Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel ,” which translated means, ” God with us .” – Matthew 1:23
DO NOT KNOW – DO NOT BELIEVE – DO NOT CARE
The reason I am writing this is four-fold:
- Many if not most churches and pastors fail to teach or preach effectively on these matters of Biblical virginity, chastity, womanhood, and manhood, whether out of love or otherwise – that is if they want to keep their “marginals”. Even if they do preach on them, they fail to teach the REASONS these laws or teachings exist and WHY they are important beyond the ‘threats’ I have listed, below.
- A growing number of professing Christians are not living like Jesus teaches.
- They are living like the world lives because they either do not know what the Bible says or why it says what it says;
- Many do not believe in what the Bible says;
- Many more do not care what the Bible says. Some just defy the teaching of the scriptures because they don’t see an immediate consequence in their daily lives.
- Failure to know the cost of rebellion against God, (and, yes, failing to obey or to follow the Word of God is outright rebellion – even if in ignorance), is tragic, and creates unseen pitfalls and calamities down the road of your life, now. And it can be eternally damning.
- I want to help. I want to raise Christians’ awareness, even if it is a few. I want them to know the presence, the safety, the power and the spiritual blessing that come from knowing God, knowing and doing His Words and knowing WHY.
I really don’t want to sound negative, but these matters can be a very big positive if you will see them that way.
Let’s start by asking, did you ever wonder why Jesus had to be born of a virgin? Here is an excerpt from “GotQuestion.Org”,
“The doctrine of the virgin birth teaches that Jesus Christ was born of a virgin. That is, when Mary conceived Jesus, she had never had sexual intercourse. Jesus’ birth, therefore, was truly miraculous. The virgin birth of Jesus is a crucially important doctrine and one that the Bible plainly teaches in Matthew 1:23 and Luke 1:27, 34.
“Jesus’ enemies among His contemporaries denied His virgin birth. They went so far as to publicly accuse Jesus of being a Samaritan, i.e., a person of mixed race (John 8:48). Those today who would deny the virgin birth contradict the clear teaching of Scripture, call into question other miracles recorded in the Bible, and open the door to a denial of Christ’s full deity or His full humanity.” (End excerpt).
EVERYBODY ELSE IS DOING IT!
Was virginity (and chastity) important to God, otherwise? The Bible says they were important to God then, and are important to Him now. I know or know of so many people calling themselves Christian and who go to church, as having sexual relationships before marriage and outside of marriage, and they do not see it as a problem – unless they caught.
Read just the Biblical definition just of ‘fornication’ (sexual intercourse before marriage):
Fornication from the Greek language is “porneía”, and means “pain, laborious trouble”, pain-ridden evil; derived from 4192 (pónos), which refers to “pain, pure and simple” – resulting in “toil, then drudge”, i.e. ‘bad‘ like a criminal”.
From ‘poneros‘; (See 4190, which means, depravity, malice; plots, sins, iniquity, wickedness.
The penalty for fornication was severe in the Old Testament. Deuteronomy 22:20 But if the thing is true, that evidence of virginity was not found in the young woman, 21 then they shall bring out the young woman to the door of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death with stones, because she has done an outrageous thing in Israel by whoring in her father’s house. So, you shall purge the evil from your midst.
22 “If a man is found lying with the wife of another man, both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman, and the woman. So, you shall purge the evil from Israel.
WILL NOT INHERIT THE KINGDOM OF GOD
The New Testament puts it this way, “Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envying, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” (Galatians 5:19-21 – The King James Version).
The New American Standard Version reads this way, “Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
“Those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
If you thought being stoned to death was a harsh punishment, which was a one-time punishment, imagine an eternity in hell, the lake of fire which burns forever!
(And, by the way, if you dismiss heaven or hell, you just don’t believe the Bible, so your fate is sealed unless you change your thinking and really surrender your life and ways to Jesus.)
DO NOT KNOW – DO NOT BELIEVE – DO NOT CARE
The reason I am writing this is four-fold:
- Most churches and pastors fail to teach or preach effectively on these matters, in love or otherwise, and even if they do preach on them, they fail to teach the REASONS these laws or teachings exist and WHY they are important beyond the threats I have noted.
- A growing number of professing Christians are not living like Jesus teaches. They are living like the world lives because they either do not know what the Bible says or why it says what it says; many do not believe in what the Bible says; and many more do not care what the Bible says. They just defy the teaching of scriptures because they don’t see an immediate consequence in their daily lives.
- Failure to know the cost of rebellion against God, (and, yes, failing to obey or to follow the Word of God is outright rebellion – even if in ignorance), is tragic, and creates unseen pitfalls and calamities down the road of your life, now. And it can be eternally damning.
- I want to help. I want to raise Christians’ awareness, even if it is a few. I want them to know the presence, the safety, the power and the spiritual blessing that come from knowing God, knowing and dong His Words and knowing WHY.
God does have a POSTIVE plan for you, a plan to prosper you and not to harm you, plans for a future and a hope. (Jeremiah 29:11)
Please come with me as we look at what the Bible says about virginity, womanhood, chastity and manhood in a four part series – let’s live long and prosper!
Your Brother and Friend,
Mike Young
“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide, and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow, and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” Matthew 7:14-15.
NEXT: Virginity – Who cares? Why care?
PS: If this is too simplistic or sounds ‘unfair’ or cruel, please visit “Does Sin Separate You From God?”
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