Immorality & Cultural Decline

This article originally appeared in the February-March issue of Eternal Perspectives, EPM's quarterly newsletter.

The twentieth century is not the first to see society riddled with immorality. The ancient Greeks elevated loose women, homosexual relations, and pedophilia. The Romans gradually surrendered the strong families and morals that once made them great, replacing them with laxity and weakness. The often-made comparisons between the final years of Rome and modern day America are striking—self-indulgence, political corruption, adultery, homosexuality, sexual orgies, live sex acts in the theater, brutal sports in the arena, and a creeping family deterioration and moral laziness that ...

In Condoms We Trust

This article originally appeared in the January-February issue of Eternal Perspectives, EPM's quarterly newsletter.

A recent “Primetime Live” program covered public schools whose health clinics are now surgically inserting Norplant beneath the skin of teenage girls. The practice is controversial not only because Norplant is a five year birth control device, but because it is being implanted without the permission of parents. (Yes, parents. Remember us?)

One of those interviewed was a junior high school principal, who defended the distribution of Norplant without parental permission. Her most memorable statement was, “morality is one thing, reality is another.” An interesting ...

Strategies to Keep from Falling: Practical Steps to Maintain Your Purity and Ministry

“Something terrible has happened.” The tense voice was my friend’s, calling from across the country. “Yesterday our pastor left his wife and ran off with another woman.”

A Theology of Desire: Inductive Biblical Overview on Desire

The following is an overview for a class Randy Alcorn taught during the Summer of 2002 at Western Seminary (5511 SE Hawthorne, Portland, Oregon 97215, 503-517-1800).

The purpose of this assignment is to see in overview what the Bible says about desire. As you look at each passage, in the space provided jot down key phrases, observations (e.g. who’s doing the desiring and what they desire) or principles. If you have a comment or question, jot it down. You won’t have time to do much in-depth study-that’s not the purpose of this exercise.

I’ve selected ...

Hey Kids! Want Good Sex? Try Abstinence.

As a mental health counselor, I am really troubled by the numbers of adolescents that I have counseled who cried for days and hurt for years because they engaged in “safer sex” within dead end, unfulfilling relationships. Sadly, they learned that “safer sex” can be hazardous to their emotional health.

I think the current political debate concerning abstinence vs. contraceptive based sexual education has failed to include an important variable in the discussion of what to teach in school: sexual well being.

In many contemporary sexual education curricula, young boys and girls who listen carefully in health class will be ...

Addiction Proofing: A Strategy for Spiritual Renewal

At any one time, 10% of our congregations are addicted (involved in damaging behaviors), 30% are compulsive (hearts preoccupied with pleasure), and all are eventually tempted.

Grateful Heart: An Antidote to Lust

Did you ever wonder why your struggles with lust seem to come in cycles? For some reason you seem to struggle mightily with lust for a number of days or weeks and then, for no apparent reason, the struggle subsides. You go through a relatively easy time, but then, almost inevitably the powerful temptations return and the struggles start all over again.

When I was acting out homosexually—before I was a Christian—I used to wonder about this. I remember wondering if it had something to do with the phases of the moon. At times it seemed that regular ...

Accountability Groups: Men Helping Men in Their Walk With God

To experience true accountability, we have both the right and the responsibility to ask each other hard and to-the-point questions.

Deterring Immorality by Counting Its Cost

If only we would rehearse in advance the ugly and overwhelming consequences of immorality, we would be far more prone to avoid it.

I was in full-time college ministry for 20 years until my pastor asked me to step down after repeated failure with pornography and masturbation. This has greatly affected my relationship with my wife. Do you have any advice for me at this stage?

Recognition of this sin as a barrier to true intimacy, both with your Lord and your wife, and responding with true repentance and confession to those affected are difficult steps. Your willingness to do so indicates a desire to be free from this enslavement. Let me assure you that as discouraged as this sin can make you feel, Christ has given you the ability to win this battle. “For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace” (Romans 6:14).