Pornography and the War for the World

It was a pitiful way to die. Imagining the scene makes the reader, especially the male reader, uncomfortable.

The timing was deviously calculated and thoroughly dishonest. The plan worked. Oh, how heartless the sons of Jacob were to cripple and disarm the foe before destroying them. It only took two, inflamed with vengeance, to kill all the men of the city as they flailed and gimped about in vain.

I imagine the victims wondering — How could the enemy attack like this? Have these men no shame? Would they destroy us when we cannot even defend ourselves? Are these men of God or demons to extinguish us in such an underhanded, honorless, and devious way?

Three days before, all the men of the city had been circumcised. Imagine their shock when they were suddenly attacked while in this state. See them waddling about, standing unbalanced, tottering, tilting, grimacing, temporarily unskilled, unmanned, undone.

Jacob’s sons had promised Hamor and his son, Shechem, that if all their men agreed to this delicate operation, if they performed the covenant sign of the Hebrews, they could enter into marriage with their Hebrew daughters — particularly Dinah, whom Shechem had fallen in love with (yet also defiled and humiliated).

Shechem didn’t hesitate — anything for Dinah. He brought the other men on board by promising them possession of Israelite livestock and property through intermarriage. Persuaded, each man went under the knife. Then, when the men were laid low, Simeon and Levi pounced like lions upon a herd of maimed zebras.

On the third day, when they were sore, two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, took their swords and came against the city while it felt secure and killed all the males. (Genesis 34:25)

All’s fair in love and war. Or so they say. This gruesome scene pushes that platitude to the limit.

Why do I bring up this story? It provides an illustration of what Satan is doing to too many men in the church today. He has lied to them, handed them the knife meant to neuter them, and cut off their ability to fight for their brothers or be maximally useful in the war effort against him. We have houses full of men who are ineffective, incapacitated, sidelined, and in danger of being slain.

What is today’s most effective means of disabling God’s men and crippling the advance of the Great Commission? Pornography.

Disqualified

Soldiers in the Great War for the world and for souls are being immobilized. House by house, soldier by soldier, Satan promises hushed pleasures, hiding his large-scale designs. We tend to think of pornography as a momentary and lamentable lapse for individual Christians — but what does it accumulate to?

Entire battalions disqualified, the war effort depleted, fortresses left unmanned and all but deserted.

Take a moment to zoom out from the day-to-day struggle of the individual believer — his temptation, his indulgence, his shame. Imagine what could be. Enter the war room, look at the map, count the troops, and notice how many are not on the field fighting because they are at home clicking. Witness how many might stand as mighty men of God, dressed for great service, but who now sit clothed in civilian attire because they have not parted with the cotton candy of the flesh and remain shackled in secret shame. They might go forth against the enemy as Samson himself, but this Delilah has cut their hair and their power. How many has she sold to the foe?

I’ve seen this firsthand. A church in a desperate area, desperately calling men to help, seems destined to remain undermanned. Men apply, but many have ongoing defeats with pornography. Needs remain unaddressed, souls never hear of Christ, because men remain home for want of purity.

See Satan’s addition to Paul’s call to arms in Romans 10:14–15:

How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent?

And how are they to be sent if they persist with porn?

He succeeds in strangling men, women, and children, bringing generation after generation to God’s judgment seat with no knowledge of the truth, because men who knew the truth and would have gone never did. Why? Because they couldn’t control themselves in the darkness of their own rooms. Like Shechem’s soldiers, they unmanned themselves.

“Men of God, put pornography to death and ride unhindered into the heart of the conflict.”

How many missionaries are missing from their posts because they have not won this battle? How many men would be local church pastors or church planters in the most unreached parts of our cities but remain missing in action — not because they lack ambition but because they lack victory? How many godly marriages never happen and children never see the sun because would-be fathers continue to walk in the flesh?

Don’t You Hate It?

My intention is not to dunk on men. Women also struggle (increasingly) with pornography and are sidelined by other sins as well. My intention is simply to kindle the abhorrence that every saint should have for this sin. I hate pornography. I hate what it does to young men; I hate what it does to marriages; I hate what it does to older men and even older ministers who trip while crossing the finish line. I hate its accessibility; I hate its covertness; I hate how it is designed by Satan to disable the men and women who were made for so much more.

So many battleships run aground because they have been submarined by this seduction. So many people have not yet heard the gospel because a glowing screen harnesses those who should have been laborers in the harvest. The kingdom’s advance is a fraction of what it could be; the light of the world shines dimly. Every night the moon sees men trading their heavenly purpose for passing sexual pleasure.

Don’t you hate pornography? It’s a deceit that paralyzes many soldiers, a Red Sea that swallows many Hebrews, a den of lions that devours would-be Daniels, a rooftop wandering that topples kings, a hoard of foreign concubines that steals away the hearts of the wise, an Achan within the camp that loses Israel the battle, a mountain range of iniquity that the Savior bore in his body on the tree!

Though it will not have the final say in heaven, it strikes a mighty blow here on earth. It disarms Israel of her weapons, hamstrings our chariots, and lets down the drawbridge to those who seek to destroy us. Men of God, put pornography to death and ride unhindered into the heart of the conflict. Rid yourself of this cloud and shadow. You were remade for so much more than this — you know it, Satan knows it, and Christ knows it.

Dream, Brothers

The deceit is that it is but one time, a fleeting failure. Hamor’s men felt secure when their day came, as perhaps do many today — until asked in their application or in an interview, “When is the last time you viewed pornography, indulged in sexual fantasy, or masturbated? Tell us, how is the purity of your thought life?” Then the deceit is unveiled and the applicant denied. Then the soldier is left home. Then the lies of that land are left unchallenged and the inhabitants left unsaved.

Dream, brothers, dream. Not just about what a life totally free of porn would look like — the lion removed from your home — but what your life could be under God: a home filled with a family, disciples hearing of Christ, marching into a victory that shall outlast this world. Make it your song and happy resolve, merry men of the risen King:

Where the shadows deepest lie,
Carry truth’s unsullied ray;
Where are crimes of blackest dye,
There the saving sign display.

To the weary and the worn
Tell of realms where sorrows cease;
To the outcast and forlorn
Speak of mercy and of peace.

Be the banner still unfurled,
Still unsheathed the Spirit’s sword,
Till the kingdoms of the world
Are the Kingdom of the Lord.