Dear youth group members,
I am a university student who has been a born-again Christian since I was in high school. My moral and ethical stance is that I have decided to abstain from premarital sex until I get married. I have decided that my chosen vocation will be theology, and I intend to pursue a degree in the same. The reason for this has something to do with how people view sex in the modern era. Sexual development among human beings has not kept up with their preference to attain more education, financial security, and general life security before getting married. On the contrary, there is a huge time gap between sexual maturity and the institution of marriage that happens to be at its highest ever point. In response, various Christian denominations preach different perspectives on the issue of courtship and when a courting couple can have sex. The absence of an authoritative message on sexual matters is not lost to young people. Many of them dont care that there is no common ground about sex, something that makes it easy for them to engage in it before marriage. There is no denying that premarital sex will always be appealing to young people. After all, it does what it is supposed to do i.e. bonding people. It makes us want extra things such as more security, more relationships and more intimacy. In a way, there is nothing like premarital sex. The only thing that is there is marital and non-marital sex. When a couple misses certain steps, it is the responsibility of the church to ensure that others are not skipped, or to refer to non-marital sex as the sacrilege it actually is. Since I became a born-again Christian, I made a vow to avoid having sex until I marry. I intend to honor it throughout my time in university.
The bible has a lot to say about abstinence from sex before marriage. Everything that God creates has a plan. According to Genesis chapter one verse 31, God states that everything he created in the beginning is good. However, people are known to distort Gods words by saying that sex is not different. Since he created it, then it must be good. Some individuals may ask, if sex is good, then why save it for marriage? To understand this, it is worth thinking about Gods design and purpose for sex. He created it for a number of reasons, one of them being recreation. In Genesis 1:28, God ordered Adam and Eve to go out there and multiply. He also wished that that the two develop intimacy with each other, and was aware that sex would assist them to do that. Thus, the other reason for sex is intimacy whereby there is a connection between two individuals spirits. While performing the sexual act, the two become one. This is exactly what God directed man to do in the course of marriage; part ways with parents and become one together with a wife. Given that sex is so powerful at forming closeness, it must have some limits and that why God restricted it to marriage. The type of intimacy that He desires for married people can only be enjoyed between one male and one female is was the case in the beginning. When done outside of marriage sex can cause damage both physically and in terms of relationships. Physical damages include sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV/AIDS, unplanned or unwanted pregnancies, and the intentional destruction of human life in the form of abortion. Relational damages include sin as sex outside marriage is defiance of Gods commands. It makes others perceive someone as a less committed Christian who is susceptible to hypocrisy. If two people are not patient enough to wait until marriage to have sex, then they would have problems trusting each other for faithfulness.
Faith happens to be the basic commitment and orientation for an individuals entire being, and will guide me in my theology career path. Faith is both a gift that someone receives in the Christian community as well as a choice that he or she makes. It involves trusting in God and depending on him as a destiny and source of our livelihood. Theology is all about people thinking together about their discipleship and faith. It is reflecting on the good news to do with the love of God in Christ with others within the Christian community. Both the clergy and laypeople are needed in any theological tasks. For one, the laypeople present an understanding from the efforts they put to live as Christians in a secular world full of complexities. On the other hand, the clergy presents experience and special tools gotten through extensive theological and biblical studies. To successfully conduct theology, the two are needed. When thinking about faith, Christians rely mainly on the bible. This scripture happens to be the ideal testimony the self-disclosure of God in several things. They include in the ministry, in Israelites lives, in Jesus Christs death and resurrection, and in the work that the Spirit did in the early church. Hence, the bible happens to be pivotal source of peoples Christian witness as well as the commanding measure of the truth in their beliefs.
I believe that secularism will be a major stumbling block in my theological endeavors. Although there are numerous factors that contribute to the current state of theological and biblical ignorance, secularism is a major contributor. I observe that there is a lot of confusion concerning what secularism is, its origins together with its effects. Some people believe that it asserts the right to be free from governments imposition of religion on the masses. Simply put, they are of the opinion that states should not interfere with anything to do with religious orientation. In this sense, secularism means a fitting division of state and church whereby the states authority is severely limited in matters to do with religious demeanor and faith. Almost four centuries since the religious wars in Europe, the church still shows some indifference in discussing doctrine and theology. Consequently, theology, which happens to be foundation of the Christian faith, seems to have taken backseat in the churchs daily practices and life. So many churches have simply adopted an atheological stance and are not in any way ashamed of it. People have opted for corporate and personal experiences as opposed to discipleship and intellectual rigor that is likely to contest someones personal theological ideas. As a matter of fact, many Christians in the United States dont know anything about the historic orthodox Christian theology. Others have gathered a collection of varying perceptions about God that combine several theological positions into a single one that suits them the most. Whatever the case, the modern church suffers significantly from this misunderstanding.
While practicing theology, I anticipate challenges from people on issues such as evangelism, ethics and the calling. The good news is that my philosophical theory will help me navigate through these challenges. A notable strategy will involve always knowing where I am going and what I am doing. It would be far much better to stick to the obvious things that I know God wants, such as preaching the Gospel, visiting the sick, acting as a witness to the lost, and building relations. This is a viable alternative to proceeding with a plan that I am not fully convinced is of God. I will avoid coming up with a program just because I have seen other people doing it. I should not blindly follow the newest trend after reading it in a book or online and observing that it appears to be working for other theology students. If I lead my followers down too many blind paths, I will be faced with irrelevant and ineffective leadership. I have to be certain that I am aware where the Lord wants my followers to go. Another strategy I will apply will be to always be honest with the bibles teachings. Too many people practicing theology have distorted the scriptures and ascribed foreign meaning to the texts and their authors just to make people conform. I have learnt that I should never compromise the Bible for my own sake, irrespective of how noble it may appear at the time.
The call to human freedom and happiness relates to theology in a number of ways. It is worth looking at the teachings of an early Christian theologian called St. Augustine, whose works of literature had a major influence on the development of western Christianity. He once wrote that everyone wishes to be happy but people who do not get what they want are not happy. From this, he then questions what an individual should obtain in order to achieve happiness. This is considering the fact that happiness is always about a person having what he or she wants so as to be happy. St. Augustine proposed an answer that happiness is made up of something that can possessed when it is desired. Considering the availability of instant credit nowadays, individuals are in a position to get whatever material possessions they want whenever they desire them. A question arises as to whether this can offer them the happiness they want. Unfortunately, the answer will always be no. this is because irrespective of how material wealth is achieved, those in possession of it will perpetually be afraid of losing it. According to St. Augustine, the only place that human beings can find enduring and permanent happiness is in the love of God. They can obtain it without experiencing the fear of loss that corrodes their happiness. The main theme of his opinion on happiness is related to humans susceptibility to the material possessions of this world. St. Augustine goes ahead and provides an ideal definition of love. He says that anything that is not loved in its own right cannot be considered to be loved.
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