EvilGeoff
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The following is a personal email I wrote to someone who had very negative opinions about BDSM based on his professed faith and "Biblical teaching". Identifying information has been removed for privacy sake but it touches on a lot of passages that are frequently taken out of context or are outright misquoted.
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If you don't mind, I will share some of the reasons why I believe the way I do. If you would find questions and discussion about your own assumptions and beliefs regarding the Bible and our walk with God to be upsetting, then please go ahead and delete this message with the rest of it unread. I understand some people do not want to share or exchange beliefs that may cause them to call their own beliefs into question. It is not my intent to "convert" you or change your beliefs, I would just like to explain mine. Most Bible quotes I use will be from the NIV New International Version), some will come from the KJV (King James Version).
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Yes, I am afraid that I am pretty much going it alone. Jesus taught us, in Matthew 6:5-6 "And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues, and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you."
Your reference to 1 Peter 20 refers to understanding and interpreting _prophesy_ in Scripture, not Scripture itself. Take the Book of Revelations for instance - we can not use it to interpret when the End Times are upon us. So many have used it over and over and over to predict the end of days and no one has gotten it right. Biblical prophesy is best recognized in hindsite. We can see where something was prophesized about, and we can see when it came to pass. But things to come are still shrouded in mystery.
We will perhaps have to agree to disagree here about translated versions of the Bible and _why_ God would punish people. Let's start with your example of Jezebel. She was a worshipper of Baal, and when Ahab married her, she got him to worship Baal. (1 Kings 16:31-33). She killed prophets of the Lord (1 Ki 18:4-13), she threatened Elijah with death (1 Ki 19:1-2), she ordered Naboth killed by sending orders falsely under Ahab's seal (1 Ki 21:5-15). She was brought down and killed for murder, her treachery, for baring false witness (lying), for leading Ahab away from God. I don't find anything about sinful sex in Jezebel's story.
Then lets address your referentce to Numbers 25:1-9. Why did God kill these men? Nu 25:3 "So Israel joined in worshipping Baal of Peor and the Lord's anger burned against them." Nu 25:5 "So Moses said to Israel's judges, 'Each of you must put to death those of your men who have joined in worshipping the Baal of Peor.' " Pretty clear here too, they were killed for worshipping Baal, not for the "sexual immorality" they engaged in with the Moabite women as reported in Nu 25:1.
God allowed Solomon his hundreds of wives and concubines and slaves. But when Solomon allowed them to worship their own gods and followed suit, THAT is when God withdrew his favor from Solomon and punished him. Not for having slaves and concubines but for turning to other gods (1 Ki 11:1-6, 1 Ki 11:9-13).
The passage you refer to in 1 Ti (3:1-7) refers to bishops and deacons of the church. I'm not a deacon or bishop, don't plan on being one. The restriction doesn't apply to me or anyone else wh is not planning on becoming a deacon in the church or getting involved in the hierarchy of the church in some way. (This passage is the one usually cited for restricting men to having "one wife")
Amos 2 is all about the many sins of Israel, the specific sexual sin is in Amos 2:7 "... Father and son use the same girl and so profane my holy name." and Amos 2:8 "They lie down beside every alter on garments taken in pledge." refers to them descrating the altars of the Lord by sleeping on pledged garments and getting drunk on wine that was taken in as payment of fines. In other words, they were partying in the temple, using things that were supposed to be consecrated to the Lord, and that's not acceptable in God's eyes. And I'll address the father-son tag team a bit later.
The temple at Corinth along with the temple prostitues was condemned and brought down, not for them having sex, but because it was turning believers away from God.
Pre-marital sex was not prohibited, but it was regulated:
Exodus 22:16 - 17, "If a man seduces a virgin who is not engaged, and lies with her, he must pay a dowry for her to be his wife. If her father absolutely refuses to give her to him, he shall pay money equal to the dowry for virgins."
This dowry, a monetary penalty (not death) is paid because the girl loses value on the marriage market since she is no longer a virgin. And neither the man nor the woman is punished for a sin.
Deuteronomy 22:28 - 29, "If a man finds a girl who is a virgin, who is not engaged, and seizes her and lies with her and they are discovered, then the man who lay with her shall give to the girl’s father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall become his wife because he has violated her; he cannot divorce her all his days."
Clearly rape here, and the punishment is again monetary, not death, for taking the value of the girls virginity. And then he has to keep her as his wife...
Lot offered up his own daughters to the citizens of Sodom (Genesis 19:6-8) "Lot went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him and said 'No my friends. Don't do this wicked thing. Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you. But don't do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof.' "
God destroys Sodom and Gomorrah for the wickedness of the citizens, but spares Lot and his family. I'm pretty sure God would not have saved them if He had found Lot's offer to be wicked or sinful. Again, the girls are the father's to do with as he pleased. Lot's daughters were even betrothed to be married, but Lot could (and did) offer them (and their virginity) to others without invoking God's wrath.
The passages that _do_ call for stoning the man and/or woman to death (for example Deutronomy 22:22, or Dt 22:23-24) are _all_ about the _bethrothed_
virgin or someone's wife. The death penalty is not about the act of sex, it's about the violation of the father's or husband's (or fiance's) property rights over the woman. Dt 22:25-27 clearly indicates that if the woman is without help, she is not to be blamed, only the man who took her is to be put to death. Again, because he violated the _husband's_ property rights.
Other passages are similar, but there is a common theme - Men can have many wives, slaves, concubines, handmaidens, whatever. Women can not. Why? Patrilinial inheritance. If a man sires a child with a woman who has no other sexual partners, you know who daddy is and where the child stands in line for inheriting titles, and property after the father dies. Now let's tie this back to Amos 2:7 - If a woman, on the other hand, has many lovers and has a child, in that day and time there was no way to confirm who the father was, no way to decide who the child would inherit from. So is the baby from the shared girl the father's child, or the son's child? Who does he inherit from and when? That's assuming the child was male, of course.
Keep in mind that "adultery" to the Hebrews of that time did not mean how we understand the term today. It only applied to married women, not men.
The Song of Songs (or Song of Solomon) is an erotic, sexual, passage. To me it would seem that the lovers are clearly not married as he has to leave with the rising sun (Sol 2:16-17): "My beloved is mine, and I am his: he feedeth among the lillies. Until daybreak, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or young hart upon the mountains of Bether." The young lovers are getting out and about, the garden, the desert, where ever they can have their trysts. If this was _not_ pleasing in God's eye, why on Earth would it be included as an example for young lovers?
Many Bible scholars argue over interpretations, particularly over the translation from the Greek the word "porneia". The Latin translation was "fornicatio" = fornication = sex outside of marriage. Going back to the original Greek though, porneia refers to selling slaves for prostitution, in otherwords, Paul was condeming trafficking in slaves for sex, not sex outside of marriage.
And keep in mind that the Bible, as we know it, has been fought over and majorly edited over the years. In 393 and 397AD the Books of the Old and New Testaments were set. Then in the mid 1500's the Council of Trent deleted the books of the Apochrypha from the Protestant version of the Bible. The Gospel of Peter and the Gospel of Thomas were rejected, Peter's because it was so different from the others, and Thomas' because Thomas taught that those who understood Christ's word would be saved, not just those who believed in Christ as Savior. That would be a very threatening thing to the power of the Church.
The Bible is God's inspired Word, to teach and instruct, but it cannot be held as innerrant or infallible. It was written by fallible human beings in a culture and civilization that was vastly different from the world we know today. The Old Testament Bible states repeatedly that the Sun revolves around the Earth. We _know_ this is not so, the Earth orbits the Sun. Bible scholars agree that there are at least _three_ different endings to the Book of Mark, Mark 16:9-20 is now recognized by most translators and scholars as being added years after the original. Most modern translations like the NIV acknowledge that fact with a disclaimer. _Someone_ stuck it in there, but it wasn't written by Mark.
Knowing that there are errors of fact, knowing that there have been culturally and politically motivated deletions and additions, I can not logically or emotionally accept that the Bible is without error. So I study it to find it's meaning, to better understand God's will and purpose for my life. I try to understand the culture and times of the men who wrote it. I try to understand the history of the book itself. I walk with God in my daily life, I accept Jesus as my personal Savior.
But I don't accept the narrow dogma presented by many who are motivated by fear of their own sexuality, by greed, by anger, by the desire to control and manipulate others through guilt and intimidation. I don't accept bigotry and prejudice. My God and my Savior are about love. "Love your neighbor as yourself" And I try to follow Christ's example of love, compassion, and care for others. There are times, clearly, where there is a need to correct or rebuke someone, but when they are trying to reconcile their faith, and their need for BDSM, it is a time to show them Christ's love.
John 14:2-4 - " In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you may also be where I am. You know the way to the place I am going."
One of those rooms is for Believers who are a little different from some of the others. :-)
I hope that helps you understand a little bit about where I am coming from and why.
Peace be with you, and yours!
- Geoff
< Message edited by EvilGeoff -- 6/9/2006 12:32:17 PM >
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