I have as yet to come across a good Evangelical explanation, because the one I have heard so far makes no sense. Maybe since you claim to know the Bible, you can give an actual alternative to the Catholic theory.
Good day to you Radikal
Sure. First off most of us have masturbated and many of us have done it before we knew it was considered a sin and after. Do you understand God would’ve killed us all by now? Did God specifically not like Onan? The answer is yes!
Even if spilling seed on the ground was an issue this would still be a specific thing and not just someone masturbating because it just wasn’t a sin. The text said:
" 6 Judah got a wife for Er, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar. 7 But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the LORD’s sight; so the LORD put him to death."
Okay so we see Er. was wicked but we don’t know why. But God killed him.
"Then Judah said to Onan, “Lie with your brother’s wife and fulfill your duty to her as a brother-in-law to produce offspring for your brother.” 9
Now look carefully at this: “But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his; so whenever he lay with his brother’s wife, he spilled his semen on the ground to keep from producing offspring for his brother.”
Now if we believe the text is true then according to the text he’d done this multiple times already. But the Bible tells us he did it to keep from producing offspring which was his duty.
“What he did was wicked in the LORD’s sight; so he put him to death also.”
Then check out verse 11, the verse no one wants you to see: "Judah then said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Live as a widow in your father’s house until my son Shelah grows up.” For he thought, “He may die too, just like his brothers.”
There was wickedness in these men. And if you believe masturbation is the sin then is it better that Judah slept with Tamar in verses 15 - 17 because he thought she was a hooker? It says that right in the text.
But let’s find out God’s opinion on the topic. Now if masturbation is a sin punishable by death it would be pretty cruel of God not to tell us right? This is his list of sexual sins. Again this God’s list not my own:
Leviticus 18:6-25
6 “You must never have sexual relations with a close relative, for I am the Lord.
7 “Do not violate your father by having sexual relations with your mother. She is your mother; you must not have sexual relations with her.
8 “Do not have sexual relations with any of your father’s wives, for this would violate your father.
9 “Do not have sexual relations with your sister or half sister, whether she is your father’s daughter or your mother’s daughter, whether she was born into your household or someone else’s.
10 “Do not have sexual relations with your granddaughter, whether she is your son’s daughter or your daughter’s daughter, for this would violate yourself.
11 “Do not have sexual relations with your stepsister, the daughter of any of your father’s wives, for she is your sister.
12 “Do not have sexual relations with your father’s sister, for she is your father’s close relative.
13 “Do not have sexual relations with your mother’s sister, for she is your mother’s close relative.
14 “Do not violate your uncle, your father’s brother, by having sexual relations with his wife, for she is your aunt.
15 “Do not have sexual relations with your daughter-in-law; she is your son’s wife, so you must not have sexual relations with her.
16 “Do not have sexual relations with your brother’s wife, for this would violate your brother.
17 “Do not have sexual relations with both a woman and her daughter. And do not take[a] her granddaughter, whether her son’s daughter or her daughter’s daughter, and have sexual relations with her. They are close relatives, and this would be a wicked act.
18 “While your wife is living, do not marry her sister and have sexual relations with her, for they would be rivals.
19 “Do not have sexual relations with a woman during her period of menstrual impurity.
20 “Do not defile yourself by having sexual intercourse with your neighbor’s wife.
21 “Do not permit any of your children to be offered as a sacrifice to Molech, for you must not bring shame on the name of your God. I am the Lord.
22 “Do not practice homosexuality, having sex with another man as with a woman. It is a detestable sin.
23 “A man must not defile himself by having sex with an animal. And a woman must not offer herself to a male animal to have intercourse with it. This is a perverse act.
24 “Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, for the people I am driving out before you have defiled themselves in all these ways. 25 Because the entire land has become defiled, I am punishing the people who live there. I will cause the land to vomit them out.
Yep, there you go. That’s the list. As a matter of fact premarital sex wasn’t a sin for men until Christianity which made it a sin for both men and women. The belief masturbation is a sin comes from the Greek word “malakoi arsenokoitai” in I Corinthians 6:9. The problem is, no one knows what this word means. Seriously. The Catholic Church is the only group that believes this sin is masturbation. At first it was considered temple prostitution, (the oldest belief) then masturbation, then homosexuality (which is probably the truth considering homosexuality was already listed as a sin).
Make a new start!
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I imagine the same can hold true for really any sin we struggle with.
