Post by filmfan95 on Oct 20, 2017 17:41:10 GMT
Anyway, masturbation isn't a sin. There isn't a single passage of scripture that even alludes to it. There are tons of laws condemning all sorts of sexual practices that I had never even heard of until I read those parts, and I would think that if God had a problem with masturbation, he wouldn't have hesitated to inspire Moses to write "Thou shalt not touch thyself."
And I'm a Christian too.
Very few people are masturbating for clinical purposes.
Matthew 5:27-28
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery;’ but I tell you that everyone who gazes at a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart."
There are two words which are translated "woman" in the original Greek, one which refers to women in general, and one that refers to married women. The word translated "woman" in this verse is always used to refer to a married woman, not just any woman in general. I also think that this is obvious because Jesus says looking with lust is "adultery." Adultery can not happen between two people who are not married, so if Jesus had meant any woman in general, he would have said that we had committed fornication, not adultery.
Also, the Biblical definition of "lust" or "covet" is "desire with intent." In other words, it means that you have intentions of acting upon your desires. Scripture also mentions good "lusts." I can't recall which verse it is, but it says, "If a man desires the office of a bishop, he desires a good thing." The word translated "desire" in that verse is the same one used to translate "lust" in the above verse.
If I were to make a translation of Scripture, I would most likely translate the passage as:
"But I say to you that whoever looks at a another man's wife and has the intention of taking her, he has already committed adultery with her in his heart."
A lot of even the modern translations use archaic terms, and this is one of those points that nobody has seemed to update over the years, in order to use non-archaic terminology.
Also, considering how in-depth the sex laws in Exodus go (God could have simply said, "Do not lie with a close relative." But instead, he listed all the people, as if one verse wasn't enough), I find it strange of God had a problem with Masturbation and didn't list it in the laws. It just seems to me that God doesn't have much of a problem with it.