Immanuel Can wrote: ↑Wed Nov 02, 2022 12:52 am
Gary Childress wrote: ↑Wed Nov 02, 2022 12:12 am
So I'd like to ask a knowledgeable Christian something. I cede that you know the Bible well, IC. I cede that you're generally honest and up front to the best of your reckoning. So I ask you this:
1. Does the bible not say that adultery is sin?
It's commandment #7 of the 10.
2. And is sex outside of marriage not adultery?
It depends. Are the participants married, or not? It could be "fornication" or "lewdness," without being "adultery." In any case, it's a sin, too.
3. And are the "wages of sin" not death?
Yes.
4. And "death" in this instance refers to becoming a resident of hell?
That depends. Is one going to do anything about one's sin, or is one not? Is one going to accept salvation, or refuse it?
One could be an adulterer, or one of many things, and not end up under judgment, if one is willing to accept responsibility and humble oneself so as to seek God's mercy. See 1 Cor. 6:9-11.
"Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor those habitually drunk, nor verbal abusers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God." [underline mine]
5. And hell is eternal?
See, for example Rev. 14:11.
Is all the above correct as stated in the Bible and is the Bible the final word on matters pertaining to God?
Not quite correct, but in the ballpark, so to speak. See my comments for changes.
So I'd like to have sex outside of marriage. If I act on that impulse repeatedly, knowing what the Bible says, will I go to hell?
If you perform any sin "repeatedly, knowing what the Bible says" (as you put it) and thus unrepentantly, the outcome is exactly the same. But it's not merely adultery, or fornication...it's all the other things listed, as well. And it doesn't have to be "repeatedly," since sin is an all-or-nothing kind of thing, as Jesus Himself so clearly said. (Matt. 5:28) And it's the nature or character that "likes" (as you put it) to do such things that makes one unsuitable for eternal life.
So there are two problems: the action, which in its own right calls for judgment, and the nature that "likes" that sort of thing, and which is not merely prone to that one thing, but to many other sins as well. It's not just
what one has done; it's that
one is the sort of person who 'likes' to do such things. That takes the problem to a whole new level. It's clear that stopping the person from doing the one action isn't, in any way, going to address the root of the nature that makes him inclined to it.
I trust that's a straightforward and plain answer.
