We are indeed.
Lust has pervaded the conscience of everyone.
Everyone, eh? No exceptions.
Sez who?
Marriage is not just an option, it is a necessity for sinful humanity. For without it, a person's distorted sexuality becomes a force capable of overthrowing the most devout conscience.
Wrong. Marriage is not a cure for lust.
A person is enticed by nature to concubinage, prostitution, masturbation, voyeurism, and sundry other sinful acts. “You cannot be without a [spouse] and remain without sin,” Luther thundered from his Wittenberg pulpit.
Luther was wrong.
This article presents to case of Johann Apel which is simply anecdotal evidence. However, if this is the standard, then I can present numerous similar anecdotal cases of men and women who have remained chaste and pure in the celibate state and conversely, I can also present numerous cases of those who have married yet still indulged in the vices against which Luther rails. There's a famous one in the news right now.
You will “test your neighbor’s bed” unless your own bed is happily occupied and used.
Wrong again.
You will test your neighbor's bed if you are not upheld by God's grace, irrespective of whether you are married or single.
It sounds as if Luther was simply assuming his own issues and problems were shared by everyone. Have some tried and failed to live out the discipline of celibacy? Of course! Does this invalidate it? Not at all.
Who cares what Luther says? Who cares what the author of this piece says? Who cares what you say?
I don't.
We have centuries of heroic and saintly example to guide us. Not just talk but example.
Luther, at least as presented in this article, seems a man possessed by his own passions, and looking to discount them by projecting them to all humankind.
I have no doubt that every human has one or more vices, but I don’t believe every human has every vice.
“Lust has pervaded the conscience of everyone.”
mm: Everyone, eh? No exceptions
me: Everyone except Jesus.
mm: Sez who?
me: Jesus.
“Marriage is not just an option, it is a necessity for sinful humanity. For without it, a person’s distorted sexuality becomes a force capable of overthrowing the most devout conscience.”
mm: Wrong. Marriage is not a cure for lust.
me: The quote didn’t say anything about a “cure”.
mm: This article presents to case of Johann Apel which is simply anecdotal evidence. However, if this is the standard, then I can present numerous similar anecdotal cases of men and women who have remained chaste and pure in the celibate state and conversely, I can also present numerous cases of those who have married yet still indulged in the vices against which Luther rails. There’s a famous one in the news right now.
me: Anecdotal evidence is evidence nonetheless. Nowhere in the article does it suggest that a married clergy is a “fix” or a “cure”. Those are just strawmen errected by Romanists. It talks about the nature of man and creational ordinances that suggest the best pattern for human living. Do you think that Luther, who taught Total Depravity, would ever suggest that any creational ordinance is free of sin?
mm: You will test your neighbor’s bed if you are not upheld by God’s grace, irrespective of whether you are married or single.
me: Agreed. But if you introduce an unnatural situation to creational ordinances then you multiply the opportunity for sin.
mm: Who cares what Luther says? Who cares what the author of this piece says? Who cares what you say? I don’t.
me: Likewise, who cares what you say?
mm: We have centuries of heroic and saintly example to guide us. Not just talk but example.
me: Your previous statements about anecdotal evidence works against you.