The Imbedded Creational Link Between Spirituality and Sexuality

Have you noticed how the culture war flash points are all sexual? Abortion, gay marriage, gender interchangeability, sex education, pornography, no fault divorce—all of these are connected to sex and sexuality. This shocks Christians, but it shouldn’t. It is not only predictable, it is inevitable.

You see, there is an embedded creational link between sexuality and spirituality. We were created for monogamy in both, and when a society loses one, it won’t be long before it loses the other. Why? Because God would have it so.

The Apostle Paul, when describing the death spiral of humanity in turning away from God, portrays it as a spiritual/sexual two-step (Rom 1.21-27). Of all the cultural manifestations Paul could name, the ones he does name are sexual—proceeding from general immorality to homosexuality and lesbianism—and in each case Paul says God gave humanity over to these things because of prior spiritual infidelity toward God (ibid.).

When we turn back to Genesis, we see that second only to being a spiritual being, made in God’s image, man is a sexual being, made male and female (Gen 1.27). And just as God joined Adam and Eve to Himself spiritually, so He joined them to one another sexually (Gen 2.24-25). Thus the so called “state of nature” was not a state of random spirituality and sexuality, but of monogamy in both.

True religion and true marriage were not conventions society imposed to help the evolution of the species. They were the starting point, the base line, and departure from them results in the devolution of the species. Throughout the Old Testament, God calls idolatry adultery (see e.g., Jer 3.8, 12-14; Hosea 1.2; 2.2-5.) This is because God created marriage to reflect the spiritual union between Himself and humanity, with the Church being a restoration of what humanity was created to be (Eph 5.30-32 (quoting Gen 2.23-24)).

God created spirituality and sexuality such that neither can stand still. They are either moving toward monogamy or away from it, and they don’t stop. Thus America moved from Christianity to deism to humanism to the polymorphic spirituality we have today. At the same time, America moved from dedicated marriages to men having mistresses on the side to couples openly living together to the polymorphic sexuality we have today.

When a society insists on the right of every individual to invent and pursue whatever spirituality they want, the same society will insist on the right of every individual to invent and pursue whatever sexuality they want. And that society will rage at anyone or anything that stands in the way—namely the one true God and marriage as He created it.

This is why conservatism and “family values,” although worth defending, will not save the day. Only a genuine return to the one true God through Christ will reverse our current downward course. I am not saying Christians shouldn’t use political means to resist further erosion—I believe they should. But we must understand that the political battle is a rear guard battle that will at best only slow down our rate of cultural descent. Only a massive revival which sees tens of millions of Americans coming to Christ will turn this ship around.

It is impossible to have “family values” for very long without Christ. Why? Because God would have it so.

1. 

   Dave Leland says:

   March 7, 2013 at 6:45 am

   Great observations. In light of God’s design of monogamy how do you intrepret God’s discipline of Jacob giving him multiple wives to build the nation of Israel?
2. 

   Andy says:

   March 7, 2013 at 6:59 am

   Good question, Dave. I can’t speak for the author of the article, of course, but I would say the following. Polygamy appears in the OT in the course of multpile narratives (Abraham, Jacob, Elimelech, Saul, David), and not in any context of prescriptive legislation. In other words, God never says, “You may have more than one wife, as long as you treat them fairly, lovingly, etc.” Clearly from the way the narratives flesh out, it is clear that polygamy is less than ideal (Sarah vs. Hagar, Rachel vs. Leah, Hannah vs. Peninah). However, as he so often does, God tolerates such things, and they have a way of working themselves out in the course of the narrative – either “for better or for worse”. In no place in scripture does God prescribe polygamy, and even divorce is problematic in terms of its practical outcomes (Malachi; Deuteronomy 24; see also Jesus’ comments on Genesis 2:24).
3. 

   Msatty says:

   March 7, 2013 at 11:01 am

   I agree with Andy. I am constantly telling my young adults and people in my church that narrative is not normative, or as Andy was pointing out, narrative in Scripture is often descriptive, not prescriptive. It is a testimony to the grace of God that He chooses and uses flawed, sinful men and women to accomplish His purposes in the earth.
4. 

   Chris says:

   March 7, 2013 at 5:51 pm

   This is one of the most insightful blog posts I have ever seen. It makes such simple and clear sense. And i love that sentance: “because God would have it so.” Thank you.
5. 

   witness9 says:

   March 8, 2013 at 5:16 am

   Good thoughts. This quote particularly rang true to me: “God created spirituality and sexuality such that neither can stand still. They are either moving toward monogamy or away from it…” I might say similarly, we are either moving toward intimacy or away from it (with God and with our mate).
   I personally believe that the decadence of our culture can be traced to our failure in the (US) Church in three areas:
   – Poor child training
   – No opportunity for early marriage
   – Poor sexual satisfaction in Christian marriages
   Factors often unaccounted for in the Church:
   God created the sex drive & made it strong.
   He also engineered the time of life it would engage.
   We have created a society that provides no righteous outlet for this drive by failing to train children to be adults by the teen years and creating a society which virtually precludes marriage in their peak sexual years.
   We add insult to injury by our failure to keep marriages together in the Church. I believe this is largely due to failure to teach 1Co7:5 vigorously. Often every consideration is given to the low-sex-drive partner and a very strong God-given desire for sexual intimacy goes begging in the marriage where it should be a great asset to genuine intimacy. This leads to heavy temptation to immorality.
   The result of these phenomena is that hormone saturated young people see in the churches cranky and divorced adults. They recognize the sex drive in their bodies (which we told them was made by God) and go find some other way to deal with it.
   We must keep in mind that the Church is the ‘pillar and support of the truth.’ We can never expect society to be any better than we are. It will always be ‘worse’.
   I believe when the US Church begins to get marriage right we will see great revival, but not before.
6. 

   Clare Spitzley says:

   March 8, 2013 at 2:17 pm

   Polygamy is never condemned in the Bible. It may be un-American but it’s not ungodly.

   In the New Testament, church leaders are instructed to have no more than one wife. . . but that’s just for the leaders.

   I have no desire to be polygamous, however, pondering the moral soundness of polygamy is a good exercise in separating Biblical Christianity from American culture.

   America and its culture will fade away but the Word of God will stand forever. Besides, the world is full of sin, do we really need to second-guess the mind of God and imagine new ones?
7. 

   gene says:

   March 9, 2013 at 11:22 am

   Wow, good article, thanks for posting it. Also, props to Witness9, you are spot on my friend!
8. 

   Mark Anderson says:

   March 12, 2013 at 11:20 pm

   True, polygamy is never prohibited in the Bible as far as I could find. (I spent a number of hours preparing a presentation and paper on the topic.) The real challenge with youth, sexuality, marriage, and the Church today is finding some middle ground or agreeableness between the four. The church (or people in it) say “wait to have sex until marriage”–and simultaneously “wait until you’re, oh, about 25 or 35 to get married.”

   As I’m sure we can all agree, this is a recipe for disaster.

   Studies show that people who remain virgins until their late 20’s are actually worse off than those who satisfy their desires extra-maritally at an earlier age. The God-given sexual desires, when suppressed for decade(s), often express themselves as perversions, or disappear entirely, neither of which is maritally healthy.

   This is absurd.

   Either we: 1.Encourage youth to marry early and well. 2.Encourage them to remain frustrated animals until they rush into an ill-thought-out marriage. 3.Encourage them to remain celibate until they meet their partner…and by age 21, a paltry 5% of people are virgins, so in all likelihood, their future spouse will not be a virgin. 4. ???

   Any other suggestions?
9. 

   Jay Cradoct says:

   March 25, 2013 at 6:36 am

   Thank you Alan, this was a very well thought out piece!

   This comment in response to Mr Anderson’s statement combined with what was perhaps his observation, “wait to have sex until marriage”–and simultaneously “wait until you’re, oh, about 25 or 35 to get married.” I may be wrong but I think you followed that up with a justification, “Studies show that people who remain virgins until their late 20′s are actually worse off than those who satisfy their desires extra-maritally at an earlier age.” Within that justification is the very problem that I personally have experienced and I would imagine that every other male struggling with sexual purity has experienced – “[my] desire.” As I have tried to teach my children, God does know my desires and has always provided for me – exactly when I needed them. Unfortunately, I’m not always willing to wait on Him to provide thereby giving into my sinful desires. The problem is that I tend to put my desires in front of an omniscient, omnipotent, and sovereign God. 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 clearly indicates I am headed toward a fatal choice if I don’t change my desire and seek first the Kingdom of God.