Posted by
Jesse "The Mind" Norman on Sunday, April 13, 2008 3:38:00 AM
Millions of Christians and Jews throughout the centuries felt that the sin of Onan was the mere act of him spilling his seed onto the ground and wasting it. This interpretation is not correct and I will prove it as much as I possibly can. In Genesis 38 it explains that two sons of Judah, Ur and Onan were punished by God. For Ur, it simply says that he was wicked in the sight of God, so God slew him. Ur was married. Judah told Onan to take Ur’s widow and marry her and to have children with her, but those children were to be Ur’s lot. Not Onan’s. Verse 9 says “And Onan knew that the seed should not be his; and it came to pass, when he went in unto his brother’s wife, that he spilled it on the ground, lest that he should give seed to his brother.” So why did God’s word repeat itself within that verse? It already said that he knew the seed should not be his, so why repeat that at the end of the verse? The reason was God was making a point. God was telling us what Onan’s sin actually was. It wasn’t the act of spilling his seed. It was why he did it that was the sin.
If nearly everyone is right and I am wrong, then God’s word clashes later on then. In Hebrews 13:4 it says “Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.” What this says is that whatever a man and a woman does in their bedroom is fine, as long as they’re married. If everyone is right and I am wrong, then Hebrews 13:4 would clash with their interpretation of the sin of Onan.
With this wrongful interpretation, man has made certain acts of sex illegal even among a man and his wife. This is why the Catholic church and others see condoms and other forms of pregnancy prevention as a sin. Well it is a sin unless, as it says in Hebrews 13:4, you are married. If a man and his wife do not wish to have children, it’s fine scripturally to take preventive measures, despite man’s interpretation. That does not include abortion, however. Abortion is always wrong, no matter the situation. There may be some awful human things that have caused the pregnancy, but the reason why it’s wrong is because you are taking a soul’s chance away of accepting Christ as their Saviour. There is an age after this one where they get that opportunity but that is one opportunity less than if they lived in this age as well. Some things from a humanist’s point of view can look very wrong, but there are godly things one must take into account as well.
Because humans are naturally squeemish when it comes to matters of sex, this helped with their misinterpretation. There are many more misinterpretations I will list in later posts, but this one probably plays with the most persons’ consciences. If you and your spouse wish to engage in different types of sex as long as it’s just between you two and in the privacy of your home, go right ahead and don’t worry a bit. Just read Hebrews 13:4. That’s all you need.