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.

 

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