Even though I don't agree with much of it...
Submitted by J on 2002-11-10 19:05:05, Sunday
In reply to Re: this is how i feel and nothing will change that submitted by Oliver on 2002-11-9 23:17:51, Saturday
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…unlike some of the other responses here, your position was truly presented in a loving manner – thank you for that. Your dissertation on Genesis 2 is well stated and I don’t necessarily disagree with the points raised, except that we don’t live in a paradisiacal garden anymore, nor does God expect us to. He hates divorce, yet He permits it. He never intended us to kill and eat animals, yet He permits it. Life is precious to Him, yet He instituted the death penalty for certain sins. We are not to lie and we are to submit to governing authorities yet when doing such would result in harm to others, we are to do the opposite – examples being Rahab and the Hebrew midwives of Exodus 1. You see, Oliver, we don’t live in a black and white world and the position you are putting forth is one that fits nicely into such a world, but not this one. The passage from Matthew 5 is addressing the link between lust and adultery, so unless boylover75 is married, his use of pictures is not committing adultery in his heart and your application of it to him is unwarranted. The basic issue of lust, however, is certainly applicable to him (and all of us), though I would not categorize the use of pictures (here referring to decent, non-pornographic pictures of boys that can be found in abundance on the net) as necessarily lustful, it depends on the thoughts accompanying them. Boys are beautiful, nothing wrong with enjoying that beauty through pictures and thanking God for it. Your comment about there being plenty of verses speaking out against sex outside of marriage to a lifelong partner (singular) is intriguing, perhaps you could provide a couple from the Law… The conditional clauses in the Law embraced multiple partners as a fact of life and David was chastised for a whole host of sins but not once is he reprimanded for having multiple wives. Even the Song of Songs has the lover and his beloved having some form of sexual contact either before or during the period of their betrothal and blatantly celebrates it. In Christ, J Come away, O human child, to the waters of the wild, with a fairy hand in hand, for the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand. |
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