A Biblical Catechism on Sex and Marriage: Sexual Sins: Transgenderism, Prostitution, and Temple Prostitution

[This post continues a series of posts entitled 'A Biblical Catechism on Sex and Marriage'.  The intention is to provide basic material for further instruction by a trusted teacher of God's Word in a church that is committed to Biblical authority.  The Church’s mission is to invite all people to live under God’s righteous rule.]

Question 3. What sexual sins are mentioned in the Bible?

Answer: Any sex outside of marriage between a man and a woman is sin.

Comment 1: The following sexual sins can be found in the Bible:

[Previous posts: adultery, sexual immorality, bestiality, homosexuality]

Transgenderism [to identify one’s gender with that of the opposite, biological sex]

Genesis 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.  [There are only two genders, male and female, and these correspond to biological sex.  Note: Romans 1:26-27, as in the Greek version of Genesis 1:27, uses the words for females and males rather than for women and men.  This focuses the point on gender and not only on biological sex.  Thus, one’s gender is the same as one’s biological sex. When one distorts one’s own gender/biological sex to engage in same-sex acts, one is going against creation/nature, and one sins against God.]

Deuteronomy 22:5 "A woman shall not wear a man's garment, nor shall a man put on a woman's cloak, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the LORD your God.

1 Corinthians 11:14-15 Does not nature itself teach you that if a man wears long hair it is a disgrace for him,  ¹⁵ but if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For her hair is given to her for a covering.  [Note: Paul is insisting on gender distinctions in 1 Cor. 11.2-16.  As some cultures in Paul’s day did have long-haired men, Paul’s point about nature has to do with male and female gender distinctions, not that men cannot grow long hair naturally or that they could have long hair if it did not signify the blurring of gender distinctions.]

            Prostitution

Some example texts from Scripture about this sin are:

Leviticus 19:29 "Do not profane your daughter by making her a prostitute, lest the land fall into prostitution and the land become full of depravity.

Proverbs 23:27 For a prostitute is a deep pit; an adulteress is a narrow well.

1 Corinthians 6:15-16 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never!  ¹⁶ Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, "The two will become one flesh."

Temple Prostitution

The Israelites encountered temple prostitution in the Canaanite religions.  It involved having sex at shrines with either women (heterosexual sex) or men (homosexual sex).  God forbade Israelites to adopt this sinful practice, which, apart from its association with idolatry, entailed various sins, such as sex outside of marriage, prostitution, and homosexuality.  This connection between idolatry and prostitution (and adultery and homosexuality) at shrines of fertility gods and goddesses is the basis for describing idolatry (sinfully pursuing other gods than the true God) and sexual immorality (sinfully pursuing other desires outside of marriage between a man and a woman).

Deuteronomy 23:17-18 "None of the daughters of Israel shall be a cult prostitute, and none of the sons of Israel shall be a cult prostitute.  ¹⁸ You shall not bring the fee of a prostitute or the wages of a dog into the house of the LORD your God in payment for any vow, for both of these are an abomination to the LORD your God.  [Note: ‘dog’ was a term used of male prostitutes.]

1 Kings 14:23-24 For they also built for themselves high places and pillars and Asherim on every high hill and under every green tree,  ²⁴ and there were also male cult prostitutes in the land.

1 Kings 15:11-12 And Asa did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, as David his father had done.  ¹² He put away the male cult prostitutes out of the land and removed all the idols that his fathers had made.

1 Kings 22:46 And from the land he [King Jehoshaphat] exterminated the remnant of the male cult prostitutes who remained in the days of his father Asa.

2 Kings 23:7 And he [King Josiah] broke down the houses of the male cult prostitutes who were in the house of the LORD, where the women wove hangings for the Asherah.

Jeremiah 13:27 I have seen your abominations, your adulteries and neighings, your shameless prostitutions on the hills of the countryside. Woe to you, O Jerusalem! How long will it be before you are made clean?