Lacklustre: Porn-Again

Mr. John Thuringer

 

Porn: any subject matter that sexually arouses the viewer.

 

Softcore Pornography: images of the naked or semi-naked body that may or may not imply a sexual act.

 

Hardcore Pornography: the graphical depiction of sexual acts

 

The Bible is clear that to look upon anything pornographic and begin to desire something sexually outside of marriage is sin.

 

Matthew 5:27-28 (AMP)“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who so much as looks at a woman with evil desire for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

 

Is there a problem?

 

            - 60% of all web site visits are sexual in nature.

 

            - 1/3 of visitors to adult web sites are women.

 

- 87% of university students are engaging in sexual acts over web cams, instant messenger, or the telephone.

 

- 80% of visitors to sex sites were spending so much time on it that they were putting their real-life relationships and/or jobs at risk.

 

- 68% of males at 5 Christian Colleges polled in December of 2005 said that they intentionally viewed sexually explicit sites at school.

 

            -  47% of Christians report that pornography is a major problem in the home.

 

            - 50% of men viewed porn within 1 week of a Promise Keepers event.

 

- Average first exposure to Internet porn is 11 years of age.

 

- Average exposure to hardcore Internet porn is 12 years of age.

 

            - 80% of 15 – 17 year olds have had multiple exposures to hardcore porn.

 

            - 90% of 8 -16 year olds have viewed porn online, most while doing homework.

 

            - The largest consumers of porn are 12 – 17 year olds.

 

One major news network recently put it this way, “They’re one of its biggest consumers. They’re watching it in their own homes. They’re reporting that “conventional hardcore” is their main preference. And ‘they’ aren’t even adults.”

 

            -  In 87% of all chat rooms, there is a sexual solicitation of a youth occurring.

 

            - 1/3 of kids have been solicited by an adult for cybersex in a chat room.

 

- 40% of couples having problems with their relationships say internet porn is at least partly to blame.

 

- 2/3 of divorce lawyers at an annual meeting of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers say excessive interest in online porn was the main factor in over ½ of their divorce cases.

 

            - Annual U.S. porn revenue exceeds that of ABC, NBC and CBS combined.

 

- Porn in the U.S. is bigger than Major League Baseball, the NFL, and the NBA combined.

 

            - Porn worldwide generates over twice the revenue of Microsoft.

 

Our culture is literally bound by pornography, and porn in the church is the elephant in the room that nobody wants to talk about.

 

Does the Bible have anything relevant to say to our generation about pornography?

 

- When you take a look at the heathen world of Bible days, both Old Testament and New, you will find that there was little to no sexual restraint in their cultures.

 

- In a well-known description of Julius Caesar, it was said that “he was every woman’s man and every man’s woman.”

 

- Alexander the Great always kept young boys at his side.

 

- Pornographic paintings were on the walls of homes and on vessels and vases. Many examples are on display in museums today.

 

- The only culture in the ancient world that preached about boundaries in sexual activity was the children of Israel, starting with the Law of Moses.

 

Ezekiel 23:14, 16-17 (NIV)

            "But she carried her prostitution still further. She saw men portrayed on a wall, figures of Chaldeans  portrayed in red… As soon as she saw them, she lusted after them and sent messengers to them in Chaldea. Then the Babylonians came to her, to the bed of love, and in their lust they defiled her. After she had been defiled by them, she turned away from them in disgust.”

 

- Not only were there no sexual boundaries laid down in pagan cultures, promiscuity was actually an integral part of their worship.

           

- One of the reasons why the Israelites were constantly being enticed to follow after foreign gods was the sensual indulgence and obscene practices involved in their acts of worship.

 

 

Numbers 25:1-3 (Message)

“While Israel was camped at Acacia Grove, the men began to have sex with the Moabite women. It started when the women invited the men to their sex-and-religion worship. They ate together and then worshiped their gods. Israel ended up joining in the worship of the Baal of Peor. God was furious, his anger blazing out against Israel.”

 

 

-Temple prostitution then came on the scene, both male and female, and was widely practiced from ancient times until at least the 4th century A.D.

 

- It is reported that one Babylonian custom even compelled every woman of the land to go to the temple and have intercourse with a stranger once in her life.

 

- There were a thousand temple prostitutes in the temple of Aphrodite in the city of Corinth.

 

- The Bible even records how King David himself was snared by porn.

 

- Jesus Himself used the setting of sexual depravity and idolatrous worship in Caesarea Philippi to talk about the power of the church to prevail over all evil in Matthew 16:13-19 when He made the famous declaration, “I will build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.”

 

Historians write:

“Caesarea Philippi would be an equivalent of Las Vegas - Sin City - but much worse than the modern city in the American West. In the open-air Pan Shrine, next to the cave mouth, there was a large niche, in which a statue of Pan (a half-goat, half-human creature) stood –an without going into details, let me just say that it was a vivid pornographic image. He was worshipped for its fertility properties. Surrounding him in the wall were many smaller niches, in which were statues of his attending nymphs. On the shrine in front            of these niches, worshippers of Pan would congregate and partake in bizarre sexual rites, including copulation with goats - worshipped for their relationship to Pan. In the center is a huge cave, called the “Gates of Hades”, because it was believed that Baal would enter and leave the underworld through places where water came out of it.”

Jesus goes to the very place of the basest human depravity of His day and makes the bold announcement that the church was going to change the world, and there was nothing hell could do about it.

 

When you read passages like these in the Bible and then all the verses of Scripture that deal with human sexuality, you quickly realize that porn is not a new problem and that the Bible speaks quite candidly to a culture like ours on how to live a life free of the bondage that porn brings.

 

How does porn ensnare you?

 

Proverbs 7:6-23 (Message)

“As I stood at the window of my house looking out through the shutters, watching the mindless crowd stroll by, I spotted a young man without any sense. Arriving at the corner of the street where she lived, then turning up the path to her house. It was dusk, the evening coming on, the darkness thickening into night. Just then, a woman met him— she'd been lying in wait for him, dressed to seduce him. Brazen and brash.  she was, restless and roaming, never at home, walking the streets, loitering in the mall, hanging out at every corner in town. She threw her arms around him and kissed him, boldly took his arm and said, ‘I've got all the makings for a feast—today I made my offerings, my vows are all paid, So now I've come to find you, hoping to catch sight of your face—and here you are! I’ve spread fresh, clean sheets on my bed, colourful imported linens. My bed is aromatic with spices and exotic fragrances. Come, let’s make love all night, spend the night in ecstatic lovemaking! My husband's not home; he's away on business, and he won't be back for a month.’ Soon she has him eating out of her hand, bewitched by her honeyed speech. Before you know it, he's trotting behind her, like a calf led to the butcher shop, like a stag lured into ambush and then shot with an arrow, like a bird flying into a net not knowing that its flying life is over.”

 

- Most people who are caught up in porn didn’t do it because they were dirty, but they got caught up in the bait of unholy stimulation.

 

- Men have the stronger sex drive. It’s the little peek here, the little exposure there, and before long, you’re hooked. The way the porn industry works is they get stuff out there to expose people, giving a certain amount away for free so that you’ll desire more.

 

- People mistakenly think they can get in it and control it at a certain level. Eventually, though, it leads to action. That’s the way it works.

           

- Porn is designed to move you to action. You can’t keep looking at it without eventually doing something.

 

The principle is that whatever you fill your mind with, you will eventually become. That’s the reason we meditate the Word of God, as God commands in Joshua 1:8.

 

- As lust continues to grow, it eventually is going to lead to greater and greater action that ends up leading to death.

 

- Every barrier you cross, your conscience becomes a little more seared. Eventually, conviction disappears, and there is nothing left to guide and restrain you.

 

- porneuo in the New Testament means unlawful lust, or sex without restraints. All the barriers are taken down.

 

- Porn gives you an unrealistic picture of a woman and keeps you from truly loving and being satisfied with your spouse.

 

- Husbands have ruined their sex life with their wife because they would rather peek and masturbate then they would make love with their wife.

 

- Porn gives you a false image and makes you think it is reality. Noting in porn is real. 

 

- Many people, even Christians, who have never had a homosexual thought before getting into porn or a thought of having multiple bed partners suddenly are influenced by this spirit.

 

- There is an unclean spirit behind pornography, and when you get caught up with it, you open the door to all kinds of filth.

 

- This unclean spirit knows what buttons to push to stimulate your flesh. It wants to open a world of desire that was never supposed to be open.

 

- “Youth who lacks judgment” in Proverbs is a young person who is unprepared to meet the sex sin of the world.

 

- The Bible speaks of the seductress, which is the image porn presents to men. She knows how to dress to appeal to man’s sexual desires.

 

- The seductress is bold and aggressive with her sexuality, and that’s why she’s appealing to a guy.

 

Ecclesiastes 7:26 AMP

“And I found that [of all sinful follies none has been so ruinous in seducing one away from God as idolatrous women] more bitter than death is the woman whose heart is snares and nets and whose hands are bands. Whoever pleases God shall escape from her, but the sinner shall be taken by her.”

 

- It’s all about becoming a slave to lust. The seductress is a slave herself, she is not interested in you. The minute you are done with her, she is going to be looking for someone else.

 

Although she knows how to make a man feel special, but he really isn’t to her. She will say that she was looking for you; when in reality, she was looking for anyone.

 

- People who choose to gratify their lusts outside of God’s commands are never satisfied because unbridled lust can never be satisfied.

           

E.g. King Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines, yet said it was all empty and unsatisfying.

 

- Sex without the intimacy of the covenant relationship of marriage can never produce fulfillment.

 

Getting Free

 

Galatians 6:8

“If we sow to the flesh, we will of the flesh reap corruption.”

 

Porn will corrupt your whole life. But they biggest thing is your relationship with God.

 

In order to be free form the addiction of porn, it’s going to require a diligent effort to be a doer of God’s Word.

 

Many men have tried to beat this on their own. But sometimes men have to be honest and say, “Can I really beat this on my own?” If you could have beaten this on your own, you would have by now.

 

Galatians 6:1

“You who are spiritual, restore such a one…”

 

- Often, people need someone who understands what needs to happen to help walk them through everything and hold them accountable in order to rebuild some righteous barriers in their soul again.