The Bible silent on pre-marital sex?

[Homie]

1. Is the Bible silent on pre-marital sex? If not, show it.
2. If so, does God not condemn it?

Personally I believe that The Bible sort of infers it when it describes sexual promiscuity in a negative light. However, it never straight out says "Do not have sex before marriage". If God wants us to abstain from pre-marital sex, why does He not spell it out so that there can be no confusion? Like He does with homosexual sex (for both sexes), sex with animals, adultery (infidelity) and sex with immediate family members.

The Bible mentions fornication often, which in many translations is translated sexual immorality. But what is sexual immorality? It is either left up to the reader to figure out, or we can assume that it is the specific sexual acts mentioned in the Bible as sinful. Why the silence on the issue?

I'd like only people who are knowledgeable about The Bible to answer, this is to be a serious discussion.

 

[Homie]

1. Is the Bible silent on pre-marital sex? If not, show it.
2. If so, does God not condemn it?

Personally I believe that The Bible sort of infers it when it describes sexual promiscuity in a negative light. However, it never straight out says "Do not have sex before marriage". If God wants us to abstain from pre-marital sex, why does He not spell it out so that there can be no confusion? Like He does with homosexual sex (for both sexes), sex with animals, adultery (infidelity) and sex with immediate family members.

The Bible mentions fornication often, which in many translations is translated sexual immorality. But what is sexual immorality? It is either left up to the reader to figure out, or we can assume that it is the specific sexual acts mentioned in the Bible as sinful. Why the silence on the issue?

I'd like only people who are knowledgeable about The Bible to answer, this is to be a serious discussion.

 

[Sphinx777]

Premarital sex is sexual intercourse engaged in by a person or persons who are not yet married. It is generally used in reference to young people who are presumed yet of marriageable age, or who will one day be married, but who are engaging in sexual practices prior to their being sanctioned within a marriage.

Different cultures have various views on the morality of sex outside of marriage. Some view marriage before sex as completely optional; others strongly disapprove of sex outside marriage.

In recent years the rightness or wrongness of premarital sex has become a politically divisive issue in the United States, since counselling against premarital sex is the cornerstone of abstinence-only sex education, a program advocated by President George W. Bush and many conservative members of the United States Congress. The policy is opposed by groups such as Planned Parenthood and many liberal and progressive members of Congress, and the debate over abstinence-only education has brought the issue of premarital sex to the forefront of the Culture Wars.

 

[Homie]

What has any of that to do with The Bible? Or the will of God for that matter.

 

[Caoimhe]

I'm no expert in the field but I highly recommend the reading of Deuteronomy 22:13-20.

I doubt the Bible is "silent", as you have termed, on pre-marital sex. Certainly there is a degree of subtlety on how God addresses pre-marital sex because adultery and other forms of sexual immorality appear predominantly in the scriptures. But God does seem to condemn any form of sexual acts which are outside of the sanctity of marriage between one man and one woman. Does this not imply that any act which deviates from His command constitutes as sin and is therefore wrong?

Also, "sexual immorality" seems analogous with other sins such as evil thoughts, murder, adultery, theft, false testimony and slander (Matthew 15:19). Basically sexual immorality is what springs from a man's heart and makes him 'unclean' in the eyes of God.

 

[DTrain]

I believe that pre-marital sex falls under sexual immorality.

 

[katholikos]

Its called "Fornication":

Matthew 15:19
" For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders.

Mark 7:21
"For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries,

Acts 15:20
but that we write to them that they abstain from things contaminated by idols and from fornication and from what is strangled and from blood.

1 Corinthians 6:9
Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals,

Hebrews 13:4
Marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled; for fornicators and adulterers God will judge.

 

[David Brider]

1. Is the Bible silent on pre-marital sex? If not, show it.
2. If so, does God not condemn it?

Personally I believe that The Bible sort of infers it when it describes sexual promiscuity in a negative light. However, it never straight out says "Do not have sex before marriage". If God wants us to abstain from pre-marital sex, why does He not spell it out so that there can be no confusion? Like He does with homosexual sex (for both sexes), sex with animals, adultery (infidelity) and sex with immediate family members.

The Bible mentions fornication often, which in many translations is translated sexual immorality. But what is sexual immorality? It is either left up to the reader to figure out, or we can assume that it is the specific sexual acts mentioned in the Bible as sinful. Why the silence on the issue?

I'd like only people who are knowledgeable about The Bible to answer, this is to be a serious discussion.

It was pointed out to me a while back - and as far as I can tell, this is correct, but I'm open to further information - that basically the Bible is silent on what it means to "get married". Apparently there was a cultural understanding that if a couple were living together, they were married. Obviously, somewhere along the way we developed certain cultural understandings of "marriage" as being pre-figured by a "marriage ceremony" (possibly religious, possibly not; the closest we get to this in the Bible is the wedding feast at Cana, but that seems to be a celebration rather than an actual religious ceremony), and being subject to some form of government endorsement in the form of a certificate. But none of that is actually in the Bible itself. That being the case, I'm not sure one could make a clear-cut Biblical case against pre-marital sex (although my fiancée and I have made a decision not to have sex until after we get married).

As for sexual immorality, personally, I'd say that since the writers of the Bible never spell out, in terms of specific sexual activities, what constitutes "sexual immorality", it's probably best left between the couple and God.

David.

 

[Zebra1552]

1. Is the Bible silent on pre-marital sex? If not, show it.
2. If so, does God not condemn it?

Personally I believe that The Bible sort of infers it when it describes sexual promiscuity in a negative light. However, it never straight out says "Do not have sex before marriage". If God wants us to abstain from pre-marital sex, why does He not spell it out so that there can be no confusion? Like He does with homosexual sex (for both sexes), sex with animals, adultery (infidelity) and sex with immediate family members.

The Bible mentions fornication often, which in many translations is translated sexual immorality. But what is sexual immorality? It is either left up to the reader to figure out, or we can assume that it is the specific sexual acts mentioned in the Bible as sinful. Why the silence on the issue?

I'd like only people who are knowledgeable about The Bible to answer, this is to be a serious discussion.

What is adultery? In the OT, in context, it usually talked about having sex with someone's wife. In the NT, it was sometimes covered under fornication or sexual immorality. Fornication is not just sexual immorality:
G4202
πορνεία
inappropriate contenteia
Thayer Definition:
1) illicit sexual intercourse
1a) adultery, fornication, homosexuality, lesbianism, intercourse with animals etc.
1b) sexual intercourse with close relatives; Lev. 18
1c) sexual intercourse with a divorced man or woman; Mar_10:11,Mar_10:12
2) metaphorically the worship of idols
2a) of the defilement of idolatry, as incurred by eating the sacrifices offered to idols
Part of Speech: noun feminine

This word is used in multiple instances, like this one:
1Co 6:12 All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything.
1Co 6:13 Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, but God will do away with both of them. Yet the body is not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body.

Or this one:
1Co 7:1 Now concerning the things about which you wrote, it is good for a man not to touch a woman.
1Co 7:2 But because of immoralities, each man is to have his own wife, and each woman is to have her own husband.

Or this one:

1Th 4:1 Finally then, brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God (just as you actually do walk), that you excel still more.
1Th 4:2 For you know what commandments we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.
1Th 4:3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality;
1Th 4:4 that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor,
1Th 4:5 not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God;
1Th 4:6 and that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter because the Lord is the avenger in all these things, just as we also told you before and solemnly warned you.
1Th 4:7 For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification.

All those seem pretty clear to me. Lust is condemned too, after all.

 

[sunlover1]

1. Is the Bible silent on pre-marital sex? If not, show it.
2. If so, does God not condemn it?

Personally I believe that The Bible sort of infers it when it describes sexual promiscuity in a negative light. However, it never straight out says "Do not have sex before marriage". If God wants us to abstain from pre-marital sex, why does He not spell it out so that there can be no confusion? Like He does with homosexual sex (for both sexes), sex with animals, adultery (infidelity) and sex with immediate family members.

And according to those practicing homosexuality, he doesnt spell it out
either. Often we seem to try to 'justify' the things we want to do, not
realising that they will later bite US in the butt.
11 Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims,
abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; http://christianforums.com/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=50634751#_ftn1

The Bible mentions fornication often, which in many translations is translated sexual immorality. But what is sexual immorality? It is either left up to the reader to figure out, or we can assume that it is the specific sexual acts mentioned in the Bible as sinful. Why the silence on the issue?

If you read throughout the Bible you can see snippets here and there,
so it's not actually silent on the subject, it just doesnt seem to have
the words "NO premarital sex is allowed".
But truly, the reason God desires purity for us is because of HIs love for us.
Jesus, in speaking of the ten commandments of moses, mentions
that if you so much as 'look' at a woman to lust after her...
you've commited 'adultry' in your heart!
Was he (God) trying to make life boring? No, not at all, in fact, just
the opposite. He was trying to explain that His intention had ALWAYS
been that of purity of mind and soul. (loosely used)

http://christianforums.com/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=50634751#_ftnref1

this is to be a serious discussion.

This is a VERY serious discussion. Jealousy/greed/lust seem to have been
the downfall of many a great man throughout history. Sin's much
easier to avoid than it is to get away from. It always keeps you
longer than you'd planned to stay and takes you further than you'd
expected to go. Nothing to casually mess around with.
14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.
15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin:
and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
16 Do not err, my beloved brethren.
(Do not err, he adds that because we err on that point
all the time. Thinking that we can go ahead and sin, and
that 'that' sin wont bring forth the spirutal death (which is
disconnection from our Father) But it's simply not true,
and we're fools to believe that it is. DONT err !

I think this makes it clear that sex without marriage is fornication.
You be the judge:

Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid. 16 What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh. 17 But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. 18 Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. 19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? 20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s. ​

http://christianforums.com/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=50634751#_ftn1http://christianforums.com/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=50634751#_ftnref1

 

[Sphinx777]

Its called "Fornication"

Fornication is a term which typically refers to voluntary sexual intercourse between persons not married to each other.

The origin of the word derives from Latin. The word fornix means "an archway" or "vault" (in Rome, prostitutes could be solicited there). More directly, fornicatio means "done in the archway"; thus a euphemism for prostitution.

Fornication is dealt with differently in various religions, societies and cultures.

Religion and Sexuality

 

[&Abel]

What has any of that to do with The Bible? Or the will of God for that matter.

good point, wikipedia is VERY worldy and limited in its usefulness

 

[&Abel]

27"(AJ)You have heard that it was said, '(AK)YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY';
28but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman (AL)with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

 

[&Abel]

1But (A)false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be (B)false teachers (C)among you, who will (D)secretly introduce (E)destructive heresies, even (F)denying the (G)Master who (H)bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. 2Many will follow their (I)sensuality, and because of them (J)the way of the truth will be (K)maligned;
3and in their (L)greed they will (M)exploit you with (N)false words; (O)their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.
4For (P)if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and (Q)committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment;
5and did not spare (R)the ancient world, but preserved (S)Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a (T)flood upon the world of the ungodly;
6and if He (U)condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an (V)example to those who would (W)live ungodly lives thereafter;
7and if He (X)rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the (Y)sensual conduct of (Z)unprincipled men
8(for by what he saw and heard that (AA)righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds),
9(AB)then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the (AC)day of judgment,
10and especially those who (AD)indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and (AE)despise authority Daring, (AF)self-willed, they do not tremble when they (AG)revile angelic majesties,
11(AH)whereas angels who are greater in might and power do not bring a reviling judgment against them before the Lord.
12But (AI)these, like unreasoning animals, (AJ)born as creatures of instinct to be captured and killed, reviling where they have no knowledge, will in the destruction of those creatures also be destroyed,
13suffering wrong as (AK)the wages of doing wrong They count it a pleasure to (AL)revel in the (AM)daytime They are stains and blemishes, (AN)reveling in their [a]deceptions, as they (AO)carouse with you,
14having eyes full of adultery that never cease from sin, (AP)enticing (AQ)unstable souls, having a heart trained in (AR)greed, (AS)accursed children;
15forsaking (AT)the right way, they have gone astray, having followed (AU)the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved (AV)the wages of unrighteousness;
16but he received a rebuke for his own transgression, (AW)for a mute donkey, speaking with a voice of a man, restrained the madness of the prophet.
17These are (AX)springs without water and mists driven by a storm, (AY)for whom the black darkness has been reserved.
18For speaking out (AZ)arrogant words of (BA)vanity they (BB)entice by fleshly desires, by (BC)sensuality, those who barely (BD)escape from the ones who live in error,
19promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for (BE)by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved.
20For if, after they have (BF)escaped the defilements of the world by (BG)the knowledge of the (BH)Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again (BI)entangled in them and are overcome, (BJ)the last state has become worse for them than the first.
21(BK)For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from (BL)the holy commandment (BM)handed on to them.
22It has happened to them according to the true proverb, "(BN)A DOG RETURNS TO ITS OWN VOMIT," and, "A sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire."

 

[&Abel]

9"And I say to you, (I)whoever divorces his wife, except for immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery."
10The disciples said to Him, "If the relationship of the man with his wife is like this, it is better not to marry."
11But He said to them, "(J)Not all men can accept this statement, but (K)only those to whom it has been given.

 

[&Abel]

12(T)All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything. 13(U)Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, but God will (V)do away with both of them Yet the body is not for immorality, but (W)for the Lord, and (X)the Lord is for the body.
14Now God has not only (Y)raised the Lord, but (Z)will also raise us up through His power.
15(AA)Do you not know that (AB)your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? (AC)May it never be!
16Or (AD)do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For He says, "(AE)THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH."
17But the one who joins himself to the Lord is (AF)one spirit with Him.
18(AG)Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body.
19Or (AH)do you not know that (AI)your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that (AJ)you are not your own?
20For (AK)you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in (AL)your body.

 

[&Abel]

16But I say, (AD)walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out (AE)the desire of the flesh.
17For (AF)the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, (AG)so that you may not do the things that you please.
18But if you are (AH)led by the Spirit, (AI)you are not under the Law.
19Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: (AJ)immorality, impurity, sensuality,
20idolatry, (AK)sorcery, enmities, (AL)strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, (AM)disputes, dissensions, (AN)factions,
21envying, (AO)drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not (AP)inherit the kingdom of God.
22But (AQ)the fruit of the Spirit is (AR)love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
23gentleness, (AS)self-control; against such things (AT)there is no law.



I still have problems with the outburts of anger

 

[ezek33]

1. Is the Bible silent on pre-marital sex? If not, show it.
2. If so, does God not condemn it?

Personally I believe that The Bible sort of infers it when it describes sexual promiscuity in a negative light. However, it never straight out says "Do not have sex before marriage". If God wants us to abstain from pre-marital sex, why does He not spell it out so that there can be no confusion? Like He does with homosexual sex (for both sexes), sex with animals, adultery (infidelity) and sex with immediate family members.

The Bible mentions fornication often, which in many translations is translated sexual immorality. But what is sexual immorality? It is either left up to the reader to figure out, or we can assume that it is the specific sexual acts mentioned in the Bible as sinful. Why the silence on the issue?

I'd like only people who are knowledgeable about The Bible to answer, this is to be a serious discussion.

There are many many verses teaching that pre marital sex is sin but this is the most direct. Let me explain the context real quick. Paul is speaking here he is unmarried and celibate.
1st Cor 7:7-9
7 For I would that all men were even as I myself. But every man hath his proper gift of God, one after this manner, and another after that.
8 I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, it is good for them if they abide even as I.
9 But if they cannot contain, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn.



Here Paul says it is better to remain unmarried but if you cannot remain celibate then marry because it is better to marry and have ''lawful'' sex than remain unmarried having pre marital sex and go to hell.Not only is premarital sex sin but any and all sex outside of a marital relationship is sin.
Hebrews 13:4 Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.

 

[&Abel]

11(W)Do not participate in the unfruitful (X)deeds of (Y)darkness, but instead even (Z)expose them;
12for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret.
13But all things become visible (AA)when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light.
14For this reason it says,
"(AB)Awake, sleeper,
And arise from (AC)the dead,
And Christ (AD)will shine on you."

 

[&Abel]

1My son, (A)give attention to my wisdom,
(B)Incline your ear to my understanding;
2That you may (C)observe discretion
And your (D)lips may reserve knowledge.
3For the lips of an (E)adulteress (F)drip honey
And (G)smoother than oil is her speech;
4But in the end she is (H)bitter as wormwood,
(I)Sharp as a two-edged sword.
5Her feet (J)go down to death,
Her steps take hold of Sheol.
6She does not ponder the (K)path of life;
Her ways are (L)unstable, she (M)does not know it.
7(N)Now then, my sons, listen to me
And (O)do not depart from the words of my mouth.
8(P)Keep your way far from her
And do not go near the (Q)door of her house,
9Or you will give your vigor to others
And your years to the cruel one;
10And strangers will be filled with your strength
And your hard-earned goods will go to the house of an alien;
11And you groan at your final end,
When your flesh and your body are consumed;
12And you say, "How I have (R)hated instruction!
And my heart (S)spurned reproof!
13"I have not listened to the voice of my (T)teachers,
Nor inclined my ear to my instructors!
14"I was almost in utter ruin
In the midst of the assembly and congregation."
15Drink water from your own cistern
And fresh water from your own well.
16Should your (U)springs be dispersed abroad,
Streams of water in the streets?
17Let them be yours alone
And not for strangers with you.
18Let your (V)fountain be blessed,
And (W)rejoice in the (X)wife of your youth.
19As a loving (Y)hind and a graceful doe,
Let her breasts satisfy you at all times;
Be exhilarated always with her love.
20For why should you, my son, be exhilarated with an (Z)adulteress
And embrace the bosom of a (AA)foreigner?
21For the (AB)ways of a man are before the eyes of the LORD,
And He (AC)watches all his paths.
22His (AD)own iniquities will capture the wicked,
And he will be held with the cords of his sin.
23He will (AE)die for lack of instruction,
And in the greatness of his folly he will go astray.