Sex as Spiritual Warfare: Texas Pastor Says God's Purposes for Marriage Attacked by Satan
Blake Wilson of Crossover Bible Fellowship Discusses God's Purposes for Sex in Marriage
Wilson: When people say "we don't need to talk about this issue," I think that's an error because it's not been talked about enough. I think that if you look at what's happened ... there's a word in English [called] "immorality," but it's the Greek word "porneia," where we get our English word "pornography." God's problem is not with sex, God's issue is with sexual immorality. The word "immorality" or porneia, pornography, is all forms of illicit sex outside of the marriage covenant. So the issue is, is we've not spoken concerning sex. I believe that the vocal chords and the mouthpiece of God are quiet on a subject that God has been talking about since Gen. 1 to Rev. 22. The original purpose for sex in the Bible was procreation, the first purpose of sex for a man and woman, husband and wife, was to reproduce God's image on the face of the earth. God wanted us to be fruitful and multiply, to bear His image and to raise up children that would reflect His character in the earth realm.
As it relates to critics, I would just say really take some time to listen and hear and be well-informed, because we're not doing well with the sexually transmitted diseases that we have across the country, and people dying from those, children being raised out of wedlock. I think that if we would run the plays that God has instituted, we could possibly do better than [how] we're doing on our own.
CP: You mentioned that God's purpose for sex is procreation. Are they any other purposes?
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Wilson: The very first night of our conference, the first session is called "Four Play: the Foundation for God Sex" ... In Gen. 1:26-28, the first purpose: procreation, to reproduce the image of God on the face of the earth through a married couple; number two: consummation, Gen. 2:24, that you would become one flesh; and then number three: recreation, Proverbs 5:15-20; and then number four: protection, 1 Cor. 7:5.
Potentially, maybe one of the most critical is protection because God is basically telling the married couples of the Bible that you ought to engage in a healthy sex life as a couple so that you will not be tempted by Satan due to a lack of self-control.
Many people don't realize that sex is actually an issue of warfare, because the devil knows that God is trying to reproduce His image through procreation, the original purpose, and to raise up godly offspring. That's why I believe that the enemy has the issue under such attack from the very beginning of the Bible. So as a result, the man [starts] living according to his own sexual agenda, versus God's biblical blueprint. You begin to see a falling away from what God had intended in terms of the act of sex.
I think that those four purposes are critical. The Bible says that you ought to come back together again so that Satan will not tempt you due to your lack of self-control. So Satan is just as interested in the bedroom as God is, and we as a church need to find out who's winning. I think that it ought to be God winning based on the fact that He's manufactured it, but a lot of times it looks like Satan has an upper hand because the church has not spoken and taught well. We have not renewed people's minds in this area so that they can make wise decisions.
CP: Please share a little about your church, Crossover Bible Fellowship.
Wilson: Crossover Bible Fellowship is a church that started out of my house, out of my living room. We would be considered a nondenominational church. We have close to 700-800 members. We started seven years ago. Great young adult population in the congregation. We've seen God do amazing things. We've gone from my living room to [over] seven acres in seven years, so God's been good to us.
CP: Do you have any upcoming projects, besides the Sex and the Gospel conference on April 5-6?
Wilson: There's [material] I'm working on in terms of the Urban Lighthouse Curriculum. The Urban Lighthouse Curriculum is ultimately going to be a youth and young adult-based curriculum that deals with topics biblically to produce curriculum for youth pastors and young adult ministers to teach their teens and young people over a series of time, over two to three years, with the lives of young people based on the big issues they're facing. We've surveyed over the years a lot of young people and they've told us, "Here are the issues that we're facing," and what we've done is we've gone into the Bible, pulled out those topics and isolated Scriptures in those areas to teach them. That curriculum, being formed since about 1999, is putting itself now in a publishable state.
I also work with Thrive in the City Network with Pastor Dr. Eric Mason out of Epiphany Fellowship. I'm one of the board members for Thrive in the City, which focuses on building up inner-city churches and strengthening inner-city churches with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
More information about the 2013 Sex and the Gospel conference can be found at the official event website.
