Chastity cages and Christianity

Interesting question, indeed.

And, yes is the soul necessarily attached to the body?

For example, God declares he knew you before he “stitched you together in your mother’s womb”. One might say the “you” existed before your body did. Therefore, “you” may not have gone anywhere upon bodily death.

I freely admit. I don’t know. But I DO believe where Scripture says that God knew us always.

 

That ties in with the belief in omnipotence. All knowing etc.

Interestingly, a woman's eggs are all made in her mother's womb before birth so there is a part of me slightly older than my mother (and everyone else)

 

Fascinating. Not aware of that. It adds even more intrigue to the question of “when life begins” and the souls And when/if do they truly merge.

 

To reach a modern contemporary theory, on shall we say; the moment of injection of the soul, we have to consider twins, which split between day 2 and 6 of embryonic development.

As I think about it, also the egg is only half of the information ready to combine in an electric storm of magical activity shortly after the strongest swimmer penetrates the egg and two strands of DNA shuffle together in 3 billion pack of cards to produce a human or in other ways a lizard, frog, fish, sponge, mushroom, tree or bacteria. The miracle of life.

 

Truly a miracle. Interesting word.

Random? Then not a miracle. Just an unlikely outcome.

I say miracle.

 

I wouldn’t worry about it. If God is perfect, he could not have created man (who is flawed). Logic dictates that a perfect being is incapable of conceiving of imperfection much less creating such a flawed creature. Therefore, either God is flawed in some manner, or man has been created by a lesser god.

 

I say random. Yes to a certain degree.

Miracle. Yes too, but perhaps we define miracle differently, which is cool

And also an unlikely outcome.

It can be all of these things.

 

I think Jesus was being hyperbolic (exaggerating). His point being do whatever it takes

 

Beautifully said. I think you nailed it.

Masurbate too much? How do you stop it?

 

I was still thinking about this topic yesterday (the cutoff your hand if it’s going to keep you out of heaven) and thought about another possible interpretation. What if Jesus wants us to think “well that’s ridiculous I’m never going to cut my hand off, there’s got to be a better way”. We are to come to the realization that we can’t do it ourselves and thus surrender our temptations to him. In this chapter, it’s all under the umbrella off being childlike.

 

You may be absolutely correct. And what a great default anyways: trust in Him. Can’t go wrong there.

 

I'm not sure I can follow your logic. Why couldn't an all-knowing, perfect being conceive of imperfection? And what would prevent him/her from creating a creature capable of imperfection?

 

I’m with you Littleguy.

People miss that the greatness of God is that His children are free to love Him or not. As C. S. Lewis says, a cow can’t be good nor bad. A dog can be somewhat good and somewhat bad. Man? Can be extremely good or extremely bad.

I liken this to a father of a teenager. You KNOW driving a car is very dangerous for them, but you let them drive anyways because your love for them means you have to let them eventually be free.

“What kind of father would let his child drive a car?”

A loving one.

What kind of god would allow “bad” to exist?

A loving one.

 

Are you suggesting that we don't have a responsibility to deal with our compulsions to sin? I know you don't think that, may I suggest the real question here is how extreme are we to go?

It is arguable that the scars Jesus obtained dealing with sin will be with Him for eternity, What kind of scars will we have?
What kind of man, father, ect would not take extreme measures to protect others from himself? Hands may not need to be cut off if we can make cages for them.

 

I’m just floating the idea that we’re not capable. That maybe we surrender and let God rescue us. 1cor 10:13 says that whatever temptation you face God will provide a way for escape. Perhaps that’s with a cage for some struggling with masturbation, or accountability with someone else. I’m just pondering

 

I like your line of reasoning. I think our Father in heaven is smiling that we are seriously pondering the Word. We ALL know that chastity play is iffy. So our collective seriousness about the “sinful line” is important. If you guys were my friends, I’d be grateful you gave it a lot of thought.

 

I think this pondering is a good thing. I ponder AND pray. Am I fooling myself? Or am I trying to do it right?

 

If you can’t follow the logic then it’s possible that you can’t wrap your mind around the concept of perfection. when a “perfect” being draws a circle, it’s not a really good circle it’s a perfect circle. When it creates a creature it is not a better than average creature it’s a perfect creature. If an assembly robot makes parts that are 99.9935% identical we don’t define that robot as perfect. If God makes people who are pretty good, then he is an average creator because on the way to making my man perfect he conceived the concept of flaw (an imperfect thought). Instantly God became flawed and made man OR God is perfect and not our creator.

 

The Christian understanding of God is that He is perfect in regards to moral character and actions, not that He's restricted in His other actions. We understand that He is ominipotent. Because He creates a human with free will who is capable of choosing selfish, evil actions doesn't make Him morally imperfect.

 

Douglas Weiss in his book "Clean" provides this analogy between a corporation and a man's body. He says that God is the CEO, the wife is the President and the husband is the Janitor. The janitor is only allowed to touch himself for cleaning and to go to the bathroom. I love this analogy because it has become true for my marriage and body.

 

@enslavedbyc:

I think folks are following your logic, but it’s your premise no one seems to agree with.

An intelligent person knows 2+2 = 4. But that intelligent person can still get it wrong on a test. Are they no longer intelligent?

This is NOT analogous to God, but I hope illustrates the disagreement with your premise that a perfect being can only produce perfect things.

 

That is a completely logical way to describe God as perfect in in moral character, but fails again in “perfect actions”. By describing God as Omnipotent and at the same time limiting his perfection to morality areas, he can remain a logical creator of man. It also helps with the areas of the Bible that describe a vengeful God. The other option is to simply redefine perfect. Then 2+2 can equal 3.91ish to 4.1ish and all is good!

 

Yes, you created a flawed analogy. An intelligent mathematician makes mistakes a perfect mathematician does not.

 

Hmm, the only