free spirit
Well-Known Member
Possibly for God doesn't need one.
(VII) Throughout the ages many pagan religions adopted various forms of sacrifice to appease God. Some even went to the extreme repugnance of offering human sacrifice, like virgins or infants whose body was unblemished.
The Jews however offered animal sacrifices not to appease God as it were, but to make atonement for their sins; in other words, by their faith in a promise given to them by God, they covered their sins for a time with a substitute life blood of an unblemished animal, until those who believed in the promise of the coming messiah would-be redeemed by the unblemished sacrifice of the Christ.
Christianity therefore was born through the sacrifice of the unblemished life of the messiah, his unblemished life and eventual sinless death was necessary, for in so doing he fulfilled the law of God, hence enabling him to do three wonderful things for the world, which are: 1st Reverse what Adam did,and Give justification of life to all of humanity, 2nd Forgive the sins of past, present and future faithful generations, and 3rd Give the gift of his grace to those who would believe and receive the Holy Spirit.
However, some of those who receive the gift of his grace have been invited to grow and mature in that gift, for we read in Luke 9 23, And he was saying to them all, if anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. But somehow that invitation to deny one-self is tested by the strength of his or her personal faith, for we must keep present that it is not compulsory to literally follow in his footsteps, for it is written: If anyone wishes to come after me and that statement is just, because we are all individuals whose personality and strength differ in many ways. In other words, it is compulsory to love your neighbour like yourself, which is the basic requirement if we truly like to be Christians. And then if anyone wishes there is the devotional sacrifice to go after him.
This devotional sacrifice of worship to God is an exceptional way of self-denial with which we get closer to our Lord for we read in 1st Corinthians 7 32 to 38, But I want you to be free from concern. One who is unmarried is concerned about the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord;
33 but one who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how he may please his wife, and his interests are divided.
34 And the woman who is unmarried, and the virgin, is concerned about the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and spirit; but one who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how she may please her husband.
35 And this I say for your own benefit; not to put a restraint upon you, but to promote what is seemly, and to secure undivided devotion to the Lord.
36 But if any man thinks that he is acting unbecomingly towards his celibacy, if he should be of full age, and if it must be so, let him do what he wishes, he does not sin; let him marry.
37 But he who stand firm in his heart, being under no constraint, but has authority over his own body, and has decided this in his own heart, to keep his own body chaste, he will do well.
38 So then both he who gives his own body in marriage does well, and he who does not give himself in marriage will do better.
As you can see the last three verses 36 37 38, with the inserted Italics are the obvious restorations needed, which enable us to understand the true and intended meaning of the previous verses 32 33 34 35, because if any person male or female is willingly prepared and able to freely undertake the sacrifice of celibacy as their sacrifice of worship, that sacrifice is acceptable to God, for we read in Matthew 19 10 to 12, The disciples said to him, if the relationship of the man with his wife is like this, it is better not to marry. But He said to them, Not all men can accept this statement, but only those to whom it has been given. For there are eunuchs who were born that way from their mothers womb; and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men; and there are also eunuchs who made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. He who is able to accept this let him accept it.
And Romans 12 1, also urges us to keep our body holy by saying, I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.
We should be able to accept the above restorations after we have investigated the facts for ourselves and become fully convinced that todays bibles description of the above three verses were undeniably distorted. So, let us read from the New American Standard Bible the three verses in question of 1st Corinthians 7 36 37 38, (But if any man thinks that he is acting unbecomingly toward his virgin daughter, if she should be of full age, and if it must be so, let him do what he wishes, he does not sin; let her marry,
37 - but he who stands firm in his heart, being under no constraint, but has authority over his own will, and has decided this in his own heart, to keep his own virgin daughter, he will do well.
38 - so then both he who gives his own virgin daughter in marriage does well, and he who does not give her in marriage will do better.)
(Certainly other Bibles translations of the above three verses are a little different, in some Bibles even the inserted italics are different; but it is obvious to me that in them also the ambiguities still remains in place). Furthermore, any reasonable person is able to see that those three verses are confusing to say the least. Also these verses are openly in opposition to the freedom given to us by Christ, for we all know that fathers have control of their daughters life only for a short time, anyhow what would be the purpose of her forced celibacy? It would be reasonable to think from reading the above scriptures that the father is offering the daughters celibacy as a sacrifice, for his own perceived benefit.
Needless to say that for that obvious reason alone, the sacrifice is unacceptable to God.
What's more I have found that, the Pagan Roman religion did have virgin females (vestali), which were pledged to celibacy until thirty years of age, and were under penalty of death if they strayed. They were offered (maybe by their fathers) and dedicated for service to the state, for keeping burning the perennial fire of the temple and were entrusted to safeguard important government documents and records, like the last will and testament of the head of state, and to maintain and or assist him in the temples ceremonial function, for the head of the Roman state was also head of religion.
It stands to reason that these verses of 1st Corinthians 7 36 37 38, to make any sense in the life of the faithful, should be read in context with the preceding four verses as they are presented above. In which the subject-matter is exposed and become relevant to the lives of the believers, so that those faithful who are able, can freely and confidently choose celibacy as a spiritual sacrifice of worship to our God.
Nevertheless, if any one after committing to the devotional sacrifice realise that, the sacrifice of celibacy is too difficult for him to honestly fulfil, in such case he can stop trying and get married with Gods blessing.
Glory to God
