A Theology Of Sex

I am doing a series via e-mail for the singles ministry I oversee at church. Over the next couple weeks, I'd like to post on here what I have written and will write. Feel free to interact with my posts here if you wish, and contribute your own insights.

(Part 1)Going through Lee University, it was interesting to see the two polar opposites that existed within the school when it came to talking about sex.On the one hand, there was Dr. Tatum. Dr Tatum comes from a rather old-school background in the Church of God, where the topic of sex is not really ever talked about. I never knew that talking about sex could be so difficult for anybody than when I met Dr. Tatum. I heard a rumor from one of the other students that in one of his classes on the Old Testament, that he got very nervous when he talked about the Song of Solomon, and scarcely acted as if the book existed to begin with. So, knowing I would be taking this class eventually, I set out with the purpose of making him squirm for a prolonged period of time when it came to talking about the Song of Solomon. It was such a funny sight to see, and I was successful in doing such, to the delight of the other students. Finally Dr Tatum just wrote on the board everything he was prepared to teach about that book. All he did was simply write the name "Song of Solomon" on the board, and then exclaimed, "I've not really studied this book very much!"Then on the other hand, there was Debbie Snodgrass, daughter of the beloved Dr. George Voorhis, the mentor of Loran Livingston and former professor of East Coast Bible College. She taught a class called, "The Christian Family," where one student declared that he learned more about sex in that class than he had in over 20 years of being married! Debbie Snodgrass was essentially the anti-Tatum when it came to sex. She was hardly bashful when it came to talking about it. In fact, she told a story of how when she was 7 she had asked her mom about something she saw on TV. She asked her mom, a pastors wife, "Mom, do you kiss daddy with your tongue?" Her mom was much more like Dr. Tatum, and she said her mom's face turned beat red, and her mom simply excused herself from the room, and she says she didn't see her for pretty much the rest of the day. Outside of telling people they shouldn't have sex outside of marriage, Debbie Snodgrass said growing up you simply did not hear anything about sex from the pulpit.I think it's rather sad these days that you simply don't hear much teaching on what the Scriptures have to say about sex. We as the church should be much more open about sex than we are. For if we as the church fail to educate people about what God has to say about sex, people will simply come to embrace what the world has to say about it. Instead of learning about sex from the Scriptures, people will be left to learning about sex through the public school system, locker room banter, MTV, or perverted movies such as "40-Year-Old-Virgin." Is it no wonder that people these days think just about any type of sexual activity is acceptable so long as its between "two consenting adults?"There is a lot the Scriptures have to say about sex. Of course, you would think as little as it is talked about, the Scriptures say nothing on it other than commands against comitting fornication, adultery, and homoexuality. But the Bible has a lot more to say about sex than simply these commands! There is a good reason for this. Sex is something every human being thinks of... and thinks about it a lot! In fact, some of you are thinking about it right now!

(Part 2)To continue on with our discussion of sex I would like to just come out and say it up front, something which may shock you, and is probably not how you are used to thinking: Sex is foremost a spiritual act.Yet this is hardly is how we typically think of sex in American society and the church. In America because of our highly secularized society, sex is primarily thought of in an animalistic manner. This can best be seen in the song that came out in the late 90's that went like: "Hey Baby, you and me ain't nothing but mammals, so let's do it like they do on the discovery channel." The same attitude is also expressed in the church by many. Consider St. Augustine who so abhored his prior sexual sins before his conversion, that when he began teaching in his church, he taught that God only gave the sexual function for the purpose of reproduction, and that in marriage the sexual act should be as least pleasurable as possible, and over as quickly as possible, because of its "carnal" nature. Even though we are far from Roman Catholic in our theology, I believe such a philosophy towards sex has still crept into many of our mindsets today.When I preach open-air on the streets, a favorite theme of mine to preach on (often because of the younger age of my audience) is on sex. When I teach on sex on the streets, many are often shocked to hear what I have to say on it, because many have bought into the mindset that sex is primarily a filthy carnal act that God is not pleased with. Yet when I teach I generally say something along these lines: "God loves sex! God wants you to have sex! God wants you to have a lot of sex! God wants you to have great mind-blowing sex!" Such preaching absolutely bewilders people on the streets as unthinkable. Such preaching also would be intolerable in most churches today, and I would be stoned for it if said from the pulpit. And why? Because once again, sex is hardly thought of being in anyway spiritual today.Yet I'm firmly convicted through my study of the Scriptures that sex is such. Sex is foremost a spiritual act. Case in point, the Song of Solomon. The fact that this frankly sexual book is found in the Bible troubles many. So much so the church over the years has adopted an "allegorical" or "spiritualized" interpretation of this book, and simply plays it off as a book that is written about Christ's love for His bride, the church. That is the most you'll ever hear most anybody teach on the Song of Solomon. Yet, while I do not deny there is some truth behind such an interpretation, it is nevertheless an interpretation the Scriptures never once teach. Such a soft interpretation of the book simply cannot stand. If one really closely examines the Song of Solomon, you will see it is hardly a book about Christ and His church. Such an interpretation can't ever explain rather graphic and sexually saturated verses such as, "May my beloved come into his garden and eat its choice fruits!" (Song of Solomon 4:16), which some interpreters have seen specifically as a reference to oral sex! A truly "spiritual" interpretation of the Song of Solomon will be not simply declaring it as a story about Christ's love for the church. Rather, a true spiritual interpretation of the Song of Solomon will see that a sexual relationship is truly a spiritual relationship and experience.Author of such books as "I Kissed Dating Good-bye" and "Boy Meets Girl," Josh Harris, once said that contrary to our general understanding of sex as simply a carnal act, sex is such a spiritual act that he likens it to a "worship service!" Without attempting to sound vulguar, and in all seriousness, perhaps this is why some people cry out "O God!" during sex? "Ha ha" you may say, and perhaps you may even blush at the thought. But in light of what has been said up to this point, is this not a very good possibility? C. S. Lewis once argued as a proof for the existance of God the fact that there are some days you and I wake up and we are geniunely thankful to be alive. He argued, if God does not exist, why do we then have this desire to give somebody thanks? This can only be explained by the fact that God exists he argued. In the same line of thought, I would argue along with C. S. Lewis that because sex is such a spiritual act, even in its many perverted forms such as in pornography, acts of fornication, and even homosexuality, people still cry out to God during it. Why? Because the sexual relationship is foremost a spiritual one.