Pornia / immorality?

[octoberose]

I know someone online who believes in universal reconciliation like we do. He spends his time teaching - it's interesting, sometimes very much so. But now in reading something he wrote I realize that he doesn't feel that God ever told unmarried single people to abstain from sexual relations until they are married. Since the word that most bibles translate as 'sexual immorality' is actually pornia, he says that pornia is referring to prostitutes, mostly the temple prostitutes. I'm more than surprised that someone would believe that and stand by it. We've been going back and forth in e mails. I can't find what Ray said specifically about this- but I don't need to know in order to believe what I believe. That whole marrying instead of burning has no affect on this guy at all. I guess he only burns for prostitutes . Which he says he stays away from. I'm actually kind of mad.  I told him he was thinking like a man and he thinks I am putting words in the Word of God.  I don't think I am.  Do you think I am?

[Dave in Tenn]

I think he's thinking like a lawyer.  Perhaps it's only temple prostitutes we should avoid, and the other kind are fine to use? 

Your reference to what Paul said about marrying or burning is spot-on as far as I'm concerned.

Still, once we've worked out what is sin and what isn't...then what? 

[octoberose]

Yes, looking for a loop hole I think. Or blinded because anything that smacks of something the 'traditional church' would say is suspect. Dave, I like what you said about working out what sin is and isn't . Romans said anything not done in faith is sin. He could say his faith allows it . I would say something may not sear your conscience, but it should. He can't work out that it's sin.  .
Would the Elect be so deceived?  I mean, I'm not without my own failures. I'd be happy to tell you what they are as I see them. I'm not better than anyone. But really, who to join your body with - or not to-  is a pretty fundamental belief!
Ok, I'll be quiet . Lawyer- good one Dave.

 

[indianabob]

I know someone online who believes in universal reconciliation like we do. He spends his time teaching - it's interesting, sometimes very much so. But now in reading something he wrote I realize that he doesn't feel that God ever told unmarried single people to abstain from sexual relations until they are married. Since the word that most bibles translate as 'sexual immorality' is actually pornia, he says that pornia is referring to prostitutes, mostly the temple prostitutes. I'm more than surprised that someone would believe that and stand by it. We've been going back and forth in e mails. I can't find what Ray said specifically about this- but I don't need to know in order to believe what I believe. That whole marrying instead of burning has no affect on this guy at all. I guess he only burns for prostitutes . Which he says he stays away from. I'm actually kind of mad.  I told him he was thinking like a man and he thinks I am putting words in the Word of God.  I don't think I am.  Do you think I am?

Hi Rose,
Sexual lust is present in every male of the species. It is there for a good reason and to ensure the expansion of the species throughout the earth. The thing is that we are supposed to resist youthful temptation and fill our time with other activities until we have prepared ourselves to care for the fruit of our loins. We need a home, a means of supporting ourselves and a loving partner to help us through the difficult times that will surely come with rearing a family.
The means to achieve a good result is the example we have from our parents and other adults in the community and this can happen even without a correct religious understanding if the mores of the community require it and support it.

In many communities in history past the single women were protected from lusty males by always being under the guidance of older adults even to the point of being chaperoned carefully until a marriage was arranged.

Of course young folks do not like being told that they need protection from their own lust and sense of adventure so they stray from home and seek sexual pleasure wherever they can find it, often to their own hurt. Perhaps the young man you wrote about is being tested and being shown by practical example that he cannot resist temptation on his own strength and will have to learn the hard way the need to place his full trust in God's spirit through prayer and his own longsuffering struggle to overcome various temptations we all face during our short lives.

It took me quite a few years to come to understand that God was influencing my life. Looking back I can see how events of the past may have been preparing me for the final revelation of better truth that was to come eventually.
So perhaps your friend is in the beginning of a long journey toward true understanding and will be able to see more clearly in the future. God is very patient and teaches us through our experiences as much as through His word.

Kindly offered, Indiana Bob

[cheekie3]

octoberose -

Regarding your concern:

I know someone online who believes in universal reconciliation like we do. He spends his time teaching - it's interesting, sometimes very much so. But now in reading something he wrote I realize that he doesn't feel that God ever told unmarried single people to abstain from sexual relations until they are married. Since the word that most bibles translate as 'sexual immorality' is actually pornia, he says that pornia is referring to prostitutes, mostly the temple prostitutes. I'm more than surprised that someone would believe that and stand by it. We've been going back and forth in e mails. I can't find what Ray said specifically about this- but I don't need to know in order to believe what I believe. That whole marrying instead of burning has no affect on this guy at all. I guess he only burns for prostitutes . Which he says he stays away from. I'm actually kind of mad.  I told him he was thinking like a man and he thinks I am putting words in the Word of God.  I don't think I am.  Do you think I am?

Do these few Scriptures not show how He regards fornication; including the reference to The Old Testament on how He dealt with fornicators?

Authorized (King James) Version (AKJV)

1 Corinthians 5:

1 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.
2 And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you.
3 For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed,
4 in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,
5 to deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

6 Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?
7 Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:
8 therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

9 I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators:
10 yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world.
11 But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.
12 For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within?
13 But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.

1 Corinthians 6:13
Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body.

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.

1 Corinthians 7:2
Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband.

1 Corinthians 10:8
Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand.

Can anyone of us be universally reconciled to Him in error and sin, or only in His Truth and in His Righteousness?

Do our personal opinions matter?

Can this man confirm that the above Scriptures only relate to prostitutes?

Warmest Regards.

George