Porn: The Dragon Of Our Age
It comes as no surprise to Christians who have studied their Bible and paid some attention to church history that the unfolding story God is telling throughout human history is a story with dragons in it. Dragons that must be slain. Enemies that must be put underneath the feet of Jesus in victory.
It should also come as no surprise that one of the most sinister dragons attacking our culture, our churches, and our families today is pornography. Never in history has sexual deviancy been so accessible and prevalent, even to young adolescents. While many readers are likely familiar with the widespread issue of this sin and its destructive impact, exploring its foundational roots can offer deeper understanding."
Pornography, ultimately, is an attack on the marriage bed and the dominion mandate that lies at the foundation of Christian purpose.
In Genesis 1 we are told:
“26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
27 So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.””(Genesis 1:26-28, emphasis added)
This mandate is reiterated to Noah in Genesis 9 after the flood and is later implied by Jesus to his disciples in what we call the Great Commission of Matthew 28.
The original directive was clear: God created an untamed world, and Adam and Eve were tasked with bringing God's order to it. He gave them the blueprint in the garden and there they saw what God's rule looked like when applied to physical creation. But the garden was only a small portion of the created world, and if God's image bearers populated and ordered the rest of creation after that pattern then truly God's glory would cover the earth as the waters cover the sea (Hab. 2:14). So mankind was created to fill and form the world according to what their heavenly Father had modeled to them.
The only way this purpose can possibly be successful is if man and woman come together in covenant relationship, bear children and raise them for the task of godly dominion. Therefore sex is the mechanism by which dominion takes place. Fruitful procreation brings forth image bearers who multiply the productive power of mom and dad. This is why Satan has always attacked marriage. His attack started in the garden, continued through the patriarchs, persisted with the Kings of Israel, and has arguably only intensified over the centuries since then. Pornography is merely the latest means of warfare, and also among the most potent.
It was God who blessed man with a sex drive and testosterone which, if not mastered, can make men lustful, impetuous, violent savages. But when man’s sex drive, which God called very good, is mastered by the Holy Spirit and that force is pointed in the direction of fruitful dominion, then it creates family, security and civilization. As such, there are very few things that Satan fears more than Spirit-empowered patriarchs spending their lives on fruitful, representative rulership of the earth, thereby taking dominion and establishing the kingdom and will of God on the earth.
But pornography wastes the sex drive of men and the civilization-building benefits of testosterone on cheap lust. It reduces sexuality to mere sexual gratification. It makes sex individualistic and selfish; the opposite of its biblical intention. In Scripture, not only do we see the constant biblical direction that sex is meant for fruitful multiplication as God fills up the earth with his image-bearers, but we see specific times when the waste of life is condemned by God. For instance, when Onan, son of Judah, fails to fulfill his Levirate duty and give his deceased brother an heir, we are told, “But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his. So whenever he went in to his brother's wife he would waste the semen on the ground, so as not to give offspring to his brother. And what he did was wicked in the sight of the Lord” (Genesis 38:9-10).
Despite all the complex relationships that God gave to mankind, it is only to one relationship that He gave the good gift of sex. According to God's word, sexual expression is only permissible in a relationship between a man and a woman bound together in covenant love. To that union God gives the gift of sex, which serves the purpose of pleasure and fruitfulness.
Scripturally speaking, sexual pleasure is meant to be communal. God is triune, the fellowship within the Godhead is perfect and joyful, which is why when God made man, who is not three-in-one as God is, he said that it is not good for man to be alone (Gen 2:18). Adam was in relationship with God, but he needed companionship that was physical and that completed the triunity reflected in his Creator. So God created woman, Eve. Yet pornography reduces what is meant to be communal and plural to something singularly gratifying.
Further, pornography completely ignores the fruitful direction of sexual pleasure. The one flesh union between a man and woman is meant to bring forth new life. In Ephesians 5 Paul says that he is sharing a profound mystery about the one flesh union between a husband and wife, about marital sex, he says it reflects Christ and the church (Eph. 5:32). This explains the significance of sexual intimacy in marriage, but it also explains why Satan hates sex and why he has spent so much time attacking it through pornography.
As always however, when Satan attacks he is not creative. Satan does not have the power to create, merely to usurp and pervert, and his attack relies on twisting what God has already made, pointing it or utilizing it for something other than what God intended. As Satan cannot alter God’s world, what he must do then is to make God’s design for the thing he has created seem restrictive, boring or oppressive.
One of the functional benefits of frequent, satisfying sexual union in marriage is that it actually endows men and women with the tools necessary to carry out their calling as image-bearers. Much like the Spirit dwelling in the believer endows the Christian with the gifts, motivations and fruit of the Spirit necessary to walk in obedience, sex cultivates masculinity and femininity. The husband enters, takes initiative and leads, the wife receives, helps and is led. These physical realities, when practiced frequently, create physical habits that are unique to men and women. It helps men be more like men and women be more like women.
Further to this, the physical chemicals released, which are different in men and women during sex, actually reinforce qualities the Bible attributes differently to men and women. Men become more assertive, more confident and more protective. Women become more submissive, more content and more secure.
Pornography breaks down these sexual distinctions, making the act of sex androgenous and pointed inward, and it cultivates attributes of selfishness, impatience and anxiety. In short, pornography robs us not only of the uniqueness of our masculine and feminine qualities, but ultimately, in doing so, attacks our very ability to carry out the command given to mankind in the garden: to take godly dominion of the world.
When it comes to pornography, it is not an overstatement to say that the world hangs in the balance. Pornography threatens to disqualify and enfeeble Christians and render us incapable of carrying out our God-given purpose. If we cannot slay this dragon, it threatens to set the world on fire.
In part 2 of this series, we will look at exactly how to combat this adversary.