Law and the Seventh Commandment (No. 260)

It is written: Thou shalt not commit adultery (Ex. 20:14; Deut. 5:18).

Function of sexuality

Sexuality in the species is under the command of God and the natural function of sexuality is to replenish the earth and to produce beings as future sons of God, in accordance with God’s instructions to Adam (Gen. 1:28; 9:1). The earth is replenished and all activity is according to the law of God.

Matthew 5:17-18 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. ¹⁸For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. (KJV)

It follows therefore that the purpose of sexuality is defined and the control of sexuality is subject to the laws of God. The seventh commandment is thus directed to the sexuality of the nations. All laws concerning sexuality are subtended from the seventh commandment as controlled by the fifth and sixth commandments, and the others preceding it.

The family as trustee

The family as organised within the structure of the fifth commandment and subsequent legislation is the controller or trustee of sexuality (cf. Prov. 1:8-9; 6:20; 14:1). A wife is from the Lord and he who marries finds favour in the eyes of the Lord (Prov. 18:22; 19:14). A virtuous woman is a crown to her husband (Prov. 12:4).

It follows from the law that celibacy is an unnatural estate, conferring no favour above that of natural union and the family as an instrument of God’s will and plan. Celibacy can certainly not confer a condition superior to marriage. The history of asceticism in Christian and other traditions is examined in the paper Vegetarianism and the Bible (No. 183).

Paul wrote in this vein in 1Corinthians 7:1-5, but says to avoid fornication: let every man have his own wife and every woman her own husband. He says he has no command of the Lord at verse 6. What he is saying is that pure devotion to God is the superior but people should be married to avoid fornication. The history of the celibate church is a living condemnation of the failure of that system. Paul says all young women should be married, bear children, and run their house (1Tim. 5:14).

Humans are strangers and sojourners on the planet and the land belongs to the Lord. The family and the species are merely instruments in the plan of God (Lev. 25:23).

Genesis 30:20 And Leah said, God hath endued me with a good dowry; now will my husband dwell with me, because I have born him six sons: and she called his name Zebulun. (KJV)

In all the functions of marriage, sexuality is not to be the subject of covetousness under the tenth commandment. Neither is sexuality and procreation to be the subject of covetousness of the wife, nor is marriage itself to be used for covetous purposes (cf. 2Sam. 11:1-12:24; 1Kgs 21:1-19).

Sex within marriage

Sexuality under the Laws of God is confined within marriage, for woman was made from man and given to him to be one flesh to accomplish the purpose of God in the creation (Gen. 1:26-28; 2:15,18-25). This entire structure is confined to the creation and is excluded from the Host (Mat. 22:30). The Host fell in breach of this law and left their first estate (Jude 6).

Marriage is the established function of the creation and represents the union of Christ and the Church.

Ephesians 5:22-33 Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. ²³For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. ²⁴Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing. ²⁵Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; ²⁶That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, ²⁷That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. ²⁸So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. ²⁹For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church: ³⁰For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. ³¹For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. ³²This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church. ³³Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband. (KJV)

The entire structure of the family is based on this relationship and its purity. When it is compromised it cannot be fully restored. Spiritually, the bride can repent and return to Christ. Israel was invited to return to him (Jer. 3:1,7) but she had been given a Bill of Divorce. Christ, on his return, is therefore to marry the Church as spiritual Israel, which is his bride.

The woman was created for the man and the head of every man is Christ, and the head of Christ is God. Any man who prays to God with his head covered dishonours his head (who is Christ). Long hair is a shame to a man. A woman who has a shaven head must cover it for prayer, but a woman whose hair is her glory needs no covering other than her hair (1Cor. 11:1-16).

The subject of the head covering under the law is important and misunderstood. An alien woman taken in war is required to shave her head as part of the purification process. A woman is required to have power on her head because of the angels (1Cor. 11:10). Thus the long hair of a woman is symbolic of power and alien women are subject to the higher powers under the fallen host. The alien woman taken unwillingly in battle was required to shave her head and then regrow her hair under the nation. The traditions regarding shaving the head in marriage also strike at this symbolism.

The Levites were also required to shave all their body hair as part of their separation and cleansing when they were isolated as the priesthood of Israel (Num. 8:7). This action pointed directly to the relationship they would have as brides of the Angel of Yahovah in the worship of Eloah, in the Temple of Eloah God. This function foreshadowed the relationship the elect would have to the Messiah as High Priest, under the order of Melchisedek. This relationship was also seen in the vows of the Nazarite (Num. 6:5,18). The woman’s head is to be uncovered during the trial of the jealousy offering also (Num. 5:18). The symbolism was that she was exposed before God and was not under protection or concealment. God would see her innermost being and discern her guilt or innocence.

The High Priest was to wear a mitre plated with pure gold (Ex. 28:36-38). This symbolism looked forward to Messiah who was to be crowned king of Israel. The bonnets of the priest’s sons (Ex. 28:40) looked forward to the crowns of the elect as kings and priests in the kingdom of God, as sons of God. Thus they are a royal priesthood and a holy nation (1Pet. 2:9). All of these symbols pointed to the elect as brides of Christ, in the Temple of God and coheirs with Christ.

The relationship of Christ to the Church, and the Church to Christ, and of a woman to a man is explained in Proverbs 31 and the Song of Songs (cf. the papers Proverbs 31 (No. 114) and Song of Songs (No. 145)). Adultery in the family is the same as idolatry in the Temple of God (cf. the paper Law and the Second Commandment (No. 254)).

Monogamy

The ideal estate of the human creation is monogamy. Man and woman were created to be one flesh (Gen 2:18-24; Mat. 19:5). All bishops of the Church must be the husband of one wife (1Tim. 3:2). The polygamous relationships of the nation were allowed from the patriarchs, and they had multiple wives.

The king is not allowed to multiply wives to himself (Deut. 17:17) even though David and Solomon had hundreds, and the Talmudic restrictions appear to be at eighteen for the king and four or five for the ordinary man. Nevertheless, every man should have his own wife and every woman her own husband (1Cor. 7:2). The ideal condition of the elect is monogamy. (See the paper Marriage (No. 289).)

The Platonic Relationship of David

When David was old he was provided with Abishag the Shunamite to minister to him, but he did not copulate with her. Nevertheless, it seems that this was taken to be a formal relationship as when Adonijah asked for Abishag in marriage, being Solomon’s elder brother, Solomon had no hesitation in having him put to death. The two ways the story could be read are that Solomon simply feared for his own position if his elder brother were granted Abishag to wife; and it also stands that he may have felt justified that the woman had acted as his father’s concubine, and thus Adonijah was in breach of the law regarding incestuous fornication. Neither matter can be simply dismissed (cf. 1Kgs. 2:13-25).

Polygamy

The first polygamous relationship was with the sons of Cain when Lamech took two wives, Adah and Zillah (Gen. 4:19). The explanation of what is happening in Genesis is in the paper Doctrine of Original Sin Part 2 The Generations of Adam (No. 248).

Multiple marriages are allowed under the law. Israel had two wives and two concubines, and all of his sons were legitimate and inheritors of the covenant promise (cf. Deut. 21:15-17). So also was Samuel, the Lord’s anointed, born from a polygamous marriage (1Sam. 1:1-2).

It is thus beyond question that the law permits polygamy and that the patriarchs are of the first resurrection. Concubinage was the most ancient of practices: all nations allowed and acknowledged it. It was held to have been no shame to take a concubine for the sake of bearing sons, and such is the view in China under Confucian doctrine even today. (See the paper Polygamy in the Bible and the Koran (No. 293).)

A concubine had fewer rights than a wife and often was taken simply for the purpose of bearing children, and was paid accordingly. The tribes were derived from these mixed relationships and Israel, as a national concept, is based on those relationships; adoption is also derived from this view. Israel is the son of God and the Gentiles are adopted into Israel as sons of God in power from the resurrection from the dead, as coheirs with Christ (cf. Rom. 1:4; 8:17).

Esau also married two women: Judith called Aholibamah and Bashemath called also Adah (cf. Gen 26:34-35 and 36:2). The text says that this was a grief to his parents, seemingly because they were Hittite women. One was of the Hivite branch in Canaan (Gen. 28:8). He then also married Bashemath (also called Mahalath), Ishmael’s daughter and sister of Nebajoth (Gen. 28:9; 36:3). This act was seemingly preferable to marriage to the Canaanites who worshipped a false god and were under a curse. This was another close (kinship) marriage.

Once again the lesson is to show us that what we are in our relationship with God has no bearing on the actions or activities of our parents save in disease and heredity. The lesson was extended to Ishmael, Esau, Moab, Ammon and to the son of Keturah so that none could glory in flesh and blood.

The lineage of David and hence Messiah contained four gentile women, three of whom committed serious sexual sins (cf. the paper Genealogy of the Messiah (No. 119)). Salvation was thus of the Gentiles to the very kingship of Judah and Israel.

Divorce and remarriage

The law permits divorce and remarriage, but does not allow remarriage to the same woman after she has been married to another. She can marry the same man again provided she has not been remarried to another man.

Deuteronomy 24:1-4When a man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favour in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness in her: then let him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house. ²And when she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another man's wife. ³And if the latter husband hate her, and write her a bill of divorcement, and giveth it in her hand, and sendeth her out of his house; or if the latter husband die, which took her to be his wife; ⁴Her former husband, which sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after that she is defiled; for that is abomination before the LORD: and thou shalt not cause the land to sin, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.

This legislation is to protect the family and to protect the morals and the morale of the nation. The logic is obvious. If a woman remarries and she finds the former husband better that the latter, or has some settlement of a quarrel, then the fixing of the second union is placed in jeopardy by the possibility of further divorce and remarriage to the first husband. The entire concept prevents a clean break and resettlement and thus the law prohibits such action. (Note that the uncleaness in Deut. 24:1 may suggest immorality; cf. Deut. 22:14; Mat. 19:19; 5:32.)

The fidelity of the elect, male or female, is on a mental basis as well as a physical basis from the interaction of the Holy Spirit and the Tenth Commandment.

Matthew 5:27-32 Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: ²⁸But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. ²⁹And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. ³⁰And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. ³¹It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement: ³²But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery. (KJV)

(cf. Mk. 10:10-12; Lk. 16:18).

Paul spoke also on this matter and states that the marriage and children are sanctified by the believer. Divorce is not to be entered into lightly even if the partner is an unbeliever.

1Corinthians 7:12-17 But to the rest speak I, not the Lord: If any brother hath a wife that believeth not, and she be pleased to dwell with him, let him not put her away. 13 And the woman which hath an husband that believeth not, and if he be pleased to dwell with her, let her not leave him. 14 For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband: else were your children unclean; but now are they holy. 15 But if the unbelieving depart, let him depart. A brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases: but God hath called us to peace. 16 For what knowest thou, O wife, whether thou shalt save thy husband? or how knowest thou, O man, whether thou shalt save thy wife? 17 But as God hath distributed to every man, as the Lord hath called every one, so let him walk. And so ordain I in all churches. (KJV)

Christ spoke the definitive words on the interpretation of the law in his conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well.

John 4:7-29 There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink. ⁸(For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.) ⁹Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. ¹⁰Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. ¹¹The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water? ¹²Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? ¹³Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: ¹⁴But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. ¹⁵The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw. ¹⁶Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither. ¹⁷The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband: ¹⁸For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly. ¹⁹The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. ²⁰Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. ²¹Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. ²²Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. ²³But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. ²⁴God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. ²⁵The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things. ²⁶Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he. ²⁷And upon this came his disciples, and marvelled that he talked with the woman: yet no man said, What seekest thou? or, Why talkest thou with her? ²⁸The woman then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men, ²⁹Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ? (KJV)

This sequence shows the following doctrine concerning marriage. Firstly, the woman had been married five times under the law and each one was recognised as a legitimate marriage by Messiah. She was currently living with a man but that arrangement was not recognised to be a marriage by Messiah. Thus Messiah produced doctrine in this way. He recognised multiple marriages as there is no indication that this woman had been widowed five times. Indeed the law allows remarriage as we see above. Secondly, Christ ruled here on de facto marriage, pronouncing it as no legitimate marriage.

Marriage among the nations is a rite of the nations and is not a sacrament of the Church. In this way all the nations are lawfully married and their children are lawful as sons of Adam. There are only two sacraments of the Church; those being Baptism and the Lord’s Supper (cf. the paper The Sacraments of the Church (No. 150)).

Marriage is a spiritual union of one flesh. Christ had much to say about it, and made a serious injunction to the elect regarding marriage and divorce.

Matthew 19:1-12 And it came to pass, that when Jesus had finished these sayings, he departed from Galilee, and came into the coasts of Judaea beyond Jordan; ²And great multitudes followed him; and he healed them there. ³The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? ⁴And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, ⁵And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? ⁶Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. ⁷They say unto him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away? ⁸He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so. ⁹And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery. ¹⁰His disciples say unto him, If the case of the man be so with his wife, it is not good to marry. ¹¹But he said unto them, All men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is given. ¹²For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother's womb: and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it. (KJV)

Some people are dedicated to the glory of God; Christ here was saying that he was so dedicated. The apostles were all married and Paul also appears to have been married during his ministry. It would have been unthinkable for Christ to marry not only knowing that he was to be killed later thereby leaving a widow, but also that he was the bridegroom of the Church; and that symbolism was not to be impugned. If he had left children then a dynastic situation would have ensued. It did in fact occur, after a fashion, with his nephews and cousins – the desposyni – until they were virtually exterminated by the Roman Church from the fourth century onwards (cf. the paper The Virgin Mariam and the Family of Jesus Christ (No. 232)).

Divorce among the elect is not acceptable to Christ, save for adultery (cf. Mat. 5:32). They are also to remain with their unbelieving spouses, while these spouses consent to live with them. If the unbeliever does not consent, then it is permissible to divorce. There are of course other grounds for separation, annulment or nullification of marriage, such as fraud, consanguinity and maltreatment, but these grounds have been largely (and often) misused, by the nations and their church system.

Marriage as a Type of our Spiritual Relationship with Messiah

Israel is married to God. The Church is married to Messiah, as the Yahovah Elohim of the Old Testament. All nations are to come into Israel as the future Temple of God under their High Priest, Israel’s Elohim (cf. Ps. 45:6-7 and Heb. 1:8-9). These allegories all point to the salvation of the world under Messiah, who presents the world to God as a fitting vehicle for Him through the Holy Spirit.

Jeremiah 3:1-9 They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man's, shall he return unto her again? shall not that land be greatly polluted? but thou hast played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again to me, saith the LORD. ² Lift up thine eyes unto the high places, and see where thou hast not been lien with. In the ways hast thou sat for them, as the Arabian in the wilderness; and thou hast polluted the land with thy whoredoms and with thy wickedness. ³Therefore the showers have been withholden, and there hath been no latter rain; and thou hadst a whore's forehead, thou refusedst to be ashamed. ⁴ Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, My father, thou art the guide of my youth? ⁵ Will he reserve his anger for ever? will he keep it to the end? Behold, thou hast spoken and done evil things as thou couldest. ⁶ The LORD said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king, Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done? she is gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there hath played the harlot. ⁷ And I said after she had done all these things, Turn thou unto me. But she returned not. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it. ⁸ And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also. ⁹ And it came to pass through the lightness of her whoredom, that she defiled the land, and committed adultery with stones and with stocks. (KJV)

The condition of divorce and restoration is conditional to there being no other husband in the interim, as the relationship points also to idolatry and its interference with the relationship to God.

In the resurrection we are to be as the angels in Heaven, and the state of marriage is ended on the death of one of the parties.

Matthew 22:23-33The same day came to him the Sadducees, which say that there is no resurrection, and asked him, ²⁴Saying, Master, Moses said, If a man die, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. ²⁵Now there were with us seven brethren: and the first, when he had married a wife, deceased, and, having no issue, left his wife unto his brother: ²⁶Likewise the second also, and the third, unto the seventh. ²⁷And last of all the woman died also. ²⁸Therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be of the seven? for they all had her. ²⁹Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. ³⁰For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven. ³¹But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, ³²I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. ³³And when the multitude heard this, they were astonished at his doctrine. (KJV)

All of our future is tied to the resurrection of the dead and all will rise in the judgment, but the judgment of the elect is now and theirs is the First Resurrection at the return of Messiah.

Mixed Marriages

The legislation on mixed marriages is centred on the notion of purity of doctrine and not simply of blood (cf. Jer. 3:8-10; Isa. 50:1-10). It was Messiah who gave his back to the smiters as referred to in Isaiah 50:6. The Lord has no creditors that he would sell us or divorce us. Where is the bill of our mother’s divorcement? The daughters of the priest eat in their father’s house and no stranger eats there (cf. Lev. 22:13; Ex. 34:12-16).

The nation of Israel committed great sin in the time of the Restoration of Ezra and Nehemiah. They were then forced to put away their idolatrous wives (Neh. 9:2; 13:23-31). The connection is made there with Solomon.

Nehemiah 13:23-31In those days also saw I Jews that had married wives of Ashdod, of Ammon, and of Moab: ²⁴And their children spake half in the speech of Ashdod, and could not speak in the Jews' language, but according to the language of each people. ²⁵And I contended with them, and cursed them, and smote certain of them, and plucked off their hair, and made them swear by God, saying, Ye shall not give your daughters unto their sons, nor take their daughters unto your sons, or for yourselves. ²⁶Did not Solomon king of Israel sin by these things? yet among many nations was there no king like him, who was beloved of his God, and God made him king over all Israel: nevertheless even him did outlandish women cause to sin. ²⁷Shall we then hearken unto you to do all this great evil, to transgress against our God in marrying strange wives? ²⁸And one of the sons of Joiada, the son of Eliashib the high priest, was son in law to Sanballat the Horonite: therefore I chased him from me. ²⁹Remember them, O my God, because they have defiled the priesthood, and the covenant of the priesthood, and of the Levites. ³⁰Thus cleansed I them from all strangers, and appointed the wards of the priests and the Levites, every one in his business; ³¹And for the wood offering, at times appointed, and for the firstfruits. Remember me, O my God, for good. (KJV).

The idolatry was forcing the children to forget their language, which was necessary for Bible cantillation and for understanding scripture and the priests were being profaned.

2Corinthians 6:14-18Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? ¹⁵And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? ¹⁶And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. ¹⁷Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, ¹⁸And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. (KJV)

An unbelieving spouse requires support in marriage. We abide in the estate in which we were called.

1Corinthians 7:20-24Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called. ²¹Art thou called being a servant? care not for it: but if thou mayest be made free, use it rather. ²²For he that is called in the Lord, being a servant, is the Lord's freeman: likewise also he that is called, being free, is Christ's servant. ²³Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men. ²⁴Brethren, let every man, wherein he is called, therein abide with God. (KJV)

The believer may be the instrument of the salvation of his or her partner. Thus the calling to the faith is not grounds for divorce.

Sex outside marriage

God has specific legislation concerning sex outside marriage. ALL sex outside the union of marriage, or in concubinage (from the time of the Patriarchs for the sake of bearing children), is unlawful, no matter of age or type. The institution of marriage commenced with Adam and persists to the present day (Gen. 5:3-5).

Fidelity in marriage is of great importance.

Proverbs 5:1-23My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding: ²That thou mayest regard discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge. ³For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil: ⁴But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a twoedged sword. ⁵Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell. ⁶Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable, that thou canst not know them. ⁷Hear me now therefore, O ye children, and depart not from the words of my mouth. ⁸Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house: ⁹Lest thou give thine honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel: ¹⁰Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy labours be in the house of a stranger; ¹¹And thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed, ¹²And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof; ¹³And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me! ¹⁴I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly. ¹⁵Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well. ¹⁶Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets. ¹⁷Let them be only thine own, and not strangers' with thee. ¹⁸Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth. ¹⁹Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love. ²⁰And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger? ²¹For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and he pondereth all his goings. ²²His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins. ²³He shall die without instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray. (KJV)

Adultery is violence, and forgiveness does not come easily in spite of gifts; and the foolish are led astray into war and death (cf. Prov. 6:20-35; 7:1-27; Mal. 2:14). It is written:

Leviticus 18:20 Moreover thou shalt not lie carnally with thy neighbour's wife, to defile thyself with her. (KJV)

Fornication

ALL of the faith are to abstain from ALL forms of fornication (Acts 15:20, 29; 21:25).

1Corinthians 5:1-13It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife. ²And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you. ³For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed, ⁴In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, ⁵To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. ⁶Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? ⁷Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: ⁸Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. ⁹I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators: ¹⁰Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world. ¹¹But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat. ¹²For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within? ¹³But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person. (KJV)

Fornication with our father’s wife or our step-mother is not simply fornication, it is incestuous fornication. The punishment for fornication and especially in this instance was removal from the Church until repentance. This was so that the life of the fornicator might be saved at the last days, as we see from verse 5 above.

Those in the Church not in the spirit are under the authority of the god of this world and are consigned to the second resurrection. In the Church, failure to repent of sin means removal from the first resurrection and delivery to the second resurrection. The sooner this is done and the clearer it is made to the perpetrator the better chance there is of repentance, either now or following instruction in the second resurrection.

The body is the Lord’s, for we are the temple of God.

1Corinthians 6:12-20 All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. ¹³Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body. ¹⁴And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power. ¹⁵Know 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. ¹⁶What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh. ¹⁷But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. ¹⁸Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. ¹⁹What? 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? ²⁰For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's. (KJV)

God will judge whoremongers and the adulterous.

Hebrews 13:4 Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge. (KJV)

The Law of God in the Church is placed on a higher level among the elect than the law was for the nation (cf. Mat 5:27-32 above).

Baptism allows the receiving of the Holy Spirit, enabling us to perform according to God’s laws at a higher level than that required for the nation. This higher level is based on the concept of the mind and a spiritual relationship to God; however, it is very difficult to perform at this level. One should not use the divorce law because it causes another to sin and makes it more difficult to enter the kingdom of God. It causes violence to the family and God hates divorce (Mal. 2:10-17).

Malachi 2:10-17 Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us? why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers? ¹¹Judah hath dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah hath profaned the holiness of the LORD which he loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange god. ¹²The LORD will cut off the man that doeth this, the master and the scholar, out of the tabernacles of Jacob, and him that offereth an offering unto the LORD of hosts. ¹³And this have ye done again, covering the altar of the LORD with tears, with weeping, and with crying out, insomuch that he regardeth not the offering any more, or receiveth it with good will at your hand. ¹⁴Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the LORD hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant. ¹⁵And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth. ¹⁶For the LORD, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away: for one covereth violence with his garment, saith the LORD of hosts: therefore take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not treacherously. ¹⁷Ye have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied him? When ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and he delighteth in them; or, Where is the God of judgment? (KJV)

Incestuous Fornication

The laws regarding incest are given in Leviticus 18. It is prohibited in all manner of relationships as we see below.

Leviticus 18:1-18And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, ²Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, I am the LORD your God. ³After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do: and after the doings of the land of Canaan, whither I bring you, shall ye not do: neither shall ye walk in their ordinances. ⁴Ye shall do my judgments, and keep mine ordinances, to walk therein: I am the LORD your God. ⁵Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if a man do, he shall live in them: I am the LORD. ⁶None of you shall approach to any that is near of kin to him, to uncover their nakedness: I am the LORD. ⁷The nakedness of thy father, or the nakedness of thy mother, shalt thou not uncover: she is thy mother; thou shalt not uncover her nakedness. ⁸The nakedness of thy father's wife shalt thou not uncover: it is thy father's nakedness. ⁹The nakedness of thy sister, the daughter of thy father, or daughter of thy mother, whether she be born at home, or born abroad, even their nakedness thou shalt not uncover. ¹⁰The nakedness of thy son's daughter, or of thy daughter's daughter, even their nakedness thou shalt not uncover: for theirs is thine own nakedness. ¹¹The nakedness of thy father's wife's daughter, begotten of thy father, she is thy sister, thou shalt not uncover her nakedness. ¹²Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father's sister: she is thy father's near kinswoman. ¹³Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy mother's sister: for she is thy mother's near kinswoman. ¹⁴Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father's brother, thou shalt not approach to his wife: she is thine aunt. ¹⁵Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy daughter in law: she is thy son's wife; thou shalt not uncover her nakedness. ¹⁶Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy brother's wife: it is thy brother's nakedness. ¹⁷Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of a woman and her daughter, neither shalt thou take her son's daughter, or her daughter's daughter, to uncover her nakedness; for they are her near kinswomen: it is wickedness. ¹⁸Neither shalt thou take a wife to her sister, to vex her, to uncover her nakedness, beside the other in her life time.

Deuteronomy 22:30A man shall not take his father's wife, nor discover his father's skirt. (KJV)

The only one of these prohibitions that is time specific is the marriage of a sister. If one sister is alive, the other may not be taken to wife, until the sister who is the wife is dead. Jacob broke this law in taking Leah and Rachel. He had grounds to put Leah aside and take Rachel, but he did not do so. Here he was symbolic of Christ taking Judah and Israel to wife and then taking Israel and the Gentiles to wife, as part of the twelve tribes.

These sins are part of the curses of Israel (Deut. 27:20,22,23). Yet from these sins did God make a nation. Moreover, Moses and the entire Aaronic priesthood are born of incest.

Exodus 6:20And Amram took him Jochebed his father's sister to wife; and she bare him Aaron and Moses: and the years of the life of Amram were an hundred and thirty and seven years. (KJV)

So also were the sons of Abraham and Sarah (Gen. 20:12) and those before them (Gen. 5:4).

This was done specifically so that the priesthood would see that they too, and God’s prophets under the law from Moses, were in need of the saving grace of Jesus Christ and of themselves could grant no salvation. That is why Messiah was polluted by sexual sin in both sides of the entire lineage, from David through Nathan and from Levi through Shimei. Only by the activity of God and from the actions of Jesus Christ in laying down his pre-existence could salvation come to humanity.

Levirate law

The only other exception to these ordinances is when a man dies childless: his wife is to be given a child by her dead husband’s brother in order to protect the dead brother’s inheritance and the welfare of her family. That child is to be counted in her dead husband’s lineage. In practice this was taken into lineage outside of the direct next of kin, as we saw was the case with Ruth and Boaz. They were married.

Deuteronomy 25:5-12 If brethren dwell together, and one of them die, and have no child, the wife of the dead shall not marry without unto a stranger: her husband's brother shall go in unto her, and take her to him to wife, and perform the duty of an husband's brother unto her. ⁶And it shall be, that the firstborn which she beareth shall succeed in the name of his brother which is dead, that his name be not put out of Israel. ⁷And if the man like not to take his brother's wife, then let his brother's wife go up to the gate unto the elders, and say, My husband's brother refuseth to raise up unto his brother a name in Israel, he will not perform the duty of my husband's brother. ⁸Then the elders of his city shall call him, and speak unto him: and if he stand to it, and say, I like not to take her; ⁹Then shall his brother's wife come unto him in the presence of the elders, and loose his shoe from off his foot, and spit in his face, and shall answer and say, So shall it be done unto that man that will not build up his brother's house. ¹⁰And his name shall be called in Israel, The house of him that hath his shoe loosed. ¹¹When men strive together one with another, and the wife of the one draweth near for to deliver her husband out of the hand of him that smiteth him, and putteth forth her hand, and taketh him by the secrets: ¹²Then thou shalt cut off her hand, thine eye shall not pity her. (KJV)

Here the laws of succession were established, as the brother was not only allowed but was also required to take to wife his brother’s widow. The progeny of this marriage would take the dead brother’s inheritance and not his own.

Under the ancient Code of Hammurabi, as the actions and statements of Abraham in Genesis 15:2-3 show, a childless man was succeeded by his steward who was considered of his house and hence his heir. The situation was not so under the law of God, and it was for the failure to perform this duty that Onan was killed (cf. the paper The Sin of Onan (No. 162)).

It is from this law also that in vitero fertilisation (IVF) can be performed where the couple are known to be childless and incapable of producing children. The program should lawfully be carried out by the brother, and where the female herself is concerned the egg can be donated from the family also. The family progeny has the status of brother and sister under the law.

False witness and hatred in marriage

Deuteronomy 22:13-29If any man take a wife, and go in unto her, and hate her, ¹⁴And give occasions of speech against her, and bring up an evil name upon her, and say, I took this woman, and when I came to her, I found her not a maid: ¹⁵Then shall the father of the damsel, and her mother, take and bring forth the tokens of the damsel's virginity unto the elders of the city in the gate: ¹⁶And the damsel's father shall say unto the elders, I gave my daughter unto this man to wife, and he hateth her; ¹⁷And, lo, he hath given occasions of speech against her, saying, I found not thy daughter a maid; and yet these are the tokens of my daughter's virginity. And they shall spread the cloth before the elders of the city. ¹⁸And the elders of that city shall take that man and chastise him; ¹⁹And they shall amerce him in an hundred shekels of silver, and give them unto the father of the damsel, because he hath brought up an evil name upon a virgin of Israel: and she shall be his wife; he may not put her away all his days. ²⁰But if this thing be true, and the tokens of virginity be not found for the damsel: ²¹Then they shall bring out the damsel to the door of her father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones that she die: because she hath wrought folly in Israel, to play the whore in her father's house: so shalt thou put evil away from among you. ²²If a man be found lying with a woman married to an husband, then they shall both of them die, both the man that lay with the woman, and the woman: so shalt thou put away evil from Israel. ²³If a damsel that is a virgin be betrothed unto an husband, and a man find her in the city, and lie with her; ²⁴Then ye shall bring them both out unto the gate of that city, and ye shall stone them with stones that they die; the damsel, because she cried not, being in the city; and the man, because he hath humbled his neighbour's wife: so thou shalt put away evil from among you. ²⁵But if a man find a betrothed damsel in the field, and the man force her, and lie with her: then the man only that lay with her shall die: ²⁶But unto the damsel thou shalt do nothing; there is in the damsel no sin worthy of death: for as when a man riseth against his neighbour, and slayeth him, even so is this matter: ²⁷For he found her in the field, and the betrothed damsel cried, and there was none to save her. ²⁸If a man find a damsel that is a virgin, which is not betrothed, and lay hold on her, and lie with her, and they be found; ²⁹Then the man that lay with her shall give unto the damsel's father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife; because he hath humbled her, he may not put her away all his days. (KJV)

The bearing of false witness against a wife and the imputation against her virtue impugns future rights of the husband in divorce. Thus he is responsible for her all the days of his life. He who fails to provide for his family profanes the faith and is worse than an infidel.

The punishment for adultery and for rape of a betrothed or married woman is death, as we see here. If the woman is taken in the city and does not cry out then she also shall die. If she is taken by force, then only the man is to die. The taking of a woman in the fields who is not married is punished by a fine and marriage (if both parties are caught in the act), and the man concerned may never divorce her. If the father refuses to give her to him in marriage then he is not required to marry her; he is to be fined instead. Clear abduction by kidnapping in all events is punishable by death.

The Jealousy Offering

Numbers 5:12-31 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, If any man's wife go aside, and commit a trespass against him, ¹³And a man lie with her carnally, and it be hid from the eyes of her husband, and be kept close, and she be defiled, and there be no witness against her, neither she be taken with the manner; ¹⁴And the spirit of jealousy come upon him, and he be jealous of his wife, and she be defiled: or if the spirit of jealousy come upon him, and he be jealous of his wife, and she be not defiled: ¹⁵Then shall the man bring his wife unto the priest, and he shall bring her offering for her, the tenth part of an ephah of barley meal; he shall pour no oil upon it, nor put frankincense thereon; for it is an offering of jealousy, an offering of memorial, bringing iniquity to remembrance. ¹⁶And the priest shall bring her near, and set her before the LORD: ¹⁷And the priest shall take holy water in an earthen vessel; and of the dust that is in the floor of the tabernacle the priest shall take, and put it into the water: ¹⁸And the priest shall set the woman before the LORD, and uncover the woman's head, and put the offering of memorial in her hands, which is the jealousy offering: and the priest shall have in his hand the bitter water that causeth the curse: ¹⁹And the priest shall charge her by an oath, and say unto the woman, If no man have lain with thee, and if thou hast not gone aside to uncleanness with another instead of thy husband, be thou free from this bitter water that causeth the curse: ²⁰But if thou hast gone aside to another instead of thy husband, and if thou be defiled, and some man have lain with thee beside thine husband: ²¹Then the priest shall charge the woman with an oath of cursing, and the priest shall say unto the woman, The LORD make thee a curse and an oath among thy people, when the LORD doth make thy thigh to rot, and thy belly to swell; ²²And this water that causeth the curse shall go into thy bowels, to make thy belly to swell, and thy thigh to rot: And the woman shall say, Amen, amen. ²³And the priest shall write these curses in a book, and he shall blot them out with the bitter water: ²⁴And he shall cause the woman to drink the bitter water that causeth the curse: and the water that causeth the curse shall enter into her, and become bitter. ²⁵Then the priest shall take the jealousy offering out of the woman's hand, and shall wave the offering before the LORD, and offer it upon the altar: ²⁶And the priest shall take an handful of the offering, even the memorial thereof, and burn it upon the altar, and afterward shall cause the woman to drink the water. ²⁷And when he hath made her to drink the water, then it shall come to pass, that, if she be defiled, and have done trespass against her husband, that the water that causeth the curse shall enter into her, and become bitter, and her belly shall swell, and her thigh shall rot: and the woman shall be a curse among her people. ²⁸And if the woman be not defiled, but be clean; then she shall be free, and shall conceive seed. ²⁹This is the law of jealousies, when a wife goeth aside to another instead of her husband, and is defiled; ³⁰Or when the spirit of jealousy cometh upon him, and he be jealous over his wife, and shall set the woman before the LORD, and the priest shall execute upon her all this law. ³¹Then shall the man be guiltless from iniquity, and this woman shall bear her iniquity. (KJV)

The psychology of the jealous mind often needs an external control or qualifier, usually being irrational and bitter. Such a mindset has no place in the elect. However, the problem should not be given occasion to arise. Our conduct should be blameless.

The “jealousy offering” is offered once and for all in Messiah. The Holy Spirit stands in the place of the priest. If anyone lies to the Holy Spirit the punishment is death, as was the case with Ananias and his wife (Acts 5:1-5ff.). With some people death is not as obvious; nevertheless it is just as sure.

Exclusion for the priesthood

Leviticus 21:7-15 They shall not take a wife that is a whore, or profane; neither shall they take a woman put away from her husband: for he is holy unto his God. ⁸Thou shalt sanctify him therefore; for he offereth the bread of thy God: he shall be holy unto thee: for I the LORD, which sanctify you, am holy. ⁹And the daughter of any priest, if she profane herself by playing the whore, she profaneth her father: she shall be burnt with fire. ¹⁰And he that is the high priest among his brethren, upon whose head the anointing oil was poured, and that is consecrated to put on the garments, shall not uncover his head, nor rend his clothes; ¹¹Neither shall he go in to any dead body, nor defile himself for his father, or for his mother; ¹²Neither shall he go out of the sanctuary, nor profane the sanctuary of his God; for the crown of the anointing oil of his God is upon him: I am the LORD. ¹³And he shall take a wife in her virginity. ¹⁴A widow, or a divorced woman, or profane, or an harlot, these shall he not take: but he shall take a virgin of his own people to wife. ¹⁵Neither shall he profane his seed among his people: for I the LORD do sanctify him. (KJV)

The High Priest of the Temple of God is Messiah, and he entered the sanctuary once and for all, as the Wave Sheaf Offering in 30 CE. All priests who minister to the Church do so in his stead. Likewise they are to be holy as he is holy. The elect in their entirety are not to profane the Temple, which Temple they are. The matter of being defiled by the dead is examined below.

Protection of offspring from Pagan Practices

The entire logical thrust of the seventh commandment goes to the production of a holy nation, and a pure people dedicated to God. The marriage relationship was to be undefiled so that the people could be undefiled. For this reason the purity of the offspring was protected and their use in the service of God in the nation was protected. No children are to be passed through the fire to Molech (cf. Lev. 18:21). This insidious worship of Molech, or Chemosh, or the Moon God Sin as the Golden Calf of Sinai, as he was variously called, involved the sacrifice and also (with the Aryans) the eating of the children and it was an abomination to the Lord. According to the Abbe MacGeoghegan, the worship of the Golden Calf was carried on by the Milesians in Ireland as the second divinity behind the sacred Oak and Mistletoe until the advent of Christianity (MacGeoghegan-Mitchell, History of Ireland, Sadlier, NY, 1868, p. 65). This religion of the Triune god of the Aryans was endemic among the Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Gauls, Scythians, Greeks and Romans. This was why the Trinity was introduced and so staunchly defended by the Romans and Celts. The consumption of children and dogs continued there until the destruction of Carthage. The practice was halted among the Carthaginians in the reign of Darius I, who considered it barbarous.

The Irish Milesians were not alone in this sacrificing and eating of human flesh (often for magical reasons). Polybius records that [H]Annibal rejected the proposition made to him by the Gauls of eating human flesh. It was endemic to the Irish, Gauls, Britons, Spaniards, Scythians and other nations. Strabo, (cf. Geography) in the first century BCE, records that the Irish ate their dead and particularly their parents. This makes the Bible laws regarding defiling the priesthood for the dead more horrifyingly real. Jerome observed the Scots of Britain to be eaters of human flesh in his time, when he saw them in Gaul at the end of the fourth century (cf. MacGeoghegan, ibid., p. 67).

The crescent moon and the star with it that has penetrated even Islam are associated with the worship of the Moon God Sin (cf. the paper The Golden Calf (No. 222)). Jones and Pennick (A History of Pagan Europe, Routledge, London and New York, 1995, pp. 77ff.) notes that the crescent and star motif of Islam recalls the worship of the moon god Sin who had already subsumed the worship of the three goddesses Al’lat, Al-Uzzah and Manat. The Triune system was endemic to the Aryans and was found among the Celts in the similar forms of the Triune system and the three goddesses, of whom one was Bridgit (or Brigit). The Triune system in Gaul was also of three gods, Esus, Taranis and Teutates. They and the Triune system were part of the same system of the sacred Groves and the moon god Sin, whom the adherents also worshipped. The Sacred Groves were scattered with human entrails and even the Druids would not enter them at certain times. Sardinia was a stronghold of this pagan system until the eleventh century, bribing the magistrates to ignore it.

The system was ancient in Ireland and the eating of human flesh was common both there and among the Scots, who came from Ireland when it was called Scotia. Recent excavations of the megaliths in County Sligo show the massive graves there of untold thousands of humans, more than possibly could have been supported by the country around them. There are many hundreds of these types of burial sites in Ireland but Sligo seems to be a major site.

Archaeologists have noted recently that the people were cremated using their own body fat and then (as one scholar put it in a radio interview) were “seemingly disinterred for a feast by their families or such, at a later date”. The obvious conclusion, as recorded by Strabo as occurring until at least the first century, is being studiously ignored for the present (as MacGeoghegan did when he noted the burial practice). They ate their dead. The fact is that humans and mostly children were roasted in images of the god, or on fires throughout the Aryan and Phoenician world. Romano-Celtic and Phoenician mothers took it as a matter of pride that they could comfort their children without emotion while they were being roasted alive in the name of piety and the screams were covered by drum and trumpets (cf. also MacGeoghegan, ibid., pp. 65-73).

The customs were found in Tyre and among the Phoenicians, and continued for a long time there and among the Canaanites. Those who did not have children purchased them from the poor so that they would not be short of a suitable sacrifice. The children who were burnt were either cast into a furnace or placed in a statue of Saturn, which was set on fire. The defeat of Carthage by Agathocles was ascribed by them to the fact that they had sacrificed children of secondary quality, being children of strangers and slaves, to the god in the form of Saturn (hence the Saturnalia) instead of their usual children of first quality. They then offered up two hundred children of the first quality and three hundred citizens who voluntarily offered themselves to appease the god of their crime of negligence (MacGeoghegan, pp. 67-68).

According to Cornelius Walford’s nineteenth century record of famines, cannibalism was recorded among the Irish in the famines of 1588-89 and 1601-03 (cf. Reay Tannahill’s Flesh and Blood for a general history of their, and other, cannibalism). The last episode of clan or tribal cannibalism to be stamped out in UK was in the Western Highlands of Scotland in the seventeenth century. A regiment of 400 men under James VI of Scotland, also James I of England, went in to eliminate the clan of Sawney Beane cave dwellers in Galloway. The people were captured and executed at Edinburgh without trial, the men being dismembered alive and the women burnt. It was said no traveller was safe in the Western Highlands until that was done in the interests of humanity.

Head hunting and cannibalism was endemic in Indonesia, the Coral Sea and Australia until the 20^th century. Aboriginal women are also recorded as sharing their children among their next of kin females during hard times. Cannibalism continued in Papua-New Guinea and parts of South East Asia and in Africa after WWII where laughing sickness (a disease of cannibalism) was still being reported. Some Pagans still conduct human sacrifice in secret to this very day.

This cult of worship of the Moon God Sin as the Golden Calf or Molech, or in its aspects of the triune god, of which the Trinity is the modern derivation, is the most evil form of human barbarity. God condemns it and its system which is extant even today (cf. the papers The Origins of Christmas and Easter (No. 235) and The Doctrine of Original Sin Part I The Garden of Eden (No. 246)).

The entire system was wound up in the adulterous practices of the Mystery Cults. Adultery, fornication, the lusts of the flesh, human sacrifice and Christmas and Easter were interwoven aspects of a pagan worship, which worked to the calendar and system of worship still practised today. The world, including Israel, is in an adulterous relationship with the god of this world and does not know it.

Other Prohibited Relationships

There are a number of serious prohibited relationships, which are treated very seriously.

Prostitution

Leviticus 19:29 Do not prostitute thy daughter, to cause her to be a whore; lest the land fall to whoredom, and the land become full of wickedness. (KJV)

Idolatrous fornication and whoredom

Numbers 25:1-18 And Israel abode in Shittim, and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab. ²And they called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods: and the people did eat, and bowed down to their gods. ³And Israel joined himself unto Baalpeor: and the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel. ⁴And the LORD said unto Moses, Take all the heads of the people, and hang them up before the LORD against the sun, that the fierce anger of the LORD may be turned away from Israel. ⁵And Moses said unto the judges of Israel, Slay ye every one his men that were joined unto Baalpeor. ⁶And, behold, one of the children of Israel came and brought unto his brethren a Midianitish woman in the sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, who were weeping before the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. ⁷And when Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose up from among the congregation, and took a javelin in his hand; ⁸And he went after the man of Israel into the tent, and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman through her belly. So the plague was stayed from the children of Israel. ⁹And those that died in the plague were twenty and four thousand. ¹⁰And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, ¹¹Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, hath turned my wrath away from the children of Israel, while he was zealous for my sake among them, that I consumed not the children of Israel in my jealousy. ¹²Wherefore say, Behold, I give unto him my covenant of peace: ¹³And he shall have it, and his seed after him, even the covenant of an everlasting priesthood; because he was zealous for his God, and made an atonement for the children of Israel. ¹⁴Now the name of the Israelite that was slain, even that was slain with the Midianitish woman, was Zimri, the son of Salu, a prince of a chief house among the Simeonites. ¹⁵And the name of the Midianitish woman that was slain was Cozbi, the daughter of Zur; he was head over a people, and of a chief house in Midian. ¹⁶And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, ¹⁷Vex the Midianites, and smite them: ¹⁸For they vex you with their wiles, wherewith they have beguiled you in the matter of Peor, and in the matter of Cozbi, the daughter of a prince of Midian, their sister, which was slain in the day of the plague for Peor's sake. (KJV)

As seen above, fornication was tied also to the doctrines of these foreign gods. These have the effect of producing a reprobate mind as we have seen in Romans chapter 1 (especially verses 18-32), because the priests have withheld the truth in unrighteousness.

Sodomy

Leviticus 18:22Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination. (KJV)

Sodomy is an abomination, and any sodomite or homosexual is prevented from entering the kingdom of God, unless he has the fruit of repentance.

Deuteronomy 23:17-18 There shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite of the sons of Israel. ¹⁸Thou shalt not bring the hire of a whore, or the price of a dog, into the house of the LORD thy God for any vow: for even both these are abomination unto the LORD thy God. (KJV) (cf. also Lev. 20:13 below)

In Deuteronomy 23:18 these sodomites are identified as the dogs referred to in Revelation 22:15 as being outside the kingdom of God. They and lesbians are an abomination before God (Rom. 1:24-27).

Romans 1:24-27 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: ²⁵Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. ²⁶For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: ²⁷And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. (KJV)

Bestiality

Bestiality is denied to those of the Faith, as it also is a perversion.

Exodus 22:19 "Whoever lies with a beast shall be put to death. (RSV)

Leviticus 18:23 And you shall not lie with any beast and defile yourself with it, neither shall any woman give herself to a beast to lie with it: it is perversion.

(cf. also Deut. 27:21)

Captivity and destruction are the punishment, and it was for this reason and the worship of Ashtaroth or Easter that God ordered the inhabitants of Canaan to be destroyed. No one of the Faith is to do these things; neither any one of the nation, nor any stranger who sojourns among us.

Leviticus 18:24-30 “Do not defile yourselves by any of these things, for by all these the nations I am casting out before you defiled themselves; ²⁵ and the land became defiled, so that I punished its iniquity, and the land vomited out its inhabitants. ²⁶ But you shall keep my statutes and my ordinances and do none of these abominations, either the native or the stranger who sojourns among you ²⁷ (for all of these abominations the men of the land did, who were before you, so that the land became defiled); ²⁸ lest the land vomit you out, when you defile it, as it vomited out the nation that was before you. ²⁹ For whoever shall do any of these abominations, the persons that do them shall be cut off from among their people. ³⁰ So keep my charge never to practice any of these abominable customs which were practiced before you, and never to defile yourselves by them: I am the LORD your God." (RSV)

Punishment for Sexual Sins

Fornication has damages that necessarily follow. The commission of fornication requires marriage. Where marriage is not possible, or refused by the father of the girl, then the dowry of virgins is to be paid in compensation.

Exodus 22:16-18 And if a man entice a maid that is not betrothed, and lie with her, he shall surely endow her to be his wife. ¹⁷If her father utterly refuse to give her unto him, he shall pay money according to the dowry of virgins. ¹⁸Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live. (KJV)

Fornication carries with it a punishment. Fornication on the spiritual level, namely witchcraft, is punishable by death (v. 18). For all sin is against God and we sin not against men; we only damage them. We sin against God and Him alone.

Psalm 51:1-4 To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. ²Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. ³For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. ⁴Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. (KJV)

Where a bondmaid commits fornication and is not free, she is to be scourged. This would likewise extend to someone coerced in employment through economic circumstances.

Leviticus 19:20 And whosoever lieth carnally with a woman, that is a bondmaid, betrothed to an husband, and not at all redeemed, nor freedom given her; she shall be scourged; they shall not be put to death, because she was not free. (KJV)

The punishment for adultery is death and the punishment for all fornication is death, just as the Ten Commandments and their legislation are all backed by the death sentence.

Leviticus 20:10-17 And the man that committeth adultery with another man's wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbour's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death. ¹¹And the man that lieth with his father's wife hath uncovered his father's nakedness: both of them shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them. ¹²And if a man lie with his daughter in law, both of them shall surely be put to death: they have wrought confusion; their blood shall be upon them. ¹³If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them. ¹⁴And if a man take a wife and her mother, it is wickedness: they shall be burnt with fire, both he and they; that there be no wickedness among you. ¹⁵And if a man lie with a beast, he shall surely be put to death: and ye shall slay the beast. ¹⁶And if a woman approach unto any beast, and lie down thereto, thou shalt kill the woman, and the beast: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them. ¹⁷And if a man shall take his sister, his father's daughter, or his mother's daughter, and see her nakedness, and she see his nakedness; it is a wicked thing; and they shall be cut off in the sight of their people: he hath uncovered his sister's nakedness; he shall bear his iniquity. (KJV)

Abraham broke this law when he married his half-sister Sarah and was thus subject to the penalty of the law. God intervened after a protracted period because of their faith. Indeed, all the nation of Israel sprung from the breach of the law. Also, Abraham was the father of all of the faith and the nation of Israel was the vehicle used to accomplish this. Why was this matter within scripture and yet allowed? The answer is simple. It was done to show again the relationship of the elect as sons or daughters of God; to indicate that the progeny of all relationships stand or fall on their own before God; and to show that all can inherit the kingdom of God regardless of the circumstance of their birth or their sin. A child born in circumstances contrary to law is nevertheless a potential son of God.

Under the Triune system of the pagans, human sacrifice and also cannibalism prevailed amongst them. The contrast between the Law of God and the practice of the pagans was absolute. Abraham was used to show that God did not approve of or require such sacrifice, even though it would have been offered if He had asked it. The sacrifice of the faith is of the self and the laying down of one’s life for each other as Christ showed us. We are all called to a higher understanding. Repentance will be expected of all mankind and the final sanction is death.

The commandments are to be administered with mercy and compassion, and no person is to be put to death without the opportunity of repentance, as we see from Christ’s example.

John 8:1-11 Jesus went unto the mount of Olives. ²And early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all the people came unto him; and he sat down, and taught them. ³And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst, ⁴They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. ⁵Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou? ⁶This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not. ⁷So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. ⁸And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground. ⁹And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. ¹⁰When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? ¹¹She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more. (KJV)

Judgment rests in Messiah, and only through repentance are we brought before the Living God as part of His Temple (cf. 1Cor. 5:1-13). It is from within that evil thoughts proceed, showing the condition of the spirit (Mk. 7:21).

The entire thinking process of fornication and perversion comes from being removed from God and from an idolatrous mindset. The entire intent of Romans 1:1-32 is to demonstrate that from idolatry and untruth, or ungodliness (withholding the truth in unrighteousness) we get fornication and the unnatural lusts of the flesh, such as sodomy and lesbianism and the breach of every commandment. Although fornication and homosexuality are not found in or specifically prohibited by the Ten Commandments they are found as substructures within the Law; they are extraneous to the Ten but are dependent upon them.

Romans 1:28-32 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; ²⁹Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, ³⁰Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, ³¹Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: ³²Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. (KJV)

Galatians 5:19-21Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, ²⁰Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, ²¹Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. (KJV)

No one can inherit the kingdom of God in a state of fornication or of any other impurity. However, we are not justified by the law or our adherence to it. Our righteousness is as filthy rags (Isa. 64:6). We are saved not by our own works under the law but by grace; not the circumcision of the flesh but by circumcision of the heart in the Holy Spirit (Gal. 5:1-4). If we are justified by the law we are fallen from grace. Does that mean we do not have to keep the law? By no means and under no circumstances is that true, especially since it is the will of God and “even our sanctification” that we should abstain from fornication (1Thes. 4:3).

This world and the people in it will be destroyed by the living God because they do not repent of the works of their hands and their fornication and theft.

Revelation 9:21Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts. (KJV)

The fornications of this world proceed from the false system of the whore, that has committed fornication with the kings of the earth (Rev. 14:8; 17:2-4; 18:3; 19:2) and its false system and with the god of this world who has blinded all men (2Cor. 4:4) and they have gone whoring (cf. Hos. 4:1-19; Ezek. 23:19-21). God will judge them all. He will take the seed of the sorcerers and the fornicators and evil doers and deal with them. He will remove the righteous and the merciful and no one will take it to heart, and then He will destroy the false seed and there will be no peace (cf. Isa. 57:1-21). Neither will anyone be saved simply by not being born of fornication (Jn. 8:41-42). Conversely, people born illegitimately will not be rejected from salvation.

Deuteronomy 23:2 A bastard shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD; even to his tenth generation shall he not enter into the congregation of the LORD. (KJV)

The meaning here is that where there were once bastards there will be only sons of the living God. The curses of the nation stand upon immorality.

The breach of the commandments comes from the absence of truth, mercy and the knowledge of God in the land (Hos. 4:1 cf. 1Chr. 5:25).

We also are to protect one another in all circumstances. Our understanding of the human condition is only now reaching the point where we understand the scientific basis of these laws. There is however, a spiritual basis to all the purification legislation (cf. Law and the Sixth Commandment (No. 259)).

Leviticus 20:18 And if a man shall lie with a woman having her sickness, and shall uncover her nakedness; he hath discovered her fountain, and she hath uncovered the fountain of her blood: and both of them shall be cut off from among their people. (KJV)

Unclean relationships are punished by being cut off. Thus such activity removes one from the Church and the faith. The punishment for some sins is to die childless.

Leviticus 20:19-24 And thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy mother's sister, nor of thy father's sister: for he uncovereth his near kin: they shall bear their iniquity. ²⁰And if a man shall lie with his uncle's wife, he hath uncovered his uncle's nakedness: they shall bear their sin; they shall die childless. ²¹And if a man shall take his brother's wife, it is an unclean thing: he hath uncovered his brother's nakedness; they shall be childless. ²²Ye shall therefore keep all my statutes, and all my judgments, and do them: that the land, whither I bring you to dwell therein, spue you not out. ²³And ye shall not walk in the manners of the nation, which I cast out before you: for they committed all these things, and therefore I abhorred them. ²⁴But I have said unto you, Ye shall inherit their land, and I will give it unto you to possess it, a land that floweth with milk and honey: I am the LORD your God, which have separated you from other people. (KJV)

Role of males in society

As the camp of Israel was to be kept clean so too were the people of Israel to be kept clean. From the fifth commandment we saw that the command was for us to be holy. Here we see that that extends to our dwellings and our persons so that God sees no unclean thing in us.

Deuteronomy 23:7-14Thou shalt not abhor an Edomite; for he is thy brother: thou shalt not abhor an Egyptian; because thou wast a stranger in his land. ⁸The children that are begotten of them shall enter into the congregation of the LORD in their third generation. ⁹When the host goeth forth against thine enemies, then keep thee from every wicked thing. ¹⁰If there be among you any man, that is not clean by reason of uncleanness that chanceth him by night, then shall he go abroad out of the camp, he shall not come within the camp: ¹¹But it shall be, when evening cometh on, he shall wash himself with water: and when the sun is down, he shall come into the camp again. ¹²Thou shalt have a place also without the camp, whither thou shalt go forth abroad: ¹³And thou shalt have a paddle upon thy weapon; and it shall be, when thou wilt ease thyself abroad, thou shalt dig therewith, and shalt turn back and cover that which cometh from thee: ¹⁴For the LORD thy God walketh in the midst of thy camp, to deliver thee, and to give up thine enemies before thee; therefore shall thy camp be holy: that he see no unclean thing in thee, and turn away from thee. (KJV)

Salvation is of the Gentiles. The status of the nation of Israel is extended to them. Joseph was also of Egypt, as the mother of Ephraim and Manasseh was Egyptian. There is Gentile lineage in both Judah and Israel. God walks among us.

The social structure is one of the family and the males of the family are tasked with ensuring the family structure, and then the success of the tribe and nation. Those who are made eunuchs for the Church are tasked with making the Church function.

Role of females in society

Men are to give honour to women.

1Peter 3:7 Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered. (KJV)

What about the people who are not married? The Lord sets males and females in families and the Church is a family of God. We have seen that women are to be treated as brethren and that no captive woman can be taken into Israel as wife and be unequal (Deut. 21:10-14).

Proverbs shows that women have important work to perform. The Bible is clear on one thing, and that seems to be that the only limitation on the undertakings of women is that they cannot be priests. They are also excluded from war by legislation.

Both women and men are equal in the kingdom of God, there being no marriage, and they are as angels of God. The Holy Spirit confers on all a transition from the physical to the spiritual. A woman is bound to her husband in marriage, and the rights of a woman in marriage to undertake contracts by oaths are shown in the Law and the Fifth Commandment (No. 258) (cf. Num. 30: 6-10).

There is great distinction in the dress and bearing of a man and a woman.

Deuteronomy 22:5 The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the LORD thy God. (KJV)

The hair is a further basis for distinction as is the wearing of jewellery, much of which is of pagan origin (cf. the paper The Origin of the Wearing of Earrings and Jewellery in Ancient Times (No. 197)).

Protection of women in marriage or monetary unions

Much of the law is written for the protection of women in a social structure that appears more difficult than it is today. However, that is only illusory as the social fabric of our people is being systematically destroyed by a reprobate mind that is in enmity towards God. The social degeneration is now such that we are in the worst days of the end, where it is as base as it was in the time Sodom and Gomorrah. God will intervene soon to stop it before we destroy ourselves, and Messiah will come to establish his kingdom under all the law.

Both male and female children are brought into a covenant relationship with Israel and the One True God. The male is circumcised as a child and set aside by purification of the mother. So too is the female set aside in a distinctly different manner (Lev. 12:2-5). These distinctions are for the protection of the females and the children as part of the law and are not to be set aside lightly. No Gentile converted to the faith is required to be circumcised (Acts 15:1-30).

The female is to be protected by the male from serious consequence resulting from the activities of the male (Prov. 5:15-19; cf. 18:4). No woman can be taken sexually during her menstrual condition or when similarly incapacitated.

Leviticus 18:19 Also thou shalt not approach unto a woman to uncover her nakedness, as long as she is put apart for her uncleanness. (KJV)

So too is the female to protect the male.

The capacity to purchase servants existed under the Law of God. However, there were a number of important safeguards under the law which carry lessons for today.

Exodus 21:7-11 And if a man sell his daughter to be a maidservant, she shall not go out as the menservants do. ⁸If she please not her master, who hath betrothed her to himself, then shall he let her be redeemed: to sell her unto a strange nation he shall have no power, seeing he hath dealt deceitfully with her. ⁹And if he have betrothed her unto his son, he shall deal with her after the manner of daughters. ¹⁰If he take him another wife; her food, her raiment, and her duty of marriage, shall he not diminish. ¹¹And if he do not these three unto her, then shall she go out free without money. (KJV)

No person is to be reduced by monetary circumstances to the extent that their nationality or their capacity to enter into marriage as a lasting union is prejudiced. No person who enters into marriage by monetary agreement may damage the long-term welfare of a wife, or daughter-in-law, or withhold their freedom.

God is the protector of the fatherless and the widows (Jer. 49:11). The women in society are kept together under the Laws of God as a cohesive structure. The modern so-called Christian society does not work and never has worked. It does not work because it is not based on the Laws of God. All of its tenets are in fact perversions of God’s Laws and destructive to the planet. The false system has inflicted more misery on humans and resulted in the complete degradation of both males and females, but more specifically the females. It is in fact a compromise where the barbarous and immoral mysteries adapted the Christian doctrines to a pagan structure of the triune god, and carried on with varying degrees of the same immorality in different pseudo-Christian or, more correctly, Gnostic disguises.

Crime and punishment

Exodus 21:16-27 And he that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death. ¹⁷And he that curseth his father, or his mother, shall surely be put to death. ¹⁸And if men strive together, and one smite another with a stone, or with his fist, and he die not, but keepeth his bed: ¹⁹If he rise again, and walk abroad upon his staff, then shall he that smote him be quit: only he shall pay for the loss of his time, and shall cause him to be thoroughly healed. ²⁰And if a man smite his servant, or his maid, with a rod, and he die under his hand; he shall be surely punished. ²¹Notwithstanding, if he continue a day or two, he shall not be punished: for he is his money. ²²If men strive, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her, and yet no mischief follow: he shall be surely punished, according as the woman's husband will lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine. ²³And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life, ²⁴Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, ²⁵Burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe. ²⁶And if a man smite the eye of his servant, or the eye of his maid, that it perish; he shall let him go free for his eye's sake. ²⁷And if he smite out his manservant's tooth, or his maidservant's tooth; he shall let him go free for his tooth's sake. (KJV)

The punishment for a series of offences that strike at the family and its vulnerability is often death. The law protects family and the fruit of marriage.

The curses of the nation stand upon immorality.

Deuteronomy 27:20-23 Cursed be he that lieth with his father's wife; because he uncovereth his father's skirt. And all the people shall say, Amen. ²¹Cursed be he that lieth with any manner of beast. And all the people shall say, Amen. ²²Cursed be he that lieth with his sister, the daughter of his father, or the daughter of his mother. And all the people shall say, Amen. ²³Cursed be he that lieth with his mother in law. And all the people shall say, Amen. (KJV)

The punishment for the breach of the seventh commandment and the sub-ordinances is of a sequence. Some relationships are directly punished by God. God shut up Pharaoh’s household because Pharaoh took Sarah, not knowing she was Abraham’s wife. Even though Abraham caused him to sin by silence, it was Pharaoh who was punished.

The Lord will judge with righteousness and truth (Ps. 96:11-13). Open breach of the commandments is to be censured by the society, as we see with Messiah and the adulterous woman, where a simple reprimand was sufficient.

The next stage from reprimand is physical punishment by scourging. The legislation allows numbers of strokes – up to 39 – to be delivered depending on the repetitive nature of the offence. These are determined by magistrates.

Deuteronomy 17:8-10 If there arise a matter too hard for thee in judgment, between blood and blood, between plea and plea, and between stroke and stroke, being matters of controversy within thy gates: then shalt thou arise, and get thee up into the place which the LORD thy God shall choose; ⁹And thou shalt come unto the priests the Levites, and unto the judge that shall be in those days, and enquire; and they shall shew thee the sentence of judgment: ¹⁰And thou shalt do according to the sentence, which they of that place which the LORD shall choose shall shew thee; and thou shalt observe to do according to all that they inform thee: (KJV)

Under no circumstances is a person to receive more than forty stripes.

Deuteronomy 25:1-3If there be a controversy between men, and they come unto judgment, that the judges may judge them; then they shall justify the righteous, and condemn the wicked. ²And it shall be, if the wicked man be worthy to be beaten, that the judge shall cause him to lie down, and to be beaten before his face, according to his fault, by a certain number. ³Forty stripes he may give him, and not exceed: lest, if he should exceed, and beat him above these with many stripes, then thy brother should seem vile unto thee. (KJV)

Punishment is summary and carried out forthwith. To ensure that this is never done by miscount, there were only ever thirty-nine strokes given in ancient Israel and Judah.

2Corinthians 11:24-25 Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. ²⁵Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; (KJV)

Paul was stoned at Lystra (Acts 14:19). The lash seems to have also had a lesser type of rod, which Paul received three times (Acts 16:22). Paul was unlawfully stoned because it was not done by the judiciary. The action in Acts 16:22 was taken at the order of magistrates. The lictors carried rods (hence the terms Rod-bearer and “a licking”). The praetors were attended by these lictors who administered punishment. Only in severe cases of repeated refusal to repent and obey magistrates and the law is the death penalty to be administered, and not to female bond-servants who may only be beaten.

Financial compensation is determined by the judiciary based on the merits of each claim. Justice is thus seen to be done and evil removed.

The faithfulness of God

God is faithful and we should demonstrate our fidelity to Him. Through the First Great Commandment we are faithful brides of Messiah. By keeping the Seventh Commandment we demonstrate our faithfulness also in a physical sense, which is why the elect are judged on a higher plane (cf. Deut. 5:32-33).

“Men proclaim their own goodness, but who can find faithfulness” (Prov. 20:6). The religious whore is a fornicator with men and gods for power (Rev. 17:14). We should be faithful to God and to each other in all things, and then God can make us rulers in truth and fidelity (Mat. 25:21).

God is faithful to us. We must be faithful also (Ps. 89:1-4) for we are the seed of the promise through the Messiah and we shall be established forever as elohim as the household of David (Zech. 12:8). For his mercy and faithfulness endures forever and reaches to the heavens (Ps. 36:5-6).

All vessels are made for the purposes of the Creator and we are not to lightly misuse them or set them aside.

Romans 9:14-26 What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. ¹⁵For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. ¹⁶So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy. ¹⁷For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. ¹⁸Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. ¹⁹Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? ²⁰Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? ²¹Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? ²²What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: ²³And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, ²⁴Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles? ²⁵As he saith also in Osee, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved. ²⁶And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God. (KJV)

The Distinction between Good and Evil

The tree of the knowledge of good and evil carries with it the curse (Gen. 3:17). There are twelve times in Deuteronomy when the people are required to say “Amen” in order to prevent the Lord’s wrath being kindled against them (Deut. 11:17; Lev. 25:19; 26:4; Deut. 32:43; Isa. 24:4-6).

Within the Law, all Commandments flow from the First Great Commandment; so too does every perversion of the Law flow from its breach. The only way out of fornication of any sort is true repentance.

2Corinthians 12:21 And lest, when I come again, my God will humble me among you, and that I shall bewail many which have sinned already, and have not repented of the uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness which they have committed. (KJV)