forever,

The question comes down to Laws in the Old Testement. Which ones do believers follow and why? Which ones should I believe and why?

This was a law and many believe that Jesus did not take away the laws of the OT so, how do we know which ones to follow?

Specifically I ask about this one because I am a woman and don't understand why believers don't follow it, or if there's a reason not to follow i.e. was it nullified in some way further in the Bible?

Although I can't speak for others, (and I'm not trying to) I would say people will follow what their beliefs dictates. Whatever the religion they follow dictates. And so would/should you.

That decision would be a personal one, to me anyway!




I don't know the religious response to it, especially since I'm not a clergy or otherwise deeply involved to quote specifics of religious practice. Although I do know what my husband told me that he learned from some of the Jewish people who used to frequent his cab at the time when he was a driver in NY. There habits are different and they do follow their doctrine to the letter.


However, from my own personal pov, I don't 'ban' myself away from everyone, I do follow methods that are a must for me on a personal hygiene level, that's a given. Plus I eat lots of chocolate!  

The whole of Leviticus chapter 15 deals with legal purity which were instituted by God in order to give the people a horror of carnal impurities. The beginning of the chapter deals with men spilling their seed which God forbids. The 7 day period of the woman is a time that she is to refrain from sexual relations.

Ever hear the saying "cleanliness is next to Godliness"? Being pure was then and still is required for people truly dedicated to the Lord God. Objective uncleanlessness to both persons and things arose from eating certain animals, childbirth, skin diseases, sexual impurities and diseases and even taking care not to have mildew. These categories underscored the necessity of integrity in every aspect of life. Purification rites were demanded to remedy uncleaness. The Blessed Virgin after giving birth to Jesus underwent purification to fulfil the prescriptions of the Law of Moses. St.Luke 2:22.

This was all on a personal level, however there were also similiar rites applicable to the sinful uncleanness of entire communities and for that they had the Day of Atonement as described in Chapter 16.

lulapilgrim,

You've opened up the meaning of the entire chapter. So what about masterbation? Yes or no? Is it just and old cleanliness thing too? I'm just confused on what applies today and what doesn't and why.

, women were also regarded as inferior. Today, with its hectic lifestyle, the equality of women, high medical standards and the ease with which women can remain "Clean", comfortable and unsullied by the discomfort, negate any old-fashioned approach.

But what else in the Bible ends up being "old-fashioned?"

On the given topic here we must remember who this was written to. It was written at a particular time to a particular group of people. That's very important in exegeting scripture. If you read Acts 15 you can see that clearly as the new Christians (Gentiles) started to come into the faith. The Gentiles and now new Christians were not bound by the OT laws and rites given to the Jewish people.

So we as "new" Christians are not bound by the OT laws?

The 7 day period of the woman is a time that she is to refrain from sexual relations.

Yep, I understand that part, but it also says: Anything she lies on during her period will be unclean, and anything she sits on will be unclean. This is not just about sexual relations.

1Cor. 6:10. Masturbation is an act of self-abuse that makes one self-centered and builds up barriers to the virtue of love of God and fellow man.

lulapilgrim, maybe you could give me the KJV version of this passage. My NIV traslation appears to be specifically talking about prostitution as being sexual immorality, but I don't see masturbation or 'spilling seed'

The reasoning for such a serious prohibition is that the sexual function is meant by God to serve primarily for the begetting of children. Masturbation would be therefore, an offense against the divinely established purpose of our sexual powers, a gift from God.

So is it also Catholic teaching that sex outside of baby making is a sin too? When women are unable or become too old to bear children do Catholics stop having sex?

Those things in the OT were a shadow of Christ. He fulfilled those things in the NT, he was the real thing.

I've read Acts Chap 15 a few times now. I guess I'm one of those Gentiles that wants to know what are the right things to be done. So KFC, are you saying that the nitpicking of rules isn't very important? Being in/of Christ is the important thing, right?

I understand that there are obvious things from the OT that are good to follow whether or not they are old-fashioned (like the 10 commandments), but I just question all the other things that are so strongly held on to.

  

Explicitly condemned are acts of lust, fornication, rape, pornography, prostitituion, masturbation, homosexuality, adultery, incest, polygamy and divorce.

Could you give me the KJV of the sixth and ninth commandments? I can't see where many of these are "explicitly" condemend. (Note: I'm not argueing that they aren't, I just want to know where your info comes from - hey, you never know, I might convert to catholocism - and I am being serious)

Is there a difference between adultry and fornication? Just wondering because my MW dictionary defines them synonymously.

I think a good rule of thumb when asking questions that have to do with sexual morality is to ask what would God have me do according to the gold standards He has given us in the Ten Commandments. Remember that everything that He has given us is for our Good.

Catholicism teaches that we are to only use the natural sex act within marriage and intercourse is to be always open to life. No exceptions. It is a sin for Catholics to use artificial birth control or contraception. Why? Because that compromises the basic principle that our sexual facilities are to be used only in a way that is designed and planned by God. We become idolaters and love ourselves saying we no longer accept the inherent moral goodness of procreation within marriage.

Everyone, no matter what his station in life or age, who is not married, must practice chastity.

Women who pass into their menopausal years can have all the sexual intercourse they want as long as it's with their lawful husband. This is a continuation of God's plan for us as we are not separating the life dimension during marital sexual intercourse. God has done that by the natural law. Very wonderful indeed.

Yes, but and this is a big but.....we must not overlook the very next verse that says:

"And such were some of you: but you were washed, you are sanctified, but you are justified in the name of the of the Lord Jesus........"

We all sin. We all make mistakes. This section was a warning against moral laxity. Paul did not want Christianity confused with the sects that permitted such things. People whose lifestyles exhibit the fruit of wickedness show they are unsaved and will not inherit the kingdom of God. Those who walk away from it are cleansed and therefore will inherit the kingdom of God.

Later Paul says "all things are lawful" (v12) Apparently some of the Corinthians were trying to use their Christian freedom to justify their sins. Paul here is insisting that Christian liberty is limited by two considerations; Is the practice helpful and will it enslave?

The Corinthians were a mess. They were taking advantage of their freedom in Christ. They were celebrating a bit too much in their freedom from the OT law. Yes we're set free but not free to sin at will. We are set free and should be walking away from those sins that will hold us down.

One of the first things one has to inderstand about the 10 Commandments is that they were not 10 suggestions. They are God's divine will. It is important to understand them in light of the OT in which they were given and then in the NT and how our Lord lived and taught the Commandments setting an example of total surrender to the Divine Will. For Jesus as a man it was always first about His Heavenly Fahter's will. I know there are popular arguments that Jesus supposedly repudiated the Ten when He established His new law of love. This isn't so. Christ lived the Ten in the highest degree possible and we who wish and claim to follow Him must remember that Christian sanctity is only possible when we follow the example of Jesus in living the Commandments.

The Sixth Commandment of Almighty God is "thou shalt not commit adultery". Adultery like fornication is a sin against chastity. Adultery is a defilement of one's own or another's marriage bed. Fornicaton is the sexual act between unmarried persons.

One of the best explanations of the Ten Commandments comes from Father Hardon, a priest who died about 5 years ago. He said of the Sixth Commandment, "that Christ elevated the original Commandment given to Moses to heights that the Jews could scarcely comprehend. Not only does it forbid adultery, externally, but every type of impure thought or action. The new Lawgiver now demanded a response immeasurably higher: the internal mastery of passions. Fr.Hardon informs that Jesus identified adultery as a sin agasint charity and thereby changed the whole focus of the virtue which the Sixth and Ninth Commandments had previously identified.

Now it was no longer a question of justice, of keeping one's hand, so to speak, off an other and not to covet; but Jesus relates the Sixth and the Ninth to the practice of charity. The Christian understanding of chastity is the virtue of charity, in which the object of the virtue is really a form of self-sacrifice. This needs saying: Unless Christians practice total internal chastity, they will lose Christ and His grace.

As Catholic tradition was to gradually unfold, the meaning of chastity evolved to a form of temperance with regard to sexual pleasure. A chaste person, by Christians standards, is one who tempers, controls and restrains his desires for sexual pleasure by not having the experience except within the Divinely ordained Sacrament of marriage--within these bounds it is a sacred enjoyment that God has divinely associated with the responsibility of Christian marriage.