Have you ever wondered what's wrong with pornography? Why is it bad? Why do preachers and Bible teachers want to warn you to steer clear of it? After all, isn't pornography all about sex, and isn't sex just a gift God has given to human beings? Doesn't the Bible say God Himself commanded the first man and woman to "Be fruitful, and multiply?" (Genesis 1:28) There's really no other way to obey that command, other than having sex, right? So what's the big deal about pornography, since it's just about sex, right?

Those are some good, honest questions. Let me try to offer you a good, honest answer from God's Word.

The world young people grow up in today seems a lot different from the world I grew up in. I'm only 41 and it's always possible that my memory is going bad already…lol!…but when I was a teenager there didn't seem to be as much open sin as there is today.

The world today certainly wants to encourage sin, in large part because there is pleasure in sin. Even the Bible acknowledges that! However, let's make sure we don't take that partial truth out of it's context. The verse I have in mind says, in it's whole immediate context, "By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, THAN TO ENJOY THE PLEASURES OF SIN FOR A SEASON; Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward." - Hebrews 11:24-26

You see, that "truth" about sin being pleasurable really is only a half-truth because what the Bible proclaims is that it only lasts "for a season" and the word "season" there literally means "temporary." The pleasure that sin provides only endures for a short time. Some people might argue, "What if I can find a sinful pleasure that lasts my whole life? Isn't that a long time?" Not according to God's Word - James 4:14 says in part, "...For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away."

Have you ever passed by an open field in the morning when there is a foggy mist hovering over it? How long does that foggy mist last? Usually it lasts only until the day gets a little bit warmer, only a few hours at the most. That's what that verse means when it equates the length of time we have in life to a vapour.

The sad fact, I believe, is that the world understands this truth but chooses to ignore it. At the very heart of "s-i-n" is "I" - sin is a self-centered activity and attitude. Our "flesh" is the primary beneficiary of sin and so the only concern the flesh has is gaining whatever pleasure it can, often times regardless of what that pleasure costs. I heard a wise preacher express it this way once: He said, Sin will take you farther than you planned to go, keep you there longer than you planned to stay, and cost you more than you planned to pay. Believe me, based on some of the experiences I had before I was saved, I know this is true!

We also understand that we have a very active adversary in Satan, whose goal is to fight God, His people and His goals, when ever and where ever he can. So Satan does all he can to help the world disobey God and obey their "fleshly desires," which according to the Bible are generally all sin-full and sin-sick.

If you don't believe me, use a concordance and look up the word "flesh" in the New Testament, and study the verses which come up. Be sure to read the whole chapter where each verse appears so you can read and appreciate the verses in their Biblical context. If you wanted to read just one Bible chapter, Romans 6 or Galatians 5 would be good chapters to read and study.

Now what does all this have to do with pornography? And what does God's Word have to say about it and why is it wrong for you as a child of God? Let me see if I can summarize my concerns as a Pastor and Christian for you by using the word "porn as an acrostic. This way, by giving you just a few points to ponder, you'll be able to retain and meditate on this essay better.

"P" is for PERVERSION. Now let's be sure you understand what "perversion" really means. The word "perversion" is a noun that comes from the verb "to pervert." According to the Random House Webster's College Dictionary, "to pervert" comes from the Latin word which means "to turn," and when you pervert you "turn away from the right course," or "turn to an improper use; to misapply." A couple of the stronger definitions include, "to deliberately distort something, to misconstrue or misinterpret on purpose" and "to bring something or someone to a less excellent state; to debase."

Two more, even stronger definitions, are included: (1) "to lead someone into mental error or false judgment," and (2) "to lead astray morally." A person who practices perversion is called a "pervert," and this generally has a sexual connotation to it. In fact, the definition for "pervert" is "a person who practices a sexual perversion."

Perhaps you can already see why I suggest the "p" in "porn" should stand for "perversion." Everything about pornography perverts God's original intention for sex. As I suggested at the beginning of this article, it is true that God commanded the first man and woman to "Be fruitful, and multiply," and that does mean to have sexual relations. HOWEVER, this was a command given within the larger context of marriage. Marriage was the first human institution God created. It is the foundation of all society. The appropriate place for sexual relations is within the confines of a marital relationship between a man and a woman.

Destroy that foundation and you begin to weaken society, endangering it to the point of destruction. Doesn't that go a long way towards explaining many of the problems we face in our nation and world today? I think so!

But what does pornography suggest? Any type of sex, all types of sex, and lots and lots of sex: and it doesn't matter if you are married to the other person or not. In fact, often times, pornography depicts sexual activity between persons of the same sex, and sometimes even between people and animals. By definition, all of these types of sexual activity are perversions of God's intention. How do I know this? Because God's Word tells me.

For example, regarding two men having sexual relations: in Leviticus 18:22, the Bible says, "Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination." The word "abomination" means something that is disgusting and wicked. To whom? To God! Why? Because it is a perversion of what He intended the act of sex to be. And don't think that this is simply an Old Testament matter, or that it does not include women having sexual relations with other women. In Romans chapter 1, verses 26-32, the Bible states strongly and unmistakably: "For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them."

Clearly, in this context, men having sex with men and women having sex with women is wrong, and condemned by the Holy God of Heaven, who truly is offended by such conduct.

In that same chapter of Leviticus, in the very next verse [Lev. 18:23], God's Holy Word addresses bestiality, which is when a person has sex with animals: "Neither shalt thou lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith: neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie down thereto: it is confusion." And in the next few verses, God takes time to explain why He has a problem with these types of practices: "Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you: And the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants."

God labels this type of sexual activity "confusion" - a word that means "a violation of the natural or divine order." In other words, it is a perversion! And the principle God is putting down for us here is that all these types of sexual activity which deviate from His standard - all types of perverted sexual activity - defile you. They make you unclean before God. When you are unclean, you adversely affect those around you. The nations that were surrounding God's people at this time practiced many types of sexual perversions, often in connection with the worship of their pagan idols. Clearly, this caused their nations and themselves to be unclean and defiled before God, and God's desire was that His people be not so defiled.
What God is saying, in effect, is that if you act like the world around you - if you do like they do, and commit the same type of unclean acts they commit - you will be unclean before Him, just like they are. Yet this is precisely what pornography encourages. And the closer we get to the return of the Lord, the more brassy and bold pornographers become and the harder the world and the devil works so that we think that which God calls abnormal is really healthy and good.

However, no matter how a person might try to justify pornographic acts, pictures, stories, movies, etc., it is all about deviating from "the norm;" it is all about perverting the standard God gave when He created man and woman and the Holy Institution of marriage.

Maybe you don't think it really is that serious? Consider that in Ephesians 5 God likens the relationship Jesus Christ has with His church to a marriage relationship. He considers marriage - as He created it in Genesis - to be a beautiful picture of what it will one day be like with His Son and His Son's Bride, the church - all of us who are saved! Can you imagine anything uglier than perverting the relationship between Jesus and the Saints of God? But this is part and parcel of what pornography does. Pornography first and foremost is "perversion."

"O" is for ORDER. Are you familiar with one of the most wonderful verses in the Bible, Gal. 2:20? Someone has rightly said that this verse is one of the basic keys to Christian living, and it is therefore an excellent verse to memorize.

"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me."

Now what is that verse teaching us? It teaches us that we need to put our "self" to death. Not that we should commit suicide, but that we should die to "self." Why? Because "self" is that which embodies the sin-sick flesh: Rom. 7:18. But it's not simply a matter of putting self to death and that's the end of it. No, it's putting our self to death so Christ can be alive in us, and live through us, in order that we can impact others around us.

As an aside, let me add that this is something, which I believe the Bible teaches, we have to practice on a daily basis. Even Paul the apostle said, "I die daily," 1 Cor. 15:31.

Now when you think of it in that way, what the Bible is saying is that JESUS must be the most important person in our life, then OTHERS, and self last. Jesus - others - yourself - "J-O-Y." As a wise saint said, this is the only ORDER in life which gives true and lasting joy.

But what ORDER does pornography bring to life? According to the Oxford English Dictionary, "pornography" is a noun which means "printed or visual material intended to stimulate sexual excitement" and it comes from the Greek word "pornographos" which literally means "writing about prostitutes." The Greek root word is "porne" which means "prostitute."

Many words in the New Testament are derived from this word. The word "porneia" means "illicit sexual intercourse" such as adultery, fornication, homosexuality, lesbianism, intercourse with animals, etc. In Leviticus, chapter 18 it is also used to refer to sexual intercourse with close relatives. [Note: this word "porneia" is a Greek word and obviously the Old Testament was written mostly in Hebrew. But in the Septuagint, a Greek translation of the Old Testament, "porneia" is used in Lev. 18.] In Mark 10:11 it is used to refer to sexual intercourse with a divorced man or woman, and in the King James New Testament, when ever it appears, it is translated "fornication."

Now "porneia" is a noun which comes from the Greek verb "porneuo," which means "to prostitute one's body to the lust of another," or "to give one's self to unlawful sexual intercourse," or "to commit fornication," and this last definition is how it is almost always translated in the Bible. The root word of "porneuo" is "porne," which as I stated above means "prostitute." If you want to be really fancy, you could also say "porne" means "a woman who sells her body for sexual uses or yields herself to defilement for the sake of gain (or money)," or "any woman indulging in unlawful sexual intercourse, whether for gain or for lust." If you go one step farther back, you find out that "porne" comes from the noun "pornos" which means "a man who prostitutes his body to another's lust for hire" (that is: a male prostitute) or "a man who indulges in unlawful sexual intercourse, a fornicator."

Why bore you with all these word definitions? To make this point: What is the purpose of pornography? To get the sin-sick flesh excited, to sexually stimulate the self. The most important person is Self where porn is concerned, and if that means getting your kicks by using and abusing some one else, by buying and debasing another person, so what? Who cares, as long as *I* get my fun! *I* must be happy and fulfilled, and it doesn't matter who gets hurt or used in the process.

What ORDER does that represent? Me first, me last, and me at ALL points in between. Others are only a vehicle for making me happy, and frankly, there doesn't seem to be any room for Jesus. Sadly, pornography totally reverses the ORDER that is best for you, which will create true and lasting J-O-Y, and which is God-honoring or Biblical. You could say porn is a perverted order, couldn't you? Yes!

"R" is for REVOLTING. It's possible you've never heard that word, so you don't know what it means. When something is "revolting" it is "disgusting" or "repulsive." Anything that is revolting to you will create a strong feeling of dislike or distaste. It will be disgusting to you.

Recently, my two oldest children participated in a walk-a-thon for our local crisis pregnancy center. Unfortunately, part of the route we had to walk went down a street where a skunk had been run over, probably within the last 24 hours before we came by. You might think your brother's gym shoes or your school locker smells pretty bad. But trust me, those are NOTHING compared to fresh run-over skunk! Well, all right, it was a fresh kill - but it sure wasn't fresh! If anything, it was a very strong and very disgusting smell. It was revolting!

If you recall, when God spoke about perverted sexual relations in Lev. 18, He called them "abominations" and "that which defiles." Why? Because this type of sex is revolting to God. It is disgusting to Him. As bad as that skunk smelled to us, this type of sin "smells" that much worse in the "nostrils" of God.

Let me ask you a few simple questions. Shouldn't we like the things God likes, and hate the things God hates? If God thinks something is good and wonderful, we should too, right? If God thinks something is disgusting and revolting, we should too, right?

I believe the Bible teaches us that God thinks porn is revolting, and I think we should think it is revolting, too. When we passed by that skunk, trust me, we tried to pass by it real quick! And I had absolutely no interest in getting near it, let alone picking it up or playing with it.

How sad that some people enjoy picking up and playing with something which is REVOLTING to the Lord.

Finally, "N" is for NEGATIVE.

You can't name one positive thing about pornography, but you can name a whole lot of bad, negative things about it. Ted Bundy, the infamous serial killer, in a well-documented interview with Dr. James Dobson, admitted that one of the largest influences in his life that caused him to sexually abuse and murder women was pornography.

Now, don't misunderstand me. I know that not everyone who uses pornography will become a serial killer! But that illustrates the danger pornography poses. Most of the men and women who are pictured in pornography were abused earlier in life and many are tricked into participating in it. Some of them are literally slaves in or from other countries. A high percentage of those in the "pornography industry" have contracted at least one sexually transmitted disease and many have more than one. Some STD's are very painful and can lead to other health complications, including sterility [for a woman: the inability to become pregnant and have a baby, and for a man: the inability to make a woman pregnant], and even death. Many of those involved in the sex industry - street prostitutes, for example - are involved in this activity because they are addicted to drugs, and this is the "best" way to make money to support their habits. Of course, their drug addictions only bring about other adverse health affects, not only for themselves but for those who have sex with them.

It's not a pretty picture, because it's a picture that has at it's heart the sin-sick self, and that is a very ugly thing indeed. How ugly? The Bible tells us, in 2 Corinthians 5:21, that Jesus, who knew no sin, was made to be sin for us. He was sinless, perfect, and peerless! While on the Cross, Jesus literally BECAME all the ugly sins that mankind has ever invented in his sin-sick heart, that which he has ever thought or committed. Why? So "that we might be made the righteousness of God in him" - to save our sin-sick souls.

That's how deep God's love for us is. And that's how ugly a thing pornography is. Honestly, would you really want to even try to make a case that there is ANY good thing about pornography? Not me, brother!

Pornography: a perverted order, revolting to God, totally negative. I hope now you see why preachers like me - and I hope like your pastor or youth leader(s) - preach and teach that pornography is bad, wrong, and sinful. It perverts God's gift of sex. The order of emphasis is all-wrong: placing Self first, and everyone and everything - including the Lord Jesus Christ - last! It has nothing to do with obeying God's command, but everything with rebelling against God and His commands. It is an abomination, a revolting thing, in the sight of God. There is nothing at all positive about it, and something so negative to our Lord should be a big negative to us. I hope you can now see and agree, this has been a good, honest answer from God's Word.

I hope you can now see that the Bible is against pornography and I hope that matters to you. And I haven't even talked about the aspect of NAKEDNESS. If you go back to Leviticus, chapter 18: it is obvious that God is totally against nakedness.

What should you do if you've already experimented with pornography? Or perhaps worse, if you use it on a regular basis? What if you are hooked on it? And make no mistake, you can become addicted to pornography very quickly, and that addiction can last a lifetime. A pornography addiction can ruin your thought-life, your relationships in school, your marriage-relationship, and kill your walk with God. Let me offer you a few simple suggestions in closing.

First, remember that God loves you in spite of all your sins. He is willing to forgive every sin - including the sin of using and being involved with pornography. But He will not forgive you until you repent of your sin and confess it. However, His promise of forgiveness is as sure and certain as His Word - 1 John 1:9. It says, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

Second, don't be too discouraged or hard on yourself if you have been, or are, involved with this particular sin. The reason we sin is because we are tempted, and God's Word gives us a hopeful outlook and understanding about our temptations. 1 Corinthians 10:13 says, "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it."

Understand, that verse doesn't give us an "out" to sin, but it does help us understand that if you are tempted with pornography, relax [a little]! You are not the only one who is tempted! Lots of people have been or are tempted. Even preachers! But God is faithful. IF you are His child, He has promised that He will not allow you to be tempted above what you are able to handle. And IF you truly want to be free of this temptation, He will make a way for you to escape. You must start by telling Him this is your desire, agree with Him about how bad porn is, repent and confess any failings you have had thus far, and ask God to enable you to resist future temptations.

But be aware, as this verse states, the WAY God may help you avoid this temptation is by trying to direct you AWAY from it. So if you know that doing a certain activity - like going online - or going to a certain place - like a favorite book store - is the how and when that you "enjoy porn," DON'T GO THERE. It really can be as simple as that in terms of avoiding porn.

But of course you may not feel it's that easy. And you may not feel you can discuss this problem with your parents. I can surely understand that! It is a bit embarrassing, isn't it? But understand that there are certain adults God has placed in your life to help you with problems just like this one. Your parents - if they are Christians who truly love the Lord and are trying to live for Him - can be your best asset in fighting this sin [or any sin!].

If you just can't bring yourself to talk to them about it, or if your parents are not saved, or not living for the Lord - maybe they even have a problem like this one - then pray and ask God who you can and should talk to for help. Perhaps it will be your pastor or youth leader. Perhaps you don't feel you could go to them right now. Okay, then get in touch with Bro. Bob (toll-free hotline or email), or myself. That's why we put this article online, and that's why we are here: TO HELP YOU - so you can live a life that will honor and glorify God and please Him. Porn has no place in a life like that, and we want to help you get rid of it.

There are some good resources available, online and offline, but I would strongly advise you NOT to seek help from them until you seek prayer and support from an adult first. Why? Because some of the resources are better than others, and most of the adults in your life I've mentioned in this article love you and care about you and want to steer you to the best help available for your situation. So talk to a trusted adult first, and let them help direct you to other resources.

The bottom line to remember is this: God loves you and will help you as you turn to Him, and you yield to His Spirit's control and direction. Some good Scriptures to study to help you with this would be Matthew 5-7, Romans 5-8, Gal. 5-6, Eph. 4-6 and the book of Philippians. Well, those are just some starters off the top of my head.

Thanks for taking time to read what I wanted to share with you about this serious and important topic. I trust you are approaching it as serious and important because that's the way I've tried to approach it for you. Remember that you have some good friends - Bro. Bob and EVERYONE connected with Solid Rock Youth Ministries! - who love you and are praying for you to succeed in all facets of life, including overcoming temptations to sin, even [especially!] strong temptations like pornography.

May God bless you as you yield to His Holy Spirit, and as you live and walk in the Spirit!

Love in Christ from your friend,
Pastor Tim
John 3:30

You can also read Pastor Tim's online journal @ http://www.ourchurch.com/member/p/PastorShumer -or- you can send him an email and request his free, weekly Bible study via email.