Yes, that was the assignment I was given to speak on! Seriously!
In Alma 39, Alma is chastising his son Corianton for his behaviors during his mission which he was serving with his father. Corianton boasted in his own strength and wisdom and then apparently left his missionary work to go and chase after the harlot Isabel. Alma labels his son's sins as "an abomination in the sight of the Lord; yea, most abominable above all sins save it be the shedding of innocent blood or denying the Holy Ghost".
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| copyright: Karen Larsen |
Our question today, is why is sexual sin, defined as any sexual relations outside of the covenant of marriage (marriage being one woman and one man), is so bad?
Well, in order to understand that, we have to know about two laws.
The Law of Agency = I am free to choose
The Law of Opposition = I can choose between good and bad, righteousness and wickedness, happiness and misery.
Both of these laws are laid out in the doctrines, but
plainly explained in
2nd Nephi 2 by the prophet Lehi to his son
Jacob.
4…for
the Spirit is the same, yesterday, today, and forever. And the way is prepared
from the fall of man, and salvation is free.
5 And men are instructed
sufficiently that they know good from evil. And the law is given unto men. And
by the law no flesh is justified; or, by the law men are cut off. Yea, by the
temporal law they were cut off; and also, by the spiritual law they perish from
that which is good, and become miserable forever.
Commentary: All men know good from evil. We are instructed sufficiently. How does Heavenly Father make sure that statement is true? We are all given the 'Light of Christ' or what the greater population calls our conscience. We know right before we do something wrong, 'Hey, this isn't such a good idea'. Thus, our choice to do wrong or commit evil, is a knowing choice of which we can be held accountable. No flesh is justified because we have been instructed sufficiently to make a better choice. And when we make a wrong choice, the law says, we are cut off from the presence of God.
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| copyright: Karen Larsen |
6 Wherefore, redemption cometh
in and through the Holy Messiah; for he is full of grace and truth.
Commentary: The only way to reconcile our wrong choices and being apart from God is through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.
7 And now, my son, I would to God that ye had not been guilty of so great a crime. I would not dwell upon your crimes, to harrow up your soul, if it were not for your good.
8 But behold, ye cannot hide your crimes from God; and except ye repent they will stand as a testimony against you at the last day.
9 Now my son, I would that ye should repent and forsake your sins, and go no more after the lusts of your eyes, but cross
yourself in all these things; for except ye do this ye can in nowise
inherit the kingdom of God. Oh, remember, and take it upon you, and cross yourself in these things.
10 And because of the intercession for all, all men
come unto God; wherefore, they stand in the presence of him, to be judged of
him according to the truth and holiness which is in him. Wherefore, the ends of
the law which the Holy One hath given, unto the inflicting of the punishment
which is affixed, which punishment that is affixed is in opposition to that of
the happiness which is affixed, to answer the ends of the atonement—
Commentary: Because Christ intercedes for all, we will all be brought back into the presence of God to be judged by Him. We may not stay there, but we will be in His presence long enough to receive our judgement, which will affix punishments to our bad choices or happiness to our good choices---because The Law is that we have consequences for bad choices and happiness for good choices.
11 For it must needs be, that
there is an opposition in all things. If not so, my firstborn in the
wilderness, righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness,
neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad. Wherefore, all things must
needs be a compound in one; wherefore, if it should be one body it must needs
remain as dead, having no life neither death, nor corruption nor incorruption,
happiness nor misery, neither sense nor insensibility.
Going
back to our original question: If sexual
relations outside of marriage is so bad, bad, bad, then because of the Law of
Opposition, then sexual relations with marriage is so WHAT? Good, good, good! Right.
“…the
end of all activity in the Church is to see that a man and a woman with their
children are happy at home, sealed together for time and for all eternity…
The
commandment to multiply and replenish the earth has never been rescinded. It is
essential to the plan of redemption and is the source of human happiness.
Through the righteous exercise of this power, we may come close to our Father
in Heaven and experience a fulness of joy, even godhood. The power of
procreation is not an incidental part of the plan; it is the plan of happiness;
it is the key to happiness.
The
desire to mate in humankind is constant and very strong. Our happiness in
mortal life, our joy and exaltation are dependent upon how we respond to these
persistent, compelling physical desires…..”
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| copyright: Karen Larsen |
..dependent
upon how we respond to those
compelling physical desires…what does that say?
They are compelling desires but we have a choice in how we respond to
them. Hmmm…the Law of Agency applies to those choices.
The
problem with homosexuality today is that Lucifer has convinced many that they
are not free to choose their sexuality, they are compelled and there is no
agency…
What
are the results of the ‘no agency’ theory?
13 And if ye shall say there is no law [of agency], ye
shall also say there is no sin [If I cannot choose, then I am not accountable for my behavior--there is no sin]. If ye shall say there is no sin, ye shall also
say there is no righteousness. And if there be no righteousness there be no
happiness. And if there be no righteousness nor happiness there be no
punishment nor misery. And if these things are not there is no God….
But,
we like Lehi, know verse 14-16:
14 And now, my sons, I speak
unto you these things for your profit and learning; for there is a God, [therefore there is a right and wrong, laws that designate so] and he
hath created all things, both the heavens and the earth, and all things that in
them are, both things to act and things to be acted upon.
15 And to bring about his
eternal purposes in the end of man, after he had created our first parents, and
the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, and in fine, all things which
are created, it must needs be that there was an opposition; …..
16 Wherefore, the Lord God gave unto
man that he should act for himself.
We can choose how to respond to our compelling physical
desires…
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| copyright: Karen Larsen |
Here
is what President Packer says about responding to them righteously:
“And
if you suppose that the full-blown rapture of young romantic love is the sum
total of the possibilities which spring from the fountains of life, you have
not yet lived to see the devotion and the comfort of longtime married love.
Married couples are tried by temptation, misunderstandings, financial problems,
family crises, and illness,
and all the while love grows stronger. Mature love has a bliss not even
imagined by newlyweds.
True
love requires reserving until after marriage the sharing of that affection
which unlocks those sacred powers in that fountain of life. It means avoiding
situations where physical desire might take control. Pure love presupposes that
only after a pledge of eternal fidelity, a legal and lawful ceremony, and
ideally after the sealing ordinance in the temple are those procreative powers
released in God’s eye for the full expression of love. It is to be shared
solely and only with that one who is your companion forever.
When
entered into worthily, this process combines the most exquisite and exalted
physical, emotional, and spiritual feelings associated with the word love. That part of life has no equal, no counterpart, in
all human experience. It will, when covenants are made and kept, last
eternally, “for therein are the keys of the holy priesthood ordained, that you
may receive honor and glory” (D&C
124:34), “which glory shall be a fulness and a continuation of the seeds
forever and ever” (D&C
132:19).”
He
continues:
“The
spirit and the body are the soul of man” (D&C
88:15), and there are spiritual and physical laws to obey if we are to be
happy. There are eternal laws, including laws relating to this power to give
life, “irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon
which all blessings are predicated” (D&C
130:20). These are spiritual laws which define the moral standard for
mankind (see Joseph Smith
Translation, Romans 7:14–15 [in the Bible appendix]; 2 Nephi 2:5;
D&C
29:34; 134:6).
There are covenants which bind, seal, and safeguard and give promise of eternal
blessings….
“Our
passion is to be controlled. When lawfully used, the power of procreation will
bless and will sanctify (see Teachings of Presidents of
the Church: Joseph F. Smith [1998], 158).
“Temptations
are ever present. Because the adversary cannot beget life, he is jealous toward
all who have that supernal power. He and those who followed him were cast out
and forfeited the right to a mortal body.
“He seeketh that all men might be
miserable like unto himself” (2 Nephi
2:27). He will tempt, if he can, to degrade, to corrupt, and, if possible,
to destroy this gift by which we may, if we are worthy, have eternal increase
(see D&C
132:28–31).
If
we pollute our fountains of life or lead others to transgress, there will be
penalties more “exquisite” and “hard to bear” (D&C
19:15) than all the physical pleasure could ever be worth.”
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| copyright: Karen Larsen |
The
reason sexual sin outside of marriage is so bad, is because sexual relations
within marriage are so very, very good.
Elder
Holland likens
it to a sacrament before the Lord.
The
union between husband and wife is so sacred and symbolic that it is the symbol
of being completely unified in everything, heart, soul, mind, body and purpose.
Genesis
2:24: Therefore shall a man leave his
father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife and they shall be one
flesh.
Married
couples are commanded to be one flesh.
Usually we think of that as the physical intimacy between a husband and
wife and so it may be, but where else do they become one flesh?
In
the lives of each and every one of their children. We have nine little (big now) Carin and Drew flesh running around out there in the world.
“Lo
children are an heritage of the Lord and the fruit of the womb is his reward.”
(Psalms 127:3).
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| copyright: Karen Larsen |
Elder
Holland:
"Does any of this help you understand why human intimacy is
such a serious matter? Why it is so right and rewarding and stunningly
beautiful when it is within marriage and approved of God (not just
"good" but "very good," he declared to Adam and Eve), and
so blasphemously wrong--like unto murder--when it is outside such a covenant?
It is my understanding that we park and pet and sleep over and sleep with at
the peril of our very lives. Our penalty may not come on the precise day of our
transgression, but it comes surely and certainly enough, and were it not for a
merciful God and the treasured privilege of personal repentance, far too many
would even now be feeling that hellish pain, which (like the passion we have
been discussing) is also always described in the metaphor of fire. Someday,
somewhere, sometime the morally unclean will, until they repent, pray like the
rich man, wishing Lazarus to "dip . . . his finger in water, and cool my
tongue; for I am tormented in this flame" (Luke 16:24).
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
In closing, consider this from two students of
civilization's long, instructive story:
No one man [or woman], however brilliant or
well-informed, can come in one lifetime to such fullness of understanding as to
safely judge and dismiss the customs or institutions of his society, for these
are the wisdom of generations after centuries of experiment in the laboratory
of history. A youth boiling with hormones will wonder why he should not give
full freedom to his sexual desires; and if he is unchecked by custom, morals,
or laws, he may ruin his life [or hers] before he matures sufficiently to
understand that sex is a river of fire that must be banked and cooled by a
hundred restraints if it is not to consume in chaos both the individual and the
group. [Will and Ariel Durant, The Lessons of History (New York: Simon and
Schuster, 1968), pp. 35-36]
Or, in the more ecclesiastical words of James E. Talmage:
It has been declared in the solemn word of revelation,
that the spirit and the body constitute the soul of man; and, therefore, we
should look upon this body as something that shall endure in the resurrected
state, beyond the grave, something to be kept pure and holy. Be not afraid of
soiling its hands; be not afraid of scars that may come to it if won in earnest
effort, or [won] in honest fight, but beware of scars that disfigure, that have
come to you in places where you ought not have gone, that have befallen you in
unworthy undertakings [pursued where you ought not have been]; beware of the
wounds of battles in which you have been fighting on the wrong side. [Talmage,
CR, October 1913, p. 117]
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| copyright: Karen Larsen |
And that was my talk.
