What does the Bible say about Sex and the Sexes?

At the beginning of the Third Millennium South Africa is exposed to many things which are dishonouring to God and harmful to the Family, especially images of sex and violence. Special legal protection is even given to deviant sexual orientations. This is particularly damaging to young people. Thus, the whole nation offends against God's Law, and we should look at the many disasters which have befallen us as being a sign of His displeasure.

The commandment, "Thou shalt not commit adultery", is particularly designed to protect marriage. Marriage is an ordinance instituted by God. It is primarily a spiritual union of a man and a woman, who are made in God's image. By work (Gen. 2:15) and by knowledge (Gen. 2:20) they are called to subdue the earth, develop its potentialities, increase and multiply (Gen. 1:28) and so extend His dominion geographically as well as in knowledge.

The family is a very important institution, not of the will of man, but of God. It is the basic building block of the nation. If the family is sound, the nation is sound. If the family is strong, the nation is strong. If the family is in disorder, the nation is in disorder. It is therefore of great national importance that the family be protected, that images be upheld which are in line with God's Law, and that laws be established which build up the family spiritually, morally, and materially.

Marriage and Monogamy
Polygamy was tolerated in Old Testament times, but God's purpose for man is monogamy.
"Then the LORD God said, 'It is not good that the man should be alone... Therefore a man leaves his father and his
mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh'." (Gen. 2:18-24)
"You shall not take a woman as a rival wife to her sister..." (Lev. 18:18
"A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife..." (1 Tim. 3:2)
"Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away..." (Deut. 17:17)
Jesus said: "A man [shall] cleave to his wife. What God hath joined together, let not man put asunder." Matt. 19:5-6
"... let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband." (1 Cor. 7:2)

Incest
God gave laws forbidding incest, so as to prevent genetic deterioration and keep mankind healthy.
"Cursed be he that lieth with his sister, the daughter of his father, or the daughter of his mother. And all the people shall say, Amen." (Deut. 27:22)
"Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of... thy sister... son's daughter... daughter in law..." etc (Lev. 18:7-17)
"If a man lieth with his father's wife... [and other family members] both shall surely be put to death." (Lev. 20:11- 21) They shall be cursed. (Deut. 22:30; 27:20, 22, 23; Lev. 20:19-21)

Adultery
Biblical Law is designed to create a familistic society. It is therefore a central social offense to strike at the family.
"Neither shalt thou commit adultery." (Deut. 5:18)
"Thou shalt not lie carnally with thy neighbour's wife, to defile thyself with her." (Lev. 18:20)
"And the man that committeth adultery... shall surely be put to death." (Lev. 20:10; Deut. 22:22)
"Do not prostitute thy daughter, to cause her to be a whore..." (Lev. 19:29)
"There shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite of the sons of Israel." (Deut. 23:17)
"Why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman...?" (Prov. 5:1-23; 6:26)
"Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned?... Whoso committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding: he that doeth it destroyeth his own soul... and life." (Prov. Chapters 6 and 7)
"... that they abstain from fornication..." (Acts 15:20, 29)
"... filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness..." (Rom. 1:29)
"It is reported... that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the gentiles..." (1 Cor. 5:1) "Put away from among yourselves that wicked person." (v. 13)
"Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body." (1 Cor. 6:13)
"Flee fornication... he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body." (1 Cor. 6:18)
Jesus: "But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart." (Matt 5:28)

Rape and Seduction
A healthy society protects its women and girls against violence. The family's and nation's survival depends on it.
"If a damsel that is a virgin be betrothed unto an husband, and a man find her in the city, and lie with her; then ye shall bring them both out unto the gate of that city, and ye shall stone them with stones that they die; the damsel, because she cried not, being in the city, and the man, because he hath humbled his neighbour's wife: so thou shalt put away evil from among you. But if a man find [her] in the field, and... force her, then the man only... shall die." (Deut. 22:23-29)
"If a man entice a maid that is not betrothed, and lie with her, he shall surely endow her to be his wife. If her father utterly refuse to give her unto him, he shall pay money according to the dowry of virgins." (Ex. 22:16-17)

Homosexuality
Homosexuality is hostile against the family. Paul calls it the culminating apostasy and hostility towards God.
"Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination." (Lev. 18:22)
"If a man 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." (Lev. 20:12)
"There shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite of the sons of Israel." (Deut. 23:17)
"Thou shalt not bring the hire of a whore, or the price of a dog [homosexual prostitute] into the house of the LORD thy God for any vow." (Deut. 23:18)
"Beware of dogs [homosexual prostitutes], beware of evil workers..." (Phil. 3:2)
"For without are dogs [homosexual prostitutes], and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie." (Rev. 22:15)
"God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet." (Rom. 1:18-32)

Transvestites
God wants the divinely instituted distinctions between the sexes to be sacredly observed.
"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." (Deut. 22:5)

Bestiality
Bestiality degrades the image of God in man. Man is not an animal, but the crown of creation.
"Whosoever lieth with a beast shall surely be put to death." (Ex. 22:19)
"Neither shalt thou lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith: neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie down thereto: it is confusion. Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you..." (Lev. 18:23-30)
"Cursed be he that lieth with any manner of beast. And all the people shall say, Amen." (Deut. 27:21)

Faithfulness
Faithfulness is a virtue stressed throughout God's Law and in all the Scriptures as a religious and moral necessity. God demands that we are faithful to Him and His law, to marriage, and to every godly obligation. But the non-Christian mentality is often characterized by making war on faithfulness. The Scriptures repeatedly declare faith-fulness to be an attribute of God. It is written: "Thy mercy, O LORD, is in the heavens; and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds." (Ps. 36:5) "Thy faithfulness shalt thou establish in the very heavens." (Ps. 89:2)

"Man was created in God's image," writes the Reformed American theologian Dr Rousas Rushdoony, "and, as redeemed in Christ, is re-established in that image. As he grows in terms of God's image, man grows in faithfulness and in his self-conscious awareness of his calling under God... Faithfulness in marriage in its truest sense means therefore sexual fidelity and much more. It means the faithful discharge of duties by husband and wife. It means dependability, trustworthiness of character, strength in adversity, and loyalty. It means initiative and ability, as appears in our Lord's words, 'Well done, thou good and faithful servant' (Matt. 25:21). Faithfulness is a communicable attribute of God. It is a mark of strength and character in a man, whereas unfaithfulness in any realm is a mark of weakness and of sin."

Based on Dr Rousas Rushdoony's "The Seventh Commandment", The Institutes of Biblical Law.