Here are two contrasting cultural beliefs for you to consider:
- Sex is the best thing on the planet
- Heaven is full of the best things we can imagine
So if both of these things are true, why does the Bible tell us there won’t be any sex in heaven?
No Sex in Heaven?
In Matthew 22:30, Jesus says, “At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.”
I’ve expounded elsewhere how God designed sex to happen within marriage only, so we can naturally deduce here, as the original listeners would have automatically, that if there is no marriage in heaven, there is also no sex.
No sex in heaven? Many might ask what the other options are at this point!
One of the reasons this news shocks us is because we view sex and heaven selfishly. Culturally, sex has become a selfish act of consumption. And our view of heaven is typically a place of self-centered utopia. We picture beaches and paradise and all the pleasure for ourselves that we can dream of, often not with much thought about God being around at all. This me-centered paradise is a great match for lots of sex for all of eternity. In fact, several of the main world religions promise this (maybe a clue that those religions were made up by a man? But I digress…)
But thank goodness that’s not what heaven, or sex, is meant to be according to the Bible.
Sex is a one-flesh relationship that bonds a man and a woman together in every way possible. It’s why this one-flesh relationship can only function healthily within marriage. The one-flesh bond includes full acceptance and commitment to all a person is, not simply their body parts (Gen. 2:24, Matt. 19:4-6, 1 Cor. 6:15-16). You are one flesh, at all times, in all ways, which can’t be undone.
This sounds pretty amazing, and deep, and night-and-day different from what our culture calls “sex” today. But there’s more. This sex and this one flesh don’t exist for their own end. They aren’t the destination, they are simply another sign post. A sign post pointing to where?
What Sex Really Points To
After giving a treatise on marriage and sex, Ephesians 5 concludes with the following:
“’For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’ This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church” (Eph. 5:31-32).
Heyo! The whole time Paul was talking about husbands and wives and marriage and sex in Ephesians 5, it says here he was actually talking about Jesus and us! Marriage and sex are metaphors for the relationship we have with Jesus.
What is a metaphor? It is a sign post. It points to the real thing. It’s something tangible we can look at in order to understand something else. It’s a symbol we can learn from in order to understand and experience the real thing.
The real thing is the one-flesh relationship Jesus desires to have with each of us. It’s the relationship he has with those who call themselves Christians. It’s a relationship of intimate love and acceptance and support and trust, where Jesus is the groom and we are the bride. Earthly marriage and sex are symbols that can help point us toward the real thing.
This is why there is no sex in heaven. You don’t need sign posts when you’ve arrived at the destination!
It’d be like driving to Disney World and parking the car at the green highway sign with the white text of “DISNEY WORLD” and the white arrow pointing to the off ramp. Imagine parking your car there, taking a selfie with the family, and then driving home, telling everyone you’d been to Disney World!
The destination is always better than the sign post.
Heaven Is Not a Perpetual Fast
Some might disagree! But the reason for the disagreement is because we’ve been worshiping the sign post for far too long and we simply don’t have the full experience of the real thing yet. In talking of the perspective that heaven would be a “perpetual fast” from sex in the minds of some, C.S. Lewis had this to say:
“…or else of a perpetual fast. As regards the fast, I think our present outlook might be like that of a small boy who, on being told that the sexual act was the highest bodily pleasure, should immediately ask whether you ate chocolates at the same time. On receiving the answer no, he might regard absence of chocolates as the chief characteristic of sexuality. In vain would you tell him that the reason why lovers in their carnal raptures don’t bother about chocolates is that they have something better to think of. The boy knows chocolate: he does not know the positive thing that excludes it.
We are in the same position. We know the sexual life; we do not know, except in glimpses, the other thing which, in Heaven, will leave no room for it.”
-C.S. Lewis, as quoted in a 1947 Time Magazine article
A boy can’t understand if you try to tell him sex is the highest bodily pleasure, because he is convinced chocolate is and isn’t ready to understand sex. We can’t understand that pure intimacy with God in his direct presence is what makes heaven, Heaven, not that it’s some me-centered place where we eat Bons Bons on the beach, while watching Netflix, and of course, having sex. Nor can we fully grasp that intimacy with God is better than sex, both now and for all eternity. But the truth remains, which we are exhorted to believe and live by.
This is fantastic news. We worship sex on earth, but it’s also our place of deepest longing and brokenness. A single person feels unloved because they don’t have a sexual partner. A married person goes to pornography, an affair, or fantasy, because the sexual partner they do have isn’t satisfying them.
The Answer to Our Longing for Sex
The answer to our longing for sex is not sex! It’s intimacy with Jesus. We get to experience this intimacy on earth. This unconditional love where God adopts us as his sons and daughters and is well-pleased with us and we are fully accepted into his arms because of what Jesus did on the cross for us. But imagine this experience in a fully direct, physical way. Wow! That is heaven.
This gives us reason to not worship sex and it also reminds us we don’t need sex. Whether we experience the sign post or not is somewhat irrelevant. What is relevant is that we take God at his word that the destination will be much better, attuning all of our navigational tools toward that destination, not any metaphor, imitation, or sign post along the way.
Keep your eyes on Jesus brothers. He is Coming Soon
Rai, I hope Jesus is coming soon, I truly do, to eliminate all evil, suffering and injustice in the World once and for all, forever, while Jesus says in the Gospels, “No one knows the day or the hour” it also says elsewhere in the Bible that Christians should watch for Signs that the Second Coming is Near, even though no one could Know the exact date, how long do you speculate until Jesus returns, 10 years, 20 years, 50 years ? 100 years, ? Countless People are Suffering, Suffering in Silence, and Countless Christians want Jesus to Return and Eliminate all Evil, Suffering and Injustice in this World Once and For All, Forever !!!
Rai, do you have a reply to my comment of July 29, 2020 ?
No. Because I fully agree with you
I struggle as a man with trying to shift desire for a woman, and the one flesh relationship with a woman, to desire for what is ultimately a male being, especially when you describe it as one flesh, male male “becoming one flesh” is disgusting and my mind recoils from just the mention of that. To be honest that’s the most difficult part of Christianity is how God is supposed to fulfill a desire for a relationship with a woman himself, being male.
if that was the plan all along why was Eve created a woman, why not have just made it Adam and Steve?
On behalf of all who shared their comments and feedbacks here, I just wanna thank you and bless you, Noah, for approving them. Despite the fact that we may not agree on everything, you are just in giving others a fair chance to express their views on the matter. And I believe Our Heavenly Father is well pleased with that. May GOD bless you and your family and keep you safe from the pandemic until Heaven returns to Earth.
Rai, in response to your post of May 30, 2020 at 11:04 am ,
Let me say that Christians who say there is No
Sexual Intercourse or Lovemaking in Heaven don’t seem to care about the Countless Christians in America and Worldwide, who because of Physical disability, Mental illness, Social Awkwardness, unlucky in love or for whatever other reasons are unable to find a partner, or get Sex, find love,
When they claim
No Sex in Heaven, that only worsens the suffering of Countless Christians who are unable to get Sex in this life,
In the Christian Afterlife, there should be Sex, Companionship, Intimate Relationships for everyone, no one should be left out,
No one should suffer from loneliness forever,
Never Again, Never Again for Anyone, like I said there should be Sex & Intimate Relationships for Everyone in the Christian Heaven, regardless of if those Christians were married in their Earthly lives or Not , it’s even worse when America and certain other Nations deny disabled and other Sex Starved people the right to pay for Sex, worsening their plight, forcing them to endure a Miserable Sexless Existence,
Worsening their plight , at least when these Christians pass away they should be able to have the Sex Lives, Love Lives and Intimate Relationships, Companionship that they were unable to have in their Earthly lives for whatever reasons,
Imagine in Heaven, no
STDs or need to use condoms
Such poor teaching.
The ultimate future state of the Christian is NOT heaven, but the resurrection of the body. Our body, which will be like Jesus’ resurrection body. A physical, but glorified body. That is the focus of the Bible. Not “heaven”, which is a disembodied way station.
Angels don’t have bodies, have never had bodies. Angels don’t marry, have never married.
Having started on a false premise, the conclusion of the essay is undemonstrated, at best.
Hi KAM,
You’re right. Angels don’t have bodies BUT they can take on HUMAN form like
(1) the fallen who took wives for themselves on Genesis
(2) The Angels who accompanied the Lord YHWH when He visited Abraham and
(3) The Angels who almost got raped by the sodomites when they took Lot out of Sodom.
For those who believe there will be sex/marriage in heaven, I would like to pose a question. Supposing there is sex/marriage in heaven, would it just be between married people, or can anyone have sex with anyone they choose? If I’m married to my wife here on Earth for 50+ years, forsaking all others, being faithful, etc. Does that all just go away in heaven and my wife and I are free to procreate with anybody of the opposite gender? Or do we still honor the commitment and only procreate with eachother?
I would like a serious reply and I am open to discussion. Curious to see what this crowd has to say!
Hi Bryon
Thanks for the question. Since we already know that BASED on the Scripture—(and not in the demented mind of misogynistic priests and pastors who treat sex as something to be abhorred)—sex and procreation was ORIGINALLY designed by GOD since the Beginning of Time IN THE GARDEN and BEFORE the fall of man (Genesis 1:22) a brief response to your question would be YES. However, it will NOT be on PRESENT Heaven AND Earth (that will be dissolved 2 Peter 3:7) but on the NEW Heavens and the NEW earth as Isaiah 65:17-23 CLEARLY states.
If you are married on earth and IF GOD was the One who has blessed your marriage, I believe neither death nor the afterlife will be able to severe your bond. As it is written
Matthew 19:6 (UKJV) Wherefore they are no more two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder.
As for the unmarried ones like Me, (OR those who have either become unmarried because of VARIOUS reasons (1) either through heartbreak and disappointment (2) because of being mentally challenged OR (3) made themselves eunuch for the Kingdom (Matthew 19:12)—I believe that it all depends upon the Lord’s Will and Decision AT THAT TIME in PARADISE, The Lord who is BOTH merciful and just, loving and compassionate who will “REWARD everyman according to his work.” (Revelations 22:12)
It is not for us to censor or judge, like pharisees what GOD has in store for His loyal followers who have been deprived of some of life’s simple pleasures. IF it is HIS Will to give single ones like us who have been brokenhearted beautiful and immortal partners or brides in the world to come, WHO are the modern day scribes and pharisees to judge?
GOD for instance, forbade kings to multiply wives (plural) for themselves in the Old Testament (Deut. 17:17) BUT to David, a Man after HIS own heart (1 Samuel 13:14) He gave WIVES (2 Samuel 12:8).
Now, what can we say about this? Is The Lord being partial to some of His followers or inconsistent to some of His decrees? Shall we accuse GOD of unrighteousness? FAR be it from us.
Does the clay know better than the Potter?
Who are we to question HIS judgments?
All we know is that
He shows mercy to whom He shows mercy. (Romans 9:18)
And ALL the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he does according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay His hand, or say unto Him, What do You? (Daniel 4:35)
One thing we know for sure is that
But as it is written,
Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love him.
But God has revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searches all things, yea, the deep things of God.
(1 Corinthians 2:9-10)
And GOD is able to do
exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us … (Ephesians 3:20)
Another Bible version puts it this way:
Now to Him who is able to do in full measure MORE than all our desires or thoughts, through the power which is working in us.
It says MORE and NOT less.
In our way of saying it, “beyond our wildest dreams and imaginations!”
Hes GOD Our Father, afterall and His power and potential are limit LESS!
So be comforted,
He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with Him also freely give us ALL THINGS? (Romans 8:32)
IF there are some GOOD, nice, pleasant and beautiful things on earth that are NOT available in Heaven and in the World to Come, THEN its better to live and die for THIS world and NOT the Coming One.
But can something that is FLEETING outshine the BEAUTY of one that is EVERLASTING?
Why bother storing up wealth in Heaven OR in the World to Come IF love and life in THIS world is more pleasurable?
If in this life ONLY we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. (1 Corinthians 15:19)
This is why 1 Corinthians 3:21-23 says—
So let no one take pride in men. For ALL THINGS ARE YOURS;
Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; And you are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s.
He that overcomes shall INHERIT ALL THINGS; and I will be his GOD, and he shall be My son. Revelation 21:7 (UKJV)
Blessings!
Bryon,
I have thought this too. Our earthly thoughts of heaven are marred by sin. We find it hard to imagine what heaven is like because we have been so far removed by sin. “Not being given in marriage” has never meant to me “no sex”. I don’t think procreation will stop. I don’t think a relatively small and finite number of people on a perfect new earth would be heaven. Heaven may be infinite growth and expansion of man since God created the infinite universe. I believe we will procreate. As to all this faithfulness down here with our wives, we have done it for right motives. The Body of Christ needs nurturing families without strife to raise children and to demonstrate the love of God. Infidelity kills that, at least on earth. In a perfect world with no sin, including jealousy, we would have no need or moral reason to not love multiple partners over billions of years. Spending 20,000 years with one person could lead to another 20,000 with someone else. And in 12 billion years you could go back and see the first person for another 20,000! To me, we are like my bird dog who looks to the sky when a plane flies over. He has no more insight as to how the plane works, than we have to how God’s Universe will work.
You like many others err in the vision of Yahashua’s Millennial Reign, let alone Heaven. Yeshua was speaking to the Sadducees when He spoke of that scripture in Luke, who didn’t believe in the resurrection. Yeshua was trying to point out that the ceremony for marriage is no longer needed, but people will still procreate. What? Have you not known in the beginning the commandment God gave to Adam and Eve, that they should multiply? If God is never changing, then why should He command them not to fill the Earth and Heaven when we get there? In fact, when the woman at the well was told by Jesus that she had 5 husbands, do you think there was a ceremony for each? God forbid, Jewish law at the time would forbade it. It means she had the consummation of sex with 5 total men. With Christ in Heaven, the idea of marriage is the consummation, or when a man and woman have sex, not the ceremony. Adam and Eve were ‘married’ but never had the ceremony. In God’s eyes, the moment a couple has sex is the ‘marriage’. What Christ was referring to in answering the Sadducees was that the term marriage will be done for, but consummation will still remain. Pray on this and ask God for a revelation man of God…
Talk of someone professing to be wise but is a fool. (Romans 1:22)
Who is the one at error? The Scripture OR you?
Apparently you, because not only have you mispronounced the Saviors Name which is YAHushua btw, but have falsely stated that the Millennium will be in Heaven which is NOT what The Scripture say.
On Revelation 5:9-10 we read:
And they sung a new song, saying, You are worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for you were slain, and have redeemed us to God by your blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;
And have made us unto our God kings and priests: and WE SHALL REIGN ON THE EARTH.
WHEN would that be?
In the Millennium (in Latin Mille Annis) thousand year.
Revelation 20:6
Blessed and holy is he that has part in the first resurrection: on such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a THOUSAND years.
And btw, your English is horrible. You don’t even know how to construct a sentence well. It seems as if you’re confusing the question the Sadducees regarding the resurrection AND the state or condition of those who will procreate AFTER the New Heavens AND the New Earth.
Are you disputing what Prophet Isaiah has written on his prophecy concerning mankind’s state on the NEW heavens and the NEW earth?
Isaiah 65:17-18, 23 (BBE)
For see, I am making a NEW Heaven and a NEW earth: and the past things will be gone completely out of mind.
But men will be glad and have joy for ever in what I am making; for I am making Jerusalem a delight, and her people a joy.
Their work will not be for nothing, and they will not GIVE BIRTH TO CHILDREN for destruction; for they are a seed to whom the Lord has given his blessing, and their offspring will be with them.
NOW, for your benefit, I have EMPHASIZED those words just in case your vision is impaired and you have trouble reading it.
ACCORDING to that passage in Isaiah, will people be still GIVING BIRTH? Yes. But they won’t be giving “BIRTH TO CHILDREN for destruction ” UNLIKE mothers right NOW do, in this fallen world.
But WHEN would people experience these conditions, BASED on the Scripture ON Isaiah 65?
On verse 17 we read, on the NEW Heaven and a NEW earth.
So will people still give birth OR procreate? YES. But will they be married? Or have wedding ceremonies before giving birth to children? NO.
Yeshua tells us plainly that in the resurrection …
… they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven. (Matthew 22:30)
WHY?
Because those who are redeemed (and I thought I made this point clear before) are already married in the Spirit to Christ.
Revelation 19:7 (UKJV) Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his wife has made herself ready.
And to GOD Himself:
And I will betroth you unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth you unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving kindness, and in mercies.
I will even betroth you unto me in faithfulness: and you shall know the LORD. Hosea 2:19-20 (UKJV)
But being “married to GOD” doesn’t remove their capacity for childbearing OR procreating which GOD has preordained BEFORE and NOT after the fall of man.
Genesis 1:28 (UKJV)
And God blessed them, and God said unto them, BE FRUITFUL AND MULTIPLY and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.
MEANING their was procreation in The Garden BEFORE Adam and Eve fell to temptation AND not only after. And, hadn’t they fell into sin, their children would have been blessed and have been “a seed to whom the Lord has given his blessing” (Isaiah 65:18).
But since sin entered the world and death by sin (Romans 5:12), the ground is cursed (Genesis 3:17) and that curse will be lifted only when the New Heavens and New Earth come. (Isaiah 65:17; Revelations 21:1 & 22:3)
And that curse includes the woman’s PAIN OR sorrow in childBEARING (Genesis 3:16).
That’s why when the NEW heavens and NEW earth comes (Isaiah 65:17; Revelations 21:1 & 22:3) and when ALL things are RESTORED (Acts 3:21) women will “NOT labour in vain, NOR bring forth for trouble; for they are the seed of the blessed of the LORD, and their offspring with them.” (Isaiah 65:23)
On that Day there will be NO more bloody Cains but everyone is as good as Abel.
As GOD promised in The Scripture:
Your people also shall be ALL righteous: they shall inherit the land for ever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified. (Isaiah 60:21)
And btw, for the record, “LIKE the Angels in Heaven” (Mark 12:25) which the righteous in the resurrection will be is DIFFERENT from becoming THE angels in heaven, meaning the righteous will NEVER become EXACTLY like the Angels but in some ways, just LIKE them, even as they will be LIKE The Messiah when He appears BUT NOT EXACTLY The Messiah Himself.
This is what Yohanan OR John meant when he wrote:
Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be LIKE Him; for we shall see him as he is. (1 John 3:2)
Now I hope I have made Myself clear on some of the things you do NOT clearly understand. And if, AFTER all those Scriptures Ive cited you haven’t yet understood then that’s no longer My problem, but yours.
This is how Scripture reconciles with each other to someone who understands the Scripture properly and not to someone like you, with a demented mind, not to mention your awful grammar.
GOD Bless.
The wise shall inherit glory: but shame shall be the promotion of fools. (Proverbs 3:35)
Rai, I’m posting messages me and an exceptionally ignorant and arrogant author on creation.com emailed each other in December, 2019.
My first email to him: In your article response to an email about gender in the new creation, you wrote a response in the comments staying there wont be marriage or sexuality, but that gender still wouldn’t be wasted. In the account with the sadducees, marry and given in marriage meant the male proposer paying a fee to the woman’s dad and the woman being given to the man respectively. This was not done with the first human couple so says nothing about marriage itself. At the beginning God said for us to be fruitful, multiply, renew earth and subdue it with no indication it was to ever stop. Being alone was the one thing God said during the original creation that is not good, made Eve to complete humanity and said that is the reason for marriage. In other words there is no other reason, if gender remains so does marriage. There being no disappointments isn’t teaching that the restored creation will automatically be satisfying even if God eliminates what produced the most pleasure of it. That ignores free will.
Dear Eric.
Thanks for writing in. I take it you were referring to my article https://creation.com/physical-new-earth.
I don’t know what function gender will have in the new creation. I didn’t speculate. I simply affirmed that the distinction will exist in the new creation because it’s a physical fact that Jesus is a resurrected man—genitalia and all.
As to Luke 20:35 (and Matthew 22:30 and Mark 12:25), do you have any documentary evidence that “marry and are given in marriage” isn’t simply an idiom referring to marriage per se? That’s what it looks like, and that’s how the church has traditionally understood it. Indeed, Luke 20:35 is just such evidence that one would expect if marriage had a temporary function in God’s plans.
Indeed, how does Luke 20:35 function as a part of Jesus rebuttal to the Sadducees’ objection to the resurrection if He all he says is that marriage payments won’t be exchanged in the resurrection? That would be completely irrelevant to the Sadducees’ argument. Any meaning we attribute to this verse must make sense in context, and the context is that this is part of Jesus’ rebuttal to the Sadducees’ argument against the resurrection. In fact, it seems that if Jesus isn’t saying that marriage won’t exist in the resurrection in Luke 20:35, Jesus failed to rebut the Sadducees’ objection to the resurrection.
Indeed, if marriage exists in the resurrection, it seems to me that there was a simple answer to the Sadducees Jesus could’ve used: marriage ends at death. Everyone knows that marriage ends at death, since widows and widowers were free to remarry. The upshot is that the woman in the Sadducees’ parable wouldn’t be anyone’s wife in the resurrection. She would have to remarry (as would all the brothers). But what about those alive at the resurrection? Simple: the resurrection event/Jesus’ return would nullify their previous marriage. If they wanted the same spouse, they’d have to remarry in the resurrection. (This may seem radical, but it solves any issues that might arise concerning widows and widowers.)
Besides, Jesus is unmarried (in the literal Genesis 1–2 sense). Is His gender wasted if He remains unmarried? Indeed, is gender wasted in anyone who remains unmarried? Clearly not.
As to Genesis 1:28, isn’t there an implicit stopping point for our ‘multiplying’, i.e. when we fill the earth? At any rate, Genesis 1:28 doesn’t need to give any indication of stopping if God says later that it will stop. And that’s precisely what the church has traditionally understood Luke 20:35 to imply.
Moreover, in the eschaton, there will be myriads of people. Adam’s problem of being alone before Eve was made won’t be a problem for us in the eschaton!
Luke 20:35 does indeed teach that marriage will be done away with in the resurrection. There’s no way around this. It’s the only way Jesus response to the Sadducees makes any sense and succeeds. And since Jesus is God, He has the authority to update the situation concerning marriage even with respect to Genesis 1–2. Besides, we won’t be alone in the resurrection.
Kind regards,
Shaun Doyle
Creation Ministries International
Me: The evidence it’s not referring to marriage itself is that marrying and being given in marriage are actions. Also, the fact that God said it is not good to be alone then made Eve to eliminate that problem. Immediately after that, it’s stated that for this reason shall people be joined to a spouse to become one flesh. If gender stays so does the reason for marriage. Jesus repeated this statement when asked about divorce. Being without friends is not the loneliness God meant. Friendship doesn’t satisfy the same desire that a sexually intimate marriage does. That’s why a help meet for Adam was needed and why there being billions of people doesn’t make people proportionally less sexual. It’s stated numerous times in the bible that God will restore all of his creation.
Jesus’s answer is still relevant because their question was about the resurrection, not marriage. They assumed the laws established after humans sinned would be part of a creation restored to the conditions before those laws were needed. Adam and Eve were married with no one marrying or being given in marriage. Marriages end at death because you can’t do anything with a dead person. Paul specifically states that frees them from the law of marriage. The law is not a reason for marriage, it’s simply to regulate marriage in a sinful life.
If Jesus married anyone, he’d be showing a kind of favoritism, but God loves everyone equally. He’d have a desire that couldn’t be self-fulfilled. He wants companionship because he relates to his other selves, none of which is in a sexual way. Reproduction and sexual attraction is all part of what makes us the genders we are. And there are parts used exclusively for reproduction: sperm and egg cells. There is no indication in Genesis that reproduction would ever stop if Earth is ever filled. God expands the universe, there’s no problem with doing the same to any planet or making us able to live on others. Earth would need to be bigger to fit all animal, including insects, and human life that has ever died along with who will still be living when the resurrection happens anyway. He wants more beings to love because his love is infinite. Song of Songs is entirely about the joy of marriage and sexual passion and has no indication that it’s useless without reproduction.
To so affirmatively claim Jesus’s answer to the Sadducees prooves marriage and sexual passion will end contradicts other verses. It requires manipulating free will to not care about what most people have the greatest passion for of God’s creation. Your errors come from using select verses to interpret other relevant ones instead of accounting for all relevant verses to interpret each individual one.
I had to post my response to him from the contacts option on their site, and in two parts because they limit you to 1000 spaces. Even doing that, I had to omit my last sentence that I posted above to have room for them to accept it. When I responded to him from my inbox, I always got a message that it wasn’t accepted.
Dear Eric,
Thanks for your response.
As I said previously, it doesn’t matter that there is no indication in Genesis of marriage ending; Luke 20:35 and parallels make it clear that marriage will end. Jesus’ argument against the Sadducees makes no sense otherwise. And abolishing an institution no longer needed has precedent in the Bible. For instance, the Mosaic sacrificial system was abolished when Christ fulfilled its purpose by being the perfect sacrifice (Hebrews 10:8-9). Marriage will have served its purpose when we reach eternity; it was meant to produce a family of the redeemed (Did God create man to be an eternal companion for His son Jesus Christ?). As such, marriage will be abolished. I suspect that it will also be abolished for the more practical reason that it avoids precisely the sorts of scenariosthe Sadducees used to object to the resurrection.
What of sexual desire and procreation? Technically, Luke 20:35 and parallels only talk about marriage ending; they don’t mention sex or procreation. Nonetheless, given that sex and procreation are bundled up with marriage in Genesis 1-2, it’s intuitive to infer that sex and procreation will end along with marriage. Moreover, Jesus says we will be like the holy angels, which may imply that we won’t have sex (for procreation or any other reason), either. This is also the traditional view of the church.
Nor does this contradict other passages that affirm the goodness of marriage, sex, and sexual desire. The Law is good, but that doesn’t mean God’s people would always be under the Law (cf. Romans 7:1-6). As such, affirming the goodness of marriage, sex, and sexual desire doesn’t require us to believe that they will continue forever.
But will taking away our sexual desire destroy our free will? I don’t even see how that’s possible. Since when is the power to want sex a necessary component of human freedom? Some people alive today don’t want sex. At any rate, while there is continuity between our bodies now and our bodies in the resurrection, Paul also implies that there will be some discontinuity (1 Corinthians 15:42-44). The discontinuities include: perfect health, deathlessness, impeccability, and (per Luke 20:35) fitness for a life without marriage. If that includes a life without sex, then it will clearly include a life without sexual desire. But since our desires will be impacted in other ways by the transformation (e.g. we will no longer have any sinful desires), changing our bodies so that we no longer desire sex is not a problem.
Kind regards,
Shaun Doyle
Creation Ministries International
Me: Luke 20:35 is about a law, not marriage. Your interpretation contradicts the reason for marriage stated In Genesis: because we were made male and female, later quoted by Jesus when asked about divorce. Eternity cant make it useless. It was made for its own joy and pleasure.
The difference with the sacrificial laws and marriage is that marriage was part of God’s sinless creation. Mosaic law was because of sin and Jesus fulfilled what those laws were for. He does not fulfill what marriage is for. Jesus contrast with Angels was with mortality and immortality, not sexuality.
There is no indication by being told to fill earth that there would eventually be no more room. People not wanting sex is no reason to take that away from people who do want to keep it.
Sin is trying to fulfill a desire in a way different than how God wants. It is not the same thing as having a desire wanting to be fulfilled to begin with. Our differences Will be restoration to Genesis 2 conditions, which were sexual.
It’s incredible that he doesn’t understand that having a passionate desire just eliminated is manipulating free will, simply because other people don’t have the same passion. The difference with his stubborn proposal is they aren’t forced to not care. The cause of losing that desire, if not by choice, still contradicts free will, so it is a problem if a bodily change doesn’t allow us to keep a desire we want. And he keeps mentioning traditional church beliefs, even though tradition doesn’t determine thier accuracy with what’s part of the bible. It was traditionally believed by Christians that Eve was responsible for corrupting creation and that being decieved by the serpent makes women more foolish and corruptible than men. They also believed that slavery was fine by God. They used the same selective text reading and inference from opinions about their implications that this guy does, and most Christians don’t believe the same things about women and slavery anymore. It’s exceedingly ignorant to claim that marriage is fulfilled by producing a family for the redeemed. If that was a reason for it then sin would have been necessary so there would need to be redemption for marriage to be fulfilled. God is not going to make something that requires what he hates. Marriage was made for companionship with the people married to each other, not for reproduction. That’s why it’s stated after Adam and Eve meet that for this reason shall people be one flesh with a spouse, not for reproduction. That statement contradicts there being any other reason for marriage, later quoted by Jesus himself. That’s why Song of Songs is about a passionate sexual relationship, not reproducing. Marriage has to exist for it to be fulfilled.
Dear Eric,
All these arguments founder on the fact that Luke 20:35 and parallels are an explicit statement that there will be no more marriage in the resurrection. Otherwise, it makes no sense as an argument against the Sadducees. Marriage is an institution, not a fact of nature. God can change it, if He wants. Desires will be different in the resurrection; they will be sinless and fit for that age (sexual desire per se falls into the latter category, not the former). There is no contradiction.
Kind regards,
Shaun Doyle
Creation Ministries International
Hi Eric,
This will be my last response on this topic. We’re just repeating ourselves, now.
You have not proven your case with regard to Luke 20:35 and parallels. You’ve provided no documentary evidence for your interpretation of the crucial phrase. And the Greek words literally refer to marriage, not to the bride price/dowry that customarily accompanied the marrying process.
Most importantly, though, the Sadducees’ objection is not answered if marriage still exists in the resurrection. Their question was: “Now then, at the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?” (Luke 20:33) If she were married in the resurrection, in response to them Jesus should’ve identified whom she would be married to. Instead, He just says ‘they will neither marry nor be given in marriage”. He doesn’t identify whom the woman would be married to. As such, the phrase ‘marrying and being given in marriage’ must be understood as an idiom referring to the institution of marriage per se. It cannot refer just to customs related to making a marriage, or merely the process of making a marriage (as if Jesus were merely saying that there will be no more marriages made in the resurrection, but the ones that exist now will persist into that era). Why? Under all these ways of reading the phrase, the Sadducees’ question remains unanswered: who will the woman be married to in the resurrection? Therefore, Jesus is saying that since marriage will be abolished in the resurrection, the woman in the Sadducees’ question wouldn’t be married to anyone. His argument fails to address the Sadducees’ question if this is not what He means. Thus, Jesus clearly teaches that marriage will be abolished in the resurrection.
This renders your point about Genesis 1-2 moot. Marriage is a legal institution, not a fact of nature. God can thus change it, or even do away with it, even though it was an institution He set up before the Fall. That is why there is no contradiction between the traditional reading of Luke 20:35 and parallels and Genesis 1. A change in situation does not amount to a contradiction.
As to sexual desire, humans can still be humans without sexual desire and activity (though I do think the gender binary is intrinsic to human nature). The resurrection body isn’t merely the old body renewed, but is also transformed to be suitable to the eternal state. And note that doesn’t mean sexual desire now is sinful! It just means it doesn’t fit in the resurrection age.
Anyway, that’s the last of what I have to say. Feel free to have the last word, if you wish.
Kind regards,
Shaun Doyle
Me: There is a contradiction. God already explicitly stated in Genesis 2 that for this reason shall people leave their parents and be one flesh with a spouse, refering to us having gender. Jesus repeats this when asked about divorce. He affirms the opposite of what you claim he does. The law is not the reason for marriage. Jesus answer to the sadducees is about legal actions, the context of which is what the Greek words were used for. You have to infer the opposite. Jesus wouldn’t need to say she would be married to any of those men. Those laws have no relevance in a sinless, deathless world, but durring those conditions is when God made marriage. That’s the conditions that sin ruined and that God will restore in the resurrection. Joining Adam and Eve together was not a legal institution. There will be no difference from the desires he gave us before sin, including sexual. What sin did is the only thing that will change. Sexual desire and reproduction is all part of what makes us the genders we are. Sperm and egg cells and wombs are used exclusively for reproduction. I never claimed not being sexual makes someone less human. It’s a manipulation of free will, because it eliminates the ability to have that desire, whether someone wants to keep it or not. Your arguments are only believable by selective reading instead of accounting for all relevant verses to understand each individual one. You have no evidence and have simply ignored all of the texts I mentioned contradicting your opinions. What you teach is unbiblical utilitarian dogma.
The law of levitate marriage that the sadducees asked Jesus about is only needed if death occurs. She’s only required to marry the other men by that law. Get rid of that law and her reason for marrying them goes away. “Who’s wife will she be?” is still answered. It does not necessitate marriage itself end simply because it ends marriage to any specific person. You’re arguing a false dilemma.
I’m not satisfied with how I explained some of my evidence in that last response. Jesus answer does not require no marriage, it just requires any laws that obligated her to marry any one to not apply anymore. That does not forbid her from being married to a different man. He’s arguing the fallacy that marriage continuing requires one to stay married to a previous spouse, even though remarriage is allowed after a spouse’s death, what Paul even describes as being free from the law, not being unable to be married ever again, to compare it to being free from the mosaic law because of Jesus resurrection. The only way that analogy works is if marriage can continue, just with someone else, or it would be teaching that being free from the law eliminates sacrifice for sin too, but there remains a sacrifice for sin, just by a different method. That means the law is not needed to be married or else Adam and Eve would have to have sinned for a law to be needed for marriage. Paul wrote that the law was only necessary because of sin. Shaun also argued the fallacy that changing God’s original design is a change in condition only, so wouldn’t contradict it not being good to be alone and the statement for why marriage exists. That’s not simply a change of condition, thats a change of standard, and then more severely limits what people can hope to be restored, since what God declares good and not good is just a mood swing now.
I’m only posting this because it’s specifically about his arguments. I have a much longer and more detailed explanation of why the Bible contradicts people like him near the top of the comments. I posted the same thing to respond to a comment from Noah.
Read Joel 2:25-32.
How will Joel 2:25-32 apply to those who never had a romantic or sexual relationship, to those who got married but never had children, and those that got married at an older age and never got to experience young romance?
Could marriage and sex be compared to marriage of the lamb the way a teaser trailer is to a movie? The movie is better than a teaser trailer, right?
Will there be gender (masculine/male/men and feminine/female/women) in heaven?
Will there be hugs and kisses in heaven? Will it be between opposite genders? Will people kiss on the lips?
Kissing between same-sex/same-gender is bland and boring, (from my perspective) especially between two men.
From my perspective, kissing in order from most pleasurable/filling/exciting (what’s the right term?) to most bland/boring is: between male and female, between two females, and between two males.
Do you think there will be open-mouth or passionate kissing in heaven, or is it too disgusting or too related to sex which will not be in heaven?
Will kissing be stimulating like it was on Earth? Will it feel good?
On Earth, there are tough boundaries between members of the opposite sex. Will there still be those boundaries in heaven or will things be different?
Hi Jonathan. Peace to you and your family, I pray GOD’s protection for you and your loved ones from the worldwide epidemic known as covid 19 or Corona virus.
I don’t see how the passage on Joel 2:25-32 has any relevance with “a romantic or sexual relationship” as you present it.
Its all about restoration and renewal.
Joel 2:25-32 (KJV) And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you.
And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you: and my people shall never be ashamed.
And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the LORD your God, and none else: and my people shall never be ashamed.
And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:
And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit.
And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.
The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.
And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call.
But the Scriptures also has answers to all your other questions
Could marriage and sex be compared to marriage of the lamb the way a teaser trailer is to a movie? The movie is better than a teaser trailer, right?
Will there be gender (masculine/male/men and feminine/female/women) in heaven?
“Will there be hugs and kisses in heaven? Will it be between opposite genders? Will people kiss on the lips?
Do you think there will be open-mouth or passionate kissing in heaven, or is it too disgusting or too related to sex which will not be in heaven?
Will kissing be stimulating like it was on Earth? Will it feel good?
On Earth, there are tough boundaries between members of the opposite sex. Will there still be those boundaries in heaven or will things be different?”
YES.
But it will be more exciting, and stimulating, than the ones humans have on this world. Consider animals have sex too, not just humans, and, if that weren’t pleasurable, then animals wouldn’t have multiplied.
Do you think animals have better sexual experience than us, who are given the authority to dominate the planet? (Genesis 1:28)
Man are of course, NOT deprived of the pleasure these lower lifeforms experience, eating, drinking AND sex.
The Son of Man said on Matthew 12:12 that man is better (or more valuable) than a sheep.
So it stands to reason, that IF man is better than a sheep (or any animal for that matter), then man has a good and better experience when it comes to food and sex— than them.
This may, perhaps be one of the reasons why GOD punished the Angels who has sex with mortal women because Angelic creatures and humans don’t have the same kind.
IF GOD considers beastiality (or human mating with an animal) confusion (or an unnatural act Leviticus 18:23), so are Angels mating with those who don’t share their same nature, as immortals.
Each to his own kind, because Our GOD is not the Author of confusion but if peace. (1 Corinthians 14:33)
As for all other concerns you’ve mentioned, kissing, hugging, sex, etc., I believe all of those BEAUTIFUL things exists in The World to Come, for as I’ve mentioned in My previous replies, sex AND procreation (which ofc includes hugging and kissing) has been made and ordained by GOD BEFORE the Fall and NOT After it. (Genesis 1:28)
And that is one OF THE MANY THINGS (besides the ones mentioned on Joel 2:25-32) that will be restored at the Restoration (kj Restitution) of ALL (take note not just some but ALL) things. (Acts 3:21)
And besides, to give you a clue of what Resurrected BODIES will be like, do you remember when Jesus ATE A Fish to prove Hes not a ghost to His disciples? (Luke 21:41-43)
All other concerns of yours follows.
I want an answer to my questions from Noah Filipiak, not from Rai.
Hi Jonathan! Thanks for your comment. To connect with Noah, I recommend going to his website, https://www.noahfilipiak.com/.
Blessings,
Keith
“the sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose.” Genesis 6:2. The Sons of GOD here refers to angels. It appears angels had sexual desires.
Misspelled words corrected
Brothers and sisters, lets not forget that in The Scripture, Heaven is described OR at least compared, to A Country (Hebrews 11:16) and we won’t have any idea of what a country is like out there in the Spiritual Realm, UNLESS we have a clue on what a country is down here, on the material plane.
First the natural, then the spiritual. (1 Corinthians 15:46)
This is the reason why The Son of Man told Nicodemus,
John 3:12 (WEB) If I told you EARTHLY things and you don’t believe, how will you believe if I tell HEAVENLY things?
Again the Biblical principle applies—
First the natural, then the spiritual. (1 Corinthians 15:46)
Yeshua wouldn’t promise His disciples rooms, homes OR “mansions” in Heaven (John 14:1), which is A Country (Hebrews 11:16) IF they don’t have a clue of what a mansion is like, on Earth and its NOT something like a cheeseburger you can chew on, but something where you can live on.
The same thing with every other thing, like playing, lovemaking, eating, drinking, constructing houses and ANYTHING normal citizens do in an earthly country.
And WE are Citizens of A Greater Country, Heaven. (Hebrews 11:16)
Philippians 3:20-21 (WEB) For our CITIZENSHIP is in Heaven, from where we also wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
who will change the body of our humiliation to be conformed to the body of His glory, according to the working by which He is able even to subject all things to Himself.
The ONLY thing that would be missing in that Heavenly Country UNTIL The New Jerusalem (which is A CITY see?) comes down from Heaven (A Country) are wars, genocides, pandemonium, violence, evil, crime and all wickedness.
Revelation 21:4 (WEB) He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; neither will there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any more. The first things have passed away.”
In other words, its what we would call A Perfect Civilization OR A Utopia. Every beautiful thing you can think of (including great sex with a great partner with NO heartbreaks, a good home, a nice family with nice children, who play with toys that cant be broken, in a home OR mansion where nothing can be stolen, great buildings, smooth transportation, where there’s no pollution in the air but the sweet scent of flowers and heavenly perfumes, with A King who reigns with love and justice to all His citizens, who are treated like royals by His Angels … this AND more! What more can you ask for?)
Sounds more like a fairy tale or a fantasy, ONLY this time its REALITY!
This is more beautiful than any Wonderland you can dream of, on this accursed planet earth!
Revelation 21:27 (WEB) There will in no way enter into it anything profane, or one who causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
Isaiah 35:8-10 (WEB) A highway will be there, a road, and it will be called “The Holy Way”. The unclean shall not pass over it, but it will be for those who walk in the Way. Wicked fools shall not go there.
No lion will be there, nor will any ravenous animal go up on it. They will not be found there; but the redeemed will walk there.
Then Yahweh’s ransomed ones will return, and come with singing to Zion; and everlasting joy will be on their heads. They will obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.”
Wouldn’t you like to live in such A Wonderful Place?
If so, lets pray for GOD’s Kingdom to come and for its King to Reign Earthwide.
Together with the Apostle John we cry—
Come! Lord Jesus!