The Law of Love: Volume Ii of Sex and the Bible: What the Holy Bible Really Teaches About Sex & Morality

By Wylark Day

What does it mean to be righteous? To be holy? By what standard will God judge us when we die? As the Bible tells us in 1Corinthians 8:2"And if any man think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know."
For nearly two millennia, Christians have followed the philosophy of Asceticism: a philosophy which teaches that ignorance about sex is bestbecause it is based on Fear. Yet God's philosophy is LOVE; and to love requires knowledge. In this, the second volume of Sex and the Bible, we will therefore take a very close look at the teachings of the Bible, in order to discover what God really thinks about SEX. Roll over, St. Augustine!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Dec 9, 2002
• ISBN: 9781465327499

Wylark Day

Wylark Day is a successful biochemist and biological sciences educator; who has worked in 4 major U.S. zoological parks. Mr. Day has also served as a Biblical theology instructor, with over 25 years experience in studying the Holy Scriptures. His co-author and mentor, the "Goddess Yeshua", has long been a professional in the field of human sexuality; who has until now kept her identity hidden.

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Copyright © 2002 by Wylark Day.

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Contents

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 4

The Three Great Biblical Truths About Sex

CHAPTER 5

The Heart of the Matter: God’s View of Intercourse

CHAPTER 6

LUST: IT’S NOT WHAT YOU THINK

CHAPTER 7

A STILL MORE EXCELLENT WAY’: THE LAW OF LOVE

REFERENCES

ISAIAH 30:25,26: And there shall be upon every high mountain, and upon every high hill, rivers and streams of waters in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall. Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the LORD bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound.

This day has this prophecy of scripture begun to come to pass, in your sight.

Let there be Light!

INTRODUCTION

Today we are blessed to live in a world of sexual freedom. We also seem to be cursed to live in a world of teenage pregnancies, AIDS, abortion, struggling single parent families, gender confusion, and frighteningly extreme pendulum swings from seemingly absurd excesses of sexual liberality to equally absurd excesses of conservatism, and back again. Faced with all this pain and confusion regarding sex, many people are now turning away from the Sexual Revolution of the 1960’s and 1970’s, and turning to the Christian Church. Unfortunately, once in the Church, they soon see beyond the attractive pro-family stance the Church preaches, and run up against the extremely anti-sex attitudes that the Church has held for nearly 2000 years; the attitudes which gave rise to the sexual revolution of the 1960’s and 1970’s in the first place, causing most young Americans to leave Christianity, and leading to America’s first predominantly non-Christian generation.

Why is the Church so anti-sex? Can’t we find some sort of middle-ground in this area, solving most of the above sexual problems, which bedevil our society, while at the same time preserving some of our cherished sexual freedom? Yes we can! And the answer lies, not with the Christian Church, but in the Bible, God’s Holy Word, itself!

The purpose of this book is to take a close, complete look at what the Bible really teaches about Sex. In so doing, you will see how the Christian Church has badly misinterpreted and misunderstood the message of God’s Word regarding sex. You will also learn how to enjoy your sexuality in a way that is moderate and pleasing to God; avoiding both the pitfalls of sexual excess, and the misery of sexual repression.

This book is for anyone who has any interest in knowing the Will of God; and is written especially for single Christians. I didn’t write it to offend anyone. However, the freedom it shows that God allows regarding sex will doubtless greatly offend conservatives everywhere, so if you are conservative, don’t read it! Likewise, God’s Word will never allow everyone to do everything that they would like to do sexually, and the sexual restrictions of the Bible will doubtless offend liberal everywhere, so if you are liberal, don’t read it! There. Now that I know that nobody will read this book, I’m happy to say that I haven’t offended anyone ( but if someone does happen to read it, and gets offended; all I can say is, ‘Hey, I’m just reporting what the Bible really says about sex; please take any complaints up with the real author!’).

CHAPTER 4

The Three Great Biblical Truths About Sex

In the first volume of Sex and the Bible, we saw in Chapters #1 and #2, that we have a fundamental problem in understanding what the Bible teaches about Sex, because the Old and New Testaments present such radically different views on the subject. Then we saw in Chapter #3 how the Christian Church just took the very anti-sex view of the New Testament to found its doctrines about sex on, leading to nearly two millennia of sexual repression; and culminating in the Sexual Revolution of the late 1960’s, at which time the Western World largely rejected Christianity, pushing it into its cultural ‘backwaters’. So you see how important it is to reconcile the differing views of the Old and New Testaments, in order to get a more accurate view of what the Bible teaches about Sex. This is what we will now do in this, the second volume of Sex and the Bible; which contains Chapters #4 through #7. To start, let’s look at Three Great Truths about Sex found in the Bible, which transcend any differences between Old and New Testaments.

TRUTH #1 GOD LOVES SEX

Based on what the New Testament and the Christian Church teach about sex, most Christians hold a very deep-seated belief that God dislikes sex. Indeed, for some Christians this gets so bad that they can’t even have an orgasm (even with their marriage partner!), without feeling the pangs of guilt (I’ll always remember when I was a child, and my parents first bought our summer cottage. One of the first things my mother did was to take down the painting of Jesus that was hanging over their bed, and not because they had a problem with the painting; I think they just didn’t care for its location). Yet this belief, no matter how deep-seated it may be, is nevertheless wrong; as I will show with the five points listed below.

Point A: The First Commandment Given in the Bible is to Have Sex

Yes, you heard me right! If you start reading your Bible from Genesis chapter 1, the very first commandment from God to humans that you come to is:

Genesis 1:28: And God blessed them, and God said unto them, ‘Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth’.¹

Now, if you were Adam, and God gave you this commandment, what would be the very first thing you would have to do? Why, you would have to find some way to multiply yourself, of course. And since the very beginning, there has only been one way for people to do that! So, the very first thing Adam had to do to fulfill this commandment of God was to go up to Eve, and say something like: ‘C’mon baby, let’s get it on!’ (and the second commandment, to subdue the entire earth, is, if you think about it, really a commandment to develop science, technology, and education; because it is only with the help of these tools that humanity has been able to subdue nature).

Point B: An Entire Book of the Bible is Devoted to the Topic of Sensual Love

The whole book of the Song of Solomon is one long, very explicit and sensual sonnet of love between a man and a woman. I’ll just list a few verses here:

Song of Solomon 1:2,13; 2:4,6: Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy love is better than wine. A bundle of myrrh is my well beloved unto me; he shall lie all night betwixt my breasts. He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love. His left hand is under my head, and his right hand doth embrace me.

Song of Solomon 4:5,6,9-11: Thy two breasts are like two young roes (deer) that are twins, which feed amoung the lilies. Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, I will get me to the mountain of myrrh, and to the hill of frankincense (spices, perfumes). Thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck. How fair is thy love, my sister (not literally), my spouse! How much better is thy love than wine! And the smell of thine ointments than all spices! Thy lips, O my spouse, drop as the honeycomb: honey and milk are under thy tongue; and the smell of thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon.

Song of Solomon 4:16; 5:10-16: Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits. My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand. His head is as the most fine gold, his locks are bushy, and black as a raven. His eyes are as the eyes of doves by the rivers of waters, washed with milk, and fitly set. His cheeks are as a bed of spices, as sweet flowers: his lips like lilies, dropping sweet smelling myrrh. His hands are as gold rings set with the beryl: his belly is as bright ivory overlaid with sapphires. His legs are as pillars of marble, set upon sockets of fine gold: his countenance is as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars. His mouth is most sweet: yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.

Song of Solomon 7:6-9: How fair and how pleasant art thou, O love, for delights! This thy stature is like to a palm tree, and thy breasts to clusters of grapes. I said, I will go up to the palm tree, I will take hold of the boughs thereof: now also thy breasts shall be as clusters of the vine, and the smell of thy nose like apples; and the roof of thy mouth like the best wine for my beloved, that goeth down sweetly, causing the lips of those that are asleep to speak.

Song of Solomon 7:10,12; 8:2,3: I am my beloved’s, and his desire is towards me. Let us get up early to the vineyards; let us see if the vine flourish, whether the tender grapes appear, and the pomegranates bud forth: there will I give thee my loves. I would lead thee, and bring thee into my mother’s house, who would instruct me: I would cause thee to drink of spiced wine of the juice of my pomegranate. His left hand should be under my head, and his right hand should embrace me.

Song of Solomon 8:6,7: Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned (scorned).

Not what you’d expect from the Bible, was it? Actually, the God of the Bible is very passionate, so the above verses aren’t that out of place; its just that God’s attention in the Bible is usually focused on the relationship of people with Him, not the relationship of a man with a woman. You may wonder how something this sexy managed to survive in the Bible throughout the history of a Church that was so anti-sex. The answer is that the Church ‘spiritualized’ the obvious sexual relationship here (which was between Solomon and a favorite of his 1,000 wives; or between him and an idealized lover), and declared it to be about the love between Christ and his Church. Since all sexual love is symbolic of the relationship between Christ and the Church (see below), this is certainly a valid comparison. But let’s not forget that the Song of Solomon is about love and sex between a man and a woman; it nowhere says that it is talking about Christ and the Church, or that its message of the goodness of romantic and physical, sexual love should be in any way watered down by trying to ‘spiritualize’ it.

Point C: Sex is God’s Foundation for Marriage, Families, and Societies

If you ask people what the foundation for marriage is, most people will say things like: love, friendship, shared interests, security, etc.; but very few people will say sex. Sex just doesn’t seem important enough to be the most vital thing in a marriage.

But if you look at what God’s Word, the Bible, says, you will see that it is sex which is the foundation of marriage in the eyes of God (even if other things, mainly love and commitment, are more important; it is still the sex which is the critical thing in a marriage, causing two people to be married to each other in the first place, as far as God is concerned).

Matthew 19:9: And I (Jesus) say unto you, Whosoever shall put away (divorce) his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away (divorced) doth commit adultery.

I will go over the above scripture, and why it prohibits divorce so completely, in more detail in the next chapter, so don’t get too worried about it now. The important thing to see here, is that even though Jesus gives such a flat-out prohibition of divorce, he still leaves fornication as a sort of ‘get out free card’. Indeed, Jesus didn’t talk about ‘incompatibility’ or any other serious marital problems; but if one of the partners had intercourse with someone else (which is what fornication means), then, bam!, you could end the marriage immediately, no questions asked. Clearly, this shows that, as far as God is concerned, intercourse is the very foundation of marriage; because once that sexual relationship was defiled (adulterated), it no longer mattered to God if the other partner got a divorce and married someone else. The foundation was gone, so there was no need to try and save the superstructure of the marriage (of course, this verse certainly doesn’t prohibit a couple from re-establishing their foundation, and staying married). Let’s also look at:

1 Corinthians 7:3-5(part): 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.

Exodus 21:10: If he (a man) take him another wife; her (the first wife’s) food, her raiment (clothing), and her duty of marriage (sex), shall he not diminish.

From these verses we again see that sexual relations are so important in a marriage to God, that He actually commands people to have regular sex with their spouse. This is reminiscent of Point A, the first commandment in the Bible. Yet how many people think of the Christian God as, ‘The God that Commands People to Have Sex’? I think that perhaps we Christians are misrepresenting Him (which is why this book was written).

So, in God’s view, it is sex which is the foundation (although not necessarily the most important thing) of marriage. Marriages, in turn, form the foundations of families (as their most fundamental units: see Ephesians 5:31: ‘For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh’). Then families form the foundations of communities, communities form the foundations of cities and cultures, and cultures and cities form the foundations of nations (although these last three links have degraded somewhat in our more urban, modern society). So, in God’s plan, all of human society is really founded on sex. Since it is God that set things up this way, this is just more evidence of how highly God regards sex.

Point D: God Chose Sex to Represent His Final, Total Union with Humankind

Ezekiel 16:8: Now when I (God) passed by thee (Isreal), and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love; and I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness: yea, I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord GOD, and thou becamest mine.

Jeremiah 3:14,20: Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion. Surely as a wife treacherously departeth from her husband, so have ye dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, saith the LORD.

Jeremiah 31:31-34: Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel: after those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD’: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

The entire chapters of Ezekiel 16 and Hosea 2 also give good God=husband, people=wife analogies.

Matthew 9:14,15: Then came to him the disciples of John, saying, ‘Why do we and the Pharisees fast oft, but thy disciples fast not?’ And Jesus said unto them, ‘Can the children of the bride chamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them?

But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast.’

Matthew 25:1,10: Then (Jesus telling a parable) shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And while they went to buy (virgins who didn’t bring enough oil for their lamps), the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut. (Note: It is interesting how the one place we still see polygamy (which was so common in the Old Testament) in the New Testament is when Jesus is talking about Christians (the ‘virgins’) marrying himself (the bridegroom)).

2 Corinthians 11:2: For I (Paul the Apostle) am jealous over you (Corinthian Christians) with godly jealousy: for I have espoused (engaged) you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

Revelation 21:9,10,23,24: And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, ‘Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife.’ And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it.

What greater endorsement of sex and marriage could God give than this, to refer to all people who follow Him as His wives?

Point E: Another Word from God

The proceeding four Points pretty well cover the evidence from the Bible that God loves Sex. But wait! We have another word from

God, one which is both more trustworthy (because God didn’t have to use human messengers to write it) and older than the Bible! What ‘word’ am I talking about? The human body, of course! No Christian will dispute that our bodies are the creation of God.

What do our bodies tell us? Of all the creatures on earth, human beings are some of the most sexual. There are two basic evidences for this:

In Women: Amoung higher animals (you wouldn’t believe some of the wild, kinky things that some of the lower animals (like slugs, for instance) do), human females are highly unusual in lacking a breeding season, or estrous cycle. This isn’t a reference to a woman’s regular menstrual cycle; the estrous cycle is something that nearly all mammals have, and it refers to the fact that they are only sexually receptive during a certain period of each month when they are ‘in heat’. This period roughly corresponds to when they have an egg to be fertilized. Lacking this cycle, women are in state of constant sexual receptiveness. So why did God make women capable of desiring sex whether they can get a baby out of it or not? Obviously, it must be because God doesn’t want people to have sex just to make babies. He wants people to have sex for pleasure, and to strengthen the marriage bond! (we’ll cover this topic in more detail in God’s Plan for Sex, at the end of Chapter 8, in the next volume of Sex and the Bible).

In Men: People are also unique amoung God’s animal creation in walking fully erect. This is actually a very odd way to be, as it puts a lot of stress on the spinal column. It is often said that this way of moving is so that people can carry things in, and otherwise use, their hands. Although this is true, it may not be as important as we tend to think; since chimps and other apes don’t walk erect, and still manage to use their hands quite a bit. There is, however, another important reason for men to walk erect: it prominently displays their penises! Now, you may object, saying: ‘Nobody sees that anyway, because people wear clothes’. Well, people weren’t always as prudish as they are today: the original Olympic Games, for instance, were done by men in the nude (more on this in Chapter 9). In any case, it doesn’t really matter whether it’s seen or not. The point is that God placed it in a prominent position on the front of the male figure. Indeed, most animals (except primates) have penises that retract into their bodies when not in use; and even among primates (apes and monkeys) the human penis is unusually large (the huge gorilla, for instance, has only a three inch penis). Why do men have such unusually large, and prominently displayed sex organs? I can only think of one fundamental reason: because the God who created our bodies must love Sex; and wants to show off His handiwork!

Not only that, but when God first chose to enter into a covenant with people, He chose to put the symbol of that covenant on men’s penises:

Genesis 17:9-11: And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations. This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child amoung you shall be circumcised. And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you.

Now the foreskin is the skin that normally covers the head of a man’s penis, except when it gets pulled back during intercourse, exposing the glans, or head, of the penis. This is the most sexually sensitive area of the penis (just under the glans, and around its edge). So, by commanding circumcision, God is saying that He wants man’s (already prominent) sexuality even more exposed! And that as a sign of our relationship with Him.

So, amoung all God’s creation, people stand out as being unusually sexy. Quite a blow to the esteem of people who like to think of humans as being ‘spiritual’, and above the crass, sensual appetites of the animal world. But God is not ashamed of humans for being sexy, because that’s the way He made us!

Indeed, why should we be surprised at this? All around us we see the evidence of God’s Creation; that nothing is more important than Sex. Why, every beautiful flower, which God has made to decorate His world, is in reality a sex organ (and indeed, it could be said that a woman’s vulva resembles a flower, and is similarly beautiful; its lips like petals. Or to put it in the words of the Apostle Paul, in 1 Corinthians 12:23: ‘And those members of the body, which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness (beauty)’).

TRUTH #2 THERE ARE NO PROHIBITIONS IN THE BIBLE AGAINST ANY SEX ACTS, ONLY AGAINST HAVING SEX WITH THE WRONG PERSON (OR THE RIGHT PERSON AT THE WRONG TIME)

After seeing how much God loves Sex, the obvious questions to ask are: does He have any prohibitions on sex, and if so, why? The ‘why’ we’ll get into in the next chapter. For right now, let’s concentrate on what the Bible prohibits. Obviously, we all know that the Bible has prohibitions on sex; so even though God loves sex, that doesn’t mean that He loves for us to give in to every sexual urge. In order to get an idea of what God’s attitudes in this area are, let’s first just list every Bible sexual prohibition that we can find, and have a look at them. Wherever possible, for each prohibition I will list a scripture from both the Old and the New Testaments.

Bible Prohibitions on Sex

Neglecting Your Spouse

Deuteronomy 24:5: When a man hath taken a new wife, he shall not go out to war, neither shall he be charged with any business: but he shall be free at home one year, and shall cheer up his wife which he hath taken.

Exodus 21:10: If he take him another wife; her (his first wife’s) food, her raiment, and her duty of marriage (sex), shall he not diminish.

1   Corinthians 7:5: Defraud (sexually deny your spouse) 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.

Adultery

Leviticus 20:10: And the man that committeth adultery with another man’s wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbour’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.

2   Peter 2:14: Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children.

Divorce

Malachi 2;14,16(part): Yet ye say, Wherefore (does God not regard my offerings)? Because the LORD hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant. For the LORD, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away (divorce).

1 Corinthians 7:27(part): Art thou bound unto a wife? Seek not to be loosed.

Re-Marriage

Deuteronomy 24:4(part): Her (a divorced woman’s) former husband, which sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after that she is defiled (has already been remarried and divorced with someone else); for that is abomination before the LORD.

Matthew 5:32(part): And whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery.

Note: Divorce was allowed in the Old Testament (see Deuteronomy 24:1,2 and Exodus 21:3), despite the verse in Malachi 2:16 just quoted, where God says He hates it. It was also allowed in the New Testament (Matthew 5:32) if one partner committed fornication (since the word fornication, rather than adultery, was used, it would seem to allow divorce not only if your spouse cheats on you, but also if they had sex with someone else before marriage); and if one partner was a non-Christian that wanted a divorce (see 1 Corinthians 7:15,16). For an understanding of this complex issue, see the next chapter, as well as the end of Chapter 10.

Fornication (Intercourse Outside of Marriage)

Exodus 22:16: And if a man entice a maid (virgin) that is not betrothed, and lie with her, he shall surely endow her to be his wife.

Note: The Old Testament doesn’t prohibit fornication with a non-virgin (such as a prostitute, widow, or divorcee), but does strongly advise against it (see Proverbs 22:14; 23:27,28). The New Testament is even less liberal:

1 Corinthians 6:18: Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.

Homosexuality

Leviticus 20:13: If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.

1 Timothy 1:9,10: Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for whoremongers (fornicators), for them that defile themselves with mankind (literally: ‘men-beders’; so men that lie (fornicate) with other men), for menstealers (kidnappers), for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine.

Note: There is no clear prohibition against women having sex with other women in the Bible, although lesbianism is put down (but not prohibited) in Romans 1:26. This whole topic of homosexuality will be covered in a lot more detail in Chapter 11; where some surprising conclusions will be reached.

Transvestitism

Deuteronomy 22:5: The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman’s garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the LORD thy God.

1 Corinthians 6:9,10: Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind (‘men-beders’; same as above), nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.

Incest

Leviticus 18:6: None of you shall approach to any that is near of kin to him, to uncover their nakedness (to have sex with them): I am the LORD.

1 Corinthians 5:1,2: It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife. And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you.

Note: God’s Prohibitions on Incest include in-laws and steprelatives, as well as those that are biologically related. The prohibited relationships include: parents, children, grandchildren, and all steprelatives in these categories; siblings, half-siblings (Abraham, the Founder of Monotheistic Faith, was himself in violation of this law; as his wife Sarah was his own half-sister), aunts, uncles, nephews, and nieces. Marriages between cousins are not prohibited. If you want to look them up, the scriptures giving these prohibitions are: Leviticus 18:7-18; 20:11,12,14,17,19-21; Deuteronomy 22:30; 27:20,22,23.

Interesting Point: There are no age-based sexual restrictions in the Bible; nor are there restrictions on having more than one spouse, except for leadership (see below), or if two siblings are involved (see Leviticus 18:18).

Bestiality

Exodus 22:19: Whosoever lieth with a beast (animal) shall surely be put to death.

Jude 7: Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.

Sex with Non-Believers in God

Deuteronomy 7:3,4: Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son. For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly.

2 Corinthians 6:14: Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness?

Note: There are no prohibitions in the Bible on interracial sex, or on sex with those of a different nationality or culture. In the Old Testament, there are several other verses prohibiting marriage of the Israelites with people of other nearby nations; and by Jesus’ time those prohibitions had caused the Jews to be incredibly ‘snooty’, which became a major stumbling block in the spread of Christianity to non-Jews. However, those prohibitions were always aimed at preserving the Jews from religious contamination, and so were never absolute. Anyone who turned to the Jewish God was welcome, which is why the Law of Moses makes a very big point of always being kind to strangers and foreigners:

Leviticus 19:33,34: And if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall not vex him. But the stranger (foreigner) that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God (see also Leviticus 19:9,10; Deuteronomy 23:15,16).

Nowhere is this point made more plain than in the story of Ruth, who was a Moabitess, one of the very worst nations for turning the Israelites to worship idols (see Numbers 25; Deuteronomy 23:3,4); but who chose to join Israel and Israel’s God (Ruth 1:15,16), and so was honored with her own book in the Bible, and by being the great-grandmother of David the king.

Covetousness (Lust)

Exodus 20:17 (#10 of the Ten Commandments): Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbour’s.

2 Peter 2:14: Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls (to have sex with them): an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children.

Prohibitions Against Having Sex at the Wrong Time and Place

These prohibitions are all found only in the Old Testament; and are all part of the ceremonial laws of Cleanness and Uncleanness of the Law of Moses.

Sex During Menstrual Period

Leviticus 20:18: And if a man shall lie with a woman having her sickness, and shall uncover her nakedness; he hath discovered her fountain, and she hath uncovered the fountain of her blood: and both of them shall be cut off from among their people (see also: Leviticus 18:19, and Ezekiel 18:5-9).

Note: A woman is also officially unclean, and so prohibited from having sex, for 1 to 2 weeks following childbirth (see Leviticus 12: The further one to two month period mentioned appears to also be for purifying, but it doesn’t say the woman is officially unclean after the first 1-2 weeks, so sex may have been O.K. during this time).

Sex During War

Deuteronomy 23:10,11,14: If there be among you any man, that is not clean by reason of uncleanness that chanceth him by night (ejaculation: whether intentional (masturbation) or unintentional (wet dream)), then shall he go abroad out of the camp, he shall not come within the camp (of the army): but it shall be, when evening cometh on, he shall wash himself with water: and when the sun is down, he shall come into the camp again. For the LORD thy God walketh in the midst of thy camp, to deliver thee, and to give up thine enemies before thee; therefore shall thy camp be holy: that he see no unclean thing in thee, and turn away from thee.

Deuteronomy 21:10-14: When thou goest forth to war against thine enemies, and the LORD thy God hath delivered them into thine hands, and thou hast taken them captive, and seest among the captives a beautiful woman, and hast a desire unto her, that thou wouldest have her to thy wife; then thou shalt bring her home to thine house (notice that God does not allow for rape (as was common practice at the time), or any other sex on the field of battle; that is because any sex (not just single ejaculation, as we saw in the last verse) made a soldier unclean (it makes anyone ceremonially unclean; see below) and would drive the presence of God from the army); and she shall shave her head, and pare her nails; and she shall put the raiment of her captivity from off her, and shall remain in thine house, and bewail her father and her mother a full month: and after that thou shalt shalt go in unto her, and be her husband, and she shall be thy wife (so here is another time-dependent sexual restriction, and a very good one: with her head shaved, and sorrowing over the loss of her parents; her captor has time to cool down before he has sex with her, and decide if he really wants her; meanwhile, she has time to get used to him, so she may not hate him when they eventually ‘do it’). And it shall be, if thou have no delight in her, then thou shalt let her go whither she will (yet another verse saying divorce is O.K.); but thou shalt not sell her at all for money, thou shalt not make merchandise of her, because thou hast humbled her.

Sex During Religious Observances

Exodus 19:14-17: And Moses went down from the mount unto the people, and sanctified the people; and they washed their clothes. And he said unto the people, ‘Be ready against the third day: come not at your wives’. And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled. And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God; and they stood at the nether part of the mount.

Leviticus 7:20: But the soul that eateth of the flesh of the sacrifice of peace offerings, that pertain