Andy Naselli

Thoughts on Theology

purity

Pornography: A Spiritual Pandemic

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Pornography was the topic in my ethics class this week. The fourth-year Master of Divinity (M.Div.) students surveyed various approaches to ethics at the beginning of the semester, and since then we’ve been studying and discussing various issues such as abortion, euthanasia, the death penalty, contraception, divorce and remarriage, homosexuality, transgenderism, critical theory, ethnicity, war, genetic engineering, and the state. In our (justified) concern about prevailing ideologies in our culture, such as LGBT and critical theory, pornography can stay under the radar as a silent corrupter.

That’s the opening paragraph to a short essay I prepared for my school’s weekly prayer letter update yesterday (which I’d encourage you to subscribe to).

In the article I share what eleven students thought about one of the required readings for our class period: Joe Rigney’s More Than a Battle: How to Experience Victory, Freedom, and Healing from Lust.

Seven Reasons You Should Not Indulge in Pornography

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That’s the title of my article (PDF | web version) for the latest issue of Themelios.

From the introduction:

My goal is to motivate you to say no to pornography by God’s grace. This article does not comprehensively address how to deal with pornography. Other resources do that well, and I recommend several of them below. My burden in this article is to motivate you not to indulge in pornography. I am particularly burdened to motivate people who habitually indulge in pornography and who are not killing their sin of lust. If that describes you, then this article is a way of metaphorically taking you firmly by the shoulders, looking you directly in the eyes, and soberly warning you, “Wake up! Do you realize what the consequences are for indulging in pornography?!”

I argue that you should not indulge in pornography for at least seven reasons:

1. It will send you to hell.

2. It does not glorify God with your body.

3. It is a poisonous, fleeting pleasure. [Read more…] about Seven Reasons You Should Not Indulge in Pornography

When You Indulge in Pornography, You Participate in Sex Slavery

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That’s what I argue in this article (PDF | web version):

Andrew David Naselli. “When You Indulge in Pornography, You Participate in Sex Slavery.” Journal for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood 20:2 (2015): 23–30.

(The JBMW issue released online today.)

I attempt to answer three questions:

  1. What is sex slavery?
  2. How does pornography fuel sex slavery?
  3. How should men feel about pornography?

[Read more…] about When You Indulge in Pornography, You Participate in Sex Slavery

Is It Sinful for Unmarried Couples to Make Out?

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Gerald Hiestand convincingly argues that the answer is yes:

Gerald Hiestand, “A Biblical-Theological Approach to Premarital Sexual Ethics: or, What Saint Paul Would Say about ‘Making Out,’” Bulletin of Ecclesial Theology 1 (2014): 13–32.

This article expands on the first two chapters in Gerald Hiestand and Jay Thomas, Sex, Dating, and Relationships: A Fresh Approach (Wheaton: Crossway, 2012).

Here’s the article’s thesis: [Read more…] about Is It Sinful for Unmarried Couples to Make Out?

The Best Book on Sexual Purity

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freeThis is by far the single most helpful book on sexual purity for men that I’m aware of:

Heath Lambert. Finally Free: Fighting for Purity with the Power of Grace. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2013. 176 pp. 23-page sample PDF.

It’s clear, direct, practical, and grace-giving.

I highly recommended this for men who are fighting lust or wallowing in it. I pray that God will use this book to help thousands of men be “finally free.”

[Read more…] about The Best Book on Sexual Purity

How Addiction Works

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Paul David Tripp, Sex and Money: Pleasures That Leave You Empty and Grace That Satisfies  Tripp (Wheaton: Crossway, 2013), 22–23 [22-page sample PDF]:

The dynamic of addiction is that if you look to something that God created, to give you what it wasn’t intended to give you, either you get discouraged quickly, and wisely abandon those hopes, or you go back again and again, and in so doing, you begin to travel down addiction’s road. That created thing will give you a short-term buzz of euphoria, it will offer you temporary pleasure, it will provide a momentary sense of well-being, it will briefly make you feel that you’re something, and it may even make your problems seem not so bad for a bit. [Read more…] about How Addiction Works

Covenant Eyes

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This is a guest post by Joe Tyrpak, one of my accountability partners.

I use Covenant Eyes on my desktop and laptop computers, and I agree with Joe that it is outstanding accountability software.

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Fighting Lust, Inviting Accountability, Using Covenant Eyes

Fighting lust is an all-out war. Even though it’s not the only front on which the battle is fought, one crucial strategy for fighting lust is accountability. And even though the Internet is not the only place where a guy struggles with temptation, Internet accountability is one of the most crucial aspects of accountability today. [Read more…] about Covenant Eyes

Sex Ethics in 1 Thess 4:3–8

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Bob Yarbrough has authored two articles on what 1 Thess 4:3–8 teaches about sex:

1. Robert W. Yarbrough, “Excellence in Christian Living: Sex Ethics à la First Thessalonians 4:3–8,” Reformation and Revival 5:4 (1996): 67–76.

Outline

  1. A Modern Ancient Problem
  2. Paul’s Commitment to True Excellence
  3. God’s Will: Sex Ethics at Center Stage
  4. The Gravity of Sexual Misconduct
  5. Paul’s (God’s) Call to Excellence Today [Read more…] about Sex Ethics in 1 Thess 4:3–8