Rebirth to Physical Life (1)

This topic is follow-up to the two-part topic “Universal Christian Salvation”.  As background, I suggest you read/review the Bible verses referenced in “Universal Christian Salvation” before proceeding here.

In “Universal Christian Salvation”, we examined pertinent passages in the New Testament (NT) and the Old Testament Septúagint/LXX which contain the Greek term for “all”…“pas” (Strongs g3956).  This term “pas” occurs 1,240 times in the NT.  In several of those verses, all/pas pertained to all of mankind.

Universalism or Universal Christian Salvation/Reconciliation is the belief that all or most humans will ultimately be reconciled to God, saved through Jesus.  (It isn’t pluralism; since not all mans’ religions are from God.)  Two disparate beliefs of Christians are…Eternal Conscious Torment in hell-fire, held by Calvinists & Arminianists…and Annihilationism extinction.  see “Universal Christian Salvation (1)”.

A person may cite isolated Bible verses which seem to support any or all of the above three beliefs!

Yet God is love (1Jn.4:16).  Universal Christian Salvation/Reconciliation does comprehensively reflect God’s love.  God is also fair, impartial.  Ro.2:11 “There is no partiality with God.”  He’s no respecter of persons (Ac.10:34).  And God is just.  Ro.9:14 “There is no injustice with God.”  Is.61:8 the Lord loves justice.  1Jn.1:9 “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.”

But if all humans end up ‘saved’, how does such Universal Salvation also reflect God’s character as just & consistent, with the requirements for His forgiveness and mans’ salvation the same for every person?

Over the millennia, most of humanity died without believing in the name of Jesus, the only name by which we’re saved (Ac.4:12).  Many or most never even heard His name!  e.g. the multitudes of gentiles who lived in BC times, before Jesus’ incarnation.  All men are sinners (Ro.3:23).  Some die cursing God.

Yet Paul wrote in Php.2:10-11, “At the name of Jesus everyone [pas g3956] in heaven, on earth, and in the world below will bow the knee. And every [g3956] tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”  That’s universality…even including those “under the earth” (KJV)!  also cf. 1Pe.3:19.  Geneva Bible Php.2:10 “All creatures will at length be subject to Christ.”  Meyer NT Commentary Php.2:10 “The bowing of the knee represents adoration.”  Cambridge Bible Php.2:10 “Created existence, in its heights and depths…being said to worship.”  Ellicott Commentary Php.2:11 “The acknowledgement of universal Lordship and majesty.”

However, many didn’t believe and repent, two requirements for salvation (Mk.16:16; Jn.3:18, 36; Lk.13:3; Ac.2:38, 16:31).  If they’re saved without belief and repenting from sin, it would seem that God has a double standard!  Yet God is just and impartial.  Mankind reaps what he sows (Ga.6:7).  How may this be reconciled?  Jesus and Paul said there were other “ages to come” (e.g. Mt.12:32, Ep.2:7).

Ge.18:20 the sin in the ancient cities of Sodom & Gomorrah was “exceedingly grave”.  Consequently, the Lord destroyed their inhabitants with fire from heaven (Ge.19:24-25, Jude 1:7)!  Therefore, we may think it would be intolerable for them in the judgment.  Condemnation.  But that’s not what Jesus said (speaking to the unrepentant who opposed Him).  Mt.11:24 “It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you.”  What?!  also Mt.10:15.  Having destroyed those wicked cities with fire, for their judgment to be “more tolerable”…implied is a measure of future forgiveness.

The Lord asserted in Ezk.16:53-55, “I will restore the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, and the captivity of Samaria [Israel’s 10 tribes] and her daughters….Sodom with her daughters will return to their former state.”  The Jordan River plain.  Keil and Delitzsch Ezk.16:53 “What the apostle teaches [1Pe.3:19, 4:6]…is equally applicable to the Sodomites…and indeed generally to all the heathen nations who either lived before Christ or departed from this earthly life without having heard the gospel preached.”  So it’s not hopeless for those ancient Sodomites!  They would eventually be restored.  Such tolerance could also include the children of those utterly corrupt heathen nations/Canaanites who Christ commanded Israel to exterminate in De.20:16 & Jsh.6:20-21?  Those ancients may still obtain salvation!

But those individuals all died.  How can they return to their former lands and hear the saving gospel?  Furthermore, reanimation doesn’t apply only to those gentiles; it applies to the entire house of Israel too!     

The dry bones passage of Ezk.37:1-14 reflects the whole house of Israel rebirthed to physical life!  (It’s too long to quote here in full.)  Their corpses (slain, v.9) had decomposed.  v.4-5 NET “Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord, I Am about to infuse breath into you and you will live.”  Barnes Notes Ezk.37:6 “In Ezk.37:5, not ‘I will cause’, but I cause or am causing.”  It was about to start happening.  v.6 “I will put sinews on you, make flesh grow back on you, cover you with skin and put breath in you…and you will know that I Am the Lord.”  (cf. Job said in Jb.10:11, “Did you not…cloth me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews?”)  These are literal breathing physical bodies with human spirits!  Cambridge Bible Ezk.37:6 “Their becoming actual men of flesh & blood.”  At death their human spirit had returned to God who gave it (Ec.12:7).  God sends those same spirits into new flesh bodies.

Ezk.37:11-13 “These bones are the whole house of Israel. I will open your graves and bring you back to the land of Israel.”  This pertains to all Israel.  They’ll all return to the land of Israel.  Similarly, the Lord said ancient Sodom’s inhabitants would return to their land area.  Ezk.37 is a fleshly rebirth of all Israelites.  v.14 “I will put My Spirit in you.”  God’s Holy Spirit (HS) too is given to them.  God will call them to Himself, they’ll be taught the gospel (Jn.6:44-45) and receive the HS to walk in His ways.

Paul said in Ro.11:26, “All Israel shall be saved”.  (also cf. Is.45:17, Zec.8:13.)  Not just a remnant!  Not just the 100^th generation, but excluding most of the previous 99 generations (with those who went into Assyrian & Babylonian captivities) who burn forever in hell-fire!  No.  God puts His Spirit in the historical house of Israel!  All will have the opportunity to repent & believe, and be saved through King Jesus (Ezk.37:24).  God loves all who live, both BC and AD.  His will is none perish forever; that all come to repentance, 2Pe.3:9.

Hosea prophesied to the northern 10 tribes of Israel around 750 BC.  Ho.13:12-14 “The iniquity of Ephráim [the northern kingdom] is on record…I will deliver them out of the power of Hades, and will redeem them from death. O Hades, where is thy sting?”  (Paul quotes this LXX verse in 1Co.15:55.)  But when?  First…Ho.13:15-16 in 722 BC Shalmanéser V will attack from the East, since the guilty northern Israel (capital at Samaria) has rebelled against God.  Israel will be deported by Assyria into captivity.  Those Israelites will die in the attack and in captivity.  Then later…Ho.14:4-5 “I will heal their apostasy, I will love them freely, for My anger is turned away from them. I will be like the dew to Israel.”  v.8 “O Ephraim…it is I who answer and look after you.”  The Lord will care for them.

But those had all died!  Yet the Lord will bring back those apostate Israelites from Hades (the realm of the dead); the sting of death is past.  MacLaren Expositions Ho.14:5 “That promise in its depth and fullness is applicable only to Christian Israel.”  That deported generation of northern Israel will have opportunity for salvation.  Again, “All Israel shall be saved”.  Sanh 10:1 “All Israelites will have a share in the world to come.”  Including the hardened, Ro.11:15, 25.  But those individuals will have to live a right life…believe, and repent (of apostasy).  God’s standards are consistent; He is impartial (Ep.6:9).

Later the Jews of Jerusalem and the southern kingdom of Judah were killed or sent by God into captivity to Babylon (between 606-586 BC).  Lam.2:21-22 they were slaughtered!  La.1:5 God’s wrath was due to the multitude of their transgressions.  La.3:42-43 the Lord didn’t pardon them then.  La.4:6 “The iniquity of Thy people is greater than the sin of Sodom.”  Adult survivors died in captivity.

Yet Je.32:36-40, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel concerning this city [Jerusalem], ‘It is given into the hand of the king of Babylon by sword, famine, and pestilence. Behold I will gather them out of all the lands to which I have driven them in My wrath, and I will bring them back to this place and make them dwell in peace and safety…And I will make an everlasting covenant with them.” (cf. Ezk.37:13-14, 24).

But they’d died (elsewhere)!  JFB Commentary Je.32:37 “The ‘all’ countries implies a future restoration more universal than that from Babylon.”  Not just after the 70 years of Je.29:10.  That generation was killed in the siege, and over the decades the adult survivors from 597 BC had died in captivity.  Barnes Notes Je.32:39 “Under the new covenant they will walk with one consent in the one narrow path of right-doing.”  Ellicott Commentary Je.32:40 “The ‘new covenant”…which shall abide forever.”  Gill Exposition Je.32:40 “An everlasting covenant…which is known and made manifest at conversion.”  Cambridge Bible Je.32:40 “It is the ‘new covenant’ of Jer.31:31, etc., which is meant.”  Jesus said in Lk.22:20, “This is the new covenant in My blood”.  Yet those Jews had perished 600 years before the inauguration of the New Covenant in the 1^st century AD at Jesus’ Last Supper!

The southern kingdom of Judah, long since dead, would be restored to their land too.  Paul wrote in Ro.11:15, “What will their [the Jews] acceptance be but life from the dead”.  v.23 God is able to graft them in again.  Ro.14:9 Christ is Lord of both the dead and the living. (cf. Ezk.37:12.)  It’s not all over for those Jews who perished in the first half of the 6^th century BC!  They’re part of “all Israel”.

Alfred Edersheim The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, p.116 “In view of Isa.53 and other passages…the Messiah is represented as willingly taking upon Himself all these sufferings, on condition that all Israel – the living, the dead, and those yet unborn – should be saved.”

1Sm.2:6 “The Lord kills, and makes alive; He brings down to Sheól and raises up.”  also see De.32:39.  God, the author of life, has the right to end a life.  He may kill the wicked.  The Lord sent Israel/Judah to die in captivity.  Men reap what they sow (2Co.9:6).  But the order in the above two verses isn’t ‘He makes alive and then kills’, later…it’s vice versa.  After God kills, He then makes them alive again.

God allowed the patriarch Job to suddenly lose his wealth, children, and health in his trials.  Job was suffering, thinking God was angry over his (unknown) sin.  Jb.14:13 Job lamented, “If only you would hide me in Sheol until Your anger passes”.  He wanted to go to the realm of the dead (temporarily).  Though Job didn’t understand why this evil had come upon him, He didn’t blame God.  Instead, Job said in Jb.19:26 KJV, “Though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh I shall see God”.  Job didn’t doubt God existed.  Cambridge Bible Jb.19:26 “Before death he shall not see Him.”  Then when?

Jb.1:21 Tanakh KJV LXX, “Naked came I forth from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there.”  What?!  Job said he would later be reborn from a mother’s womb; his same spirit indwelling a human newborn!  After death, the Lord would make him alive again (1Sm.2:6).  cf. Is.26:19 “Your dead will live; their corpses will rise. You who lie in the dust. The earth will give birth to the departed spirits.”  Ellicott Commentary Is.26:19 “Like the vision of dry bones in Ezek.37:1-14.”  Physical rebirth.

Job said in Jb.29:18 Tanakh, “I shall die with my nest, and I shall multiply my days as the phoenix.”  Barnes Notes Jb.29:18 “Herder observes that the phoenix is obviously intended here…The rabbis generally understand here the Phoenix; a fabulous bird, much celebrated in ancient times…Jannai adds that ‘This bird lives 1,000 years, and in the end of the thousand years, a fire goes forth from its nest, and burns it up. But there remains an egg, from which again the members grow, and it rises to life.”

Job thought he too would experience another physical life, as the ancient phoenix bird.  Clément was a fellow-worker with Paul (Php.4:3).  1Clem.12:2-6 describes a 500-year life cycle of the very rare phoenix.  v.6 “The Lord…even by a bird shows us the greatness of His power to fulfil His promise.”  (A phoenix was exhibited in Rome during the reign of Emperor Claudius, 41–54 AD).  Tacitus Annals 6:28 (117 AD) “There is no question that the bird is occasionally seen in Egypt.”  The phoenix symbolized rebirth.  We understand that Job’s physical life did end well (Jb.42:10).  But that’s not the case for every human.

Re.20:5 “The rest of the dead lived not again until the 1,000 years were completed.”  Interestingly, an ancient Greek & Roman belief was…the spirits of the dead dwelt in Hades for 1,000 years, and then were resurrected or reincarnated to earthly life.  [Note – ref for Hades: Lk.16:23; 1Co.15:55; Re.1:18, 20:13-14.  also see the topic “Thousand (Years)’ in the Bible – (2)”.]

Re.20:8 at that time, after the 1,000 years, there are “nations in the four corners of the earth”.  Physical nations!  cf. Ec.6:6 “Though a man live 1,000 years twice told….”  May this include the men of Sodom and ancient Israelites/Jews reborn to another physical life (Ezk.16:55; Mt.11:24, 10:15)?

The Jewish apocryphal book Wisdom of Sírach, called Ecclesiásticus, was written ca 180 BC.  Its writer Yeshúa ben Síra alluded to a rebirth to physical life, for the righteous.  WisSir.46:11-12 “Whoever did not turn away from the Lord – May their memory be blessed, may their bones revive from their place, and may the name of those honored live again in their sons.”  This brings to mind the “dry bones” of Ezk.37.  Also WisSir.49:10 “May He indeed revive the bones of the twelve prophets from their place.”

The Jewish book of 2Maccabees was written ca 125 BC.  Its writer too believed in rebirth to physical life.  2Mac.12:44-46 KJV 1611 edition “If he had not hoped that the slain should have risen again, it had been superfluous and vain to pray for the dead. Whereupon he made reconciliation for the dead, that they might be delivered from sin.”  Wikipedia: Resurrection “The concept of resurrection of the physical body is found in 2 Maccabees, according to which it will happen through re-creation of the flesh.”  (also ref 2Mac.7:22-23, 28-29; Ezk.37.)  It was their custom to pray for the deceased.

Paul wrote in 1Co.15:29 Good News trans, “What about those people who are baptized for the dead? What do they hope to accomplish? If it is true, as some claim, that the dead are not raised to life, why are those people being baptized for the dead?”  In the 1^st century, it seems it was a custom to not only pray for the dead but to also be baptized by proxy for the dead.  Several interpretations have been offered for 1Co.15:29.  Expositor’s Greek Testament 1Co.15:29 “How futile Christian devotion must be, such as is ‘in those baptized for the dead’, if death ends all.”  Pulpit Commentary “Why do some of you get baptized on behalf of your dead friends?”  Cambridge Bible “The natural and obvious explanation is that the apostle [Paul] was here referring to a practice, prevalent in his day, of persons permitting themselves to be baptized on behalf of their dead relatives and friends.”  Perhaps prayers and vicarious baptism was efficacious for their comrades and loved ones who would later have a physical rebirth.

Where else in scripture do we read about belief in physical rebirth (besides Jb.1:21)?  As well, a rebirth could be great opportunity for our ancestors, children, family members, friends & loved ones who died unconverted/unsaved!  Their ultimate fate wouldn’t be eternal conscious torment in hell-fire!

{Sidelight: For our non-religious relatives/ancestors who’d lived a peaceful quiet life to suffer hell-fire forever equally with genocidal tyrants…such injustice wouldn’t reflect just retribution!  God is just.  The punishment fits the crime; the lex talionis principle of equality (e.g. Le.24:17-22).}

This topic is concluded in “Rebirth to Physical Life (2)”.  (The future for converted/saved Christians is addressed in the topic “Life and Death – for Saints”.)

Sexual Sins, Harlotry, Rape – (1)

Sexual sins and crimes are big concerns in society and in the church.  Cultures of the world have differing standards of morality/immorality.  Here we’ll look at sexual immorality from God’s word.

At creation, the first command God gave to man/ánthropos (Greek LXX) was about reproduction.  Ge.1:28 “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.”  Human reproduction was a creation mandate!  God subsequently set guidelines which are recorded in His word to identify moral versus immoral.

Types of immorality or lewdness and harlotry are identified in Le.20:10-22, 5-6.  A similar listing of sexual sins is found in Le.18:5-24.  Without understanding what actions constitute immorality based on Christ the Lord’s commands to Moses/Israel, a person wouldn’t know all that is sexual sin in God’s eyes!  Sexual sin includes: adultery, incest, homosexuality/lesbianism, transvestism, beastiality, menstrual sex, idolatrous prostitution.  Without learning these foundational scriptures, knowledge of sexual sin may just be based on or skewed by the customs & traditions of our nation or church.

From Le.20: Sexual immorality with a married or betrothed woman (v.10) is adultery…with a near relative (v.11) is incest; 1Co.5:1 “It is reported that there is immorality [pornéia] among you, someone has his father’s wife”.  Intercourse with a person of the same sex (Ro.1:26-27, Le.20:13, De.22:5) is homosexuality or lesbianism…with an animal (v.15-16) is beastiality…with a menstruating woman (v.18) is uncleanness…with a harlot/prostitute to a pagan god (v.5-6) for pay or barter is idolatry.  As we see from reading Le.20, Christ prescribed serious penalties for those who committed such acts!

From Le.18:  v.20 adultery “Do not lie sexually with your neighbor’s wife.”  v.6–ff incest “None of you shall have sexual relations with a close blood relative.”  v.22 homosexual intercourse “You shall not lie with a male, as one lies with a female; it is an abomination.”  v.23 beastiality “You shall not have intercourse with any animal, to be defiled with it; nor shall a woman offer herself to an animal.”  v.19 menstrual sex “Do not have intercourse with a woman during her menstrual impurity.”  Ex.34:16 religious prostitution “They will seduce your sons and daughters to whore after their gods.”

There are many other scriptures which add detail and amplify the above passages.  e.g. Re.18:2-4 of Babylon the religious harlot. “All nations have drunk of her immorality [pornéia Strongs g4202, Greek], and the kings of the earth have committed acts of immorality with her. Come out of her My people.”

In the LXX/Septúagint the Greek term for idolatrous (and adulterous) harlotry was “porneia” (g4202).  The term was rare in classical Greek, but occurs often in the LXX and the New Testament (NT) koiné Greek.  During the intertestamental period, the meaning of porneia expanded to include other sexual sins too.  In the NT, porneia had come to mean sexual sin in general.

Some rabbis also believed ‘unnatural forms of intercourse’ are immoral, anal & oral sex.  Humans are unclean to eat (cannibalism is wrong, even when there’s no killing.  cf. Ezk.4:12-15, Is.36:12, De.23:13.)

To avoid confusion, I’ll rarely use the word “fornication”, from older English translations.  There is no ancient Greek term for “fornication”.  It came into English from two Latin words associated with brothels.  Since the meaning of this word has changed over the centuries, the term is a misnomer.  Rev. Bill McGinnis “Fornication’ is not really a very good translation for the word ‘porneia.”

Testaments of the XII Patriarchs, Test. Benj.9:1 “You will commit porneia with the porneia of Sodom.”  Homosexual intercourse and sex with a different kind/“strange flesh” are also forms of porneia and sin.  Jude 7 “Sodom and Gomorrah indulged in gross immorality [ekporneúo, cf. Le.17:7 LXX], going after strange flesh.”  ref Ge.19:1-5 Sodom.  Transvestism too is wrong.  De.22:5 “A woman must not wear that which pertains to a man, nor shall a man put on women’s clothing; anyone doing these is an abomination to the Lord your God.”  Pulpit Commentary “The divinely instituted distinction between the sexes was to be sacredly observed.”

The meaning of adultery in Christ’s theocracy of ancient Israel, as well as in most of the ancient world, differed from the meaning of adultery in modern western nations today.  Christ was the God/Rock of Israel.  In ancient Israel, adultery is…sexual activity between a married (or betrothed) woman and a man not her husband.  The man’s marital status isn’t a factor.  So by definition, it was impossible for a widow, divorcee, or otherwise single woman to commit adultery (unless she was betrothed)!  And it was impossible for a man to commit adultery with an unmarried or unengaged woman!

Biblical Archaeology Society: Understanding Israel’s 10 Commandments “You will not commit adultery.’ In our world, adultery is defined as sexual relations with someone who is not your spouse.  The Biblical understanding of adultery, however, is gender-specific. In the ancient world, a married man could engage in sexual relations with [his] wives & concubines, and prostitutes; a married woman could only have sex with her husband. Thus, committing adultery for a man consisted of sleeping with a woman who was someone else’s wife; for a [married] woman, adultery was sex with someone other than her husband. The same law and definition is ubiquitous throughout the ancient world.”

Christ told Moses/Israel the adultery penalty was death.  (even Jn.8:7 “Let him throw the first stone.”)   De.22:22-27 shows that the adultery law applied to betrothed women too.  If the adultery was by mutual consent, both the man and woman were guilty.  If he’d raped her, only the man was guilty.

But God’s meaning of adultery was altered over the centuries.  It was altered in Greco-Roman society too, differing from Christ’s meaning in His older theocracy.  Jesus and Paul lived in the Roman Empire, where the laws of Christ’s theocracy weren’t enacted.  Yes, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever (He.13:8).  He knew what adultery is and what it isn’t.  But Jesus wasn’t the Roman ruler.  Although the inferior laws of men/heathens don’t change God or God’s morality, it wasn’t wrong to avoid Roman legal action, while not disobeying God.  But some laws & customs of Rome became part of early Christianity, the Roman Catholic Church, etc., and filtered down into Christian belief today.

For example, Ge.29:30, Ge.30:4, 9, the man Jacob/Israel isn’t an adulterer (he had four wives simultaneously)!  Ex.21:10 “If a man takes another wife, he must not diminish the food, clothing, or conjugal dues of the first wife.”  De.21:15 “A man might have two wives and love one but not the other, and they have borne him sons.”  1Sm.1:1-2 is about Elkanáh the father of Samuel. “He had two wives, one named Hannáh and the other Peninnáh.”  1Sm.25:42-43 “Abigail followed the messengers of David, and became his wife. David had also taken Ahinóam, and they both became his wives.”  Those marriages weren’t adultery in Christ’s theocracy.  Pagan Greece & Rome enjoined serial monogamy on their societies long before Christianity began.  These scriptures seem so strange to our modern western minds!

Yet God’s word is authoritative!  Jesus and Paul both said several times, “It is written”.  However, also ref Is.4:1 (which relates to Ex.21:10), and Jg.8:30 & SSol.6:8 for exorbitance.  Although a few Israelites were excessive, overindulging in this matter of plural wives…that doesn’t mean Christ erred in the commands & guidelines He gave to Moses/Israel regarding this marital option.  Jesus Christ is Lord!

It would be too lengthy to examine details of: the marital excess of Solomon (e.g. De.17:16-17), examples of concubinage in the Bible, lévirate marriage, and marital defilement.  Those matters relate to morality/immorality, but are beyond the scope here.  (see the topic “Polygyny – Lawful in God’s Eyes?”.)  And based upon the marriage customs in most (western) nations, it seems that only rarely would it be advised for a man to have plural wives today.

In ancient Israel, a young daughter belonged to her father or protector prior to her marriage.

Her father would eventually be paid the bride-price from the bridegroom.  Le.19:29 “Don’t profane your daughter by making her a harlot, so that the Land may not fall into harlotry and lewdness.”  Many commentaries relate this command to the practice of heathens, whose custom was to fund the daughter’s dowry with earnings from idolatrous prostitution.  A father wasn’t to degrade his daughter by making her a common prostitute, lest secular harlotry become the norm in the Land instead of marriage/family.

De.23:17-18 “None of the daughters or sons of Israel shall be a cult prostitute. You shall not bring the hire of a harlot or the wages of a dog into the house of the Lord, both of these are an abomination.”  God wouldn’t accept the offerings of religious prostitutes.  A “dog” in this context was the sodomite whose position for homosexual intercourse resembled a dog’s.  ref Re.22:15.  (The label of ‘dog’ also became an epithet against gentiles.)  2Ki.23:7 King Josiah “broke down the houses of the male cult prostitutes.”  It seems that quarters in the temple precinct even housed sodomites in those days!  Le.21:9 “The daughter of any priest who profanes herself by harlotry profanes her father.”  Her prostitution at the sanctuary reflected on her father.  Le.21:7, 14 also priests weren’t to marry a profane woman.  Ancient Israel’s worship of Christ the Lord wasn’t to be a fertility cult…no religious sex!

A virgin living under her father’s roof was to remain chaste, else De.22:13-21 could later apply (I won’t quote the passage here).  But people in love may not always follow the usual or customary channels.  Christ made allowances for them too.  Ex.22:16-17 “If a man seduces a virgin who is not betrothed, has sexual relations with her, he must pay the bride-price and marry her. If her father refuses to give her to him, he still must pay the bride-price for virgins.”  The man was then to marry the girl.  This wasn’t casual sex, it was another way (not the usual way) of obtaining a wife.  But if her father refused to let them marry, this non-virgin daughter would bring her father a lower bride-price in the future.  So taking a daughter’s virginity could also be a form of theft from her father too.  (And possibly there could be serious De.22:13-21 repercussions, if deceit is subsequently involved.)

Yet scripture is mostly quiet in regards to sexual relations with the unmarried non-virgin (not a harlot) with no protector, who’s not living under her father’s roof.  In Christ’s theocracy, it appears that intimacy with divorcees, widows, orphan women (not priests’ daughters) generally isn’t barred by scripture.  For example, Ru.3:7 Ruth the goodly widow lay down secretly in Bóaz’ bed one night.  The text gives no indication that Ruth’s action was sin.  And after spending the night with Ruth, Boaz didn’t rest until he’d obtained her the next day (Ru.3:18–4:10)!

In some cultures, economic conditions are such that an unmarried woman (e.g. divorcee, widow) with no protector/provider…could become destitute!  God didn’t outlaw commercial prostitution in Israel.

Again, a virgin living under her father’s roof must be chaste, else De.22:13-21 could apply.  But for a single non-virgin (not a temple harlot), who solicited her favors to obtain income (perhaps to avoid starvation)…Christ didn’t require strict punishment for her or her clients, and not even a blood sacrifice for sin!  It seems that wasn’t ‘sin’ or iniquity in God’s theocracy.  This may seem strange to western society.  Fathers were forbidden to prostitute their daughters (Le.19:29), but otherwise single women away from home weren’t prohibited from prostituting themselves, selling their body possibly to survive.

Other than Jesus Christ, King Solomon is called the wisest man who ever lived.  1Ki.4:29-34 “God gave Solomon wisdom and very great discernment and breadth of mind.”  God said to Solomon in 1Ki.3:12, “I have given you a wise and discerning heart, there has been none like you”.  Four verses later is the famous story of the two harlots who as ‘plaintiffs’ came to Solomon to settle their dispute.  1Ki.3:16-28 the king received even harlots, and rendered his wise decision.  He didn’t have them arrested for prostitution!  There was no animal sacrifice offered for any ‘sin’.  (Yet ironically, Solomon himself acted unwisely when he was older; his heathen wives turned his heart to pagan gods, 1Ki.11:1-10.)

Samson was an Israelite judge in whom the Spirit of God worked mightily with superhuman strength!  Jg.16:1 “Samson went to Gaza and saw a harlot there.”  Samson, a single man, had relations with a harlot.  v.4 “After this he loved a woman in the valley of Sorék whose name was Deliláh.”  It is thought that Sorek was not far from Samson’s home town of Zoráh (in the tribe of Dan, Jg.13:2).  Samson loved Delilah.  Josephus Antiquities of the Jews 5:8:11 said Delilah was a harlot among the Philistines who Samson lived with.  Jg.16:12 “Delilah took new ropes and bound him. Then Delilah said, ‘The Philistines be upon you Samson.’ But he snapped the ropes from his arms like they were threads.”  God is still with Samson, even after he visited a harlot (v.1) and had relations with Delilah!  Those acts weren’t sin that separated Samson from God.  Sleeping with harlots didn’t violate Samson’s Nazarite vow!  Jg.16:19-20 God leaves Samson only after his hair is cut, in violation of the vow (Jg.13:5, Nu.6:1-5).  Perhaps we think Christ should have left Samson earlier when he had relations with those women?  But we’re not God.

In Jsh.2:1-3, the two faithful Israelite spies wanted to stay with the harlot Raháb!  v.13 she’s unmarried.  (A married harlot is an adulteress.)  God didn’t rebuke either the spies or Rahab.  In Ja.2:25, Jesus’ relative James indicated that this gentile harlot Rahab was justified by her works.  He.11:31 Rahab is in God’s Who’s Who!  Mt.1:5 and her descendant Boaz (cf. Ru.4:18-22) is an ancestor of Jesus Christ.

In Ge.38, Judah was a single man whose wife had died.  He was one of Jacob’s sons and patriarch of the Jewish people.  v.11-19 Judah had sex with a woman who looked like a prostitute.  He didn’t know she was his disguised daughter-in-law, whose betrothal to Sheláh his son should have already resulted in marriage.  So she tricked Judah for procrastinating.  v.24 death was the penalty for a betrothed woman who has sex with another man.  The narrative is involved.  The point here…God didn’t rebuke Judah for having sex with a supposed prostitute.  And the son she conceived by Judah is an ancestor of Jesus.

There are those who might say that Boaz, Samson (before his haircut), the two faithful spies, the patriarch Judah…have ‘fallen from grace’, so to speak…if their above behavior was done today.  But that’s not what the scriptures indicate.  In recent decades, many churchmen have been maligned and accused of sexual sin/miscues, when their behavior may not have been sin according to scripture (unlike our customary beliefs in most modern nations)!  In the NT, Christ didn’t change His morality for Rome.

There are men & women who love each other but don’t have a government-issued marriage license, for whatever reason.  (Whether marriage should be authorized by the state, the church, the families, private contract…is debatable.)

God didn’t forbid non-incestuous responsible sexual relations between a man and an (independent) unmarried/unbetrothed woman, with mutual consent.  It wasn’t punished.

A pastor and his wife had raised several successful grown children.  She’d done her part, and was tired from childbearing.  (As Greta Garbo said in the old movie, “I vant to be alone.”)  Pastor provides for her & respects her wishes to abstain.  But he is still a man (with testosterone God created within us).  Pastor then fell in love with a younger single woman.  He now loved two women.  Christians were stunned.  This is heartrending…but the church/society doesn’t follow the relevant guidelines Christ gave Moses/Israel!

Maybe we too have judged others rigidly or unjustly for their supposed sexual indiscretions, based upon traditional societal or church beliefs…not the word of God.  God isn’t a prude.  Or perhaps we’ve had difficulty forgiving ourselves for our having committed (years ago or recently) what we’d been taught to believe was sexual sin…and it wasn’t really ‘sin’ after all in God’s eyes!

Greco-Roman society and later tradition has altered what sexual immorality is/isn’t, and the meaning of “fornication”.  Religious sex, eroticism, homosexuality, pederásty was widespread in the Roman Empire.  Regardless…marriage is best, if possible (e.g. 1Co.7:2, 6 as Paul suggested).

Secular prostitution in ancient Israel wasn’t sin as we might think it, for a single woman not dependent on her father.  But there are often grave consequences to that lifestyle!

A harlot who doesn’t take needed precautions may end up destroying “the temple of God” (1Co.3:16-17) with disease…her own body and/or that of her clients.  That isn’t loving her neighbor or herself; opposing the will of God.

There’s more to this broad topic of sexual immorality.  “Sexual Sins, Harlotry, Rape – (2)” concludes it.