In article , sp_nrc{at}hotmail.com
says...
>
>
>
>>From reading the old testament, it seems to me that the truth is that
>god does not care who I have sex with, as long as it is not a woman who
>is married, a man, an animal, or a family member.

Maybe it seem to _you_ that way. But that could just be because you are reading
out of context -- something that is all too easy to do.

>  In fact, if I am
>married, I would not be sinning by "having sex" with someone who is not
>my wife.

No, this is not possible. Haven't you read Proverbs? How could you miss the
serious tone of the strong exhortation to enjoy ONLY your own wife? How could
you miss the warning of the dire fate that awaits those who do not obey this?

How could you miss the warning of what happens to the guests of the adulterous
woman? Recall:

   But he does not know that the dead are there,
   that her guests are in the depths of Sheol.  (Pro 9:18 RSVA)


>I base this on what I remember from the lives of men who are "right in
>god's eyes" like David.

You miss the point: even though he sinned, he was "right in God's
eyes" because
he REPENTED.

>  I can't remember exactly, but did not David
>only sin a couple of times in his life?  One time was when he committed
>adultery with the wife of some soldier in his army.

How did you miss the depth of his repentance for this crime? The Psalm he sang
in repentance has become the classic of pentiential Psalms for all generations
ever since! Remember it starts with:

   To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet
   came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba. Have mercy on
   me, O God, according to thy steadfast love; according to thy
   abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly
   from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! For I know
   my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.  (Psa 51:1-3 RSVA)

And even after this depth of repentance, God punished him by allowing David's
son to shame David as publically as David shamed Uriah privately.

  Then of course he
>murdered the soldier because she became pregnant.  I seem to remember
>talk in the bible of David having many "concubines" aside from his
>wives.  Speaking of wives, David had more than one wife!  Can I not
>also take this to mean that I can have more than one wife?  The more
>the better?  (My point was that David had more than one wife, and he
>slept with women who were not his wife, and he was not sinning).

And your point is WRONG.

>This seems to "fly in the face" of what has been taught to me by people
>I can't remember.  This is not the common wisdom of what is considered
>OK in god's eyes.  This seems a lie:
>
>No sex before marriage.

It is not a lie. On the contrary: it is the deep understanding that emerges from
1) reading the various commands you so briefly alluded to IN CONTEXT and 2)
remembering, as Christ explained, that the original purpose was that Adam would
have ONE WIFE, and that modern Christian marriage ethics must be seen in this
light.

Just to give one small example of how different the OT commands appear when read
IN CONTEXT: yes, you will find no explicit command against a young unattached
man sinning with a young unattached woman, NOT because it is not sinful, but
because in those days, her male relatives guarded against that possibility so
thoroughly, no command was necessary! Remember what Dinah's brothers did to the
young man who fell in love with her.


-- 
---------------------------
Subudcat se sibi ut haereat Deo
quidquid boni habet, tribuat illi a quo factus est.
(St. Augustine, Ser. 96)

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