It is also further interesting to
see how IRIT and those who believe in gnosticism as he does
use the Bible despite calling it an “old book” written by
“primitive people”. When discussing sex, marriage, and
other “natural” things that people should be permitted to
do, ultimately we will hear them say, “But in the Bible, we
see………” When it comes to sex and traditional marriage,
ultimately they will raise the characters of Abraham, Jacob,
Kings David and his son Solomon, and others who had multiple
marriages. Here is a brief rundown of what happened
when the men in question here gave into lustful desires
(read “indulgences):
Abraham
– Abraham, the Patriarch, had a wife and a concubine at the
same time. Sounds like this is an acceptable
situation, until we read that Hagar (the concubine) had a
son named Ishmael, and Sarah had her son, Isaac. Seems
incongruous enough, until we dig deeper, seeing that Islam
and Arabs regard Ishmael as their chief forefather.
Since Ishmael’s time, there has been naught but trouble
between the Jews and the Arabs.
Jacob –
Abraham’s Grandson Jacob had four wives…and a household in
which there was strife of unimaginable proportions:
two sons murdered all the men of an entire city, all four
wives were envious and jealous of one another, ten of the
twelve sons conspired against and sold into slavery their
next-youngest brother, lying to their father Jacob about
what really happened, and their sister, Dinah, was raped.
Even after Jacob died, his ten eldest sons argued and were
suspicious of one of their younger brothers.
King David –
Possibly the greatest hero of the Old Testament, King David
had many wives, one of them from an adulterous relationship.
The result? All four of David’s eldest sons preceded
him in or died within a year of his own death, the eldest of
them being the rapist of his own sister and later murdered,
two others rebelling against David, seeking to take the
throne away by force.
King Solomon –
The wisest man in history is also the greatest polygamist in
recorded history. Solomon had seven hundred wives and
three hundred concubines. The result of this was
Solomon being led astray from the worship of God, rebellion
and adversity on four fronts in the last years of his
kingdom, his son losing ten of the twelve tribes following
his death, and his own house nearly destroyed.
Samson – The
supreme example of what happens with regards to pre-marital
sex, Samson was a judge of Israel for twenty years, but had
trouble keeping his pants on around the ladies. He met
a nasty end after being blinded by his Philistine enemies,
and never really lived up to his potential.
Gideon – The
famous judge that defeated a host of 150,000 to 300,000
invaders with a miniscule army of 300 had more than one wife
and a concubine. This situation nearly did in his own
house as the son of the concubine wiped out al but one of
the sons by Gideon’s legitimate wives.
This is a litany of tragedy which
could have been something else had these men merely given
God their lustful desires (oops! Indulgences) and done
sex and marriage the Godly way. Here are some examples
of those who got it right:
Joseph – The
eleventh of Jacob’s twelve sons, Joseph waited until
marriage to have sex, rejecting even the advances of his
master’s wife while a slave. He was blessed with two
sons, both of which were blessed by Jacob, their
grandfather. Joseph also became the Prime Minister of
Egypt, through whom God was able to rescue his family (and
countless, unnamed others) during a seven-year famine.
Isaac – The son
of Abraham by Sarah, Isaac inherited his father’s estate and
continued the story of promise as given by God to Abraham.
Along with Abraham and Jacob, Isaac is remembered as one of
the patriarchs of Israel and of Christianity.
Ruth and Boaz –
A foreigner form Moab, Ruth came to faith and waited to
sleep with Boaz only after marriage. The result was
Boaz and Ruth being forebears to the Kingly Household of
David and Earthly Ancestors of Jesus Christ.
Isn’t it amazing how the Bible is
clear on the topic of sex? Yes, God allows people to
marry multiple times, and we see it throughout the Bible.
Yes, God allows kings and rulers to marry many wives, as we
see David, Solomon, and their predecessor, Saul, and their
descendents do. Yes, God allows leaders such as Samson
and Gideon – among others – to have sex apart from marriage.
God allows all of that today, too, but the fact of the
matter is, tragedy always follows when we give in to
indulgence, especially on the part of sex. While IRIT
in his article glosses over it in his article to which I am
responding, the fact of the matter is STDs are an ever
present and exponentially growing problem. AIDS and
HIV are now rampant, with entire villages, towns, and cities
in Africa being ravaged and decimated because of it.
HPV which causes cervical cancer among girls and women is
growing more and more powerful, and strains are actually
resistant to certain treatments. Gonorrhea and
Syphilis – once treatable by a single shot of penicillin or
other antibiotic – are now reemerging with strains that are
incurable. Herpes and Genital Warts, also incurable,
are showing up in cases where treatments for them fail 100%
of the time, and these in turn, lead to other diseases and
problems in the body (genital warts being a mitigating
factor in the spread of HPV and the spike in cervical cancer
cases).
You see? As stated before,
IRIT and his like gloss over these facts, whitewashing them
with mockery and euphemisms such as “safe sex” and
“education”. Yet the fact of the matter concerning
these are that condoms – while boasting of a 99% STD and
pregnancy prevention rate – actually are worthless against
the HIV virus, as microscopic holes are large enough to
allow HIV to pass through unhindered (ditto that for HPV,
and most other virulent STDs). Condom companies also
fail to report that on average 20% to 30% of condoms break
during sex. That means condoms are effective only 70%
to 80% of the time. It is further reported that HIV
can lay dormant in a person’s system for as long as twenty
to twenty-five years. Further, the psychological and
mental attachments that are broken due to sex have caused a
sharp increase in those seeking therapy due to sexual
indulgence, and sexual addiction – a spiking problem among
men and women – is now treated at rehab centers across the
United States right along with other “indulgences” such as
alcohol and drug abuse. You see? It is no
longer, nor ever has been, just about a physical act and
nothing more. Sex, like all other sins, comes with
consequences. Abortion on demand is just one.
The explosive growth of pornography, prostitution, and strip
clubs is another, and it never just affects one person, nor
is it simply harmless entertainment. Ted Bundy got his
start by reading porn. Jeffrey Dahmer is also reported
to have been exposed to sexual “indulgence” at an early age.
John Wayne Gacy is yet another example of how hedonism leads
to deeper problems. Allowing our indulgence to rule
always turns into disaster for others.
These are the facts that IRIT and
other “free thinkers” so casually and cavalierly gloss over
and white wash.
What was that again about
indulging?
Here is what Jesus states
concerning an attitude of indulgence:
“And I will say unto my soul,
‘Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take
thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.’ But God said
unto him, ‘Thou fool, this night shall thy soul shall be
required of thee: then whose shall those things be,
which thou hast provided?’”
– Luke 12.19~20
The Bible has much more to say
concerning the giving into indulgence:
“In the twenty and sixth year of
Asa king of Judah began Elah the son of Baasha to reign over
Israel in Tirzah, two years. And his servant Zimri,
captain of half his chariots, conspired against him, as he
was in Tirzah, drinking himself drunk in the house of Arza
steward of his house in Tirza. And Zimri went in and
smote him, and killed him, in the twenty and seventh year of
Asa king of Judah, and reigned in his stead.”
– 1st Kings 16.8~10
“As a jewel of gold in a swine’s
snout, so is a fair woman which is without discretion.”
– Proverbs 11.22
“A foolish woman is clamorous:
she is simple, and knoweth nothing. For she sitteth at
the door of her house, on a seat in the high places of the
city, To call passengers who go right on their ways:
‘Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither’: and as for
him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him, ‘Stolen
waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant. ‘
But knoweth not that the dead are there; and that her
guests are in the depths of hell.”
– Proverbs 9.13~18
“For the lips of a strange woman
drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil:
But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged
sword. Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold
on hell. Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life,
her ways are moveable, that thou canst not know them.
Hear me now therefore, O ye children, and depart not from
the words of my mouth. Remove thy way far form her,
and come not nigh the doors of her house: Lest thou
give thine honour to others, and thy years unto the cruel:
Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy labours be
in the house of a stranger; And thou mourn at the last, when
thy flesh and thy body are consumed, And say, ‘How have I
hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof; And
have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine
ear to them that instructed me! I was in almost all
evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.’
Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters
out of thine own well. Let thy fountains be dispersed
abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets. Let them
be only thine own, and not strangers’ with thee. Let
thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of
thy youth. Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant
roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou
ravished always with her love. And why wilt thou, my
son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom
of a stranger? For the ways of man are before the eyes
of the Lord, and he pondereth al his goings. His own
iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be
holden with the cords of his sins. He shall die
without instruction; and in the greatness of his folly shall
he go astray.”
– Proverbs 5.3~23
“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?
So he that goeth into his neighbour’s wife; whosoever
toucheth her shall not be innocent.”
– Proverbs 6.23~29
“Say unto wisdom, ‘Thou art my
sister’; and call understanding thy kinswoman: That
they may keep thee from the strange woman, form the stranger
which flattereth with her words. For at the window of
my house I looked through the casement, And beheld among the
simple ones, I discerned among the youths, a young man void
of understanding, Passing through the street near her
corner; and he went in the way to her house, In the
twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night:
And, behold, there met him a woman with the attire of an
harlot, and subtil of heart. (She is proud and
stubborn; her feet abide not in her house: Now she is
without, now in the streets, and lieth in wait at every
corner.) So she caught him, and kissed him, and with
an impudent face said unto him, ‘I have peace offerings with
me; this day have I payed my vows. Therefore came I
forth to meet thee, diligently to seek thy face, and I have
found thee. I have decked my bed with myrrh, aloes,
and cinnamon. Come, let us take our fill of love
until the morning: let us solace ourselves with loves.
For the Goodman is not at home, he is gone a long journey:
He hath taken a bag of money with him, and will come home at
the day appointed.’ With her much fair speech she
caused him to yield, with the flattering of her lips she
forced him. He goeth after her straightway, as an ox
goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of
stocks; Till a dart strike through his liver; as a bird
hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his
life. Hearken unto me now, O ye children, and attend
to the words of my mouth. Let not thine heart decline
to her ways, go not astray in her paths. For she hath
cast down many wounded: yea, many strong men have been
slain by her. Her house is the way to hell, going down
to the chambers of death.”
– Proverbs 7.4~27
“Whoso loveth wisdom rejoiceth his
father: but he that keepeth company with harlots
spendeth his substance.”
– Proverbs 29.3
“A certain man had two sons:
And the younger said to his father, ‘Father, give me the
portion of goods that falleth to me.’ And he divided
unto them his living. And not many days after the
young son gathered all together, and took his journey into a
far country, and there wasted his substances with riotous
living. And when he had spent all, there arose a
mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want.
And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country;
and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he
fain would have filled his belly with the husks that the
swine did eat: and no man gave unto him.”
– Luke 15.1~16
“Because that, when they knew God,
they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but
became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart
was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they
became fools. And changed the glory of the
uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible
man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping
things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness
through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their
own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth
of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature
more than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections:
for even their women did change the natural use into that
which is against nature: And likewise also the men,
leaving the natural use of the women, burned in their lust
one toward another; men with men working that which is
unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of
their error which was meet. And even as they did not
like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to
a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not
convenient; Being filled with all unrighteousness,
fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full
of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters,
inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without
understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection,
implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God,
that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not
only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.”
– Romans 1.21~32
“Give not thy strength to women,
nor thy ways to that which destroyeth kings.”
– Proverbs 31.3
“Be not deceived; God is not
mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also
reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of his
flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth the Spirit shall
of the Spirit reap life everlasting.”
– Galatians 6.7~8
“Even as I have seen, they that
plow iniquity, and sow wickedness shall reap the same.”
– Job 4.8
“Such is the way of an adulteress
woman; she eateth, and wipeth her mouth, and saith, ‘I have
done no wickedness.’”
– Proverbs 30.20
“And the rest of the men which were
not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of
their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols
of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood:
which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk, nor walk:
Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their
sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.”
– Revelation 9.20~21
Now this is a lot concerning
giving into indulgence, but there is much, much more that
the Bible describes concerning those who give into sin in
any form, including sexual sin (read: indulgence).
Friends, God doesn’t play games. Many people who have
IRIT’s way of thinking see God as vindictive, imprisoning,
and enslaving, when in fact, it is sin which enslaves.
Sexual addiction is the worst addiction of its kind because
of the dangers of the consequences it poses.
So, in retrospect, is indulging
one’s self really as “fun” and “freeing” as IRIT and those
that follow his agnostic way of thinking claim that it is?
IRIT can dismiss the Bible as written by primitive people,
but it merely shows how little he understands the Bible.
As the verses above clearly show, the Bible is packed with
practical, common sense stuff. Common sense dictates
that someone having sex with many partners is bound for
trouble, especially physically. The Bible says the
same, with the addition that spiritual death comes as a
result (see Romans 3.23, James 1.13~15, Romans 6.23).
Common sense shows that an inebriated, drunken state sets
people up for trouble; the Bible states the same thing
throughout its pages. We see above that as it was
dangerous for kings to get drunk (1st Kings
16.8~10), so it is also dangerous for modern leaders to be
swayed by alcohol (Proverbs 31.4~7).
Friends, giving into indulgence
as IRIT and others of his way of thinking is not freeing,
and neither is the Bible enslaving. Christ states it
twice that those who know and follow him are truly free,
something that Paul also echoes:
“And ye shall know the truth,
and the truth shall make you free.”
– John 8.32
“Stand fast therefore in the
liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not
entangled again with the yoke of bondage.”
– Galatians 5.1
“If the Son therefore shall
make you free, ye shall be free indeed.”
– John 8.34
“For, brethren, ye have been called
unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the
flesh, but by love serve one another.”
– Galatians 5.13
In fact, Christ puts it pretty
plain concerning giving in to indulgence and sin:
“Verily, verily, I say unto
you, ‘Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.’”
– John 8.34
If you want to be enslaved to
yourself, to your own passions, and, ultimately, to the
devil, keep right on indulging. However, if you want
to be free, seek out Jesus Christ, because he will truly and
really set you free…and not just in this life, but in
eternity to come. Trust in Christ, and trust in his
written Word. Though people like IRIT and his
followers think that the Bible is stuffy, stifling, and
boring, the exact opposite is true. It will set you
free, and Christ will come alive in your life if you ask
him.
Keep sex where it belongs:
in marriage. Indulging – despite what IRIT states (and
glosses over concerning sexual indulgence’s consequences) –
only brings heavy consequences.