Virtually everybody today would assume that "necking" is completely within the bounds of propriety after a definite engagement. But is it? Let's look rationally at facts unconsidered in the almost universal assumption. What about premarital sexual intercourse between engaged couples? Does it help prepare for adjustment in marriage - or does it prevent or make more difficult that adjustment? What are the true facts?
The "New Morality" trend has changed the thinking - and the behavior - of most juveniles and adults under thirty. Perhaps the overwhelming majority. These "emancipated" moderns view premarital sex as entirely acceptable between engaged couples. Such experience has come to have general public acceptance even where there is no engagement.
Of course the "educated" and "scientific" world rejects all knowledge of the invisible but living LAWS of God. It seeks answers by purely physical, experimental and research expedients. Research studies have attempted to arrive at the final answer to the question, "Does premarital experience affect later marital happiness - and if so, how?"
They have found that those who had indulged in sex relations prior to marriage were less well-adjusted in marriage than those who married without previous experience. But they found so many complicating factors they could arrive at no "scientific" conclusion. Premarital experience nearly always must be carried on under very unsatisfactory conditions, as to environment, need for secrecy, psychological disturbances, fear of pregnancy and/or possibility of venereal disease, and many other impeding and unsatisfactory factors.
A couple in a large university a decade ago, began "going steady." Since premarital sex was the accepted custom, they indulged in "the usual." The girl, a brilliant all-A student, became pregnant. They decided immediately they had to marry. But they didn't tell their parents about the pregnancy. Both parents objected violently. The young man's parents were socially prominent, the girl's were not - though the girl's parents were actually of superior intellectual level. The girl had career ambitions, expecting to continue on in graduate school to work for a Ph.D. Of course her career dreams were now shattered. It was only after the students confessed the pregnancy that the parents consented to the marriage. These particular parents were a bit "old-fashioned." To them the illegitimate conception was a stigma and a disgrace.
The marriage was never happy. The young wife was bitterly resentful of being unable to continue her career. She resented her baby. She allowed this resentment to be transferred to her husband. Although she had consented to sexual intercourse before marriage - because it seemed to be "the thing to do," she became frigid in marriage. The young husband began going elsewhere for sex. The marriage ended in divorce, and - unhappiness!
An engagement as considered today, is not a marriage. It is merely the understanding or agreement between a man and woman that they intend to become married. But the engagement does not involve the marriage vow. Sexual intercourse prior to the actual marriage vow is FORNICATION, and the law of God is inexorable - it will exact the penalty - CAPITAL PUNISHMENT! It is in the sight of God, as great a crime as MURDER!
All government is based on law - or a foundational constitution. That underlying law is a "way of life." Few know it today, but only the law of God - a spiritual law - defines the way of life - the "life-style," if you prefer - that is good for the participants. It is the law that will finally judge you and me.
That law says fornication and adultery are bad for those who do them. That law will judge you in the final judgment for ETERNITY! To break it is harmful for you now, and in the final judgment you face the DEATH PENALTY! God denies us NOTHING that is for our good. God LOVES us!
Read again Chapters 4 and 5. Catch anew a vision of the sacredness - the supreme God-plane blessing of the marriage and family relationship, bestowed on no other creatures or kind of life except human! It ought to be looked forward to by the bride as the very PINNACLE of human experience! A bride should - and a few still do - have dreams of the coming marriage so idealistic and lofty they touch heaven!
To commit fornication prior to that wedding is to profane that sacred state of marriage - to drag it through a filthy cesspool into the depths of degradation. Any man who would suggest, or make advances toward, such a defiling of his marriage is not fit to enter that sacred relationship. And any woman who would submit to it is not fit to be the mother of her husband's children!
But what about plain "necking"? This, it has been made plain in the 11th chapter, is a PART - and the most important and necessary part - of sexual intercourse! Therefore IT IS FORNICATION!
What then are the true facts? They are far different from modern immoral customs! The engaged couple should be doubly careful to avoid any form of love-making by physical contact in any way! Doubly careful because of the temptation to say, "Oh well - we're going to be married anyway," and so be unable to resist the temptation to continue on into fornication. This is not to say that a fond embrace and a kiss - if not prolonged - are wrong. But remember, the male is sexually aroused in five to ten seconds - or less. Any such embrace or kiss ought never be prolonged sufficiently to produce arousal and desire. This is the time to practice self-restraint. This is the time to demonstrate honor with power of WILL.
These facts in themselves argue strongly against prolonged engagements. It is far better for young people resolutely to put thoughts of marriage out of mind until they are qualified to assume the responsibilities of marriage and parenthood. Until you reach this status, date different ones. But avoid "getting serious."
God Almighty placed the female hymen at the orifice of the vagina to protect young ladies until marriage. Do not assume the female hymen "just happened to grow there." It was deliberately planned and designed by our Maker for a purpose - to be a warning and a protection against sexual experience until marriage! To protect girls from what society has forgotten is CAPITAL SIN - indicting with CAPITAL PUNISHMENT!
Try to laugh this truth off because of human society's falsely accepted codes at your peril. GOD IS NOT MOCKED! He loves us, yet if we gloss over His law of love now, we shall be judged by that law in the end! God has set a LAW in living motion that makes fornication a CAPITAL SIN. Would an all-wise, all-loving GOD have made people so that they cannot be sure whether they are mated, unless they commit a CAPITAL SIN to find out?
You may be SURE that God in His wisdom made no such mistake. True, sex organs like hands, ears, feet or other parts of the body, do vary slightly in size and shape. But size has nothing to do with being properly mated! No adjustment will be necessary because of any size variations! The smallest vagina is made so that it will stretch sufficiently to allow the passage of a baby's head and shoulders when it is born! And no penis is ever that large! Also the smallest penis will fit perfectly into the vagina of a man's wife - regardless of whom he marries!
You do need to be sure you are properly mated - mentally, socially, religiously, emotionally, and that you are IN LOVE! But forget the sex until you are married. The GREAT GOD has seen to it that you'll be mated in that one category in which HE forbids premarital experimenting!
Many a bride of pre-"New Morality" years became nervous as the wedding approached, in real fear that she might discover that the husband's penis was so large it might cause severe pain. THAT IS AN UNFOUNDED FALLACY!
The only reason some wives - and they have been MANY - have experienced severe pain upon penetration of a husband's penis, is because both have been IGNORANT of the need of the preparation that comes with preliminary LOVEMAKING. If they will be careful to follow the instructions in Chapter 11, and the husband will be careful, considerate and gentle, there will be no cause for concern. Even then there may occasionally be a case where entrance must be slow, careful and gentle. But any considerate and informed husband can cooperate to avoid any difficulty.
Some boys believe that continence will reduce sex vitality. THAT IS ABSOLUTELY UNTRUE. Total refraining from sex intercourse, masturbation or other sex outlet DOES NO HARM WHATSOEVER. But the self-discipline of continence develops character!
Many boys and young men think they can detect a homosexual by his appearance, or manner. That is FALSE. Some homosexuals are effeminate. Others are not. Even the Bible recognizes the two kinds. In the 6th chapter of I Corinthians, quoted in an earlier chapter, speaking of those who shall not inherit the Kingdom of God, we find: "Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind... shall inherit the kingdom of God" (verses 9-10). The "effeminate" are one type of homosexual. The "abusers of themselves with mankind" are another type - not effeminate in manner. GOD, in the vernacular, "has their number." Homosexuals reveal themselves only by their behavior!
Some girls, and some wives, believe that if females do not reach orgasm there can be no pregnancy. THAT IS A DANGEROUS bit of ignorance! Orgasm, as previously explained, has absolutely nothing to do with pregnancy. All that is necessary for pregnancy is the presence of male semen in the vagina, uterus or Fallopian tube. Thousands of women have become pregnant through artificial insemination when no man was near, and no sexual arousal occurred. Others have become pregnant when a bit of semen was left outside the vagina, but within the labia majora.
A very general false conception is the idea that premarital intercourse is a good and necessary test of marital sex compatibility. JUST THE OPPOSITE IS TRUE. It not only is a CAPITAL SIN - it will give a WRONG ANSWER! Girls by thousands today are losing emotional stability, moral security, the happy and joyful anticipation of GIVING THEMSELVES to their husbands as virgins on their wedding night - and also risking premarital pregnancy and venereal disease - by following this modern FALSE idea.
This study conducted by this Research Council however, is shocking. And though the figures are somewhat higher than those provided by similar reports, they definitely show how times have changed. The study indicates that prior to 1912, 82 percent of brides entered marriage as virgins - only 18 percent of all women had "lost their honor," as it was termed in those days. By 1922, 26 percent had lost their virginity. By 1931 it was 49 percent. The immorality curve soared upward until by 1937, 68 percent of brides entered marriage having lost their virginity! And by 1950 an incredible 80 percent of brides were no longer virgins on their wedding day! And conditions are getting worse!
Nevertheless a few, even though a minority, still become brides in full retention of their moral HONOR! And for them, and their well-blessed bridegrooms, some important instruction must be given. What a WONDERFUL, blessed and thrilling event it ought to be for a young woman who has kept herself a virgin to give herself, at last, to the man of her dreams - the man whom she dearly LOVES - the man to whom GOD has just joined her in holy wedlock FOR LIFE! Most assuredly this is the pinnacle of human emotional experience for a right-minded young woman of high ideals!
The wedding night will be a spiritual, as well as a physical experience. But the crux of the physical experience is that of defloration - the removal of the hymen. By now it shall have served its purpose. There are two ways of accomplishing the defloration. One is by stretching, the other must be by rupture.
In a very small percentage of women the hymen is sufficiently flexible that it may be stretched during the first experience of intercourse, without the necessity of being broken. In such cases - and they are somewhat rare - if the penis is very slowly and carefully introduced, it may be wedged in gradually. There will be a certain drawing pain, but if preceded by preparatory caressing and lovemaking until arousal is experienced, and a sexual desire has been stimulated, this pain will be mixed with sensations of pleasure. It may take several minutes, under careful pressure, but it may thus be possible to produce complete penetration of the penis without tearing the hymen - merely stretching it. This may need to be repeated several times in the same manner, and finally the hymen will completely relax. The defloration will have been completed in a bloodless and comparatively painless manner.
But in most women, the opening through the hymen will be too small to allow this stretching process. In such cases, the penis must be thrust with sufficient power - but not necessarily rapidly - to break open the hymen. Yet the husband ought not to do the thrusting - but the wife - as we shall explain.
Some women, on the other hand, are seized with fear of being "torn apart." This is due to ignorance! It seems too bad that the 80 percent plus of unmarried nonvirgins didn't worry more about it - or the approximately 99 percent of males who have had premarital experience! There need be only slight pain to the bride - and that, in such manner that she may control it, as well as when and how it occurs, herself!.
In very rare cases, the hymen will prove too thick and stubborn to be broken in this manner. If success is not attained the first night it is attempted, try again the next night. And if necessary, a third. If it appears that it is going to be impossible, then go to a physician, and he can open the hymen with a very simple, harmless and probably painless surgery. But by all means avoid the surgeon if possible. Some "authorities" recommend going to the surgeon for this defloration prior to marriage. But we answer, NEVER!
But unless the bride is completely done in, and upset with nervousness, the husband surely ought to take her into his arms in bed, and quiet her nerves with LOVE! It is certainly to be recommended that he do this first, and delay any questions about deferring the sexual contact until LOVE has been expressed - unless she herself asks otherwise.
Every bridegroom ought to realize the bride's psychological situation on her wedding day. It is her greatest hour! In many cases she will be leaving her parents and her home. She is embarking on a new and different life.
If there is a reception following the wedding ceremony, the bridegroom (and of course also the bride) should be careful, if any alcoholic beverages are served, either to abstain, or to partake with extreme temperance. He must retain complete mental and physical alertness. He may be driving a car immediately afterward. He must be completely sober as he takes his bride into his arms on the wedding night. To ruin this night might be to ruin the marriage for life.
Above all, he must now show consideration, tenderness, kindness and love as never before to the girl he has married - and this must continue into the wedding night. He should realize solemnly that the purpose of this night is not to give him pleasure. Only a selfish ignoramus would consider it so. This should be her night.
Many a wedding is wrecked for life on the wedding night. Many a bride has been cruelly raped by a self-centered, ignorant lout who was seeking only his own gratification.
This, above all, is the night to be gentle, tender, considerate and loving. This is perhaps the most critical night of his life - and hers! The fate of the lifelong, or divorce-short marriage is at stake! First impressions are lasting. Make your bride's first impression of sex one of respect, admiration of her husband, and of God-ordained LOVE and TENDERNESS and consideration!
And finally, a few very necessary cautions. The bride-to-be should of
course be careful to set the wedding shortly after a menstrual period -
being very careful in her calculation - and leaving a safe margin for error,
or irregularity due to the nervous tension of the time.
The bridegroom should REALIZE, and NOT FORGET, that on this wedding night above all, he must not embarrass his bride. If she wishes to undress in privacy, give her the opportunity. When ready for bed, REMEMBER, nearly all women want either darkness or very subdued light. That's one of the differences between human male and female. Remember too, that although the Maker of us all made the female body to be attractive, beautiful and even sex-arousing to the male, the female mind is altogether different. No man should display his body, or especially the pubic region before the new bride - above all on this wedding night.
The fact that God talked to the first man and his wife in their complete nudity - that they were not ashamed (Gen. 2:25) and God made no effort at that time to cover them - does indicate that God imposes no command that husband and wife always be covered before each other. It is after the public - other people - "ALL LIVING" - are mentioned in Genesis 3:20, that God (verse 21) clothed them. This would indicate that there is no prohibition against nudity between husband and wife in the privacy of their own bedroom. But REGARDLESS, no bridegroom ought to embarrass or shock his new bride by displaying his body, or demanding that she display hers, on this wedding night.
Take plenty of time to get used to one another! As you value your future marriage together, BE CAREFUL - avoid embarrassment - take time! Read again the instruction given in Chapter 11 about how a husband and wife ought to appear before each other in bedroom privacy - the bedclothes, undergarments, careful grooming.
The new husband should not think of this wedding night as a night of sensual pleasure - but a night of LOVE! This is the most critical night of his life! The fate of a lifelong marriage could be at stake. The experience of this night may determine the bride's attitude toward the sexual relationship for life! And her attitude is the ALL-IMPORTANT thing! She has, in all probability from girlhood, had an idealistic picture in her mind of marriage and husband. Don't destroy it!
The properly instructed bride, with a correct view of love and marriage, looks forward to this moment - the wedding night - as the fulfillment of the purpose of her youth. She has accepted the right man. He is her ideal. She is in love. She doesn't fear him as a stranger. As he now takes her into his arms, she happily and impulsively embraces him. She must now realize that he is the complement of her mind and body. Alone, she has been incomplete, imperfect. He is the stronger of the two. Now they are to be joined as ONE. His strength is to be added to - combined with - her weaker physical nature. This is the moment for her to simply give herself to him - to surrender herself to him - in loving embrace, and in the pleasure and ecstasy of the moment. As one writer has stated it, this surrender to her husband is a modest tribute to be paid for the present and future happiness of marriage and motherhood!
As physical reproduction is the type and forerunner of spiritual begettal and glorification, so marital LOVE is the type of Christ's LOVE for His Church, and our love for Christ. The wife's giving of herself, in the ecstasy of love and in obedience, to her husband, is the type and physical counterpart of those in God's Church giving themselves, in love and obedience, to the Christ who bought and paid for us with His life's blood!
God Almighty is the source of LIFE, and of LOVE. Human sex is the symbol and physical counterpart of both - the source of physical LIFE, and marital LOVE. These are holy, righteous and sacred things! The marriage and family relationships are GOD-PLANE relationships, which God shares with humans, and humans only!
A perverted, hostile devil has deceived his world into two extremes away from this beautiful and central TRUTH. First, he represented sex - physical sources of LIFE and marital LOVE - as something degrading, shameful and evil. Today he leads people to the opposite extreme away from TRUTH, into accepting the perverted and profaned and lustful uses of sex as being acceptable and good. In this volume those lying, foul, deceptively false attitudes have been exposed, and the blessed TRUTH made plain. But remember, the all-important thing is MENTAL ATTITUDE!
Few indeed ever think of the supreme importance of mental attitude in relation to the sex response. But before concluding this book REMEMBER THIS BASIC ALL-IMPORTANT TRUTH! God created people after the GOD kind, not after the cattle kind, the horse kind, dog kind or any other animal kind. Stamp in your mind the vast difference between the purpose and use of sex in animals compared to humans. In both animals and humans sex provides the means of reproducing one's kind. But God designed and created sex to serve an altogether DIFFERENT purpose in humans than in animals.
And directly associated with it is another vast DIFFERENCE! Animals like humans, have brains. But animals were not created with the MIND POWER of the thinking process - of free moral agency - of responsibility for direction, right choices, rational direction and performance. Animals have brains, but NOT the spirit that operates in conjunction with brain in man. They are endowed with instinct, but not with the MIND power of the human spirit functioning with the human brain to function as MIND-POWER.
This spirit in humans, plus the fact that man was designed and made in the image of GOD, endows man with the supreme privilege of access to direct contact with God and ultimately sonship of being born a divine Son in the God Family as a very GOD BEING! How transcendently important!
Now see where this spiritual endowment leads to a vast difference in sexual response. God gave us humans the privilege of expressing outflowing LOVE - a spiritual expression - through sexual union, something entirely foreign to animals. BUT - this very divinely endowed privilege carries with it a stern character-building responsibility. In humans this spiritually INTENDED RIGHT use may be directed in the opposite direction of LUST. That is a part of the awe-inspiring human prerogative for which we are charged with accountability!
God is the great GIVER! God's LAW - His basic way of life - is outflowing LOVE. But Satan has led a deceived world to call lust "love" - to call sin OK - to call wrong right - to turn GOD'S values upside down. Therefore I simplify the basic way of GOD'S LAW. I term it the way of GIVE as opposed to the way of "GET."
In His love for His prospective children, God gave us humans the physical sensations of exotic pleasure - in a manner animals know nothing of. By the sense of sight we may ENJOY beautiful landscapes, gorgeous sunsets. We may enjoy beautiful melodic and harmonious music. We may ENJOY the fragrance of beautiful roses, the TASTE of delicious health-building foods. Or, we may turn these senses of sight, hearing, smelling, tasting, into thinking we enjoy the LUST of pornography, the beat and Satan-inspired rhythm of rock-and-roll or disco, the smell of tobacco smoke, or the taste of health-destroying rich foods or desserts.
Likewise God intended the sexual expression to GIVE us (God is the GIVER) - the extreme delightful sensations of the sense of feel that surpasses ANY enjoyment of the senses, in the GIVING of sincere and genuine LOVE to a husband or wife to whom GOD has bound one for LIFE! The MARRIAGE union should be the most exquisite and delightful and rewarding experience of human life - unless it be the JOY of the arrival of one's own baby - (and the one is preliminary to the other, though God intended the sexual union to provide ecstasies in wholesome marital LOVE repeatedly IN ADDITION TO the function of reproduction).
God in His Word to us speaks of having our senses exercised by use to discern both good and evil uses (Heb. 5:14). Even the unconverted person who has not received the Holy Spirit to dwell with the human spirit has the MIND power to discern the difference between good and evil uses of the human five senses - their selfish gratification or wholesome enjoyments. God INTENDED to bestow upon us humans the pleasures and delights of wholesome and RIGHT uses and enjoyments. And RIGHT enjoyments that are beneficial and lasting gravitate in the direction of GIVING, and destructive and (to us humans) NON-beneficial uses stem from motives of "GETTING" - lust, covetousness, vanity, self-indulgence.
Self-centered lustful pleasures corrode, injure and tend to destroy the indulger. A first injection of heroin will produce in one sensations enjoyable momentarily - get one "high" - but that one leads to a desire for a second, and before it is realized the simpleton who yielded to it is "hooked" where it no longer produces such exhilarating sensations, but the body requires feeding the habit even to get back to normal! All physical sensations used lustfully or in a manner of self-indulgence do not prove as physically and devastatingly destructive as certain hard drugs. But in the end they prove JUST AS FATAL!
God GAVE us humans five senses. He intended them to be ENJOYED - to give us wholesome and healthy PLEASURES! But they also may be put to WRONG USES! God gave us MIND-power for sensual discernment. He holds us responsible for our conduct in utilization of that mind-power in our human behavior. The way BEST FOR US is the way of "GIVE" - outflowing LOVE to God and LOVE to fellowman.
The very PURPOSE OF OUR BEING is the development of righteous perfect spiritual CHARACTER until finally we may become GOD BEINGS, immortal as Sons of GOD in the very supreme GOD FAMILY! Even the unconverted DO HAVE the human spirit! They have this marvelous MIND power. They are held accountable for its RIGHT USAGE! And it's all a matter of ATTITUDE!
Most marriages are rendered unhappy by wrong attitudes. Most people marry for selfish purposes. They think only of what they can GET from the other. They want to extract gratification, pleasure, money, security or something for SELF from the mate. True outgoing concern and LOVE is usually lacking. It is hoped that this volume shall have brought to many thousands a right knowledge of the TRUTH - helped thousands to a changed and right attitude toward sex, toward wife or husband, toward life, and toward God. God's Law is THE WAY to every happiness - whether in marriage, in business - in LIFE.
If you are one whose marriage has not been happy - perhaps "on the rocks" - change your attitude. Follow God's LAWS. Avoid the penalties of unhappiness, troubles and curses. Reap the joys of divinely intended blessings! If you are unmarried, follow these living inexorable LAWS - seek God's wisdom and guidance in the selection of a mate when the right time comes - trust the Living God. He has a deep and tremendous outgoing concern for you. Get your attitude toward sex cleaned up and in harmony with the Maker's purposes. Avoid every misuse or perversion. Reap the glorious rewards a loving God has intended and made available!
The editors and producers of this volume wish God's richest blessings on every reader - and they will be yours if your attitude and your actions are in harmonious obedience to God's Laws and His TRUTH!