Will sexual morality become a source of persecution for Christianity?

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I do not know where to place this discussion. I am most interested in what the ancient Judao-Christians taught. Since the LDS seem to be most representative ancient christian doctrines, I put it in this portion of the forum. The Catholics are the main other western Christian church that feels it's deep historical ties (perhaps I'll post in their forum as well...)

I am only superficially familiar with various modern christianities, yet many of them seem to believe that there will come a period of persecution in the latter days. Do the LDS also believe this? If so, is there an undercurrent among the LDS as to what sort of form this persecution will take? Do they believe that the most intense persecution will be tied to their doctrines regarding morality?


I grew up in an amoral (and sometimes immoral) type of Christianity. It did not matter what one did as long as one believed in Jesus. That culture developed their own supportive philosophy that was an inversion of moral values where other “moral” Christianities” were seen as being guilty of “moral pride” (some were "proud"...) and of a “moral self-sufficiency” that we advertised as a type of faithlessness in Jesus’ sacrifice and an unwillingness to “submit the bill” for all sinfulness (including willful and on-going sins) to Jesus atonement since we taught his atonement "paid the price for all sin". (Looking back, I cannot help but see this as a subconscious yet willing creation of specific doctrines and attitudes to support our bias) "Repentance" was a naughty word and had no part in our doctrines.

However, in my native amoral or immoral christianity, we never underwent any rigorous persecution since there was only “the belief in Jesus” for critics to Sneer at (and though they snickered, the doctrine did them no harm). The single doctrine that “Jesus made all things right” covered everything and all contingencies. It allowed us to embrace all moral behaviors as equally desirable (since they didn’t matter...). It did not matter if one was homosexual, or promiscuous or untrue to their wives or husbands since, such sins would be "made right" and "justified" equally by the type of atonement we taught. The bank robber and pedophile and pimp was on equal moral status with the married couple that remained true and taught their children against promiscuity. Ironically, It was those who took a moral stand that seemed to come under the greatest scrutiny. This is what I mean by a "inversion of moral values".

This is not to say there were not social problems caused by immorality. Our pastor divorced his wife (also a pastor) and married a teen friend of my sister. But the divorce, the hard feelings, and the deep divisions that resulted, were seen as problems of a social nature and NOT of a moral or religious nature. Because of this amoral or immoral stance, we, had no fear of persecution from any moral disagreement since we took no moral stance against any moral behaviors. (One would generally have to take a moral stance before a moral stance could BE faulted and argued against).

However, what about moral Christianities that hold to the ancient moral stances? If they hold to the ancient teachings against homosexuality and promiscuity, then there is something to disagree with; to push against and to gnash on. I’ve noticed that the Catholics and the LDS seem to have taken much criticism due to their stance on homosexuality and against the desire for some individuals to re-define marriage. And I’ve watched the subtle debates amongst the LDS and the Catholics themselves as to what is correct and what is not. Even these “private” discussions that take place seem to be worded more carefully and some that are public take place on egg-shells.

As society increasingly releases it’s own grip on moral values, will society ultimately be converted to the amoral or immoral paradigms and come to view the moral among society as simply the “hypocritical” (who “deny” their own nature) and “self-righteous” or “sexual bigots” (there are those too...) and thus fair game for criticism (rather than as the salt of the earth the moral were once viewed as)? There are others too, who are watching from the side lines who are Christians, but of the moral “wannabees” who are watching to see how much pressure and criticism the moral christians will bear before taking any public stand. They’ve received Christianity with joy “yet hath no root in himself” and are in the process of stumbling as the “tribulation or persecution arises” (matt 13:20-21). Worse yet, will many Christains “without moral root” stand beside in the shade with the immorals, simply to avoid the heat that comes from a moral commitment?

I have wondered what a deep study regarding early Christians morals and what sorts of persecutions might have resulted from their commitment to sexual morals might reveal, since their moral commitment in these regards was very, very clear.

A sampling from the Christian texts shows commitment to certain sexual morals was taught. For example : The Apostolic Fathers (the earliest christian texts written while apostles lived or written by those who knew apostles) reveals this doctrine. For example: In the Didache (used as scripture by early Christians such as origen, clement and didymus -the blind) The second commandment (behind murder) was

“ you shall not commit adultery; you shall not corrupt boys; you shall not be sexually promiscuous; you shall not steal; you shall not practice magic; you shall not engage in sorcery; you shall not abort a child or commit infanticide. (Did 2:1-2)

New Testament Barnabas repeats the ancient teaching that

“you shall not be sexually promiscuous; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not corrupt boys. You shall not abort a child nor again, commit infanticide. (Bar 19:4-5)

; Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch taught the ephesians that “...those who adulterously corrupt households “will not inherit the kingdom of God.” (I-eph 16:1) Polycarp (who heard John speak and believed him) taught that “neither fornicators nor male prostitutes nor homosexual will inherit the kingdom of God,” nor those who do perverse things. Therefore one must keep away from all these things and be obedient... (Poly to phil 5:3) It is clear that such things were prohibited in early and authentic Christianity.

The Jewish and Christian sampling from the Old Testament PseudoEpigrapha also reveals the same moral stance : for example, Abortion was one of the misdeeds of the fallen angels before noah’s time. The fifth angel named Kasadya,

“revealed to the children of the people (the various) flagellations of all evil,...the smashing of the embryo in the womb so that it may be crushed...” (1En 69:12)

Speaking of such conditions, Enoch prophesied that

“In those days, the nations shall be confounded, and the families of the nations shall rise in the day of the destruction of the sinners. In those days, they (the women) shall become pregnant, but they (the sinners) shall come out and abort their infants and cast them out from their midst; they shall (also) abandon their (other) children, casting their infants out while they are still suckling. They shall neither return to them (their babes) nor have compassion upon their beloved ones.” (1En 99:4-5)

This teaching was not simply from the Jewish-Christian literature, but greek-christian literature took a similar stance : The Sybaline Oracles also relate that

“All the righteous will be saved, but the impious will then be destroyed for all ages, as many as formerly did evil or committed murders, ....”Again, those who defiled the flesh by licentiousness, or as many as undid the girdle of virginity by secret intercourse, as many as aborted what they carried in the womb, as many as cast forth their offspring unlawfully. (syb ora book 2 vs 245 and vs 275-280)

The modern willing promiscuity unprotected by birth control that results in abortion is not modern : Ezra’s vision of Mothers who both aborted and killed infants relates that abortion was a moral problem in their day and age. Seeing the regret of such women on the day of judgement, Ezra saw such women and asked : “Who are they?” And the angels said, “They had sons in adultery and killed them.” And those little ones themselves accused them, saying, “Lord, the souls which you gave to us these (women) took away. And he said, “Who are they?” And the angels said, “They killed their sons.” (Vision of the blessed Ezra v51-55)
(The Muslims who might read this will recognize the reference to the example of the dead child accusing it's parent of it's own death in the judgment)

POST TWO OF TWO FOLLOWS

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POST TWO OF TWO

It is very clear that the ancients took a firm moral stance on sexual immoralities. Enoch was shown the terrible regret associated with such immoralities :

“This place, enoch, has been prepared for those who do not glorify God, who practice on the earth the sin which is against nature, which is child corruption in the anus in the manner of Sodom,...stealing, lying, insulting, coveting, resentment, fornication, murder...seizing the poor by the throat, taking away their possessions, ...” (2En 10:4)

”For I know the wickedness of mankind, how they have rejected my commandments and they will not carry the yoke which I have placed on them. But they will cast off my yoke and they will accept a different yoke.... And all the world will be reduced to confusion by iniquities and wickednesses and abominable fornications that is friend with friend in the anus, and every other kind of wicked uncleaness which it is disgusting to report, and the worship of the evil one. And that is why I shall bring down the flood onto the earth... (2en 34:1-3)

In MANY of the testaments of the Twelve partriarchs (sons of Jacob), they told their sons to avoid promiscuity. Reuben says to his children : “observe all the things that I command you and do not sin, for the sin of promiscuity is the pitfall of life, separating man from God and leading on towards idolarty...” (T OF TW PAT - REUBEN 4:6) Simeon tells his sons that he has “seen in a copy of the book of Enoch that your sons will be ruined by promiscuity” ( SIMEON 5:4-5) levi repeats this warning and goes even further : “I know from the writings of Enoch that in the end-time you will act impiously against the Lord, .....you have intercourse with whores and adulteresses. .... your sexual relations will become like Sodom and Gomorrah. .... (LEVI 14:1-8) Judah reveals the problems of promiscuity by his own experiences : “The promiscuous man is unaware when he has been harmed and shameless when he has been disgraced. For even someone who is a king, if he is promiscuous, is divested of his kingship, since he has been enslaved by sexual impulses, just as I experienced. (JUDAH 15:1-4) When Judah read from and quotes Enoch’s writings, it gave the patriarchs as clear a vision of our day as any prophet :

“For in the books of Enoch the Righteous I have read the evil things you will do in the last days. Guard yourselves therefore, my children, against sexual promiscuity and love of money; listen to Judah, your father, for these things distance you from the Law of God, blind the direction of the souls, and teach arrogance...4 They deprive his soul of all goodness...5They impede the sacrifices to God, he does not remember the blessings of God, he does not obey the prophet when he speaks and he is offended by a prior word. 6 For two passions contrary to God’s commands enslave him, so that he is unable to obey God: They blind his soul, and he goes about in the day as though it were night... (JUDAH 18:1-6)

Dan and Benjamin give the same testimony as this one from Jacob to his sons : “For the unjust will not inherit the kingdom of God, nor will the adulterers, nor the accursed, nor those who commit outrages and have sexual intercourse with males...nor those who pollute themselves outside of pure marriage...” (Testament of JACOB 7:19-20)

They had all heard these teachings before. Abraham, in his farewell testimony from Jubilees (in the current eastern old testament) reads : “And he commanded them...that we should keep ourselves from all fornication and pollution, and that we should set aside from among us all fornication and pollution.” Jubilees (the book of division) 20:2, 3

Pseudo-Phocylides, in it’s Summary of the Decalogue reads the early take on this moral issue “Neither commit adultery nor rouse homosexual passion”. (THE SENTENCES OF PSEUDO-PHOCYLIDES vs 3) These issues do not change over the centuries. Phocylides tells them : "Do not approach the bed of (your) sister, (a bed) to turn away from. 183 Nor go to bed with the wives of your brothers. 184 Do not let a woman destroy the unborn babe in her belly, 185 nor after its birth throw it before the gods and the vultures as a prey..... 188 Do not seek sexual union with irrational animals. 189 Do not outrage (your) wife by shameful ways of intercourse. 190 Do not transgress with unlawful sex the limits set by nature. 198 Let no one violently have intercourse with a girl not yet betrothed...213 Guard the youthful prime of life of a comely boy, 214 because many rage for intercourse with a man." (THE SENTENCES OF PSEUDO-PHOCYLIDES)

The syriac menander reinforces this same moral stand : "45 And as for an adulterous woman, her feet are not firm, 46 for she deceives her good husband. 47 And a man who does not correctly deal with his wife, 48 even God hates him. 49 Keep your son away from fornication," THE SENTENCES OF THE SYRIAC MENANDER

"They set up the sons of Jerusalem for derision because of her prostitutes. 13 And the daughters of Jerusalem were available to all, according to your judgments, because they defiled themselves with improper intercourse." PSALMS OF SOLOMON #2 v11,13;

The ancients and authentic moral christianity remained firm on these moral issues. If Christianity gives up more and more of what are central and core issues, then at what point has it abandoned the doctrines that allow it to claim it is authentic? There are those who say these issues are not important (perhaps because they either avoid or cannot find strict and obvious descriptions of ancient Christian morals). Still what if the ancients were correct about the importance of these principes?

“Great is the mystery of marriage! For without it the world would not have existed. Now the existence of the world depends on man, and the existence of man on marriage. Think of the undefiled relationship, for it possesses a great power” (The gospel of Phillip).

In using ancient sacred texts, critics of them will point out that Enoch and Jubilees remain scriptures only to the eastern canon and are not “scripture” to westerners (though they were scriptural to new Testament writers); They may point out that Barnabas and hermas and clement were taken out of the emerging New Testament (though they were in the early canon) and some of these books never made it into the modern canons in the first place (though they were considered scripture by those who read them). Still, a study of all texts considered sacred by early theists tell us what THEY believed and considered authentic christian doctrine. This is the reason I take great interest in these books and in early christian fiction as well.

Though the current western Old and New Testament may lack great clarity and repetition of certain principles which can make it difficult to tell exactly what moral doctrines they believed in and how important and how widespread such doctrines were in ancient Judaism and Christianity, a survey of a large portion of texts from different eras and different locals that agree on a single doctrine mean that the doctrine was an authentic belief among a large group of theists over a large spans of time.

If one critical purpose of man’s mortality is learning to live by moral laws such as prohibition of certain types of abortion, and certain types of sexual relations then it makes sense that these principles cannot be abandoned without abandoning authentic original Christian religion. I hope the LDS and Catholics will remain representative of the ancient morals on these issues. I do not pretend to fully understand just WHY these are critical moral values (I honestly do not understand why), but I think that they are a mark of authentic ancient christian morals.

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[madhatter85]

I would have to say that we knew there would be persecution stemming from the unrighteous. Nobody likes to be told that what they are doing is wrong. Especially when they have conflicting voices over their head. Us LDS have been under persecution since Joseph Smith's days because of what we believe to be moral high ground.

Yes we do take a stance on moral issues because we know of the calamities foretold by ancient and modern prophets that will come upon the earth should those morals be swept under the rug by society.

As stated in revelation:

15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. 16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.

Not taking a stand is worse. The gospel of Jesus Christ is not one of apathy or indifference.