The Bible and Masturbation

It's a corruption of the sex act sought for completely selfish pleasure that isn't due to someone who is abusing it, that's why it's sinful.

Here's a snippet from the Catechism of the Catholic Church
By masturbation is to be understood the deliberate stimulation of the genital organs in order to derive sexual pleasure. "Both the Magisterium of the Church, in the course of a constant tradition, and the moral sense of the faithful have been in no doubt and have firmly maintained that masturbation is an intrinsically and gravely disordered action."138 "The deliberate use of the sexual faculty, for whatever reason, outside of marriage is essentially contrary to its purpose." For here sexual pleasure is sought outside of "the sexual relationship which is demanded by the moral order and in which the total meaning of mutual self-giving and human procreation in the context of true love is achieved."139

 

Likewise, I'm not trying to be offensive, but your arguments don't hold any water.

You are trying to take your own 21st century definition of fornication and apply it to verses. Leviticus 18 could very well BE the definition of 'fornication' or 'sexual immorality' The old testament is what set the rules. These rules were widely known in the culture. When the new testament writers spoke of sexual immorality they are referring to the old testament.

In old testament Hebrew culture men often had multiple wives, some young.

In Matthew 19 the Pharisees are trying to trick Jesus with a question about divorce, but Jesus jumps over the divorce issue and says: "Jesus replied, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning."

Jesus flat out says that the laws of Moses was weak because our wills are weak.

God quite literally lowered the standard of his law, we had divorce, multiple wives, and some of them young. So why again are you asking about masturbation?

I'm going to assume you're talking about Romans 1. (When in reality I think you're just generalizing 'christiany sounding terms' without really knowing what they mean.) But Romans 1:24 could be one of those verse that certainly condemns "Fleshy Desires". Don't just read one term "Sexual Impurity" (NIV translation) and assume it means what you want it to mean. At least read the verse! "Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another."

He is talking about Specific people and Specific acts. I will leave it to you to read a commentary on Romans, there are plenty, but POINT BLANK he isn't talking about Masterbating.

Again don't trying to be rude, but I really don't think you know much about what the bible ACTUALLY says. Because being ascetic is not a major take away.

I had a lot of success keeping porn out of my life but still masturbating (streaks up to 13 months). After recently finding nofap, I'm trying a 90 day PM-mode reset. I might change my mind about M, we will see. Right now I think I'll go back to a P-mode lifestyle after the reset.

I'm sorry man, it sounds like you grew to know what being a Christian was by having someone force rules on you that don't exist. I hope you find your faith someday.

 

I'm sorry that was obnoxiously long. I'll let you call me obtuse again and I will leave it alone.

 

I am curious how you came to that conclusion. First, what do you mean by the rate of masturbation - how many boys do it? Do you mean how often males masturbate? Do you mean how young boys are when they start masturbating or what?

 

Spoiler: Yes

 

I don't think it's a difficult conclusion to reach. Internet porn has caused many men to masturbate multiple times per day every day. I'm not sure such a thing would have been so common prior to the advent of the internet.

 

Is this guy doing sit ups exercises to prevent himself masturbating!?

 

Well, I did it several times daily for decades with no visual stimulation at all. Porn is not needed for masturbation.

 

Fair enough, but I do think that it's even more of a common thing now than it was prior to the internet. I guess I have no scientific research to back that up though.

 

@iwmsgan and @Themadfapper

Your exchange has been interesting. Both of you have good points and solid conclusions. It's unfortunate though since if we just go on scripture alone we won't be able to tell which one of you is correct in your assessments/interpretations. If you've both proven anything today it's the need for a visible authority to guide Christians and to settle such matters regarding the Christian position on sexuality and masturbation. This is probably why Christ founded a visible Church instead of spending hours writing books in between building tables.

 

the rate of men that masturbate and and how young they start. Yes, I understand that men have always masturbated since the dawn of time. However, when you're a little boy in a 21st century American home that can turn on the tv and see sexual acts/situations that you don't understand; it's a little different than living in Victorian era England where it's
1) Considered a taboo
2) Material and exposure is harder to come by
3) sex was not really an open discussion

I think the number of men that masturbate has always been high however, exposure to material is at an all time high, reasoning that more exposure/material, more people being exposed to.

Again not meaning to offend, just my small mind trying to work everything out haha!

 

No offense taken. I just wanted to understand your rationale. You may be right.

 

This is why God gave us the Holy Spirit, as clearly stated in the Bible.

 

The Holy Spirit must have a multiple personality disorder since there are tons of different Christian denominations and Christian inviduals all claiming different things. What gives?!

 

Doesn't exactly work that way. Jesus never said, I'm going to send the Holy Spirit and He's going to give every person a way to interpret scripture however they desire.

Sola Scriptura is a mess and only leads to confusion. Scripture is to be interpreted through Tradition and the Magisterium that's been handed down through the ages. If someone just picks up a Bible and starts reading it without referencing those who have come before them, they tend to think that their thoughts are guided by the Holy Spirit when in fact it could be the evil one deceiving them. There's a reason why there are thousands upon thousands of different Protestant churches and all sorts of loons who murder people because it said so in the Bible.

 

We also have to remember that often times scripture is not the best translated. Granted, most of the translations are correct. It just helps to do language studies when reading the Bible.

Example would be: Paul never told wives to submit to their husbands. The actually translation comes out to "Wives must be 'tenderly devoted' to their husbands"

So interpreting scriptures based solely on the English translations is a bit confusing. Not saying that the entire bible is wrong. But there are little funny things like James the brother of Jesus. His name is not actually James, it's actually Jacob but, King James I wanted a shameless self insert into the Bible. And we have "James" the brother of Jesus.

Not really a big deal just a funny little side note

 

I believe Jacob is a cognate of James, it could have just been how the name was translated at the time (and maybe it was a nod to the King). The vulgate is Jacobus which obviously sounds a lot more like Jacob. Also, the Douay-Rheims translation was around prior to KJV and it also makes the name as James.

I'll take a quote from Wikipedia:
The English name "James" comes from Italian "Giacomo", a variant of "Giacobo" derived from Iacobus (Jacob) in Latin, itself from the Greek Ἰάκωβος "Iacobos".

Anyway, I think a big thing thing with translations and understanding is that we have all sorts of manner of speech that completely change the meaning in modern context. For example, "brothers and sisters" could also mean one's cousins/relatives in those days, whereas in modern day understanding that makes no sense.

 

Hmm. Jesus told the religious leaders in the first century that they had made the Word of God invalid by their traditions!

 

Tradition big T is the Gospel handed down by word when Paul says "I commend you because you remember me in everything and maintain the traditions even as I have delivered them to you" (1 Cor. 11:2), and he commands the Thessalonians, "So then, brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by letter" (2 Thess. 2:15). Christ wasn't against all tradition, since the Bible itself is a product of it and even Christ Himself used it during His teaching and preaching.

 

This thread is about Masturbation in the Bible, not Catholic/Orthodox versus Protestant.