Is Masturbation a sin?

[dayhiker]

Maybe we should as those questions!
Yes, I agree the frustration doesn't feel good, doesn't help one live life and I think works against developing good relationships with women. When one is very needed because of lack its almost impossible to come across in a good light.

 

[parkerjwill]

The only time a masturbation-esque action was condemned in the Bible was when Onan "spilled his seed" outside the body of his dead brother's wife and was punished for it.

And it wasn't even wrong because of "spilling his seed" itself, but because it was his "duty" to impregnate his brother's wife and he refused to do it.

So I'd say no, and no.

Spilling your seed is like spilling your blood. So the matter of masturbation can be viewed in that light. Is it spiritually beneficial to drain my physical body of its vital force?' No. It's not.

 

[Cearbhall]

Spilling your seed is like spilling your blood. So the matter of masturbation can be viewed in that light. Is it spiritually beneficial to drain my physical body of its vital force?' No. It's not.

So it's only ok for us ladies?

 

[parkerjwill]

I don't have as much understanding for women on this subject but I'm sure there is no essential difference.

 

[Cearbhall]

I don't have as much understanding for women on this subject but I'm sure there is no essential difference.

I assure you, I only spill an egg once a month, no matter what I do.

 

[Messy]

I did it when I was young. I had these lust thoughts all the time but not about someone specific. I even had it in church. I couldn't hear the preaching because my mind was full of lust thoughts but since I thought it was no sin what can you do about it? I asked God if it was sin since noone in church said anything about it. My mom gave me a book. A christian guy with a teen ministry. He said you give yourself over to a demon of lust. Eeeeww. I was cured immediately.
Later when you divorce and are in your forties when you have it most extreme it's hard. I fell for fornication or even adultery and lived in sin. Life ruined, fell from my faith. Later I thought he converted and my ex would marry someone else so I thought God approved. We married. The lust demons which the relationship started with were never broken. In fact we came back together because of lust but we were married now so it was all holy all of a sudden. Forget it. One night he was asleep and I had to have sex so I did it myself. I thought: hey I'm lusting after my own husband. No problem. Then I got a dream from God. I was with a lot of people in a building without light, you couldn't get out, dark, no heaven to see and we had to give all our money and possessions to someone, then came in a room with a glide like you have in a swimming pool. I saw young blonde girls jumping and dancing very happily into that glide. Everyone jumped in it. I stepped in it too but then God showed me what was on the other side, two huge demons of lust, a couple, greenish monsters in a filthy green pool and all those people in it, so I stepped out of the glide. I started to talk to a pastor but I saw these girls just jumping in that thing and I was stunned that absolutely noone warned these people. Then I saw two weapons of mass destruction which means judgement.

I got deliverance prayer from lust btw later.

Later I saw this prophecy:
http://www.inthebeginning.com/articles/norway1968.htm

 

[Cearbhall]

I did it when I was young. I had these lust thoughts all the time but not about someone specific. I even had it in church. I couldn't hear the preaching because my mind was full of lust thoughts but since I thought it was no sin what can you do about it? I asked God if it was sin since noone in church said anything about it. My mom gave me a book. A christian guy with a teen ministry. He said you give yourself over to a demon of lust. Eeeeww. I was cured immediately.

Interesting. I call that puberty and adolescence, not demonic activity. Sounds pretty normal to me.

 

[Dave-W]

Spilling your seed is like spilling your blood. So the matter of masturbation can be viewed in that light. Is it spiritually beneficial to drain my physical body of its vital force?' No. It's not.

Are you saying it is improper to donate a pint [of blood] every now and again? The Red Cross tells me that every pint can save up to 3 lives ....

and they used to call for my O neg quite frequently.

 

[Dave-W]

So it's only ok for us ladies?

The one place in scripture I am quite sure that it talks about the big M is Song of Solomon chapter 5 verse 2 and following. It is Shulamite doing the deed and is called "undefiled." She was fantasizing and her fingers were dripping.

 

[Messy]

The one place in scripture I am quite sure that it talks about the big M is Song of Solomon chapter 5 verse 2 and following. It is Shulamite doing the deed and is called "undefiled." She was fantasizing and her fingers were dripping.

Wut?
Salomon 5:2 is about the bride who is too lazy to open the door for Jesus because she wants to lay on her lazy bed and it's too much effort to open the door when He knocks.

 

[Cearbhall]

The one place in scripture I am quite sure that it talks about the big M is Song of Solomon chapter 5 verse 2 and following. It is Shulamite doing the deed and is called "undefiled." She was fantasizing and her fingers were dripping.

I've heard many things about that book. It sounds quite scandalous.

 

[Dave-W]

Wut?
Solomon 5:2 is about the bride who is too lazy to open the door for Jesus because she wants to lay on her lazy bed and it's too much effort to open the door when He knocks.

All Semitic poetry and most of the prose as well has various levels of meaning. That includes Paleo Hebrew, Chaldean, Syriac, Aramaic and Arabic. In fact the moslems believe the Koran has 7 distinct levels of meaning that are all simultaneously correct.

Much of the OT is the same way. Most of the Hebrew scriptures have 4 levels of meaning. The plain (pashat) meaning, the implied or hinted at meaning (remez), the meaning you have to search for as in a deeper teaching (drash), and the hidden meaning (sod).

Your meaning would be sod. An allegory of either God and Israel or Christ and the church. But I am talking about the pashat level, the plain meaning in the text. Both are true.

 

[Dave-W]

I've heard many things about that book. It sounds quite scandalous.

My wife and I looked thru that book together about 30 years ago. We were looking at the plain meaning of the text rather than the christianized allegory we had been fed over the years. At one point she just shook her head and said "If those old ladies from my home church knew what was in the bibles they carry they would die of embarrassment."

 

[dayhiker]

Interesting dream Messy. Always good to have God speak to us.

I read the prophesy ... pretty amazing how she appears to have seen the future. I personally don't see any of these things being an indicator that Jesus is returning soon.
Also violence has been decreasing since the Middle Ages from what historians have been learning from their studies. So that part of the prophesy is wrong.

 

[Dave-W]

I had these lust thoughts all the time but not about someone specific. I even had it in church. I couldn't hear the preaching because my mind was full of lust thoughts but since I thought it was no sin what can you do about it?

Lust is about specifics. In Matt 5 it is linked to coveting. That is specific. Desire in the general sense is not lust, or at least not SINFUL lust.

My mom gave me a book. A christian guy with a teen ministry. He said you give yourself over to a demon of lust. Eeeeww. I was cured immediately.

I have read books like that too. IMO they are way off base and have ZERO biblical support for their position. So you ended up hardening yourself against a God given gift? That is not a good idea.

Then I got a dream from God. I was with a lot of people in a building without light, you couldn't get out, dark, no heaven to see and we had to give all our money and possessions to someone, then came in a room with a glide like you have in a swimming pool. I saw young blonde girls jumping and dancing very happily into that glide. Everyone jumped in it. I stepped in it too but then God showed me what was on the other side, two huge demons of lust, a couple, greenish monsters in a filthy green pool and all those people in it, so I stepped out of the glide. I started to talk to a pastor but I saw these girls just jumping in that thing and I was stunned that absolutely no one warned these people. Then I saw two weapons of mass destruction which means judgement.

Did you have your interpretation of the dream confirmed by mature believers? Was it confirmed that it truly WAS from God?

I am really unclear myself on what that dream would mean. (or if it even was from God) If it truly was from God, I do not agree with your interpretation.

 

[KitKatMatt]

Spilling your seed is like spilling your blood. So the matter of masturbation can be viewed in that light. Is it spiritually beneficial to drain my physical body of its vital force?' No. It's not.

It's beneficial to the bodies of many people to spill blood.

High blood pressure can be treated without drugs by drawing blood, and so can other diseases like hemachromatosis. Many people without illness also "drain" their "vital force" to donate it to others in need.

Weirdly, the analogy still makes sense for masturbation. In terms of men, it helps clear out the body and plays a role in keeping the prostate healthy, and they can touch for the good of other people: sperm donation, which can help couples who are having trouble conceiving.

 

[bhsmte]

I typically find, how one answers this question, tells you a lot about the theology one subscribes to.

 

[dayhiker]

As with all opinions based on a Biblical world view.

 

[parkerjwill]

Are you saying it is improper to donate a pint [of blood] every now and again? The Red Cross tells me that every pint can save up to 3 lives ....

and they used to call for my O neg quite frequently.

Will donating the blood please God? If so, of course. But it sounds more like pious activity than anything directly transcendental.

 

[Crowns&Laurels]

How could masturbation not be a sin if undressing somebody with one's eyes or having lustful thoughts are

The very need to touch is to enjoy an inability to control the body, which is ultimately where all sexual sin is derived from. Where a more liberal approach to this is simply a 'relief' of the soul's stress to control the body- it is certainly not the historical approach, which has always been seen as a complete withdrawal altogether between the body and soul.