Banning Porn?

Prayer for Tom Askell and Weekend Greetings

Well Hope everyone had a good weekend. Thanks for joining me on this Monday morning. Well, it's Monday morning for me. I don't know when you're watching this. But I hope you had a good weekend. I'm gonna jump right into it today before I begin though.

I just wanted to just offer you know my my prayers my my support for the Askell family and I don't know if you've heard but but but Tom Askell collapsed and from what I understand. He's in stable condition at this point.

He's kind of in and out of consciousness and stuff like that. And so we definitely want to pray for him for God to be merciful to him for his health and also to his family as well. Tom is very. I've never spoken to him directly.

That's actually not true. I maybe exchanged a few messages with him, but the way he conducts himself is Very inspirational to me and it's very clear that people respect Tom and like Tom. Even even though they disagree with him.

I mean, he's forceful. There's no question about that. But he's also forceful in such a way that that's not off-putting. I guess you could say in general Everyone has a few odd critics, you know things like that.

But but anyway, man, if I could if I could cultivate that kind of a reputation, that's certainly something I'm working on. But if I could that I would be very very happy with that. So he's very inspirational.

I don't want to call him a hero of mine, but you know sort of along those lines I guess you could say so god bless you Tom. And I hope you you get healed really fast from all of this and I hope god blesses you and your family.

And I know he has so I just wanted to say that up front anyway want to talk a little bit about pornography and this whole this weekend. Lot of people were arguing about whether or not porn should be banned in the United States pornography should be banned.

This is in light of lots of research that shows how damaging pornography is to people in general but children in particular because children have very easy access to pornography and it damages young minds, you know not beyond repair but but but significantly and It's not just kids that it damages let's let's not pretend that that it's just kids.

I mean, you know pornography damages Everyone who consumes it everyone and not just the people who participate in it, but but people who watch it it is Evil pornography is is pure evil and the debate right now is well is pornography free speech or not?

Free Speech, Christian Liberty, and the Civil Law of God

And and look like I Used to be a libertarian right and so I would say stuff like that and at the end of the day like whether or not. It's free speech. It makes absolutely no difference to me because you know I'm not a libertarian anymore and I understand that free speech is is an important thing, but it's definitely not an ultimate thing.

It just isn't it just isn't and I know that that's gonna make people, you know, bristle and be angry and all that. But it's just the reality. So I'm not a not a libertarian anymore. I I believe that the law of God The civil law of God is the standard for what the government should be doing.

If you're if you're reformed you should believe this about the law of God. Let me let me let me read to you from the Westminster Confession chapter 19 if you're reformed Baptist. It says something very similar in your in your standards.

I think it almost almost exactly the same not quite. There's a couple differences I think but I'm more familiar with the Westminster Confession and since I'm a Presbyterian. This is what I go with. So here's what it says in chapter 19 of the Westminster Confession about the law of God.

Talking about Israel. It says to them also as a body politic. He gave sundry judicial laws which expired together with the state of that people not obliging any other now further than the general equity thereof may require and So what's being said here if you're if you're reformed your Westminster guy or even a reformed Baptist to some degree because again It's very similar.

It's saying that the judicial law is a civil law of God where it says what the Israel Israelite government should do. That expired when Israel expired, right? But there is a general equity that that obligates Nations today governments today and so we need to discover what that general equity is and it's not always very simple.

It can be very complicated. It can be very nuanced. These are discussions that we need to have these are discussions that people used to have and we have them we need to have them. Again, because because the general equity of God's civil law for Israel does oblige Nations today and we ought to kiss the Sun and we ought to do homage to the Sun and respect the Sun and obey The Sun when it comes to our government, that's something if you're reformed.

You definitely should believe but actually you should just believe it. Even if you're not reformed, even if you're not a Christian because pragmatically there are a lot of good reasons to do this, too.

So if you're a Christian you ought to obey Christ in Government because you owe it to Christ, you know that you owe it to God but if you're an unbeliever, you should still do it because it's the best law you it's the best law that anyone could ever come up with and Pragmatically, there are a lot of good reasons to obey it.

It just works. It's just that simple. It just works. Now if you're a God hater you might be like well, no it doesn't work. Oh just be evil blah blah blah. Yeah, and I understand because you want to sin I get it.

I understand you want there to be chaos I understand but if you're but but if you really think about you break it down you study it. You will know that the law of God is the what this is what we ought to do.

If you really want to care about human flourishing and all this kind of stuff now the New Testament Also talks about this stuff, this is Romans 13 a very famous passage a lot of people debate about this passage, but it's it's actually quite easy.

Paul says in Romans 13 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities for there is no authority except from God and those that exist have been instituted by God. And so what's being said here is government is legitimate.

So I'm sorry anarchists, but God says that I've Instituted governments for a purpose and so you should subject yourself to them because they're there's a legitimate purpose there. This doesn't mean that governments are perfect or they've got a divine mandate to do whatever they want.

No, it doesn't mean that at all. Verse 3 says for the rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Do what is good and you will receive his approval because he's God's servant. That's the word deacon.

He is God's deacon for your good but if you do wrong be afraid because he does not bear the sword in vain for he is the servant of God an Avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. And so a government ought to be looking to God's Word and Saying how can I serve God the best way as a as a government as a civil governing authority?

And that kind of thing and So as a Westminster guy, I would say well then what we need to do is me to study the law of God. Find out what that general equity is because the law of God the civil law is expired with Israel.

We're not Israel anymore, but there is a general equity that we need to apply today. And that's how we become a deacon of God. That's how we become God's Avenger on Evildoers, that's how we promote what is good.

That's another quotation from the New Testament first Peter. Okay, first Peter this guy traveled with Christ, you know what I mean this guy traveled with Christ. He knows what Christ taught, you know what I mean?

If anyone knows what Christ taught it's Peter he says Be subject to for the Lord's sake to every human institution whether it be to the Emperor Supreme or to governors as sent by him. To punish those who do evil and praise those who do good for this is the will of God okay, so Let's just take a step back because you can people get all kinds of cute with this right well.

You know government says we should put Peter says the government should be promoting good. So therefore you should be with okay with my welfare schemes. It's like no no no no no like it's not this the government doesn't have a divine mandate to do whatever it wants willy-nilly.

Whatever it thinks is good. Whatever it thinks is bad. No, there's a standard. There's a law and we need to find the general equity of that law. It's just that simple. It's look like I said more complicated than others.

It's not always very easy, but it's a simple task. You look at the law of God you find the general equity and that's what you do. You cannot look to the law of God and say well the law of God that if you apply the general equity.

What it says is we should steal from some people and give to others like you can't do that. Obviously it doesn't say that like let's not be stupid here, right? But there are some things that the government should be doing that it's not doing right now.

And that's what I want to talk about today. So pornography right pornography should pornography be legal and. And here's the reality. So here's what I look to because I'm a simple man. And I know that some of you guys might disagree with it.

That's okay. That's okay. If you look at the law of God. There's a difference between sins and crimes right and the the easiest way to determine this. The easiest way to determine this and there's more of a conversation here, but I'm trying to put it simply right if a sin Has a penalty attached to it when you get caught doing it.

Then it's a crime. If it doesn't then it's just a sin and not a crime and so people will say well if you believe that Murderer should be put to death then people who say you fool should be put to death.

It's like okay. Don't be an idiot first of all and no, that's not how it is because in the Old Testament There is no penalty for calling someone a fool. And so Jesus says you're liable to hellfire for that.

It's like you murdered them in your heart, but it's not a crime murder. It's the sin murder, but it's not the crime murder. It's there's a difference there, right? And so here's Leviticus chapter 20 verse 10.

These are the words of God. It says if a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor both the adulterer and the adulteress Shall surely be put to death. Okay. So I don't think it's very difficult to find the general equity of this law.

I Simply don't now let's not talk about the penalties right now because that's a little bit more of a complicated discussion. I get that don't don't hear me saying that it's just that simple, but Adultery, let me say this as clearly as I can adultery should be illegal.

Okay adultery should be a crime and It is in many states. It actually is they just don't enforce it. So adultery Should be illegal. Some people say and I definitely tend to lean this way. It should be a death penalty offense.

How do you like that? So so so adultery should be illegal now, let's think about this for a sec. Oh, and and let's let's not forget. Let's not forget that also sodomy should be a crime. Sodomy should be a crime.

Sodomy should be a crime now. I know libertarians are freaking out here and and let let fine. I'm okay with that because this is not me talking. This is the law of God. So so I think it's quite easy to find the general equity of these laws.

I mean, there's a direct correlation to what's what's happening then and what's happening now. There's a direct correlation. It's not difficult to find the general equity of these laws adultery should be illegal and sodomy should be illegal now.

Let's think about this for a second because a lot of people hear this and they start to think well Man, this is gonna be like the totalitarian state. We're all worried about right? There's gonna be that to a top.

There's gonna be like big brother and there's gonna be you know. There's gonna be secret police and they're gonna be doing stings and and they start to think about like a Saudi Arabia ever heard of the Saudi Arabian religious police where they're like the most feared police ever because they could do stings and they try to entice you into into adultery or to homosexual relationships and then they then they get you, you know what I mean, and it's like Let's stop for a second.

Remember talk about the law of God here. Is there any such thing as a religious police in the law of God? No, there is not. We wouldn't be able to tap your phone to find out if you're having an affair.

We wouldn't be able to to to to get your Alexa app. You know to listen to see what you're doing is in your house. And there's no there's no there's no sting operations to try to entice people into having Adulterous affairs and stuff like that.

That's not how the law of God is. So the only people that would be Prosecuted in this kind of a situation are people that are flaunting this and I'm not saying that it's like that. Like there couldn't be a situation where someone that's not flaunting.

It could be charged. No, no. But but what I am saying though is Sodomites who get charged under the law of God would have had to have been very open about it, right? Because how do you get two or three witnesses to sodomy?

Unless someone is flaunting it open in the public square loudly and proudly. This is who I am right. Same thing with adultery. Same thing with adultery. I'm sure a lot of people in the old days got away with adultery because they kept it quiet.

They weren't flaunting it. They were they were they were secretly sinning against God. That doesn't make it any better. But this is not what this law is meant to protect this law is meant to protect people that are openly flaunting their rebellion.

By having adulterous affairs with people open. Now there was also the the law and and this is much more difficult to apply the general equity. Because I don't think there really is one. You know what I mean when it talks about the priest and if someone gets jealous of their wife and they're not sure if they're Committing adultery and then there's like a there's like a test that you do and stuff like that and I'm not talking about that.

That's it. That's a very separate thing. We don't have priests anymore. You know what I mean? So there you go. But anyway, so so here's the idea. It's the idea of subverting culture subverting Society by flaunting your adulterous affairs because otherwise there would be no two or three witnesses.

You need two or three witnesses to prosecute a crime like this. Nobody should die on the evidence of one witness. That's a biblical principle. So, how do you get two or three witnesses for an adulterer adultery case or sodomy case?

You'd have to be flaunting it right? You'd have to be marching in the gay pride parade or something like that having sex in public. And that's the connection. I want to make here. That's the connection.

I want to make here. Because I think you don't have to ban porn. I Don't think you do. I think you need to what you need to do is apply the general equity of The adultery laws the sodomy laws and say these things are illegal.

And so if you're doing this on camera for the world to see intended to Spread around so that everyone can watch you. Flaunting your subversion. Flaunting your perversion. Flaunting your your your your your your your filth online.

That's a heck of a lot more than two or three witnesses. This is the kind of thing that the law against adultery the law against sodomy was intended to stop this flaunting of perversion this flaunting of subversion and So I say forget about banning porn.

Let's just apply the general equity of the laws against adultery. Let's just apply the general equity again of the laws against sodomy if you do that. All of a sudden that kind of solves itself a little bit that kind of solves itself a little bit.

So we can just sidestep the issue of free speech who cares? I'm not. I'm not concerned with someone's free speech to publicly Proudly flaunt their sexual perversion because here's the reality Law of God's equipped for that.

It doesn't have to have a category for pornography for us to know that this kind of public. You know Promotion of perversion is not acceptable in God's sight. That's why he has these laws against adultery and sodomy.

That's why he has those laws because it wasn't about the Like people again people like to think well. It's just gonna be like these these two poor little gays and they're just trying to mind their own business and do their own thing privately and you're just gonna invade in their Live and you you're gonna you can know what you you know, you know, you know put a camera on their bed to see what they're doing.

No, no, it's not about those kind of people if such a person existed. It's not about that. It's about people that are publicly trying to subvert God's standards. Publicly trying to pervert people and that's exactly what we're seeing today.

That's what these parades are all about marching proudly perverting everybody. Proudly perverting children and this is what this is actually the point here. Because there's so many pragmatic reasons that you could say we should ban porn, but I say why don't we just sidestep the whole thing?

Start applying the general equity of God's law that he's already provided for us. It's enough because if you do that you put a stop to a lot of this stuff. Anyway, and all of a sudden porn is is relegated to the back alleys and in private where it's not publicly.

Perverting children's minds, right? That's the problem that we are facing right now. But if we've applied the law of God the general equity of it, it would be a side issue. It would be a side issue. It would be for the degenerates of society and Here's the thing about degenerates like if they don't usually keep their degeneracy in one area.

The degeneracy also often spills into other areas as well. Let's let's forget about that for a second and let's start to let's start to realize what the law of God is really all about and Law of God against adultery the law of God against sodomy.

It's intended to stop the very thing that we have right now. We're in the public square people are flaunting their perversion and Trying to pervert children and trying to pervert adults and trying to do this intentionally in God's face spitting in his face.

God's law already has a plan for this. You don't need to ban things that the God's law doesn't ban. All you need to do is apply the general equity of his law. And so should porn be banned? Not directly.

But we should apply the general equity of his law against adultery and sodomy. I think that would take care of 90 of the problem. Now there are arguments to be made about applying these laws and that de facto means we ban pornography as well.

And I'm willing to have that conversation. Absolutely. I'm willing to have that conversation because at the end of the day I Care way more about the general equity of God's law than I do about some imaginary principle of total free speech purity.

It's just that simple. It's just that simple. Anyway, I know I'm not gonna make too many friends with this with this video. That's okay. Oh, by the way before you hear me getting all high and mighty on you.

I I have Participated in adulterous affairs in the past before I was a Christian. So I should be dead. I know that I'm not. I'm not saying I'm pure or like I'm better than anybody like I have deserved death penalty in the past.

I Recognize that I recognize that wasn't one of the worst things ever done. In fact after I after I did do that. That was one of the things that turned me to Christ because I remember thinking to myself.

I Don't feel bad about this at all. I Remember when the woman broke off the relationship with me. She was married. I wasn't when the woman broke off the relationship with me. I was mad at her. And I was mad at him.

And I didn't feel any guilt. I Was just mad about my situation. Remember that was one of the things that was one of my come-to-Jesus things like what is wrong with me? What is wrong with me? Am I a sociopath?

I'm never thinking that. So don't hear me saying that I'm better than you man. Don't hear me saying that at all. That's not it. That's not it. Anyway, I hope this is helpful. God bless.