Over the past fifty years, major cultural issues have centered around sex, marriage, and family, driving the sexual revolution since the late 1950s and 1960s. This relentless push by libertines across Western civilization seeks to dismantle all restrictions on sexuality, moving from free sex in the 1960s to issues of sexual orientation, homosexual marriage, and now transgenderism. The seventh commandment, "You shall not commit adultery" (Exodus 20:14), along with its associated moral precepts, is under attack, with efforts to erase its significance. Society now widely accepts multiple sexual partners before and after marriage, contrary to God's laws against fornication and adultery, with only a shrinking percentage of religious conservatives upholding virgin marriage and spousal faithfulness. The term adultery, like fornication, has become antiquated in public discourse, used almost exclusively in theological contexts, as few believe it is wrong. Legally, adultery remains a minor offense in some states but is rarely enforced, often struck down as unconstitutional for infringing on privacy and personal freedom. Feminists have pushed to eliminate these laws, viewing them as tools of oppression against women. In practice, adultery is widely tolerated, with little moral or religious taboo remaining, barely registering in the consciousness of many, who engage in it without fear or guilt. In Jesus' day, a similar disregard for laws against fornication and adultery pervaded the Roman Empire, including among the Jews, where easy divorce facilitated serial adultery. Jesus addressed this in His Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:27-30), expanding the seventh commandment beyond the physical act to include lustful thoughts, declaring that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery in his heart. He emphasized the seriousness of sexual fidelity, warning that failure to adhere to it risks exclusion from the Kingdom of God. Jesus broadened the commandment to apply to men as well as women, countering the Jewish interpretation that primarily held women accountable. He included all forms of sexual infidelity, regardless of marital status or age, using the Greek term moicheua to encompass a wider sense of moral corruption. He identified the heart as the source of adultery, stating that lustful thoughts alone constitute sin, without requiring a physical act. This internal corruption, He taught, must be addressed through drastic measures if necessary, likening it to cutting off a hand or plucking out an eye to avoid sin and ensure entry into the Kingdom. Paul further reinforced this in I Corinthians 6:9-20, listing sexual sins among those that bar one from inheriting the Kingdom of God, emphasizing that sexual immorality defiles both body and spirit, constituting unfaithfulness to Christ, our divine Spouse. Such sin is uniquely wicked for Christians, as it associates Christ with corrupt behavior due to our union with Him. Jesus' teaching, while stringent, also offers mercy, urging repentance and a life of purity, as seen in His response to the woman caught in adultery: "Go, and sin no more."

Very simply and pointedly we are commanded: You shall not commit adultery. There is absolutely no way the figures can be compiled as to how many times adultery is committed. This is a sin that is done in secret and rarely creates major headlines. But nonetheless, it is a major, major sin and creates personal problems in its wake. Within the scope of the spirit of the seventh commandment are numerous other sexual sins, like pornography, fornication, homosexuality, lesbianism, bestiality, and incest, and all of the creepy, lecherous, psychologically destructive sexual attacks against weak and innocent children. The figures for these sins, added to adultery, must be enormous beyond comprehension. In addition, figures cannot be compiled as to how many divorces proceed as the fruit of these sins, but at least it is partly due to adultery and those other sins. We are not going to delve into them deeply because divorce is caused by more than just sexual sin. We will be content with knowing that we are looking into a seething snake pit of evil, deliberately promoted by the twisted mind of satan. For the past thirty or forty years, marriage, dieting, sex, and substance abuse have been the clear headline-grabbing leaders, sometimes more one than the other. But the clear overall leader over the long haul has been the attention-grabbing sex and marriage linked problems. Year after year at least in the United States sex and marriage are discussed in public print with undiminished and God-ignoring confusion and increased pessimism. Calamity, like on the freeway, always attracts attention, and in the United States marriage is in a state of calamity. So consistent is the calamity that the calamity is now pretty much accepted as normal. Serious cultural observers are now considering, as a possibility, that we are witnessing the end of marriage as it has been practiced in Western cultures as the foundation of our culture. These forecasts are being accelerated by the rush to merely live together, and to legalize homosexual and lesbian unions. In the late 1960s the divorce rate was under 40%. By 1975 it had climbed to almost 50%. By 1978 it was at 51%, and in 1988 it had gone back to 49%. But in San Mateo County in Southern California, the divorce rate was 70% in the late '80s. Nevada's divorce requirements are so liberal that its rate is typically much higher than the national average. However, today's approximately 60% divorce rate is skewed by the fact that so many couples are simply living together without any legal transactions taking place, and thus there are no public records made of when they moved in together or whenever they split. It is just happening. There is one indicator that helps us to grasp how big it is. So large is it that 40% of all births in the United States are outside of wedlock! It used to be that the average divorcing couple married, and then the split began about year seven. In fact, it was called the Seven-Year Itch. The itch was when they decided that they were going to part what they had put together seven years before that. But after the '60s were over, that figure 7 at times was as low as 4. The couples were splitting after four years of marriage, but it has gone back up a little bit from that. All the time that these fluctuations were occurring up and down, we were being bombarded with information that sexual incompatibility was the all-important factor regarding divorce. With the increase of general public sexual knowledge, and the increase of our general public mobility (more automobiles, etc.), and with an ever-increasing number of women joining the workforce, so has the opportunity increased to be promiscuous and experiment around, and it just adds to the confusion. With it so has the curse of broken homes increased, and the increase of an unstable society. Sexual incompatibility is not the cause. It is a cause, but it is not the cause of divorce. Adultery and sexual incompatibility are but one facet of a far

I wonder if you know what America's most socially- and financially-costly, number one addiction is. Whatever it is, it wreaks social havoc by destroying family life as surely as a cancer does unseen within its victim. The addiction is to pornography. The amount of social damage is more difficult to get a statistical handle on, but there is no doubt that it is huge. Men, especially, tend to think it is nothing because, they say, nobody is hurt by it, but they are lying to themselves. How can the spouse of one with this addiction trust the other who is almost constantly fantasizing? How secure can they regard the affections of their mate? Pornography destroys intimacy with one's spouse and causes the addict to objectify women as only for use as sexual pleasure. Sex is not love. God gave sex to be an expression of love, if it is rightly understood and given. But by itself, pornography turns sex into nothing more than an animalistic, self-gratifying act. The psychological damage is difficult to measure, but it is huge, and it's affecting our entire society.