Posted on 05/03/2016 8:34:03 PM PDT by pastorbillrandles
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. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.(Genesis 2:23-25)
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 woman, 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 1:26-32)
Throughout the earth,the ancient world was a very brutal, merciless place. In our day we marvel at the beautiful Greco/Roman architecture, (for example), the impressive art, roads and public buildings, and the incredible technological accomplishment of our forefathers. For an example, Aqueducts, which allowed a flow of millions of galloons fresh water into many Romans cities, from hundreds of miles away!
But for most people , life was short, miserable and squalid. One of the things which insured this was sexual anarchy. A man could have a wife for breeding children, He could also have a concubine, ( a wife with a lesser status), it wouldn’t be uncommon for that same man to be deeply involved in pederasty.
Even religious festivals were often sex saturated frenzies, there were whole classes of women, and even children devoted as “Heiros Gamos“, i.e. temple prostitutes by which the worshippers would come into “oneness” with their god through degrading sexual rituals.
Slavery was common, with all of the debauchery and debasement that that cruel institution involved.
Children were used and abused with little consequence because unless they were the children of the powerful and successful, they truly were of little consequence. It was common in the ancient world that “unwanted” children were simply abandoned and often newborns were left on hillsides, exposed to the elements or wild animals.
The civilization of Canaan was of the same sordid nature. The frightening (and uncannily modern) story of Sodom and Gommorrah illustrates this. Lot once lived in the desert with his uncle Abraham. But for business reasons he moved towards Sodom. Next thing we see He lived in Sodom. By the time of the story in Genesis, he served in the city leadership of Sodom.
Though Lot was a righteous man, just living in Sodom corrupted him and his family considerably. His sons died in Sodom as did his Sons in law, for they were unable to believe(or unwilling) that God would ever judge Sodom in righteousness.The Sons in law laughed off the warning of LOT. Lot’s daughters obviously were corrupted by living there, for they did what would be unthinkable, they seduced their own father and had children by him.They weren’t born that way.
Lot himself was so utterly corrupted,(even though he was a believer), he thought little of offering his own daughters to a crazed mob intent on raping his (Angelic) guests.
The worship of the Canaanites was steeped in aberrant sexuality.Baal was the male principle in nature worship, Ashtorath his consort. First born children would routinely be offered to Moloch, burned alive on the brass altar. The priests of Baal would castrate themselves in a religious frenzy,(Transgender?) . The corruption of such worship produced homosexuals, incest, child murderers, rapists, and every other form of abominable and destructive sexuality.
This was the dark side of the ancient world, sexual obsession and anarchy was an almost universal phenomenon.It made for very cruel and exploitive societies. It seems as though the progressive left sees this as the ideal to strive for , but such a world is cruel and twisted.
But when God revealed his LAW to Moses, it set off a “Sexual revolution” which set the world on course for the next three thousand years, leading directly to the Judeo/ Christian world, and the most benevolent and successful civilization the world has even known.
Dennis Prager, a Jewish Rabbi, ethicist, author and talk radio host put it brilliantly in his article Judaism’s Sexual Revolution
When Judaism demanded that all sexual activity be channeled into marriage, it changed the world. The Torah’s prohibition of non-marital sex quite simply made the creation of Western civilization possible.Societies that did not place boundaries around sexuality were stymied in their development. The subsequent dominance of the Western world can largely be attributed to the sexual revolution initiated by Judaism and later carried forward by Christianity. This revolution consisted of forcing the sexual genie into the marital bottle. It ensured that sex no longer dominated society, heightened male-female love and sexuality (and thereby almost alone created the possibility of love and eroticism within marriage), and began the arduous task of elevating the status of women.
It is probably impossible for us, who live thousands of years after Judaism began this process, to perceive the extent to which undisciplined sex can dominate man’s life and the life of society. Throughout the ancient world, and up to the recent past in many parts of the world, sexuality infused virtually all of society.
Of course confining sexuality to one man and one woman for life, was not novel, it was in fact a call back to the Creator’s original intent for the maximum happiness of man and woman, and the benefit of all of society. Moses took us back to what God wanted for us in the garden, and to what alone is true to the way we were created.
One of the consequences of the strict insistence of the Torah upon sexual fidelity within marital monogamy, and sexual fidelity, was and is the elevation of women and children. The woman is no longer considered chattel, Scripture teaches that woman also is made in the Image of God. She is the man’s valued “help meet”, and the “joint heir of life” with her husband. He protects her, she honors him, and together they bring children into the world of their mutual love, whom they protect and guide unto adulthood.
By worshipping Jahweh, according to the Law of Moses the Jewish people would be “Holy”, i.e. separate from the seriously confused, sexually obsessed, morally spent and ruined pagan nations around them. A “Holy Nation” of happily married families raising their own children, preparing them to be productive and healthy adults would be able to shine amidst the squalor of the pagan world.
The Biblical expression, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth…” is a revelation of God that contrasts with the hyper sexualized pagan religions. The only true God created all things out of nothing, by the Word of His power, when He said, Lux Fiat,”let there be light”.
The pagan gods engaged in various sexual activities in order to bring about rain,fertility, spring, summer and fall, thus the worship of false gods was and is utterly infused with various degrading sexual practices.
The sexual component of paganism proved to be a serious snare to Israel, constantly drawing them into idolatry which brought the judgment of the Holy God upon them, such as the account of Baal Peor, in Numbers 25.
There is a deep spiritual component to the sexual confusion we are seeing today as well, and to abortion, feminism, birth control and the confusing array of new “gender identities” which currently confront us.
The only way to understand the gender issue is to realize the spiritual dimension of it, how we have all to a certain extent been seduced by it, and the need for deep repentance and even deliverance from the evil forces we have courted through it.
Excellent post. Christianity in its early centuries was received and understood by believers as a liberation from the sexual anarchy, casual cruelty, and hopelessness (for most) of pagan life. “Slaves to sin” had real meaning. Today we are living through a pagan revival, with sexual anarchy as the point of the spear. Feminists think that the abortion license and massive social welfare programs will make paganism attractive and safe for women. They are wrong.
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