Gary :
You’re listening to a special edition of Search the Scriptures Daily, a radio ministry of The Berean Call. Still to come in this revisit to our 2000 series, Religion in the News, plus answers to your questions in Contending for the Faith, and in Understanding the Scriptures, Dave and Tom will continue their discussion of God’s salvation. In addition to this radio program, we publish a monthly newsletter which we make available free of charge. We also produce and distribute a wide variety of teaching materials, including books, in print, e-book and audio book formats, CD’s, DVD’s and other items to encourage the serious study of God’s Word. For a complete list of materials, or to get a copy of today’s broadcast, write to us at POB 7019, Bend , Oregon 97708 , call our toll free order number 800-937-6638, that’s 800-937-6638, or visit our website at www.thebereancall.org . If you would like a copy of this broadcast on compact disk, ask for Program #3809, and be sure to mention the call letters of this station. We’ll repeat this information at the end of the program. Now back to our special revisit to the year 2000. Now:
RELIGION IN THE NEWS
A report and comment on religious trends and events being covered by the media. This week’s item is from the Religious News Service, August 2000. Many people assume the Bible has just one message about sex: don’t do it! But a careful reading of the Holy Scriptures reveals a much more nuance, complex approach to physical intimacy. When I studied the Bible, I was surprised to discover a much more positive view of sexuality than I had ever known, says Debra Hafner, a former sexologist who was now studying to be a Unitarian Universalist minister in New York City . It wasn’t what I was taught in Sunday school, growing up. Indeed, more and more people are turning to the Bible, and their own religious traditions for help with sexual relationships. Last year, Rabbi Schmuley Boteach wrote Kosher Sex: A Recipe for Passion and Intimacy , which draws it’s lessons from the Bible. In a similar vein, a recent book about sex aimed at Mormons has been flying off the shelves. Between Husband and Wife Gospel Perspectives are Marital Intimacy , by Stephen Lamb and Douglas Friendly, has sold more than 70,000 copies, even outselling, Standing for Something , the recent book by Gordon B. Hinkley, president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in church owned book stores. Though the book is liberally sprinkled with churchy advice from LDS President and apostles, Lamb, a Salt Lake City obstetrician, and Brindley, a Brigham Young University church history professor, also offered candid advice on many sexual topics. The overall message is clear, even revolutionary for some Mormons. God intends married couples to enjoy sexual intimacy. That idea began in the Bible.
Tom:
Dave, one of my least favored things about what we do here in the ministry, is that we look at some of the trends that are going on in the church, and because it is influencing many Christians we have to address them; things that we would rather not address or would rather not get into. But this is a good example here, who wants to talk about this, except that just on the basis of what Gary read, this is an item in the church? There are more books, I was just at CBA, their convention, and you just find everything there of the world, in the world. I mean, is the Bible a book on sex? Is this something that we ought to be writing about with basically biblical support?
Dave:
I suppose we could go back to Adam and Eve, and God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve, as will people will often say, and I don’t know that He had to give them a course in sex; I think it comes fairly naturally. The Bible does say marriage is honorable in all and the bed undefiled. The whoremongers and adulterers God will judge. So the Bible does address this in some ways, but the Bible is not a “how to” book on sex. And I think when you get involved in that sort of thing, you have strayed from the scriptures, you begin to occupy your mind with thoughts that are not profitable, and I don’t think should be aired in public, and so forth. But now it’s in our schools. We have to teach our kids about sex, and of course let them know that there is an alternative lifestyle, homosexual or lesbian, and maybe they should experiment to see whether that’s the way they should go, and so forth. No, I think there is something built into human beings by God as there is in animals. We have animal bodies, it’s horrible to admit, but we do, we are not descendents of animals, we are not related to them by some evolutionary chain. But we have certain fleshly passions, and they are to be utilized in a marriage relationship and in a marriage relationship only. And when the Bible talks about marriage, it does not talk about two men and two women. The very first commandment God gives, and probably we’ve talked about this in the past, but it’s helpful to remember it. The first commandment wasn’t “Thou shalt love the Lord with all thy heart,” but there’s a commandment before that. Well the commandment before that was, “Don’t eat of this tree,” but that wasn’t the first commandment, there was a commandment before that. The very first commandment God gave man and woman when He created them was, “Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth.” And homosexuality and lesbianism is a direct disobedience to that command. It is a defiance of God who made man and woman for one another. If everyone became a homosexual, or lesbian that would be the end of the human race, they don’t procreate. I don’t know how you can have gay pride parades about something that would end the human race if everyone adopted it and it would spread disease, which is unnatural. So, I think every person recognizes certain natural instincts and a love relationship that there ought to be between husband and wife, and I don’t think the Bible has to go into—it doesn’t go into great details about this.
Tom:
Right, but you read the material that’s out there, just from the titles of books and the people behind it, all of a sudden it takes a psychological edge to it, that these are man’s greatest needs and you’re never going to have a great relationship with your wife, if you know, you’re sexually into it the way they prescribe according to this psychologist or that psychologist. That’s what the heartbreak here is really, this is worldly stuff, [and] this is not what the Bible is about.
Dave:
We need is a love relationship like the love that is portrayed for us in 1 st Corinthians 13. And when there is love between husband and wife there will be a proper relationship. It’s when one person wants to benefit their pleasure at the expense of the other, or they are thinking selfishly of themselves, that’s when we have problems. But if there is a love of God, a love of Christ in our hearts, husbands and wives will have a wonderful relationship.
