Replay: Humility can't be overestimated. It brings us near to God who alone can save us from the devastating effects of pride.
Replay: One day, Chris and Marissa's marriage came crashing down. But through the power of God, this brought about something beautiful.
Dustin Renz looks at Jeremiah 29 and the plans God has for our lives.
This episode: Sin's consequences often stirs up hard questions. In this episode we'll offer biblical answers to some of these questions.
Replay: Humility can't be overestimated. It brings us near to God who alone can save us from the devastating effects of pride.
Replay: One day, Chris and Marissa's marriage came crashing down. But through the power of God, this brought about something beautiful.
Dustin Renz looks at Jeremiah 29 and the plans God has for our lives.
This episode: Sin's consequences often stirs up hard questions. In this episode we'll offer biblical answers to some of these questions.
Replay: Humility can't be overestimated. It brings us near to God who alone can save us from the devastating effects of pride.
Replay: One day, Chris and Marissa's marriage came crashing down. But through the power of God, this brought about something beautiful.
Dustin Renz looks at Jeremiah 29 and the plans God has for our lives.
This episode: Sin's consequences often stirs up hard questions. In this episode we'll offer biblical answers to some of these questions.
An intense love for God is the only thing that will replace the love of sin.
It began with Stephen, stoned to death after a forceful sermon. Next, James the brother of John was beheaded. Eventually, every other disciple except John was martyred. Since that time, millions upon millions have been put to death for claiming the name of Christ. Tertullian rightly said that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.
There is something about a man who is willing to lay it all on the line that has a compelling effect on other people. Stephen was an example of such a man. Even though he was a “nobody,” he preached fearlessly to the most prominent religious leaders of his day. He was in the fire of God when he told them they were “stiff-necked and… always resisting the Holy Spirit…” This wasn’t the ranting of a self-proclaimed prophet, but a humble man empowered by the Spirit of the Living God. We are told that when the Jewish leaders heard these words “they were cut to the quick.” Enraged, they drove him out of the city and stoned him to death.
What made Stephen willing to face death so unflinchingly? The answer can be found in his life, much more than in his death. Luke called him “a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit,” and later said he was “full of grace and power.”
The devil murdered him through those men, yet he overcame Satan because he “did not love (his) life even to death.” (Revelations 12:11) Death doesn’t terrify the believer who lives with an eternal perspective. The reality of his life can be found in the words of Christ: “He who loves his life loses it; and he who hates his life in this world shall keep it to life eternal.” (John 12:25) He lives in this world, but is “not of the world.” (John 17:14) He is “looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God;” (Hebrews 11:10) “the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.” (Hebrews 12:22) Death has lost its sting to the Christian who lives in this mindset.
Having a martyr mentality means more than being willing to face death. Paul, who would later be a martyr himself, urged the Romans “to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice” to God. He wasn’t referring to death but to the way they lived their daily lives.
Whether or not you and I ever face this kind of persecution, we can be living martyrs for Christ right where we are. We can exemplify the same kind of unselfish concern for others as did Stephen and Paul. We can be living martyrs right at our homes and workplaces.
At our residential facility for sexual addicts, we teach the men that one of the most important things they can do to overcome the stranglehold of sin is to learn how to “get out of themselves.” One thing that all addicts hold in common is that their sin tends to make their world very small. Sin is like a beast that continually demands more and more of its host. The stronger the addiction, the more self-absorbed the addict will become. Some people simply cannot function in life anymore because their addiction has gradually taken over their lives.
Within this small world the man’s passions and desires become increasingly greater, while the needs of loved ones get smaller. His life becomes a vicious cycle of living for himself and being controlled by sin. The more he lives in this manner, the less he finds that he has to give to others.
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Living for one’s self is the very worst thing an addict can do because everything he does in life reinforces his addiction. This spiral of sin and selfishness takes him into a deep pit that seems impossible to escape. However, the good news is that the believer can climb out of any pit he can climb into! Although the last thing he wants to do is to become involved with others, that’s one of the very things that will pull him out of that pit of self-absorption.
Living the sacrificial life Paul described will not only make a person godlier, but it will also free him from his addiction. One thing we tell our guys is, “To the degree that you have given yourself over to immorality you must now give yourself to God.” An intense love for God is the only thing that will replace the love of sin.
Being a martyr for Christ means more than actually being killed by a God-hater. It means to live one’s life sacrificially and unselfishly.
Develop a heavenly mindset, learn to “hate your life in this world,” make your life a living sacrifice for God and others and you will soon see that sexual temptation has lost its power!
When my husband's sexual sin came to light, I felt like my whole world had come crashing down in an instant.
It was May 4, 1991. The early spring foliage was a rich green, and even the air seemed fresh and clean in New York City that morning. It was the beautiful, pristine kind of day couples dream about for their marriage ceremony. Jeff and I stood hand in hand at the altar. As we expressed our wedding vows to one another, I looked into his eyes and was filled with hope, hope anchored in the belief that he would love and cherish me and meet my needs, that he would provide and care for me, and that we would share a life filled with blessings and happiness.
Isn’t that what we all expect from our marriages? Isn’t our mate supposed to complete and fulfill us and make all of our dreams come true? Isn’t that how all of the storybook romances end, and shouldn’t we, too, expect to live happily ever after? How much more should this be true in marrying a man who was a professing Christian?
It only took a few weeks before our fairy tale crumbled as my husband’s twelve-year history of sexual sin and drug abuse re-surfaced.
I can still remember what it was like when my husband’s sin finally came out into the light. I felt like my whole world had come crashing down in an instant. I had never felt such devastation.
The shock of Jeff’s sexual sin brought much confusion and so many questions that I was not equipped to deal with. How could he do this to me? Wasn’t he serious about his marriage vows when he said them? Could this possibly be God’s will for my life? Why was the Lord allowing me to go through this? What do I do now? Who do I tell? Where do we go from here? Is there any hope for us?
As you might imagine, many of the wives who come to us are in this exact same situation. And most of them were utterly lost when they came face to face with their husband’s sexual sin.
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After assuring the wife that there is always hope, we determine if she has concrete evidence and whether she has confronted her husband with it. If she does and her husband denies that anything is going on, we advise her to get a spiritual leader involved, immediately. That can be a pastor, elder, deacon, or small group leader. An appropriate leader should be willing to meet with her and her husband, and he should appreciate the potential gravity of her situation.
I say this because the best thing for the husband may be that he is dealt with severely, and appropriate action can often involve mandatory counseling and church discipline. If a leader does not have that mindset, the wife may need to involve another leader or even consider a different church home.
Thankfully, God used my pastor to intervene in our lives. When we met with him, Jeff was confronted with two options. He could go away into a residential program, or he would be excommunicated from the church. We were fortunate that my pastor knew of Pure Life Ministries because he had just recently sent another church member into the Residential program.
As I look back, it has been over 20 years since my husband was faced with that decision. How thankful I am that my pastor was so concerned about his spiritual condition that he was willing to implement biblical church discipline as a wakeup call for both of us. Something was terribly wrong in his life that necessitated this drastic disciplinary action. This wasn’t a little problem that would just go away on its own. He needed help.
Jesus told us in Matthew 18:15-17, “Moreover, if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother. But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more, that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector.” We see in this passage of Scripture the biblical mandate of a professing Christian to confront the sin of a believer that has sinned against him in hopes that the individual will come into true godly repentance.
Wives are often hesitant to take this stand because of the implications it may have on the family or the husband’s job. They can be more concerned about other church members or the church board finding out about her husband’s sin especially if he is in a church leadership position.
If you find yourself in any one of these categories this, I would ask you to consider James chapter 5:19-20, “Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.” What a mercy it is to your husband when you are willing to do what God’s Word instructs you to in dealing with your spouse’s sin. And once your husband sees his sin and becomes truly repentant, he will be willing to do whatever he needs to in order to get the help that he needs.
On whatever path the Lord leads you, be encouraged, Beloved, there is hope. “But Jesus looked at them and said to them, ‘With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.’” Matthew 19:26
With God's word, His presence, and the cross, we have so much to offer those who are struggling, so why would we turn to the world for help?
Someone sent me a DVD the other day about Christian men who had been addicted to pornography. The quality of the production was excellent. And the guys who were interviewed adeptly articulated the consequences of their former addiction: i.e., the guilt and shame they carried through life, the spiritual deadness they felt inside, the pain it caused loved ones, etc.
I’m sure porn addicts who saw this video could really relate to those men. It is always helpful to hear others express their struggles once they have come out the other end of the process. However, the value of empathy only goes so far.
I waited with anticipation for the men to convey how God set them free. Struggling people need concrete answers—a biblically-based roadmap to freedom. After awhile, they finally shared what helped them. As if on cue from the producer, they all talked about the importance of the one solution any secular therapist would offer: accountability.
Now it goes without saying that accountability has its place in the process of overcoming an addiction. During the period of time that the addict is fighting his way out of his bondage it is vital that he bring his struggles into the light. After all, Satan operates in the kingdom of darkness.
Nevertheless, accountability is NOT the solution to finding lasting freedom in Christ. Of course, we all understand that a secular therapist has little more to work with than behavioral modification gimmicks. As for leading a person to real inner transformation, the counselor is limited to forms of psychological quackery such as getting in touch with your inner child or holding a conversation with an imaginary person from your past.
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It is amazing to me how seriously these people take themselves. The field of psychology’s propensity for presenting theories as if they are tried-and-true facts is reminiscent of other areas of secular study. For instance, in the 1940’s, Alfred Kinsey so bamboozled the American public with his scholarly presentation of his perverted ideas about human sexuality that he birthed the sexual revolution. To this day we are still suffering the consequences of his scam. And ever since the Scopes Monkey Trial of the 1930’s, evolutionists have successfully foisted upon a naïve public their skewed data regarding man’s origins.
So it should come as no surprise that the field of psychology would employ the same methods of presenting faulty theories with an outlandish amount of academic pretension.
One would certainly think that any Christian with a degree of spiritual discernment would fully understand that unbelievers are clueless about the Lord’s power to transform a person from the inside out. What do they know about His ability to flush the filth out of the heart of a sexual addict and leave innocence and purity in its wake? What understanding do they have of the power of God to change a hopeless drunk or drug addict into a sober-minded man? What unbeliever has the slightest comprehension of the way the Lord can transform a thief into a man of virtue, a liar into a lover of truth, a mocker into a serious-minded man or an arrogant braggart into a meek lamb?
We understand that God has the power to transform a life from the inside out, so why are we still looking to the pathetic offerings of humanistic psychology for our solutions? Why aren’t we seeing videos where men are talking about the miraculous way God has utterly changed their lives? Could it be that many of those who are working in this area of need in the Church don’t have a very clear understanding about the power of the Cross?
We have so much to offer those who are struggling. Scripture contains the answers. God’s presence provides the power. Calvary offers the needed grace. Why would we turn to the world for help?
A lustful thought is like a torpedo, cruising silently under the water, toward our ship. Unless we take immediate action, we're in trouble.
A lustful thought is like a torpedo, cruising relentlessly, silently under the water, straight toward the hull of our ship. Unless we take instant evasive action, we’re in trouble. Eventually that thought will strike.
We tend to minimize the impact. In fact, most of us believe we’re spiritually stalwart enough to take a few hits. But the truth is we can’t afford to let any lustful thoughts into our minds. We can’t let them linger, even for a few seconds. That little opening is all the Enemy needs; he is very adept at slithering in through the smallest of openings. He knows how to exploit that one little opening until it is a gaping hole in your spiritual armor.
If I sound like I’m speaking from experience, it’s because I am. I’ve had to learn these things the hard way, but that doesn’t mean you have to.
Most of us know what it’s like to finish committing some act of sin, say masturbation, and then immediately begin to question ourselves: How did that happen? What went wrong? I was doing fine, then all of a sudden, IT happened. Be assured, IT began as a tiny, silent thought in your mind.
We tend to pay little attention to the thoughts that come into our minds. Some come and go so quickly we couldn’t voice them or act on them if we wanted to. But others linger. Some entice and tantalize. Some are sinful. Some are so blatantly sensual that we would be massively ashamed to have them played on a screen for others to see.
For those who have once given over to sexual sin, it is these lustful thoughts in particular that seem so hard to overcome. Long after men (or women) stop acting out sexually, they still admit to having a seemingly constant battle with lustful thoughts. Some will give up and eventually backslide into their former sexual sins. But others will press through to the victory that is found in Christ Jesus.
Let me assure you: there is victory in Jesus Christ over impure thoughts!
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To be frank, the major problem on the road to victory over lustful thoughts is that we don’t really want them to go away. There is still that thing in us—that desire for sin—that welcomes a lustful thought now and then. We want to re-live the excitement and pleasure of past trysts—even if only for a few minutes in our minds. But yielding to such temporal pleasure has far more devastating consequences than we realize.
I’ve also learned that success doesn’t come in the form of some secret formula that stifles lustful thoughts, or an end-around play guaranteed to produce instant victory. There is no such shortcut that I’m aware of. Lustful thoughts are overcome one by one, thought by thought.
I realize that doesn’t have much appeal to the pop-Christianity crowd. But that’s the way it is. It’s not a glamorous walk down the fashion-model runway; it’s hand-to-hand combat in the trenches. Such battles are the proving ground of your proclamation of faith. Are you willing to fend off those pesky lustful thoughts and fill your mind with Jesus?
If you are really serious about this battle, there are several things you must do to assure victory.
The first is what I refer to as “breaking the trance.” When lustful thoughts start to arise in your minds and fantasies begin to swirl around, you need to do something outwardly to break that momentum toward sin. The situation you’re in is likely too conducive to lustful thoughts, and something needs to immediately change. If you’re watching television or using the computer, turn it off. I find it helpful to get up and take a short walk, even just a walk around the house is often enough to help me get my thoughts redirected.
Colossians 3:5 says, “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.” What does this mean? It means to stop feeding that thing. Any living thing that is not fed will eventually die, or at least lose its power.
Secondly, PRAY! We neglect the weapon of prayer far too often. The truth is, you and I don’t have what it takes to win the battle against lustful thoughts and the sin they will lead us into. You need help from outside yourself; you need the Lord’s help. The Word of God instructs us to take our thoughts captive (II Corinthians 10:5), and the best way I know to do that is to pray. It is impossible to pray and think lustful thoughts at the same time. Prayer is also the means by which we appropriate the power to overcome sin.
If you lack the discipline to pray, then call a family member, a friend, or a spiritual mentor who can pray with you. Humble yourself and confess your need for prayer to overcome these lustful thoughts. Such humility opens the door for God’s favor. Remember, God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. (I Peter 5:5)
Third, get serious about applying the admonition given by the apostle Paul: “Do not be conformed to this world.” (Romans 12:2a) Too often our homes are filled with the very things that stimulate lustful thoughts because we’ve conformed to the world’s standard in what we allow into our homes. Need I even mention television as the obvious source of much that makes provision for our flesh while crushing our spiritual life? But don’t stop there. Take a closer look at those catalogs and magazines filled with glossy advertising based on sensual appeals. Could they be one of the reasons your battle with lustful thoughts seems so unwinnable? A good housecleaning could go a long way toward making your home the sanctuary you need it to be to escape the onslaught of sensual propaganda the world hurls at you.
But ultimately, these three steps will not produce lasting victory over lustful thoughts. They will help in the short term, but they need to go hand-in-hand with a long-term transformation of your mind.
Romans 12:2b goes on to say “…but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” Be transformed? What does it mean to have to have a renewed and transformed mind?
A transformed mind is one that draws its thoughts and motives from an increasingly vibrant relationship with God. Any time you “put off the old,” you must also “put on the new” (Ephesians 4:22, 24). Hollow and deceptive fantasies need to be replaced by something more wonderful. If you do, the Scriptures promise that you will “be renewed in the spirit of your mind.” (Ephesians 4:23)
A new and transformed mind is filled with thoughts of Jesus and His love as it was revealed on the Cross. A transformed mind meditates day and night on the life and power available through His Word. A transformed mind causes the flow of your life to be reversed, so that instead of everything flowing toward you—your wants being preeminent and your desires being catered to—things are flowing toward others. You must come to a place where you are truly putting others ahead of yourself. In the same way you once gave over to lust, you must be given over to meeting the needs of others.
God wants to renew and transform our minds. He wants to transform our ugly, self-centered, lust-filled minds and give each one of us a “beautiful mind,” one that truly pleases and glorifies Him.
While most Christians only need to have their hearts cleansed by the blood of Christ, there are some who need to have their bodies washed.
Body piercing seems to be a growing phenomenon within the Body of Christ. Young people especially seem to be expressing their individuality by this strange and bizarre practice. Rather than finding their identity in Christ, they are choosing to find some fleeting identity through being different. Having lived and worked as a missionary in New Guinea, I’m reminded of how these primitive tribal people would place bones through their noses as well as employing other means to ‘decorate’ their earlobes, lips, etc. What was once considered a relic of a past culture has now become fashionable in the 21st Century.
However, I really don’t want to talk about the popularity of “body piercing” but rather the unpopularity of “body washing.” I can already hear someone saying, “What’s that all about? Allow me to explain.
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The book of Hebrews refers to those who have had their “hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and their bodies washed with pure water.” Regarding this verse, Pastor Jack Hayford once said that while most Christians only need to have their hearts cleansed by the blood of Christ, there are some who need to have their bodies washed. He explained that many of those who have been involved in some form of illicit sexual activity are left feeling dirty, defiled and debased in their physical bodies. This results in shame, condemnation and maybe even the inability to enter into a meaningful physical relationship with their spouses.
The good news is that the blood of Jesus Christ is able to cleanse not only the heart and conscience but also the physical body!
Let me remind you that the Corinthian church was made up of every type of sexual addict. In fact, Corinth was well known as a cesspool of sexual perversion.
Paul told them, “Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals... shall inherit the Kingdom of God. And such were some of you; but you were washed...” (I Corinthians 6:9-11) Paul not only refers to their soiled and sordid past, but also to their present state and condition as “washed.” But he doesn’t stop there. In his second epistle he writes, “For I am jealous for you with a godly jealously; for I betrothed you to one husband, that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin.” (II Corinthians 11:12) Not only does Christ wash us, but He also restores our virginity.
Anyone who has experienced working in some type of dirt or filth knows the refreshing feeling that comes from taking a shower. I can’t imagine anyone going about covered in dirt day after day, knowing they had the means of washing themselves and yet doing nothing about it.
Paul’s great fear was that… well, I’ll let him say it: “I am afraid that when I come… I may mourn over many of those who have sinned in the past and not repented of the impurity, immorality and sensuality which they have practiced.” (II Corinthians 12:21) How it must have grieved Paul’s heart to think that some of these people had not repented of the sin which had so polluted them.
Why is “body-washing” so unpopular? Why do so few avail themselves of this glorious life-changing experience? Body piercing may not damn one’s soul to hell but not experiencing the washing of one’s body by the Holy Spirit certainly will!
The grace of God is not an excuse to remain in one’s sin. It is the way out of addiction.
It depends on who’s asking the question. If the question is voiced by a person who is coming to Christ seeking salvation and the forgiveness for their sins, the answer is a resounding “YES!” When we hear the Gospel message of God’s desire to save us by forgiving us, and how He accomplished that through the death of His Son on the Cross; When we then repent of our sins and trust that the shed blood of Jesus has covered our sins; When we throw ourselves on the mercy of God and cling to the Savior in faith, we discover that, yes, we are saved by God’s grace through faith. (Ephesians 2:8) The unmerited favor (grace) of a loving God toward sinners deserving nothing but an eternity in hell is, indeed, Good News! As the great hymn proclaims, His grace is “greater than all our sins.”
However, if the question is being asked by a Christian who only wants to persist in his sin, walking the endless treadmill of “sin, confess, sin, confess,” without ever repenting and forsaking his sin, then the answer is a resounding “NO!” We cannot count on the unmerited favor of God to cover our sins when we stubbornly refuse to forsake them. God’s grace cannot be used as an excuse to remain in sin when it is, in fact, the way out.
Paul posed this question in the sixth chapter of his letter to the church in Rome: “Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?” And then he answered his own question. “May it never be!” (Romans 6:1-2) He was asking the very same question, for apparently it was being asked by new Christians in the early Church. “If God covers our sins by His grace, shouldn’t we continue in our sin so that God’s grace would multiply?” His answer is so strongly negative that it is often rendered as “God forbid!” And here’s why.
Paul asked a follow-up question in Romans 6:2. “How shall we who died to sin still live in it?” In other words, the purpose of God in saving us is not simply to provide our much needed forgiveness. The purpose of God in saving us is to set us free from the power of sin over us, so that we no longer have to live in it. Paul’s argument in Romans 6 looks like this:
The effect of this is that we have been given, by the unmerited grace of God, freedom from bondage to sin, and the power of the indwelling Spirit to overcome the temptation to succumb to sin (Romans 8:12-13, Galatians 5:16).
Now, from time to time, will we sin? Sure. We still have a flesh nature that never changes, and we will constantly be attacked by the Enemy. The World will only get worse. When we do sin, we have the promise of Scripture, that “if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9) It is also necessary to repent to God for our sins, for the Word says, “Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.” (Acts 3:19) This is only one of dozens of references in the New Testament to the need of true godly sorrow and real repentance. True heart change keeps us from falling into the endless “sin, confess” cycle.
But we should never forget that the grace of God is available, not just to cover us when we do sin, but His grace sets us free from the power of sin, and delivers us when we are tempted to sin. Jesus doesn’t just forgive us from the guilt of sin after the fact. He actually saves us from the power of sin, so we don’t commit it in the first place.
Did Jesus ever say that the practice of homosexuality was a sin? Absolutely, He did!
Did Jesus ever say that the practice of homosexuality was a sin? Absolutely, He did! But because He did not say so explicitly, a growing number of today’s clergy and church-going lay-folk assume that Jesus condones and even blesses same-gender sex.
Until recently, it was enough to refer to an Old Testament passage like Leviticus 18:1-23, in which same-gender sexual activity is condemned alongside incest and bestiality, to convince someone that the Scripture considers homosexuality a sin. But now, clergy and lay-folk alike are prone to dismiss such Hebrew Scriptures as belonging to a time when the “old covenant” was operational, when God held His people to a different standard that is no longer binding for the Church today.
What about New Testament passages like the words of Paul in Romans 1:26? Here same-gender sexual activity is unambiguously described and summarily condemned. Once again, such passages are dismissed for reasons ranging anywhere from “Paul’s words do not carry the same weight as the words of Jesus” to “Paul was, himself, a repressed homosexual.”
So in discounting what the Old Testament teaches about homosexuality, as well as what the New Testament Epistles have to say, how does one account for the words of Jesus in Mark 7:21-23?
“That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man. For from within, out of the heart of men proceed evil thoughts, sexual immoralities, thefts, adulteries, murder, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. All these evil things come from within a man and defile him.” (NASB)
When Jesus said this, He was, in part, reproving some of the Pharisees who had been congratulating themselves on their outward show of religion. At the same time, they were no less likely to exhibit behaviors that everybody agreed were “evil” and “defiling.” Jesus also spoke these words to His disciples, all of them Jews, all of them living in Israel at a time when the culture-at-large was guided by the Hebrew Scriptures. No Jew would deny that murder was a sin, or theft, adultery, covetousness, and slander.
But what did Jesus mean when, in addition to “adulteries,” He added “sexual immoralities” to the list? These words are a translation of the Greek word porneia (πορνεία, ας, ἡ). Among non-Jews in the culture surrounding Israel, porneia referred to “generally, of every kind of extramarital, unlawful, or unnatural sexual intercourse; extramarital intercourse, sexual immorality, fornication." (1) Adultery, incest, rape, bestiality, homosexuality, and prostitution were among such behaviors, and within the Greco/Roman culture were considered sexually immoral.
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So, what acts were considered to be sexually immoral among the Jews? What did Jews consider to be porneia? There was widespread agreement that incest, bestiality, and homosexuality were among those behaviors that “defiled a person.” And the Jews believed that because their whole way of life was rooted in the Hebrew Scriptures, including Leviticus 18:1-23.
To be sure, Jesus never explicitly labeled bestiality, incest, or rape as behaviors that were evil. Nor did Jesus explicitly identify the practice of homosexuality as that which defiles a person. Yet, when Jesus distinguished porneia from adultery, His disciples surely understood that He meant to include homosexuality along with incest and bestiality.
In short, those who claim that Jesus was silent on the matter of homosexuality ought to consider how He used the word porneia in the context of His time, place, and culture. Intellectual honesty demands this in today’s Church, among clergy and lay-folk alike.
Certainly, Jesus taught that sexual immorality—including homosexual behavior—was a sin, no less than envy, theft, or murder. And for each of these, Jesus also spoke of the incredible life of victory He offers us when we turn from our sin and when we seek to abide in the love He has for us. In response to the apostle Paul who was going through his own terrible times of struggle, Jesus said, “My grace is sufficient for you” (2 Corinthians 12:9). Paul learned that, in spite of his weaknesses, Jesus supplied him with all he needed to persevere and find victory.
The same grace extended to Paul is sufficient for us. It’s the grace of Jesus that enables us to resist temptation. It’s His grace that keeps us from being overwhelmed by the “I’ll never”s and the “not me”s that plague our thinking. Best of all, it’s this amazing grace that empowers us to experience joy-filled lives of faith, fellowship, and intimacy, despite whatever temptations may come our way. Jesus knows exactly what we’re going through. Though He never sinned, He was “tempted in every way” (Hebrews 4:15). Yet, for our sakes, because of His amazing love and His amazing grace, Jesus carried His cross and endured the weight of our sins, so that now we are empowered to carry the weight our own crosses. Truly, truly, there’s victory in Jesus.
(1) Analytical Lexicon of the Greek New Testament
There are two ways a person affects other people when they view pornography. The first is direct, the second is indirect.
At 8:30 PM, Mike's phone rang. It was Jill, his fiancée. He sighed and let it go to voicemail. What could she possibly want to talk about? They had just spent the day together.
30 seconds later, she called again. Again he ignored her call, and continued staring at the computer screen. And again 30 seconds later.
20 minutes later he closed the laptop, and casually dialed his fiancée’s number.
"Where were you!?!" Jill yelled, half-screaming, half-crying. "I tried calling you 3 times!"
"Baby, what's wrong?" he asked, feeling guilty that he hadn't picked up.
She was almost hysterical. "While I was driving home, some guys stopped next to me at a stoplight, and said some really nasty things to me. I rolled up my windows and locked my doors, but then they got behind me. They turned their lights out and got right on my tail for almost 5 miles. I was freaking out! What were you doing??"
He instantly filled with shame. He couldn't tell her the truth. It was too much to admit.
He had been watching porn.
Pornography is one of America's most pervasive problems. Technological progress has joined hands with our culture's obsession with sex to offer limitless access to adult content. The voices in favor of pornography vastly outnumber those who cry out against its evils, and this has left plenty of room for men and women to justify their actions and soothe their wounded consciences.
One common justification seeks to plead innocence for pornography use by claiming that it only affects the person using it. In some ways, this scenario is more plausible than ever before. Today, a man can access as much pornography as he wants in the privacy of his own bedroom. He doesn't have to risk exposing his family to shame by purchasing an adult magazine at the local grocery store or by sneaking into an adult movie theater, where someone he knows might see him.
And so the question, "Doesn't it affect only me?" seems reasonable. However, just as the physical realm has laws which cannot be altered, so the spiritual realm has its laws. The truth is this: A person who jumps off a cliff cannot keep his body from hitting the ground, and a person who watches pornography cannot keep from negatively affecting other people.
There are two main areas in which people who view pornography are bound to affect other people by their actions. The first is direct, the second is indirect.
The apostle Paul told the Ephesian church that they ought to put off their former way of life, because it was "being corrupted through its deceitful desires." (Ephesians 4:18 AMP). He also told the Galatians to diligently fight against sowing to the flesh, because he that "sows to his flesh (lower nature, sensuality) will from the flesh reap decay and ruin and corruption." (Galatians 6:8).
When a person sows to his lower nature by watching pornography, he sows a great degree of moral corruption into his spiritual life, and he is bound to reap nasty spiritual consequences. Some will reap the corruption of an increasingly explosive temper. Others harvest a general apathy toward life, and show no healthy desire to take care of themselves or fulfill their responsibilities. Still others bear the fruit of depression, anxiety, eating disorders, etc.
It is not difficult to see how this will affect other people. Whenever anything doesn't go his way at home, Ken lashes out at his wife and children. Jeremy squanders the money his parents paid for college by spending 5 hours a day watching porn. He skips classes, barely passes tests, and forgets to pay his bills. Lina is trapped in porn and begins to get depressed. She feels fat compared to the women she sees, and starts forcing herself to throw up after every meal. Her friends constantly worry about her, often wondering how they can help her.
Often when people are addicted to pornography, they are unable to see the changes that are taking place in their personalities, emotions and characters. However, even if other people cannot discern the source of the problem, they certainly feel the sting of the consequences.
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The second way a person's pornography affects other people is more indirect, but equally as damaging. Just as pornography introduces a moral corruption into a man's nature which makes him what he should not be, it also hinders him from becoming what he should be.
The Word of God tells us that we were "created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." (Ephesians 2:10 NIV) However, Jesus qualifies this statement by saying that "just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in Me." (John 15:4 HCSB)
A person who is regularly indulging in pornography is cutting himself off from the spiritual influence of Jesus, the Heavenly vine. If the person is not completely spiritually dead already, he or she is extremely sick. This spiritual sickness will always hinder a person’s effectiveness in the works that Christ has called him to do.
Pornography kills our passion for God. It destroys our ability to comprehend spiritual truths. It withers our desire to spend ourselves for God's kingdom. It distorts our perspectives and gives us a skewed view of right and wrong.
Who knows how many men have been called into serving their local church, or even into full-time ministry work, whose calling has been aborted by getting involved with pornography? Filled with the shame of an impure life, they rightly feel that they are disqualified from ministry.
How many fathers are unable to lead their wives and children spiritually because of their own secret sins? They wish they could instruct and guide, but the boldness which comes from a clean conscience is undermined by lack of personal victory. The position of spiritual authority is vacant in their homes, or inappropriately filled by their wives. Therefore, the shaping of their children’s spiritual and moral character comes from their peers, the perverse culture around them, or their own corrupt natures.
How many young men and women have been called to take a stand for righteousness in their schools or workplaces, but their morals have been eroded to such a great degree that they have no real testimony of Christ and His truth?
On the other hand, there are some that get involved in pornography while in full-time ministry, and must force themselves to go through the motions of ministry. While God may choose to bless other people through their ministry, there will most certainly come a time when they will either be exposed, or they will simply quit. Secret sins and corrupt influences eventually steal away the power that should be available to everyone who does God's work in the earth.
The negative effects of a person’s pornography use on the people around them is indisputable, and simply incalculable. But the truth is, even if it were possible to avoid affecting the people in your sphere of influence, there is Someone who has already been affected by your sin.
"He was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed." (Isaiah 53:5 ESV)
Jesus, the humble Lamb of God was affected by our sin. The clear teaching of Scripture is that Jesus Christ was beaten, bruised, tortured and put to death upon a Roman cross as a direct result of the sins of humanity. Our sins require an eternal weight of condemnation, and because God was not willing to simply send us all to hell, He ordained that His Son would be brutalized for us. It was the only way that God could justly forgive our sins and bring us into the way of peace.
As long as we willingly allow ourselves to be deceived into thinking that we are only affecting ourselves when we watch pornography, many of us will never care enough to really want to change. May we allow our eyes to open, painful as that experience may be, to the reality that pornography is never a victimless crime. And may the Lord grant repentance to all who are in need, so that their lives might affect everyone around them, not for evil, but for their good and God's glory.
Despite the fact that the tassels and phylacteries have long since gone by the wayside, the spirit of Phariseeism remains alive and well.
Although we don’t typically associate sexual sin with the leading sect of Judaism during Jesus’ time, I can assure you it thrived within their ranks. And despite the fact that the tassels and phylacteries have long since gone by the wayside, the spirit of Phariseeism remains alive and well within the postmodern Christian Church. Yes, we have our Pharisees……..and many of them are terribly addicted to sexual sin.
What most complicates any efforts to help them find freedom is their skewed concept of Christianity. For instance, if I tell this man to turn to Christ as the answer to his problems, he will only interpret such advice as an invitation to more zealously throw himself into his modern formalism. What he does not realize is that the very religious system he has embraced is keeping him from the vibrant life in God that will set him free. He is locked into a prison of SELF; Phariseeism is, above all else, a religion of SELF. Until he gets free from that prison, he will never find what a former Pharisee named Paul wrote about: “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” (II Corinthians 3:17)
The modern sex addict has much in common with the original Pharisees.
They excel in fastidiously presenting themselves as godly, when in reality they are full of “uncleanness.” (Matthew 23:27) They live a double life—maintaining an appearance of godliness while giving over in their minds to all manner of perversion. They have learned that it is much easier to exaggerate one’s godliness to family and friends than to fight for the real thing.
Jesus warned His disciples about the contamination of false spirituality: “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.” (Luke 12:1) The best present-day analogy to this admonition would be the warning signs one might encounter along a highway: “CAUTION!” “WARNING!” “STOP!” “DANGER!” “WATCH OUT!” Jesus’ use of such a strong term as “beware” shows how extremely hazardous He considered hypocrisy to be. The following are some of the reasons it is so dangerous:
Fully persuaded that true religion is a matter of the heart, the N.T. writers repeatedly exhorted those first-century believers to strive for the reality of God in their lives rather than settling for a vain religion characterized by legalism and outward acts of devotion.
Jesus summarized the true foundation of religion when He told His followers that loving God and loving others were the “great and foremost commandment[s].” (Matthew 22:37-40) But Pharisees are experts at stressing minor points of the law and de-emphasizing the heart-reality of the Lord’s words. Jesus told the hypocrites of His day, “You tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness… You blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!” (Matthew 23:23-24)
Admittedly, no one is weighing out spices today, but there are many who side-step the sacrificial life of true Christianity by giving undo importance to pet doctrinal systems. Of course, it is proper to contend earnestly for the tenets of the faith (i.e. the virgin birth of Christ, the Trinity, etc.). However, Pharisees are marked as those who lack the humility and maturity to allow other Christians to hold differing viewpoints on secondary doctrinal issues like eternal security, the timing of the rapture, divorce and remarriage, and so on. It is nothing more than the ugly pride that stems from a self-centered life.
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Is it possible for a person to regularly attend a Bible-believing evangelical church and not know God? Absolutely. “Wheat and tares” grow together but have completely different eternal destinations. I am convinced that there are many who know the Lord intellectually and academically but not personally and intimately.
Can you imagine a man being married to a woman on paper only? What kind of marriage would it be if all they had was a cold and formal relationship? Even our judicial system allows for the annulment of a marriage that hasn’t been consummated. And yet, for many, a relationship to God means no more than what they consider to be a ticket to heaven. A true believer has regular, vibrant interaction with the Lord. His love for God is proven in his daily life. “The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love,” John wrote. (I John 4:8)
Paul said that they hold “to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power.” (II Timothy 3:5) There is one and only one definition for the word gospel in Scripture: Paul said “it is the power of God…” (Romans 1:16) It is not dogma. It is not a social movement called Evangelicalism. It is not found in the academic dissertations of some lifeless seminary. The gospel—whether or not we want to acknowledge it—is simply the power of God activated in people’s hearts. Powerless religion masquerades as either an anemic facsimile or an outright fraud!
No one who is presently caught in the trap of modern-day Phariseeism need remain there. Freedom from that prison is found in the same place one finds liberty from sexual sin: in the abundant life offered every true believer in Christ. Jesus reached out repeatedly to the Pharisees of His day, imploring them to turn from their hypocrisy—and He’s doing the same in these last days. Brother or sister, if you are locked into the stale emptiness of dead religion, repent of it and start praying for a fresh touch from the Holy Spirit. He will gladly answer your prayer!
One sorrow cares only about the personal cost of sin. The other cares about the offense to God and the impact on other people.
When King Saul had conquered the Amalekites, but disobeyed the Lord’s instructions in sparing their king and the choicest of their flocks and herds, he was confronted by the prophet Samuel. Saul made excuses. He insisted that he had obeyed the Lord. He shifted the blame. He claimed that saving the flocks for sacrifice to the Lord was the people’s idea. It was then that Samuel uttered these memorable words, “Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice.” (1 Samuel 15:22) Saul admitted to the prophet, “I have sinned,” yet he asked to be honored in the sight of his elders. He wanted to avoid public reproach, to save face. He wanted his reputation to remain intact. He confessed his sin, yet remained selfish to the end.
When King David was confronted by the prophet Nathan over his sin, his reaction was decidedly different. Surely his sin was grievous, for he had committed adultery with a married woman and then arranged the death of her husband as a cover up. At the moment his crimes were revealed, David became undone. He confessed, “I have sinned against the Lord!” He then cried out to the Lord, fasted, and lay upon the ground day and night for seven days, pleading for the life of his infant son. David was not concerned about himself. He cared nothing of what others thought. He grieved before God about the effect his sin had on others.
Here in stark contrast we see the difference between the worldly sorrow of Saul and the godly sorrow of David. One is completely selfish, and cares only about the personal cost of sin. The other is sorrow towards God, and cares about the offense to His holiness, and the impact of the sin upon others.
David’s confession and repentance before God are vividly displayed in both Psalm 32 and Psalm 51. Here we see his heart, as he cries out “Against You, You only, I have sinned, and done what is evil in Your sight.” (51:4) And again, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.” (51:17) There is no trace of selfishness in David’s words. He was a broken man.
The Apostle Paul contrasts worldly and godly sorrow in his second letter to the Corinthian church. He writes: “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.” (2 Corinthians 7:10) In other words, if one’s sorrow is sorrow towards God, in recognition that all sin is first against His holiness, and is utterly unselfish in its focus, it will lead to real repentance. Real repentance is a change of heart that allows a person to turn completely from their sin and turn back to God. Repentance leads to salvation and life. But if one’s remorse and regret remain selfish and self-centered, such sorrow only brings death.
Here is an example that is anchored in real life. We see this many times over in the lives of men who come to Pure Life Ministries. Two men come before God because they have been exposed in their sexual sin. Both have hurt their families. Both have lost their jobs. Both have suffered financial loss. Both have incurred damage to their reputations. In so many ways, their stories are identical and all too common. Yet their reaction to their situation is so different.
The first man cries out to God, begging for mercy, for his sins are an affront to God Himself. He pleads, not for himself, but for his wife and children. He knows that the losses he has incurred have hurt others, but are the just due for his sins. He begs for forgiveness because he misses fellowship with God. He comes to understand that Jesus has paid for his sins with His blood. He has a true change of heart, and hates the sin that he once cherished. By faith he receives God’s forgiveness, and is cleansed and restored.
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The second man cries out to God also. He confesses his sins. He admits his wrongdoing. But he remains completely self-focused. He grieves over his losses. He bemoans the unfair treatment he has received. He demands justice. He has great remorse and regret, but for his own pain, and not for the pain of others. There is no brokenness. Finally, he plunges into self-pity and despair.
Two very different reactions. One is godly sorrow, and one is worldly. One leads to salvation and life. The other leads only to death.
On the night before the Cross, one of Jesus’ disciples betrayed Him, and one denied Him. All sins are acts of selfishness and are grievous offenses to a holy God. Both of these sins were against the person of Jesus Himself. The Bible records how Judas and Peter responded later. The Scriptures tell us that Judas “repented himself” (Matthew 27:3 KJV), and the very word that Matthew used (metamelomai) to describe Judas indicates that his regret and remorse were completely self-centered. He was sorrowful, but not even for the plight of Jesus. He was only sorry for himself. Matthew did not choose the more common word for repentance (metanoeo) used throughout the New Testament that means to change one’s mind and behavior for the better because of hatred for one’s sins.
The Gospels tell us that Peter went out and wept bitterly. The word means to wail in great agony and grief. Was his sorrow godly or worldly? We can only tell from the results. Judas immediately went out and hanged himself. (Matthew 27:5) He was selfish to the end. When next we see Peter, he has returned to his brothers. When he heard word of the Resurrection, he ran in search of the Lord against whom he had sinned. Later that same day, Peter was completely restored.
One man’s sorrow led to death. The other’s led to salvation and life. That is the difference between worldly and godly sorrow.
Our nation’s rapid moral and spiritual decline is hurtling us towards the point of no return at breakneck speed.
I fear the United States is hastening towards judgment. Where that line of no return is I do not know, but the nation’s rapid moral and spiritual decline is hurtling us towards that terrifying line at breakneck speed. Only divine intervention can turn us from our self-destructive course. We have forsaken the God which gave us a country immersed in a strong Christian heritage; we have abandoned the ancient paths to become a modern barbaric culture (Jeremiah 6:16).
Just prior to my ministering at an urban church the youth pastor taught his unsaved, street level youth group that homosexuality is sin and those practicing it will spend an eternity in hell. One 14 year old girl replied, “Then everyone in my school is going to hell.” This same young woman responded to an altar call I gave while preaching to that youth group. While my wife was ministering to her she asked a serious question: “How can I be a Christian when all my friends are lesbians and my mother is a drug addict?” Bob Just was right when he stated: “Today’s culture is a child molester.” (1)
How can the Lord hold back his just wrath when we are destroying our nation, beginning with our youth? Law Professor Kelly Howard stated, “According to sworn testimony before the U.S. Senate, experts reveal that by the time a female in this country is 18 years old, 38 percent have been sexually molested. One in eight women will be raped. Fifty percent of women will be sexually harassed on their jobs during their lifetimes. In fact, sexual dysfunction is on such a rampant rise that experts are calling it a sexual holocaust.” (2)
There are cultures and nations that are simply not redeemable. This means that they have collectively crossed a line in the practice of evil where they refuse to turn from their sin and are therefore left to God’s wrath. Because a culture becomes unredeemable does not indicate that individuals within that culture cannot be saved. It just signifies that the culture has become so immersed in wickedness that the only thing left for it is destruction. This happens in part because the nature of evil is not understood to be exceedingly wicked and offensive to a holy God, so the practice of evil becomes culturally acceptable.
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The fact that cultures can become unredeemable does not imply that the doctrine of limited atonement is true. The Lord gave mankind an authentic free will and desires every person to be saved. That is why He declared, “I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, O house of Israel?” (Ezekiel 33:11; quoted in 2 Peter 3:9). Though salvation is available to everyone, only those who repent will be saved.
Cultures are made up of individuals who make the conscience moral choices that define the character of the nation or people group. Some cultures become so immersed in evil that they harden themselves against God. Since they reject God’s salvation, He turns them over to their own self-destructive ways (Romans 1:18-32). In essence, they cross a line in their practice of sin where evil is so ingrained into the culture that the only thing left to them is divine wrath.
Examples of unredeemable cultures are abundant in Scripture. The Lord destroyed the world with a flood in Noah’s day. He hailed fire and brimstone down on Sodom. Israel could not conquer the promise land until the evil practices of the Amorites was at its worst (Genesis 15:13-16). King Saul was commanded by God to fully destroy the Amalekites because they had plummeted to the depths of evil in their pursuit of wickedness (1 Samuel 15).
The only safe way we can say that a culture was unredeemable is by looking at Scripture. Otherwise we are left to subjective claims that are based upon our small-minded opinions and highfalutin paradigms. Only God knows the hearts of men, therefore, He alone is able to justly judge men and their cultures.
To label people or cultures as unredeemable is also counterproductive to Christ’s command to go into all the world and preach the Gospel. We must always believe that grace is available to everyone and faithfully strive to present them with the Gospel. Ours is not to decide who is to be saved, but to reach out to everyone no matter their lifestyle or sin.
If all this is true then what is the value of understanding that cultures can become unredeemable? So that we seek God’s face for a national awakening and prepare the way for Him to come to us. In the end, we are either going to experience revival or judgment. Yet even if we had a revival where five million people were genuinely converted, would that deliver the nation from the vile explosion of homosexuality? Would it rescue us from the evils of fornication (which includes people living together outside of marriage)? Do you think that the porn and prostitution trades would cease their practices? Would our state governments and Indian reservations abandon the decadent, yet lucrative business of gambling? Would Hollywood cease propagating the moral and spiritual filth it relentlessly vomits out of its studios?
My fear is that we are nearing the line of no return. Nevertheless, we must remember that all things are possible with God and the story of Nineveh is the perfect example of mercy being shown to an evil culture. The Lord decreed the judgment of Nineveh “because its wickedness has come up before me” (Jonah 1:2). After Jonah preached, the people repented, so the Lord granted mercy. If the Savior was “concerned about that great city” of 120,000 souls (Jonah 4:11), will He not be concerned about America’s millions?
There are two ways we can respond to our nation’s aggressive pursuit of evil. The first is to run away from our responsibility as Jonah did at first. This is what the majority of professing believers are doing today. The second is to follow Jonah’s example and repent. Here lies the only hope—that a deeply repentant church would become a catalyst for an authentic awakening that would transform secular society.
The First Great Awakening in America began in the 1730’s. There were approximately 340,000 people in the country, with roughly 100,000 being alcoholics. At the end of the awakening 50,000 people were saved. An equivalent awakening today would produce 50 million authentic conversions.
Jesus warned that prior to His second coming the world would be like it was in the days of Noah and Sodom (Luke 17:26-30). Those that gather to fight against God at Armageddon will suffer a fate similar to Sodom’s. Finally, mankind’s practice of evil will reach a depth unequaled in history. The Lord will destroy all of creation and then make a new heaven and earth “wherein dwelleth righteousness” (2 Peter 3:13).
People, cultures and nations that cross the line in the practice of evil have something worse to fear than the destruction of their culture or of creation itself, and that’s the Great White Throne Judgment. Here the Lord will judge the people as individuals who made their own conscience choices. All who refused to own Jesus as Lord while on earth will suffer an eternity without Him in the Lake of Fire. Even the eternal fires of hell will not purge them of their love of evil. In the Lake of Fire they will truly be unredeemable.
(1) David Kupelian, The Marketing of Evil (Nashville, TN, Cumberland House Publishing, 2005), 78.
(2) David Kupelian, The Marketing of Evil (Nashville, TN, Cumberland House Publishing, 2005), 129.
One of the most prolific sexual predators in history was the Ski Mask Rapist, who began his spree in North Dallas in the summer of 1985.
When one thinks of rape, images of Bill Cosby slipping a date rape drug into the drink of an unsuspecting female admirer come to mind. Indeed, date rape is far more prevalent than any other kind. While it is an inexcusable violation of a woman’s body, there is another type that is far more devastating to its victims. I’m referring to the sexual assault of a stranger who preys on women he doesn’t know.
One of the most prolific sexual predators in criminal history was the Ski Mask Rapist, who began his spree in the suburbs of North Dallas in the summer of 1985. During the following year, he struck again and again, culminating that first year’s attacks with a rush of frenzied behavior in April, 1986—coincidentally the month I officially founded Pure Life Ministries. But to the dismay of Marshall Touchton, a detective assigned to the Sex Crimes unit of the Dallas Police Department, it was only an ominous sign of worse things to come. (1)
For two years Touchton and his team were repeatedly called out in the middle of the night to heartbreaking scenes of traumatized women. Other than the occasional dissimilarity, each story was nearly identical. A young woman was awakened from a sound sleep by a masked man who had thrust a gun to her head. “Don’t make a noise or I will kill you,” the raspy voice would whisper. Those who resisted were punched in the face until they submitted. Sometimes the ordeal would last as long as two hours as the brazen predator would casually take his time, even interspersing his sordid deeds with nonchalant conversation.
Nearly all habitual criminals have an “M.O.,” their own personal signature as to the way they operate. Ski Mask was no different and Touchton began formulating a composite about him through interviews with his growing list of victims.
The first thing that stood out about this man was that he carefully selected his victims. Every one of them was tall, slender and beautiful. Most rapists—like amateur burglars—put very little effort into choosing their targets, preferring instead to seize opportunities as they might present themselves. Detectives knew that the only way this rapist could choose women that were so remarkably similar in appearance was to painstakingly search them out and plan his attack.
The Ski Mask Rapist successfully eluded capture because he was very careful about his trade. Once he had zeroed in on a target—as detectives would later discover—he would stalk the woman to locate her home and then peek in her windows to learn her habits. In some cases he broke into the apartment when she was away so that he could ascertain the layout and locate any possible firearms or valuables. It was clear to police that this enigmatic figure was expending an enormous amount of energy plotting each caper. A rapist is, first and foremost, a sex addict: someone who derives as much sick pleasure from his preliminary rituals as he does from the sexual act itself.
Another piece of the puzzle was that, during the commission of the crime, he often took time to search through the belongings of his victims, stealing only high-priced jewelry. That pattern, coupled with his ability to gain entrance into homes stealthily and efficiently, led officers to believe that he had experience as a professional cat burglar as well. This theory was further confirmed by his thorough removal of anything that could be used as evidence against him.
Another important clue regarding his particular form of deviancy came from his interactions with victims. He was clearly not an “anger rapist,” who uses unnecessarily brutal force during the assault. Even more certain was that he was not a “sadistic rapist,” whose sexual enjoyment involves tormenting or torturing his prey.
No, Ski Mask was clearly what experts call a “power-reassurance rapist.” This perpetrator only uses violence as a last resort, preferring to keep the interaction with his victim as pleasant as possible. One woman even commented that he seemed “to be such a nice guy.” Although he was friendly, he constantly sought—almost demanded—compliments and affirmations about his performance and his physical attributes.
By April 1987 investigators had compiled an impressive dossier on the Ski Mask Rapist. After two years and at least 20 victims, the squad had come to know quite a bit about him. And yet, they were frustratingly no closer to capturing him than when he started his spree.
Then, one night, they finally got the break they were waiting for. A local minister, who also happened to be a reserve police officer, noted the license plate number of an unfamiliar car inexplicably sitting in the parking lot of his church in the middle of the night. Minutes later he heard a report on his police scanner of a rape near his church. He immediately notified police of the strange car, giving them the license plate number.
Police officers were soon knocking at the apartment door of a man named Gilbert Escobedo. He lived with his girlfriend and claimed he had been in bed with her all night. Although she had been sound asleep, she confirmed his alibi. The police knew he was lying, but lacking any positive evidence linking him to the crime, there was nothing they could do. It came as no surprise to detectives when they ran his criminal record and discovered he had a long “rap sheet” of criminal activity, including indecent exposure, window peeping and three burglary convictions. Touchton and his colleagues finally had a name to attach to their elusive criminal. And yet knowing who he was and proving his guilt to a jury were two vastly different things. This would become all too real in the maddening months ahead as victim after victim continued to fall prey to Escobedo’s assaults.
They knew from scientific studies that convicting this man of rape was a long shot. Most rapes aren’t even reported—some estimates being as low as 1 out of every 6. When the police are called in, only 38% result in an arrest. And most of those who are arrested are not convicted. (2) Touchton and his men knew that they were facing a formidable foe with little hope of stopping him.
On April 24, 1990 a terrified college student called police to report a man attempting to break into her apartment. Police were quick to respond and caught Escobedo outside the sliding door in the back of her apartment. He was hauled off to the police station for questioning.
Detectives that had been assigned to the Ski Mask case handled the questioning. All they could hope to pin on him was a charge of attempted burglary. They wanted much more. They desperately wanted to nail him on the entire series of crimes they knew he had committed. The trouble was that none of his victims could identify him, and he had left no physical evidence to connect him to any of his crime scenes. Their only hope of convicting Escobedo was for him to voluntarily confess to his crime spree. As a callous ex-con who was not easily ruffled, this was highly unlikely.
Touchton and his men knew that to gain a confession from this cagey criminal, they would have to persuade him to come clean of his own volition. One tidbit of information the arresting police officers passed along was that Escobedo mentioned he had attended a Bible study that evening at prestigious Prestonwood Baptist Church. This would play a key role in their strategy to rattle Escobedo.
And there was something else in their arsenal. Criminologists had just begun collecting DNA samples at crime scenes to identify suspects with pinpoint accuracy. They counted on the fact that Escobedo had heard about this breakthrough in forensic science.
The investigators decided they would employ a two-pronged attack: They began by telling their suspect that they had DNA samples left behind at a number of his crime scenes. It was a bluff, but it shook him. Then one of the detectives—who happened to be a Christian—approached the suspect as “a brother in the Lord,” appealing to his conscience. “Gilbert, aren’t you tired of carrying this guilt around? Wouldn’t it be better to confess what you have done and make things right with God?”
The plan worked. Escobedo admitted that he was the man they had sought for five long years. He wrote out a confession that he prefaced by saying, “After talking to [the detectives], I voluntarily want to clean up my business, since I am a Christian and I do have a conscience.”
During subsequent interrogations, 48 rapes were definitely attributed to him, but police were certain that number could easily have been as many as 100, since most rapes go unreported.
Through a plea bargain, Gilbert Escobedo received 10 life sentences—to be served concurrently. He would not be eligible for parole for twenty years. And the women of North Dallas let out a collective sigh of relief.
I was on a tour of prisons in Texas as part of Pure Life Ministries’ outreach to sex offenders. I was about to give a talk about overcoming sexual addiction to a group of prisoners. I had already visited a number of high-powered maximum security penitentiaries such as the infamous “Walls Unit” at Huntsville. But the “Duncan Unit” would be a different type of facility—a prison dedicated to housing geriatric inmates. Over half of the 537 prisoners who now call it home are serving sentences of at least 20 years. Most of them were convicted of sex crimes.
Before I entered the chapel, the chaplain tipped me that the infamous Ski Mask Rapist would be in attendance. I entered the chapel and sure enough, Gilbert Escobedo had positioned himself right on the front row, his white uniform fitting snugly to his rotund figure. Although he had gained weight during his years of imprisonment, he carried it fairly well on his 5-foot, 5-inch frame. At 64 years of age, he seemed the picture of health and happiness.
Gilbert nodded his head approvingly as I gave my talk, beaming a smile that indicated he was thoroughly enjoying it. He approached me when I finished, seemingly eager to impress me—a trait he had exhibited in other circumstances so many years before.
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Afterward, I pondered his spiritual condition, wondering if he had ever been born again and truly repented of his crimes. On the one hand, it was hard to dismiss the fact that he had been attending church off-and-on during the entirety of his crime spree. Gilbert Escobedo was an extremely narcissistic egomaniac during his heyday. What stood out to me was the way he would remain with his victims as if he honestly believed the two of them had just enjoyed an intimate time of closeness—oblivious to the fact that the terror-stricken women desperately wanted him to leave. This detachment from reality carried over into his interviews with detectives. When he spoke of his crimes, he seemed unconcerned about the devastation he had brought into the lives of his victims.
On the other hand, there were certainly some circumstances that lent credence to the idea that he had experienced some level of genuine repentance. For one thing, part of his incentive to confess his crimes was a desire to make things right with the Lord. Indeed, in the hours following his confession, he dropped to his knees in his jail cell and asked God to forgive him. But more impressive even than this was the fact that for 25 years after his arrest he never wavered in his Christian confession.
I asked the chaplain if he thought Escobedo was a Christian. “Who knows?” he responded. “He claimed to be a Christian when he committed his crimes.” I suppose that pretty much sums up what any mortal man can know about the true spiritual condition of Gilbert Escobedo.
(1) Much of the material of this article was derived from the excellent book by Howard Swindle, Trespasses: Portrait of a Serial Rapist, Penguin Books, 1996.
(2) Senate Judiciary Committee: “Violence Against Women: The Response to Rape.”
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