This past Tuesday night, our very own James-Michael Smith held the opening session of our Fall Bible Class, Let’s Talk About Sex.
Many of you know that I believe JM is one of the finest bible teachers around, and that in fact his own scholarship has greatly influenced my own reading of Scripture over the last ten years or so.
Yet as good as James-Michael usually is, I’ve never seen or heard him better than Tuesday night. I told him afterwards that he didn’t bring his “A Game”; he brought his “A+ Game.”
The purpose of the class is NOT to teach students WHAT to think about sex. It is to teach us HOW to think about it . . . how can we develop a mindset that is both biblical and holistic when it comes to our views on marriage, divorce, same-sex intimacy, and gender identity.
Among the many compelling one liners and thought provokers JM delivered on Tuesday, here are just a few:
- If it sounds like I’m beating a dead horse it’s because it hasn’t been beaten enough.
- “I’ll Fly Away” is completely pagan. It’s from Plato and not from Moses.
- Poor St. Augustine was so sexually conflicted that he wondered how God could look at the sex act with anything other than disgust.
- The “flesh” in Scripture refers to the fallen-ness of creation, not its physicality.
- Genesis 1 says, “Be fruitful and multiply.” In other words, the first command is “Get it on!”
- There is no word for ‘semen’ in Hebrew. It’s merely the word for ‘seed.’
- “A man shall cleave to his wife” is better translated “A man is glued to his wife.”
- You can’t get sexier than God because he invented it.
- You can’t make God blush.
- You can’t talk about sex without talking about theology.
- Born this way? Nope. Born again. In the gospel, no one should be how they were born.
- When Jesus talks about divorce & remarriage & adultery, it’s important to remember his cousin John has just been put to death for talking about the same thing!
- Next week we’re talking about ‘Hot Bible Sex.’ Come back.
I think I will. And so should you. Sign up here.