This Crossing Bridges website was created as a form of online Christian outreach to provide Bible Studies
and an email contact service (reach-out) for people of all ages, in all their diversity and complexity,
in support of their personal Christian growth and spiritual well-being.

From time to time, Bible studies will be provided on this site.
These studies generally follow the teaching series presented within the Sunday evening services (6PM) at St Paul's Anglican Church

- directly in front of the Birkinhead Bridge -
1 Church Place, Port Adelaide in Adelaide South Australia.

You can always join us in person on Sundays.
If you would like to come along, why not email us beforehand so that we can look forward to welcoming you especially.
Don't hesitate to email us on "wrphilp@gmail.com.au"

 

(Locum Tenens) Parish Priest

Father Peter Simmons  0419 803 630
The Reverend
B.Th.

(Honorary) Parish Deacon

Brother Wayne Philp 0419 800 542
The Reverend Doctor
Ph.D., M.Mental Health, B.Th., B.Sc.

Click below to visit
www.stpaulsportadelaide.com

CLICK HERE

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This week's Bible Study:
Seven OLD and NEW deadly sins…
Bible Study 6 – Paedophilia
 

^{Mark 7:20-23} Jesus said, What comes out of a person is what defiles them.  For from within, out of the heart, comes ^reordered  kakos ho dialogismos (evil purposes) and ponēria (evil deeds):
                        ACEDIA: dolos (deceit), aphrosynē (inconsiderate folly)
                        ENVY: ophthalmos (jealous selfishness)
                        VAINGLORY: hyperēphania (arrogance), blasphēmia (blasphemy)
                        WRATH: phonos (murder),
                        LUST: porneia (sexual immorality), moicheia (adultery), aselgeia (sensuality)
                        GLUTTONY: pleonexia (excessive self-indulgence),
                        GREED: klopē (theft),
All these evil things come from within, and they are what defile a person.

Q1.  What were the main social evils associated with lust within the Jewish/Roman world and culture of Jesus’ time?  Are they any different today?  Let’s look at the Jewish culture…

^{Exodus 20:14} You shall not commit adultery.

^{Exodus 22:16} If a man entices an unbetrothed woman, and sleeps with her, he must pay the bride-price, and she shall be his wife

^{Deuteronomy 22:28-29} If a man meets an unbetrothed maiden [>12y.o], and seizes her and lies with her, and they are found, then the man who lay with her shall give to the father of the young woman fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife, because he has violated her. He may not divorce her all his days.

Q2.  What does this mean if/when Christians live together and have sex outside of marriage?

^{Deuteronomy 22:13-29} If any man takes a young wife [>14y.o] and goes in to her, and then hates her and accuses her of misconduct and brings a bad name upon her, saying, ‘I took this young woman, and when I came near her, I did not find in her evidence of virginity,’ then the father of the young woman and her mother shall take and bring out the evidence of her virginity to the elders of the city in the gate. And the father of the young woman shall say to the elders, ‘I gave my daughter to this man to marry, and he hates her; and behold, he has accused her of misconduct, saying, “I did not find in your daughter evidence of virginity.” And yet this is the evidence of my daughter's virginity.’ And they shall spread the cloak before the elders of the city. Then the elders of that city shall take the man and whip him, and they shall fine him a hundred shekels of silver and give them to the father of the young woman, because he has brought a bad name upon a maiden of Israel. And she shall be his wife. He may not divorce her all his days. But if the thing is true, that evidence of virginity was not found in the young woman, then they shall bring out the young woman to the door of her father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death with stones, because she has done an outrageous thing in Israel by whoring in her father's house. So, you shall purge the evil from your midst.

Q3.  What was the evidence of a maiden’s virginity?

^{Deuteronomy 22 contd.} If a man is found lying with the wife of another man, both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman, and the woman. So you shall purge the evil from Israel.

If there is a betrothed maiden [12-15y.o.], and a man meets her in the city and lies with her, then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones: the young woman because she did not cry for help though she was in the city, and the man because he violated his neighbour's betrothed. So you purge the evil from your midst.

But if in the open country a man meets a betrothed maiden [12-15y.o.], and the man seizes her and lies with her, then only the man who lay with her shall die. But you shall do nothing to the young woman; she has committed no offence punishable by death. For this case is like that of a man attacking and murdering his neighbour, because he met her in the open country, and although the betrothed young woman cried for help, there was no one to hear and rescue her.

Q4.  When Mary, a betrothed maiden [12-15y.o.] to Joseph, was found to be pregnant, what was the only possible outcome? Why do you think (before Mary’s pregnancy was showing) that Mary was sent out alone (by Joseph and Mary’s parents) to travel through the open country all the way from western Galilee to the Judean hillside (3 days journey), to stay with Aunt Elizabeth and Uncle Zechariah?

The Bible makes no mention of adult men or women having sex with pre-pubescent girls or pre-pubescent boys. Such actions are SO FAR outside the Jewish/Gentile/Christian culture that the only possible response would have been the death of the perpetrator.  Here’s some sexual crimes which apply to children…

^{Leviticus 20:12-13,17} If a man lies with his daughter or daughter-in-law, both of them shall surely be put to death; they have committed perversion; their blood is upon them.

If a man lies with any male [son, boy, teen or adult] as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them…

If a man takes his sister (a daughter of his father or mother), and sees her nakedness, and she sees his nakedness, it is a disgrace, and they shall be cut off in the sight of the children of their people. He has uncovered his sister's nakedness, and he shall bear his iniquity.

^{Deuteronomy 22:5} A woman must not wear men’s clothing, nor a man wear women’s clothing, for the Lord your God detests anyone who does this.

Q5. These were some of the Jewish laws regarding sexual immorality. Clearly, incest, homosexuality and transgender cross-dressing were outlawed. Do you think it fair?  In regard to prepubescent child-abuse:

Jesus said, taken out of context, ^{Matthew 18:6} Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it is better that a heavy millstone be hung around their neck, and that they be drowned in the depths of the sea.

Paul taught about Greek/Roman sexual practices, ^{1 Corinthians 6:9-10} Do not be deceived: [unrepentant] unrighteous people will not inherit the Kingdom of God.  Neither the sexually immoral [extra-marital-sexual indulgence](pornos) nor adulterers [extra-marital-sexual relations](moichos), nor effeminate men [offering/seeking gay-sex](malakos), nor masculine men [offering/seeking gay-sex](arsenokoitēs) …will inherit the Kingdom of God.

Q6. Early Jewish-Christians mostly found these Gentile ways abhorrent. Early Gentile-Christian converts mostly considered these practices normal. Both had to worship together in their Roman-Jewish world.  Conservative-Christians today mostly find adulterous & LGBTIQ⁺ ways abhorrent. Progressive-Christians today mostly consider these practices normal. Both have to worship together in our Secular-Christian world.  What do you think about Christian tolerance about differences held regarding the morality of these issues?

Q7. The Age of Consent varies considerably worldwide. Philippines and Angola both set the Age of Consent at 12 years of age. Niger and Japan set 13.  Most European (Austria, Italy, Serbia, Germany, Portugal) and South American countries (Paraguay, Peru, Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador) set age 14.  Caribbean countries set 15. Most “Western” countries (incl. USA and Australia) set 16-17. Some “Catholic” countries (Vatican City, Malta, Chile, Argentina) require 18 years of age. Most countries have close-in-age exemptions (Romeo and Juliet clauses) which remove legalities when all are underage.

Iran, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Yemen  and Afghanistan, and most Islamic parts of Asia and Africa require marriage before anyone can legally have sex. Some countries imprison any men/boys found engaging in sodomy.

What does this mean for the definition, labeling and prosecution of individual adults as “Paedophiles” when the sexual-interaction is with an adolescent teenager over the age, of say, 14 y.o.?  Why do some Aussies go to the Philippines/Japan as tourists to find romance? Is this a deadly sin? Is it legal?

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