Pornography: Balak Redivivus

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Bert Mulder
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Pornography: Balak Redivivus

Bericht door Bert Mulder »

Pornography: Balak Redivivus
By Prof. Barry Gritters

Read the whole article here:
http://sb.rfpa.org/index.cfm?mode=narro ... t_search=0
Addiction

But the consequence that has sometimes been overlooked is addiction. The article in Christianity Today highlights this. It does not quote Proverbs. It should. The man (or woman) who commits this sin eventually "is holden with the cords of his sins." The world calls that "addiction." Sometimes "mental illness." Or "disorder." Scripture calls it slavery to sin.

If the church has known this, she has not talked about it very much. Sin ensnares. Every sin can entrap a person. This is why the public health professionals' list of "Mental Disorders" grows in our generation. The believer recognizes the "disorders" as the enslaving power of sin. From Scripture's unique treatment of sexual sin, it appears that sexual sin has a power to enslave greater than most sins.

The mental image is pathetic: the man (or woman) who so hates the sin, but has no power to overcome it. So powerful is the addiction, men risk losing everything for the sake of the sin. So strongly does it hold them, that the thought of losing their marriage, their occupation, their children and grandchildren, cannot make them resist. So Proverbs warned when it said: "Many strong men have been slain by her." Strong men have no ability to resist. Having given themselves to the sin, it "has dominion" over them (Rom. 6:12).

In the end, if he is impenitent, the enslaved sinner goes to hell. "...as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks; Till a dart strike through his liver; as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life."

That's why it's so important to see the evil of this sin. And, that's why it is so important to show the ensnared believer that there is hope. And what that hope is. But that waits for next issue, God willing.
Mijn enige troost is, dat ik niet mijn, maar Jezus Christus eigen ben, Die voor mijn zonden betaald heeft, en zo bewaart, dat alles tot mijn zaligheid dienen moet; waarom Hij mij ook door Zijn Heilige Geest van eeuwig leven verzekert, en Hem voortaan te leven van harte willig en bereid maakt.
Marco
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Lid geworden op: 31 jul 2007, 13:55
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Re: Pornography: Balak Redivivus

Bericht door Marco »

Bert Mulder schreef:
But the consequence that has sometimes been overlooked is addiction. The article in Christianity Today highlights this. It does not quote Proverbs. It should. The man (or woman) who commits this sin eventually "is holden with the cords of his sins." The world calls that "addiction." Sometimes "mental illness." Or "disorder." Scripture calls it slavery to sin.

If the church has known this, she has not talked about it very much. (...)
I think the church has known this, and has talked about it indeed. But not using the word "addiction". And I must say that I'd be a little bit reluctant to refer to sin as an 'addiction'. By doing so, one could easily start thinking of it as "mental illness", that is: something that is beyond someone's control. If it's an illness, the man (woman) who commits sin cannot be held responsable for his (her) actions. He (she) is not doing it, it's the disease that is responsable.
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Bert Mulder
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Re: Pornography: Balak Redivivus

Bericht door Bert Mulder »

Marco schreef:
I think the church has known this, and has talked about it indeed. But not using the word "addiction". And I must say that I'd be a little bit reluctant to refer to sin as an 'addiction'. By doing so, one could easily start thinking of it as "mental illness", that is: something that is beyond someone's control. If it's an illness, the man (woman) who commits sin cannot be held responsable for his (her) actions. He (she) is not doing it, it's the disease that is responsable.
That is also what Prof. Gritters is saying.
Mijn enige troost is, dat ik niet mijn, maar Jezus Christus eigen ben, Die voor mijn zonden betaald heeft, en zo bewaart, dat alles tot mijn zaligheid dienen moet; waarom Hij mij ook door Zijn Heilige Geest van eeuwig leven verzekert, en Hem voortaan te leven van harte willig en bereid maakt.
Marco
Berichten: 3595
Lid geworden op: 31 jul 2007, 13:55
Locatie: Waddinxveen

Re: Pornography: Balak Redivivus

Bericht door Marco »

Bert Mulder schreef:That is also what Prof. Gritters is saying.
I don't see where he warns us that this approach may lead to an attitude that does not hold the sinner responsable (but his illness instead)?
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Bert Mulder
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Re: Pornography: Balak Redivivus

Bericht door Bert Mulder »

Marco schreef:
Bert Mulder schreef:That is also what Prof. Gritters is saying.
I don't see where he warns us that this approach may lead to an attitude that does not hold the sinner responsable (but his illness instead)?
Marco:
The world calls that "addiction." Sometimes "mental illness." Or "disorder." Scripture calls it slavery to sin. ...

...

In the end, if he is impenitent, the enslaved sinner goes to hell. "...as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks; Till a dart strike through his liver; as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life."

That's why it's so important to see the evil of this sin. And, that's why it is so important to show the ensnared believer that there is hope. And what that hope is. But that waits for next issue, God willing.
Mijn enige troost is, dat ik niet mijn, maar Jezus Christus eigen ben, Die voor mijn zonden betaald heeft, en zo bewaart, dat alles tot mijn zaligheid dienen moet; waarom Hij mij ook door Zijn Heilige Geest van eeuwig leven verzekert, en Hem voortaan te leven van harte willig en bereid maakt.
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Bert Mulder
Berichten: 9086
Lid geworden op: 28 aug 2006, 22:07
Locatie: Grace URC Leduc Alberta Canada
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Re: Pornography: Balak Redivivus

Bericht door Bert Mulder »

From the second instalment, available here:

http://sb.rfpa.org/index.cfm?mode=narro ... t_search=0
Aside from the television and movie screens, most effective has been the enemy's use of the computer screen and Internet to tempt God's people with free and easy pornography, thus to fall into fornication. Moabitish whores in every home. Instantly. Are most parents alert to the unbelievable filth available to their children, in seconds? I trust they are. I also trust that no parent is naïve enough to allow unfiltered access to the Internet for the family, of any age. To allow it would be like our grandparents, 50 years ago, stocking the unlocked closet with filthy magazines, with the warning to their children as they left for the evening: "Now, no peeking in the closet."

But what ought especially to gain our attention is the availability of the Internet for men at the workplace or wherever else they may have private access to the computer, like their home office.

Christianity Today magazine reported in March that men—married and single men—are those who are falling to this evil. Through this evil, they lose their honor, wealth, children, marriages (see my editorial of April 15). They become enslaved to sexual sins, such slaves that though they vow a thousand times to quit, they cannot. Worse, it seems at times, than the addiction to alcohol or methamphetamines, the addiction to sexual sin is powerful, and rampant.

In the churches. Respectable men. Leaders. Ministers, elders, deacons, school teachers and principals. They experience the misery of any other kind of addict. Many of them are unexposed, as yet... "Be sure your sin will find you out." God sees to it.
Mijn enige troost is, dat ik niet mijn, maar Jezus Christus eigen ben, Die voor mijn zonden betaald heeft, en zo bewaart, dat alles tot mijn zaligheid dienen moet; waarom Hij mij ook door Zijn Heilige Geest van eeuwig leven verzekert, en Hem voortaan te leven van harte willig en bereid maakt.
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