After I graduated from Bible College, I began questioning all my beliefs as a fundamental Christian.
I had been taught to base my worldview upon the clear teachings of the Bible, but some important doctrines (teachings or beliefs) seemed difficult to find resolution. Many people “use” the Bible to justify whatever they choose to believe. But a true biblical worldview is when we change our beliefs to fit what the Bible actually does and doesn’t say.
I am an American and in America drinking alcohol of any kind has been strongly forbidden by most all of the fundamental Protestant Churches. One of the first cracks in my worldview came during a class that the topic of alcohol came up. A fellow student who came from France voiced that in Europe, many Christians and Churches didn’t view drinking alcohol as a sin as the Churches and Christians in America did so adamantly.
Even though now, it’s much clearer for me to see that the Bible is very favorable to the idea of drinking alcohol… at the time it was a very difficult subject. It’s very difficult to stand against the established church on a particular doctrine, especially ones that are so dearly argued as the doctrine of drinking wine, beer or strong drinks is here in America. It’s very difficult to even question such strongly held doctrines, much less to see things differently than the vast majority of your peers and elders.
However, as I listened to my fellow student and realized that the doctrine against imbibing alcohol wasn’t the same in every country or even continent, it got me thinking.
I slowly began searching the scriptures about alcohol.
At the time, this crack in my worldview, led me to start questioning a few other strongly held doctrines.
Honestly, I didn’t have a great desire to try alcohol, so I didn’t start devouring the Scriptures in search of a resolution to the question of the doctrine of whether drinking alcohol is a sin or not. I did however, have a strong sexual desire as any person, men especially, to enjoy masturbation. I had sat through many accountability groups where men confessed their struggles dealing with masturbation, and like ever man who was trying to serve God, I had struggled with masturbating since I hit puberty. I didn’t even struggle with actual lust at the time (imagining myself and a woman committing any kind of sexual act). I did struggle with lust when I first hit puberty, but I had prayed through and repented and God had helped me to stop sinning. However, I struggled very much still with the simple but pleasurable act of masturbation.
So, in light of almost ten years of struggling not to masturbate by the time that I had finished Bible school, I finally decided after hearing the French student question a beloved doctrine, that I would actually look what the scriptures said about masturbation. I had struggled with this “sin” for almost ten years and had heard many fellow Christian men who were very much trying to live the Christian life in a way that pleased God by following the clear teachings of Scripture, also confess to struggling with this same act.
Also, around the same time, I had read the Christian book, “The Sexual Man”, and in the closing chapters the author, Dr. Archibald Hart, either openly praised the act of masturbation or he at the very least didn’t condemn it (though I do think he endorsed it). This also gave me some hope that maybe the act of pleasuring yourself sexually wasn’t actually a sin. I do like to thoroughly base my worldview on the clear teachings of the Bible. The Bible is the glorious and wonderful instructions of God…indeed the very Word of God. Despite what some may say, there is no basis that you can be a Christian yet choose not to live your life according to the precious Word of God. The Bible is the very thing that we build the Christian worldview upon!
So from some perspective from a fellow student that all “taught” doctrines might not actually line up with the clear teachings of Scripture, and from a well known Christian author(not Christian in name but not in deed, but to my knowledge, an actual Christian or follower of Jesus)…it set my heart on a search to see what the Bible actually says about what to me at the time, was the terrible and shameful sin of masturbation.
It took me a few months to a year to really come to the firm conviction that masturbation is definitely not a sin. (For the time being, we’ll leave out the other teachings or doctrine against nudity and pornography.). I’m talking about flat out simply masturbation, without even imagining a naked woman. Just the simple pleasurable act of masturbation.
How did I come to so clearly and definitely changing my doctrine?
The Bible doesn’t even mention, much less condemn, the act of masturbation! There isn’t even a mention! Nothing! How do millions of people past and present come to the conclusion that the Bible, which is the foundation or the source of the 100% absolute Truth, and the very foundation of the Biblical or Christian worldview, come to such an adamant stance about something that the Bible doesn’t even mention?
I have absolute no idea where this idea began, except in my opinion as a tool for the devil to make Christianity seem stricter than it actually is, and thus turn away men and women seeking the truth by making living the Christian life much harder than it actually is!
Now I have heard from a very small and simple story, ominously called “The Sin of Onan” that is found in the book of Genesis, chapter 39, a very twisted attempt (looking back) at misconstruing an act that God designed for our joy and pleasure.
Different cultures have different ways of life. In Onan’s culture, it was a custom, that if you’re brother died and was married but didn’t have children, that you would be obligated to marry your widowed Sister-in-Law and have children by her who would take your deceased brother’s name and thus legacy.
Polygamy was very common at that time as well, that’s another reason that a brother could take a deceased brother’s wife and raise children in his brother’s name, even if you were married already to another woman, so that those children could continue your brother’s legacy and name but also so that they could help take care of their mother (your widowed Sister in Law turned wife) as she older. Women were taken care of by their husbands, or father, father-in-law, or male children back then. So this kept a lasting legacy to your brother’s name and memory but also provided for the woman. God’s way’s always love, honor and protect.
Anyway, Onan, wanted to have his fun but not perform his obligation (to God, to his deceased brother, or to his Sister-in-Law turned wife). He married and had sex with his new bride, but he tried the “pull out” method of birth control. Today, we know that that is not a great option for birth control, but God was looking at Onan’s heart. He, for whatever reason, wanted to have sex with his new wife but not do right by her or by God. God punished Onan. That’s a whole different discussion for why God punished Onan so strongly, but the simple version is that Onan was the son of Judah, who was Jacob’s ( or otherwise known as Israel) son. Jesus, the Messiah and Saviour of the World was born through the bloodline of Judah. That’s why Jesus is called the Lion of the tribe of Judah. So the short version was that I believe that God punished Onan so severely because Onan’s selfishness and wicked heart was actually messing with the bloodline of Jesus Christ.
The Bible says that Onan basically “pulled out” and spilled his seed or his semen on the ground.
There’s absolutely nothing to do with masturbation in this very short story. Onan was rebellious and wicked. He didn’t want to honor God, his own dead brother or his new wife. The Bible doesn’t say that if anyone “spills their semen” or seed on the ground or the sheets or wherever!…that he has commited any sin whatsoever.
This story in my life of how I came to start questioning each of my beliefs and holding them up against what the Bible actually does and doesn’t say, is how I started down this road to creating this blog. Have you had a similar experience? What were you taught in a Godly Christian home or a Godly Bible based church about masturbation? I would love to hear from you.
To my faithful blog followers, thanks for your patience. My life has been down a very dark road for the last several years, starting really almost ten years ago, but culminating in the last year or two in much heart ache. I went through one of those time when you question if God is really there or if He really cares and your faith and heart are sorely tested. But God is faithful, even though life isn’t fair. It’s been a long dark road but He’s bringing me back out into the light and sunshine again. For anyone who’s prayed for me during this dark time…all I can say is…Thank You with all my heart. As Christians we must stand together and care about each other. I care about each of you who take the time to comment and talk about the Bible and Sexuality. Anyways, thanks again for your patience for everyone who’s still following.
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