dear god, i am SO sick of people glorifying the past. want to know what happened to sex before marriage? truth is, it's NEVER been that popular with people. we may be a bit more open about it nowadays than, say, 50 years ago, but it's not like the 1950's were some glorious era of morals and chastity. sex before marriage has been thriving since the very day the whole idea of "marriage" came to be. and want to know why you keep hearing so many bad sex stories on this site? here's a clue: it's called **** MY LIFE. you're not going to find too many examples here of people, (like me), who happen to practice perfectly responsible and enjoyable premarital sex. and at school? that probably has a lot to do with the fact that YOU'RE ******* FOURTEEN. of course most people who have sex a year or two after hitting puberty aren't going to be quite ready for it yet. also, most who do enjoy responsible sex lives aren't the ones out there "bragging" about it - just to give you a bit of perspective. (i also find it interesting that you're on here decrying premarital sex, but then admit to following a book that clearly defines rape, having multiple wives, and even owning your own personal harem as acceptable sexual behavior. huh.)

Umm... no. It doesn't. I do agree with the rest of your comment. It's not our job as Christians to judge other people - quite the opposite actually - and it sucks that there are Christians who do judge others (just like a lot of people who judge other people). That's not what we, as Christians, are about though. It seems you may have the wrong impression of Christianity, and I hope you won't judge the religion based on some of the stupid things that Christians have said and done. Also, please read the Bible all the way through. Yes, in Biblical times men were allowed to have multiple wives, usually for political or economic reasons that benefited the women he married. However, when Jesus came, a new covenant was formed that basically overruled the old one. So while a lot of the laws and practices in the Old Testament seem crazy nowadays, remember that they don't even apply anymore. Also, nowhere in the Bible does it condone rape.

Please see: Judges 21:10-24 NLT Numbers 31:7-18 NLT Deuteronomy 20:10-14) Deuteronomy 22:28-29 NLT Deuteronomy 22:23-24 NAB 2 Samuel 12:11-14 NAB Deuteronomy 21:10-14 NAB Judges 5:30 NAB Exodus 21:7-11 NLT Zechariah 14:1-2 NAB Maybe you should read the bible through yourself before suggesting others do so. :) I'll admit I've never read the whole thing in a sitting, but I have read quite a bit - enough to call shenanigans when anyone calls the Christian god a "god of love." It's not like you can just say Jesus came and made it all better. The history of Christianity is a history of rape, murder, war, and violence. While I agree that some of the morals and ideals taught by the New Testament are worth mention, (love thy neighbor, judge not lest ye be judged, he who has committed no sin throw the first stone, etc), that doesn't excuse the rest of Christianity as "no longer relevant." Not that the New Testament isn't misogynistic enough all on its own.

I have indeed read the Bible. I suggest you do so again, because you still aren't getting it. Yes, the Bible talks about all those things, and yes it does seem that God can be pretty brutal at times, but that is because He was punishing those nations that He sent Israel to destroy for their disobedience, just as He punished Israel when He sent Babylon against them. You have to think of God less as Santa Clause or your grandmother who bakes you cookies all the time and more as a father, because that's who He is. Yes, He is a loving God, but at the same time He also disciplines. In addition, you're taking all of those verses out of context. For example, in 2 Samuel you refer to the story of David and Bathsheba, but you've failed to include the verses that talk about David's sin in committing adultery, for which he was punished. Finally, you claim that I can not say the New Testament overrides the laws of the Old Testament, but again you are missing a fundamental point of Christian theology. The Bible explains it all in Paul's epistles, which is why I recommend you read the whole thing (or read the whole thing again if you missed this particular point): When Jesus came and died on the cross, He took on our sins and essentially became God's new covenant with humanity. The laws of the Old Testament were put in place so that the people of Israel could attain righteousness through the law. When Jesus came and died for us, He became the new law. It is only through Him that we reach salvation. Therefore, the laws of the Old Testament are indeed no longer relevant. As for misogyny, the New Testament is actually far ahead of its time in terms of equality. Maybe you don't want to hear a cultural context argument, but it does indeed apply pretty much everywhere in the Bible, since it was all written in a different time period and in different places. The customs were different, the language was different, and a lot of phrases had different meaning in ancient Hebrew than in English. I would love to discuss all of these verses in more detail with you, and if you have other verses in the Bible that you don't agree with or don't make sense to you, I welcome you to share them with me and we can talk about it. I certainly don't have all the answers myself, really only God does, but I will try my best and if you still disagree, that's absolutely fine; but please don't write it off without discussing it in depth. Email me: [email protected]

ok all you people talking about the bible should just chill out. All in All life is short and you should be able to do what you want throughout your life. Well if you want to talk about GOD, god gave everybody thier own bodies and brains to think for THEMSELVES. If somebody wants to have sex before marrige, let them. Life is too short to be worried about other peoples lives. people should just leave people alone let them say what they want to say, do what they want to do, and have sex when ever they want to its no big deal. Dont take this out of context, im talking about this sex thing. Forreal people what are you gonna tell your kids when you have kids, that you like to judge people? Who are you to judge anybody anyway. Its life, GET OVER IT.

If it really is all about "cultural context," wouldn't the New Testament itself be more or less irrelevant by this point? As I said before, the Bible does have some good morals nested in among the hundreds of pages devoted to war, rape, violence, genocide, etc - but so do hundreds of other "holy texts," and many other books that don't have an entire false religion attached to them. Why do you feel the need to believe in an omnipotent "Father figure" for humanity? Do you really believe that humanity deserves to be punished simply for being human? It's just such a guilt-ridden concept.

Cultural context indeed applies to the epistles in the New Testament, since they were, in fact, letters written during that time period. That does not mean that we can't take what is written and apply it to our lives today. For example, Paul says that women should wear a veil in church, right? Probably a little drastic by today's standards, but if we were to take that scripture and get at the point Paul is making, then it translates into wearing nice, decent clothing in church as opposed to say short shorts and a tank top. Paul also says that wives should obey their husbands. In Paul's day, the men were the sole providers for their families. Women did not have a place in the workforce. They didn't have equal rights. That's just how it was. It wasn't a Christian thing. It wasn't Christianity's fault. That's how things were in the Roman Empire. So not only does Paul tell wives to obey their husbands, he also tells husbands to love their wives, and to provide for them. So it's still a two-way street, operating within that context. We can take this and apply it to our lives today. A husband and wife are meant to work together and not be against each other. As for your other paragraph, the Bible is more or less a history of the Israelite people. Of course it has a lot about rape, war, violence, etc. That doesn't mean the Bible says any of it is right though. Just because the Bible talks about all of these things does not mean it condones them as acceptable behaviors. War? Yes, God condones war. He sent the Israelites to war a number of times. Why? Well, unfortunately war is a part of life. What if the Allies had decided not to stand up to Hitler and his armies in WWII? What if they had just let him invade Europe without a fight? War, with good reason, is justified. In ancient times, war was extremely common. Various states always competed for power and land. Now, rape. You keep saying rape is presented as being acceptable in the Bible. It's not. I don't know where you're getting this, but I think you may have misinterpreted some scripture. The Bible clearly states that rape is wrong. In fact, in ancient Israel you could be stoned for raping someone. Violence, genocide, etc. As I said before, the Bible is a historical document. It presents a history of the Israelites as well as the teachings of Jesus and letters of the apostles, among other different types of literature. So just because you read about something in the Bible does not automatically make it right. For example: did David sleep with Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite, and then murder Uriah to cover his sin? Yes. Does that mean it's right to sleep with other men's wives or murder people? No. Of course not. David was punished for his sin, but it still happened. Finally, I do not feel the need to believe in anything. I believe in God because I know Him, I have seen Him at work, and He is ever present in my life. I have tried to imagine a world without God before, and it made no sense to me, because the existence of God is very obvious to me. Whether I'm right or wrong about it shouldn't matter to you. It's what you believe, or don't believe, that matters to you. From now on I won't be checking this page, so if you would like to continue the discussion, please email me.

I forgot one thing. Q: 'Do you really believe that humanity deserves to be punished simply for being human? It's just such a guilt-ridden concept.' A: 'For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.' Ever since we screwed up and allowed sin to enter the world, God has been finding ways to reconcile us to Him. And so He entered the world in human form, as Jesus. And Jesus was sacrificed on the cross so that His blood would be poured out over our sins and erase them.