sex before marriage

[Cearbhall]

Saying "Oh don't worry we won't break up. We'll be together forever." doesn't justify pre-marital sex. People break up all the time.

I think he's saying that, theologically, intercourse is the actual sealing of the marriage, and the other rituals are just ceremonial.

I agree that it's not about the paper. What I do think it's about the level of committment that comes with the paper.

But yeah, this is a good point. You can't claim to be married to someone after you have sex if you haven't made the commitment to not have sex with other people in the future.

 

[Inkachu]

The issue in question is the "moral decay" (loose morals regarding sex in church doctrinal teaching and/or practice) declared by the statements of the original poster with the implied assumption that there was a time when people and church doctrine were "standing their ground" for more strict applications.

Christians have been going on about the "last days" for nearly 2000 years. Nearly every Christian individual I know looks back with rose colored glasses at the past, sees green fields of lush morality and declares their own age to be backslidden and evidence of the "last days".

This isn't about Cearball's assumed morals. Clearly, a simple reading of biblical and secular history would bear the witness that things have never been as rosy as some people would like to think they are.

When exactly did this golden age of mass morality begin and end?

It's a little tricky when you have non-Christians trying to argue a Christian belief with Christians as if they themselves were some kind of Christian authority... that would be like me going into a Buddhist forum and saying "Hey, where do you Buddhists get off believing all your Buddhisty beliefs, anyway? I mean, I don't see where your Buddhist stuff makes any sense!"

You obviously don't agree with the OP, and that's fine. No need to cherry pick my post in particular.

 

[Inkachu]

True. I don't expect us to see eye-to-eye on everything, but I had no desire to live in the past when I was a Christian. I really don't see how morality was in any way stronger when the people preaching God's words were systematically torturing and murdering people.

I certainly don't think there's any period of time in history where the world was perfect. But to say that certain sins are now more widely and openly practiced, accepted, and even promoted than in years past, is completely accurate. I think that was what the OP was getting at.

 

[JayJayS]

It's a little tricky when you have non-Christians trying to argue a Christian belief with Christians as if they themselves were some kind of Christian authority... that would be like me going into a Buddhist forum and saying "Hey, where do you Buddhists get off believing all your Buddhisty beliefs, anyway? I mean, I don't see where your Buddhist stuff makes any sense!"

You obviously don't agree with the OP, and that's fine. No need to cherry pick my post in particular.

First, the OP has expressed a personal observation, a very broad one, if I may say - to communicate that basically Christians everywhere are "falling away" with regards to sexuality - and that "churches everywhere" are getting "soft on sin" in this area. Not those words, exactly - but that is what is being expressed in the original post.

Questioning this observation is not questioning a "Christian belief" - it's questioning how and why this person came to this conclusion. Is there some reliable statistical data involved or it just another broad generalization?

Secondly, if we are living in the last days - please edify me. Was it the "last days" 50 years ago? 100? 1000? Do all Christians share the belief that it is the last days? If not, perhaps your particular belief in this matter belongs to Inkachu, and doesn't reflect every other Christian's thoughts.

Third - this is a message board where people's opinions differ on subject, and those differences of opinion are not limited to believers vs unbelievers. Just have a gander at General Theology. If you do not like having your beliefs challenged, then perhaps it is best not to share them at all.

 

[FreeinChrist]

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