Where are we headed in the current revolution in sexual standards?
Revolution has taken place in today's approach to sex. The swiftness of this sexual revolution makes it vital that every thinking person give it serious thought and consideration. For it does affect you. And it directly affects — like it or not — nearly all of the people around you.
Power of Advertising
What does "sex" mean to you? Let's play, for the moment, the game that psychoanalysts employ: "What in modern society is associated with sex?" Answer: magazines, billboards, movies, television, theater, Hollywood, nightclubs, jet-set, college campuses, hippies, automobiles, boats, clothing, cigars, beer, cold pills, stomach pills, shaving cream, deodorants, mouthwash and toothpaste. Is this list everything? Of course not! It has hardly begun! Our original question might have better been phrased : "What in modern society is not associated with sex?" This is much easier to answer: "Almost nothing." Try a little experiment. Turn on the television - most of you have one - and observe how long you can watch without being assaulted by sex. Or pick up almost any magazine. How many pages can you read without being accosted? You will be amazed and aghast at the constant references and allusions to sex. But be watchful! Most of these references are cleverly subtle. Yes, "sex" can be subtle. But, whether you are aware of it or not, it influences many decisions in your life, occupies much of your time, and shapes your innermost thoughts and emotions.
Sex Is Big Business
Sexual pitches in advertisements and television commercials become more suggestive. Its shock value is used to peddle almost anything. "Though sex has always moved merchandise, it has never before been so explicit. Advertisers were once content merely to whisper, hint or suggest. Now the veil on the innuendo is being lifted, and sales pitches are downright steamy. Jeans designers, by turning prime time into a sea of undulating posteriors, led the way. But other advertisers quickly fell in step, using sex to push everything from traveler's checks to tea" (Wall Street Journal, November 28, 1980). Yet many people still assume that sex is rampant only in the major urban areas. This was not true. Television has changed all that. Television executives, aware of the ready accessibility of television to every member of society, young and old, at one time tightly controlled all programs. But the pressure of society has been too great. The money of sponsors talks loudly. The public wants sex, the sponsors want the public, and television wants the sponsors.
Sex and the Universities
The future leaders of this world reside at the colleges and universities. Is there any hope for higher moral leadership from this new generation? The cry for sexual permissiveness and sexual freedoms has emanated from and echoes around those "bastions of knowledge." But perhaps you have rationalized the situation. Perhaps you have half convinced yourself that this sexual looseness, lewdness and lasciviousness have been caused by a vocal minority, while the great majority of students are still decent, moral and chaste. Stop deluding yourself. Parade magazine, December 20, 1981, reported on how heavily many U.S. universities are involved in promiscuous sex: "This past summer, the University of Illinois became one of the first state universities in this country to issue free condoms to its students on request. "For 10 years, women students at the university's Champaign - Urbana campus have been given birth-control pills and fitted with diaphragms and intrauterine devices (IUDs). But this is the first year that condoms have been provided to male students who want them. Women students also are permitted to take packages of 24 each for their non-student partners." If all of this seems somewhat hard to believe, there is a simple way that you can prove it. Go down to any large university. Look at the bulletin boards. You will be shocked. Here you will find advertisements of males and females looking for temporary sex partners! These are our "future leaders," the "hope for tomorrow."
Consider the Result
"Just a minute," cries a modern philosopher, " isn't this sexual
The home and family is the basis of all decent society! The lessons of character learned in the home — patience, understanding, kindness — all these are qualities that God wants in man for all eternity.
freedom and sexual openness a change for the better? It's stimulating, enjoyable and interesting. Life has become scintillating and zestful. No longer are people inhibited and repressed — they are more open and honest. "Why retain prudish, outmoded, irrational moral standards? Why shouldn't we do just exactly what we feel like doing, when we want, and how we want?" The human family was endowed with a particular ability: to visualize the future consequences of present actions. Only man, of all created physical beings, has the potential to picture the future as the clear and direct result of the present. Only man can appreciate the end results. Just what are the results of our modern, sexually permissive, sexually arousing, sexually promiscuous society? Observe these absolute results, and then you "consider the end results"! Society is clamoring to be sexually free — depending, of course, on what you mean by "free." But are people becoming happier? A recent Gallup Poll, taken throughout Europe, found the following conclusions: 1) Religious beliefs are declining; 2) Morals have also slumped; 3) Honesty is on the wane; 4) Happiness is becoming increasingly hard to find; 5) Peace of mind is rare. Yes, happiness is — as the survey discovered — becoming harder to find in this age of free sex than ever before. More marriages are breaking up. More children are being torn from their parents. More young people — young and old — are turning to liquor and other drugs as a way out, an escape. And "peace of mind is rare." It is not only rare but practically nonexistent among those who practice free sex. For their promiscuity is not really free at all. They pay a terrible price for violating unseen, yet inexorable, laws that have been set in motion. The more one reads about and talks to those involved in free sex, the more deeply it becomes apparent that these people are wretched. They are playing with something they don't understand. Toying childishly with something that ought to be handled with deep respect and reserved for a special, unique union based on lasting loyalty, love and commitment. Reginald Ramsey, while in charge of Toronto's Distress Center to take suicidal calls, came to feel that the chief cause of suicide is sexual infidelity. He said: "There's a lot of domestic unfaithfulness these days, and the more we learn about it, the more horrible it gets. " Happiness? Excitement? Instead, many who toy with free sex are led to MURDER themselves through self-hate, frustration and sheer emptiness. We can conclude by saying that it is absolutely demonstrated that the reckless and promiscuous use of sex leads to venereal disease, cancer of the cervix, illegitimacy, disturbed and rebellious children, broken homes, wretched happiness and SUICIDE. It is just not worth the price. There must be a better way. But what way? How? Where? Is there any way we can learn how to handle sex without going through the agonies of human reasoning, experimentation, lusts? And the resultant heartaches, headaches and death?
A Purpose in Life?
Let's get at the basic question. We want to know about sex — and about happiness. But we must go further. We cannot fragment human life into distinct and isolated questions. To properly understand sex, we must delve into the ultimate purpose of human life. If there is not purpose, if mankind is a chance occurrence in the vast infinities of space and time, if man will live his short specks and wisps of time and then disappear forever, then nothing matters. Then we should all do what we want, when we want and how we want. Old morality or new morality, much morality, little morality or no morality. Nothing matters, then! Are the preciously few decades of life just a fleeting, evanescent twinkling in the great rush of eternity? Is it logical that the fantastically built human being — the human brain, the human mind - will be banished forever from existence? Should this being, who can conceive of and comprehend eternity, be denied it? What is life all about? Are you willing to face facts and find the true answer? The answer to these fundamental questions hinges upon the existence of an all-wise, all-powerful Creator GOD. If such a God does indeed exist, and if this God designed and fashioned mankind, then it naturally follows that every individual has an ultimate purpose — extending far beyond the few years of this physical life. This is the key. This affects you. Does this God exist? And is the Bible his divine revelation to mankind? You need to and you CAN absolutely and conclusively PROVE the answers to these fundamental questions! If you are not afraid of real answers, if you have true intellectual honesty, then read our absolutely free booklet entitled Does God Exist?
The Creator's Purpose in Sex
It is impossible to understand the true meaning of sex without first understanding that sex and marriage are God-given and God-ordained. To leave God out of the picture — as this modern age is doing — is to degrade the marriage union to mere animalism. Notice God's PURPOSE in creating man and woman! "And the Lord God said [after he had made only the man], It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make an help meet for him" (Gen. 2:18). God saw that man was INCOMPLETE by himself, and so he decided to make a help "meet" or suitable for the man — one with whom man could really share his life. Then God brought all the other living creatures to Adam — and he named them. "But for Adam there was not found an help meet for him" (verse 20). There was no other creature really LIKE Adam — one who could share his sorrows and joys, his hopes and dreams. And so God created woman out of Adam's very flesh and bone. "And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh : she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man" (verse 23). Here now was another person with whom Adam could share EVERYTHING. And she was created to be a suitable "help" to him, and to be his wife and companion. For God said: "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh" (verse 24). God made us male and female. God created SEX as a beautiful and holy thing to be used to his glory. And, as we have just seen, GOD instituted marriage — not man, or the rules or courts of man. So the first and primary purpose of marriage is to make man and woman complete. Each is incomplete without the other. Man alone was not able to fulfill the purpose for which God created him — was not able to learn the lessons of CHARACTER that God intended — and so God created the woman as a "help" to the man. And, in this very creation, God showed that they were to dwell together as man and wife in one fleshly union — to share EVERYTHING in this life, and so make their lives meaningful and complete in a physical sense at least. The second purpose of sex and marriage is the begettal and training of children. For God had told the man and woman: "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it..." (Gen. 1:28). In begetting children comes the responsibility of protecting and training them. A stable, happy home and marriage are indispensable to the correct nurture and training of a child. And God commands: "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it" (Prov. 22:6). Both parents are responsible for the supervision and training of their children. But the minute-by-minute, hour-by-hour responsibility of care and training of the children falls the lot of the wife as the God-given "helper" of her husband. The Eternal God commands that the young women are to be taught "to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, HOMEMAKERS, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed" (Titus 2:4-5, NKJV).
The Home a School for Character Development
The home and family is the BASIS of all decent society! The lessons of character learned in the home - patience, understanding, kindness — all these are qualities that God wants in man for all eternity, and the family relationship is one of the best places in which they can be learned! Better than any other place, the lessons of decency, loyalty and a sense of responsibility are learned in a happy and well-balanced home. And so, in addition to making man and woman complete, and the begettal and training of children possible, a third great purpose in sex and marriage is the building of character in the home and family relationship. The kingdom and law of God is based on LOVE. Jesus said: "It is more blessed to GIVE than to receive" (Acts 20:35). To obey God's law of marriage, man and wife must literally GIVE themselves to each other in every phase and facet of their lives. Showing that this principle must be practiced in the sexual relationship as well as in others, the apostle
More marriages are breaking up. More children are being torn from their parents. More young people... are turning to liquor and other drugs as a way out...
Paul commanded: "Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence: and likewise also the wife unto the husband. The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband: and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife. Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency" (I Cor. 7:3-5). The material act of bodily union is a debt each marriage partner owes the other. But it is a debt of LOVE and is so intimate and holy that God blesses it with a NEW LIFE. The divine purpose in sex attraction is to kindle love and intensify it until there is complete and mutual surrender of two lives. Love in its highest sense is union. The marriage union is of mind, heart and body. It is made sacred by God's command, for he instituted marriage to be the perfect expression of this love of man and woman. Our free booklet Why Marriage! Soon Obsolete? takes an in-depth new look at the institutions of marriage, the home and family life — and reveals startling truths which have been altogether overlooked by science, by religion, by education, and by society. You need to read it to understand how and when the institution of marriage originated and the necessary purpose it serves.
The Attitude of True Love
Love can be simply defined as a sense of closeness, warmth, affection and OUTGOING CONCERN for the one or ones loved. There are three basic types of love: love toward God, love toward fellowman and love toward mate. In all three types of love, the individual is motivated by his concern for the OTHER more than he is concerned about himself. This directly applies to love in marriage. You should always be diligently trying to serve your mate, to care for him or her, to honor, to give to and respect. Sex is a tool in helping learn to express this type of TRUE LOVE — as nothing else can be. It exemplifies and epitomizes the attitude of serving and love toward the other. I f this attitude is not present, there will, of course, be terrible troubles, frustrations, bitterness and misunderstanding. But here is a rich opportunity in marriage! GROWING in true love. GROWING together as a team. Growth will not always be smooth. Growing pains will occur. But these pains are signs of GROWTH — provided that both husband and wife are working together. The more a couple grows together - the more they LOVE each other, the more mutual concern and consideration they will have for each other and the more they share their mutual plans, hopes, dreams and joys in an ever-increasing and delightful marriage bond. God ordained sex and marriage as a means to help us develop the true love — the outgoing concern - that we desperately need to qualify us for the ultimate positions that God has in store for all humanity who will heed! Men and women were created with a NEED to experience and learn these lessons of the marriage union. Neither is complete without the other. But together, a godly married couple is indeed a powerful and balanced team.
The Development of Character
Character development is the supreme GOAL in life. It is the very purpose of our physical lives. Everything else should revolve around this basic and indispensable goal. And true LOVE is the most important single characteristic of godly character! The wise and proper use of sex is an integral part, then, of BOTH godly character and true love. Its proper understanding and meaningful use has a fantastic purpose extending not only through this life — but into the time beyond. You now see the alternatives placed before you. You can plainly see the end RESULTS of the philosophies and practices of this modern world and its wretched abuse of the gift of sex. You see the broken homes, the juvenile delinquency, the blindness and allied ailments caused by venereal disease, the gnawing UNHAPPINESS and the ruined lives. The wretched results of sexual lawlessness are incontrovertibly obvious. But you need not take that way. There is a BETTER WAY! May the true God give you the wisdom and strength to PRACTICE the understanding and principles you should have gained from this article! Reread it carefully and use it!