The next time you have a wet dream, remember, Jehovah knows!!
I was scrolling through 1997 Watchtower Library CD and did a search on Young People Ask.
I came up with the following, under the question "How Serious is Masturbation?"
*** g87 9/8 19-21 How Serious Is Masturbation? ***
Young People Ask . . .How Serious Is Masturbation?
Im wondering if masturbation is wrong in the eyes of God. Will it affect my physical and/or mental health in the future and if I ever get married?15-year-old Melissa.
THESE questions have plagued many youths. The reason? Masturbation, or deliberate self-stimulation to produce sexual arousal, is widespread. Reportedly, some 97 percent of males and more than 90 percent of females have masturbated by the age of 21. Furthermore, this practice has been blamed for all manner of illsfrom warts and red eyelids to epilepsy and mental illness.
No physical illness, however, has been proved by modern medical research to have been caused by masturbation. Add researchers William Masters and Virginia Johnson: There is no established medical evidence that masturbation, regardless of frequency, leads to mental illness.
Nevertheless, many Christian youths are concerned about the gravity of this habit. When I gave in to it [masturbation], Id feel as if I were failing Jehovah God, wrote one youth. I got seriously depressed sometimes. Another youth asked: Is masturbation an unforgivable sin?
What Does the Bible Say?
Since masturbation is not directly condemned in the Bible, does this mean it is harmless? Absolutely not! Even those not especially concerned with Gods viewpoint feel uneasy about the practice. For instance, Dr. Aaron Hass in his survey of the sexual practices of 625 teenagers reported: The majority of adolescents who masturbated reported feeling guilty, ashamed, dirty, stupid, embarrassed, or abnormal. Surely, masturbation is an unclean habit. .
Mentally and Emotionally Defiling
Masturbation also instills certain attitudes that are mentally corrupting. (Compare 2 Corinthians 11:3.) This habit teaches one to treat his or her body as merely an object to be used for sexual pleasure. When masturbating, a person is immersed in his or her own bodily sensationstotally self-centered. Sex becomes separated from love and is relegated to a reflex that releases tension. But God intended sexual desires to be satisfied in sexual relations, an expression of love between a man and his wife.Proverbs -19.
[Footnotes]
God executed Onan for wasting his semen on the earth. However, interrupted intercourse, not masturbation, was involved. Furthermore, the execution was because Onan selfishly failed to perform brother-in-law marriage in order to continue his deceased brothers family line. (Genesis 38:1-10) The emission of semen mentioned at Leviticus 15:16-18 apparently refers, not to masturbation, but to a nocturnal emission as well as to marital sex relations.
The original Greek word for sexual appetite (pa'thos) was used by the first-century historian Josephus to describe the wife of Potiphar, who, because of an excess of passion [pa'thos], tried to seduce the youth Joseph; and the man Amnon, who, burning with desire and goaded by the spur of passion [pa'thos], violated [raped] his sister. The passion both of Potiphars wife and of Amnon was out of control.Genesis 39:7-12; 2 Samuel -14.
[Picture on page 21]
Though masturbation may cause strong guilt feelings, sincere prayer for Gods forgiveness and hard work to resist the practice can give one a good conscience
Now I can report back to my mother that I know where my epilepsy came from!