It’s hardly surprising that increasing numbers of women loathe men and detest masculinity. After all, most of their experiences with men have been only with cads, scoundrels, rogues and rakes. They have been exploited by clowns, abused by creeps, corrupted by crooks and debased by cranks. Only a diminishing minority of women have enjoyed the privilege of living with that rare, noble creature, the loyal, loving and devoted husband.
It is in the nature of the human male to seek multiple sexual partners. But God issued us a challenge: Be like angels, rather than like apes. Only an animal must follow its nature; man must overcome it. Resist your nature and rise above it; that way you will reap the blessings of the Biblical blueprint.
In our audio CD program Madam, I’m Adam-Marriage Secrets from Eden I pointed out how the Hebrew text (Genesis 2:7 & 19) emphasizes the contrast between man and animal, which is not visible in the English translation.
But you already know all this. When a man and woman make a lifetime commitment to one another they each benefit from the resulting stability, sensuality, and happiness. When a wife revels in her femininity and her husband submits his masculinity to the silken bonds of matrimony, the couple and the children they create form a cocoon of security and joy.
What you may not already know, however, is that the couple that surrenders to God’s connubial concept benefits not only themselves and their children but all of society as well. Only societies that have successfully sublimated rampant male sexuality into marriage have built civilization.
The world is filled with countless cultures but only one civilization. A civilization eschews violence in favor of voting and replaces bullets with ballots. A civilization respects and values its women, escorting them onto the lifeboats before the men. It values life and protects it by advancing the study of science and medicine. It lifts its citizens from drudgery by promoting a vibrant economy. It prefers beauty to vulgarity and gentleness to brutality. Its basic unit is the family.
Every society that has successfully achieved civilization has learned that indulging human desire in unrestrained fashion leads both to personal and societal calamity. Everybody knows that overeating with no self-control is bad. People all recognize that alcohol without moderation brings massive problems. Yet, when it comes to sex, many feel that unrestrained indulgence is liberating and progressive. The tragedy is that unbridled concupiscence does more to rot the fabric of a society and erode the spirit of its citizens than almost anything else.
Perhaps the most dramatic disclosure of the entire Torah was the structure of sexual restriction found in Leviticus 18 and 20. One can but imagine the wonder with which it was greeted by both Hebrews and Hittites. The difference was that Hebrews immediately accepted those rules as binding whereas the Hittites, along with everyone else, mocked and jeered what they saw as repressive and primitive sexual boundaries. The Hebrews still survive.
Israel was warned:
Like the behavior of the land of Egypt, where you lived, shall you not do; and like the behavior of the land of Canaan, where I bring you, shall you not do…
(Leviticus 18:3)
Ancient Jewish wisdom clarifies how the context makes clear that God is referring to sexual promiscuity.
Ancient Jewish wisdom teaches that the additional sexual restrictions circumscribing exactly who priests may marry (Leviticus 21) are not random restrictions but rather these rules contribute to the elevated status of the priests. In other words, marital and sexual boundaries refine and advance men toward achievement while limitless licentiousness degrades men and lowers them to lethargy and indolence.
One of the greatest anthropologists was the early 20th century, Oxford and Cambridge scholar, Joseph Daniel Unwin. He devoted his life to studying more than eighty different cultures which existed over a 5,000 year period and discovered an inviolable rule. The more sexual restraints a culture practices, the higher its level of cultural, scientific, and economic achievement. His magnum opus, Sex and Culture published in 1934, reveals the results of his research, including gems such as these:
“The whole of human history does not contain a single instance of a group becoming civilized unless it has been absolutely monogamous, nor is there any example of a group retaining its culture after it has adopted less rigorous customs.”
In other words, the Judeo-Christian Biblically-based model of sex being confined to marriage is essential for the development of civilization and for its endurance. Though Unwin captured this Biblical truth he did make one mistake.
He correctly argues that as societies become prosperous they become increasingly lax about sexual morality causing them to lose cultural cohesion and become confused about their purpose. He died in 1936, so he never lived to see America as the latest society to prove his point.
Where Unwin errs is that he claims that the process is irreversible. The truth is that Israel’s many failures brought it close to extinction but a religious revival always saved the day. This can be the way back to national vitality for the US also.
You have a part to play in helping restore the culture you live in and one highly effective way to do so is by helping others access traditional, Biblical messages about relationships. Rather than being relics of the past, these virtues are the path to the future. I encourage you to share the book Hands Off! This May Be Love with your pastors and friends. Most importantly, share it with the children you love.
