Posted on 02/03/2022 9:38:04 AM PST by SeekAndFind
The Reality Is…
There are threats that face the Christian Church, and the cause of those threats is sin. Sin affects every member of the Christian faith, no matter the status. Sin causes us to stumble and sets us back in our cause for Christ. Ultimately, it should remind us how desperate we need the forgiveness and guidance of God.
But which sin seems to set us back the most? What are we glossing over, pushing under the rug, and pretending isn’t there? That, my friends, is sexual sin. In 2016, Josh McDowell told CBN News, “pornography is probably the greatest threat to the cause of Christ in the history of the world.” Wow. That’s a strong statement to make.
Churches should be pushing the alarm button…not the snooze button! The sad reality is we are not hearing the alarm because most Christian men are in the clutches of this sin. Barna Research Group and Josh McDowell Ministries commissioned a studyfound that the number of Christian men who view pornography nearly mirrors that of non-Christian men. How can this be?
Factors
How has the Church suddenly become a fruitless and passive representation of God in this area? There should be alarms ringing left and right about this topic. Yes, there are certainly pastors and leaders out there addressing it and hundreds of books have been written on it. However, instead of winning against this sin, we’re backsliding.
A recent Lifeway Research poll found that 81 percent of Americans said they were concerned with the declining moral behavior of America. If God calls and equips the Church to be set apart from this world and its lusts, why are most Christian men living sexually immoral lifestyles?
There are a couple of primary factors that contribute to this decline in morals and moral behavior. First, the world is constantly advancing the availability, accessibility, and acceptance of sexual immorality. Over half of men aged 18-49 label pornography as morally acceptable. What’s even more disturbing is that 50% of those who claimed their religion was important to them, also said porn was morally acceptable.
The second factor contributing to this moral decline is that Christians frequently underscore God’s Word and the role that He plays in the battle between the flesh and the spirit. Most of the sermons and books today focus on what you need to do to become free — not how God has a role and provision for us in this battle.
For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled. (2 Corinthians 10:4-6)
It’s time to fight
As the Body of Christ, we cannot allow this moral decline to continue. We must sound the alarm.
Did you know that sexual sin is different than all other sins? The Bible tells us, “Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he commits sexual immorality sins against his own body” (1 Corinthians 6:18). Sexual sin incapacitates us both spiritually and physically. Satan knows this and has been using this sin against man from the very beginning. He knows we were created as sexual beings (Genesis 2:24) and our sexual immorality incapacitates us. He also knows sin causes us to hide from God (Genesis 3:10) and he specifically targets Christians.
The Church has been putting forth unbiblical tactics far too long and it’s time for the Church to stand up and fight the war of sexual immorality.
Adapted from J.S. Shelton’s book “Unmuzzled: Escaping sexual sin, Satan’s grip on men.” For more information about J.S. Shelton and “Unmuzzled” please visit: https://unmuzzledmen.com/
Author of the book UNMUZZLED, Jeremy is a man on a mission to directly confront sexual sin in the church today. He does so with the belief God is using him to grab hold of those heading toward a slaughter. He and his wife of eighteen years have five children and live in Texas.
God’s design is not 15 years of chastity after sexual maturity.
That’s man’s doing.
While too much true, yet right away the article is flawed due to any description of what they consider Christian men to be. Likely is it any who ID as such, which is about 90% more than at least profess sound faith. Seeking to be more precise than other pollsters,at least at one time Barna distinguished between “born again” and “evangelical” and categorizes the latter based upon affirmation of 9 theological aspects [linked page is gone]. Under such, only 8% of US adults doctrinally qualify as “Evangelicals” (2004 survey), while 38% of US adults classify as born again, but not Evangelical.
There are causes and effects “sexual deviancy” is your phrase I’ll go with “lust”.
“Lust” is a virus passed on from one person to another through actions like words and looks, touching the wrong way and actual instances of sexual abuse.
My experience is that I inherited lust from sexual misconduct against me.
I learned that sex with self was a pleasurable experience because someone else touched me sexually when I was young.
This stuff happens all the time often in a church or family setting that seems safe.
You ever wonder how Josh Duggar ended up where he is?
Someone close to him did something to him before he did what he did to others and what he did with child porn online.
The whole Christian subculture was drug and drugged into “wokeness” over the Top Ten of the Lord in the 1990’s.
Coach Bill McCartney crying over his racism when his daughter was impregnated by a non-white football player.
The problem is laid out in Commandment Seven which is about my lust and everyone else’s expounded on in the Sermon on the Mount.
God Bless the memory of Coach McCartney but I think what he needly to deeply consider and I hope he did was lust in the family.
Did he lust for sex or demonstrate in his behavior lustful looks that younger family members noticed.
When the child sees the adult looking at porn, looking at people’s bodies in public, staring etc. a message is passed to the next generation.
Consider this writing from Roy Kuljian (Roy K).
It’s called “A View From The Pew”...https://sastl.net/recovery-reflections/a-view-from-the-pew/
Forget COVID, lust is the pandemic and in all my religious drama (pride,vanity) I failed to see the truth about my lust and other wrongdoing like lying and stealing I was spiritually blind indeed.
I meet many people on a regular basis whose “Christian experiences” resemble my own.
I lied to myself and I hope you are not lying to yourself right now.
All these theological thickets the “system” as Roy K puts it in the linked material are keeping a lot of people from the Lord right here and right now.
No kidding.
I do not wonder why those who oppose God's moral laws on this issue use that line even though we would be hard pressed to find any religious fanatics today who think that sex is so bad. Indeed, God indeed made it so wonderful. In marriage, which is to provide the secure context for that vulnerable intimate physical and spiritual union. And for the normative natural result of this repeated union, that of children. Which the women is uniquely designed to produce and to mother. The Pill as well as Abortion along with the fornication and feminism that they much foster has overall had a very negative effect. And then there are homosexual relations, a capital sin in the OT.
But if by "wonderful" you were referring to pleasure, yes, God could have made matting painful, like it must be for some female insects who get violently hypodermically inseminated, but eating ice cream also is pleasurable, yet all such has its time and place and effects. And self-control is a virtue. As is sacrifice for a greater purpose.
"I also wonder why God even gave us a brain capable of free thought if, according to the religious fanatics, we’re not supposed to think freely."
Indeed, God gave us brains and brawn, palates and procreative organs, however, it is how you use them that matters, and which is determined by the "heart." You seem to reason that since God gave us such that then that means restrictions on the use of them is illogical and contrary to their purpose, but which is an example of "free thinking" that is fallacious reasoning.
Why would God give us such a wonderful brain and the desire to be free, only to then reduce his wonderful Creation to slavery
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Why not read the Bible and find out?
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And there is a difference between seeing a beautiful woman and responding, “Wow!” and actually wanting to have sex with her. As the saying goes, you can’t stop a bird from landing on your head, but you don’t have to let the bird build a nest! Noticing a beauty is one thing, dwelling on a desire to feel her body is another.
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For crying out loud I was making a very simple point that all men lust. Consequently we all need Christ.
So tell me, how does a sinner lead a completely moral life, devoid of any immorality?
The premise of the second half of your question is entirely incorrect. I suspect you know that though.
It works both ways.
I am shocked at the number of guys who are less than average across the board, who seem to think they deserve supermodels for girlfriends or wives.
Or that they really think some girl who could get any guy she wanted would even give them a second look.
Probably because the sex drive is so strong in humans and it is much harder to control sin that comes from within than sin that comes from without.
Is it?
Because every person has 3 basic NEEDS for THEMSELVES: food, clothing, shelter. In that order.
Sex is not needed for the individual. Only for the herd, the species.
I know what you mean but how many people have a huge eating (gluttony) problem?
Only for about six minutes.
Absolutely. And more so as the thread post implies.
Never mind that men even here on FR make a habit of commenting on women’s attractiveness, or not, and make sport out of it. Meanwhile they will not comment on the many ugly men in politics, etc. neither do women here make comments on it or sport of it for a whole thread.
bump
I see eating as being in the same category.
It’s an internal hunger that is part of being human. Very difficult to resist something intrinsic to one’s humanity.
Difference is the sin only ruins the sinner’s life.
Sex ruins the “partner” and the child likely created. Spreads the sin, if you will. We see it in our inner cities if nowhere else.
The problem with looks is that they can fade, and what I have noticed is, ironically, it seems that the more attractive a woman is when she is young, the less well she ages.
While the less attractive women often age much better and are the more attractive ones in the older group.
Maybe I should do a study in it. I could use a million or two for looking at pictures of women at various ages in their lives to see if I am correct.
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