The Sex Age

Archaeologists and anthropologists have labeled the many different ages in their models of the history of man, such as the “Stone Age” or the “Bronze Age.” Given its prominence in our current society, it would not be a wonder if future anthropologists were to label our culture the “Sex Age.”

We are surrounded by it. The assault on our senses and our minds is almost inescapable. Images that were once confined to magazines sold in brown paper bags to adults are now publicly and unavoidably displayed in our shopping malls in bigger-than-life advertisements for all the world to see—regardless of age. Sex is used to sell everything from potato chips to radial tires.

The resulting cultural environment is damaging in more ways than we can count. Women are objectified, and must struggle against being judged according to their ability to appear as “sexy” as the airbrushed, digitally and artificially “enhanced” women they see in the media. Men, too, are harmed—virtually “programmed” by the onslaught of images to see women as mere sources of sexual pleasure, instead of equals and partners they can love and respect.

And our children suffer, as well. Marketers have figured out the monetary success of the KGOY formula—“Kids Getting Older Younger.” They have learned that there is a great deal of money to be made by selling “sexy” clothing to little children, and that the sexually enticing and revealing fashions that little girls see on TV make for popular clothes for their dolls, as well as styles that they will demand to wear for themselves.

The fact is God designed sex (cf. Genesis 1:27), and He did, indeed, create it to be a powerful force in the lives of a married couple. The sexual union not only provides for the creation of children, but also for the intense emotional bonding that He wants between a husband and wife. The Bible describes the “way of a man with a maiden” almost too wonderful for words (Proverbs 30:18–19, RSV), and in the context God intended, it truly is. When used as its Creator intended, sex is a wonderful and joyous part of married life!

But as my wife’s grandfather used to say, God didn’t design sex to be a spectator sport. And in Satan’s world—which this is (2 Corinthians 4:4, KJV)—anything powerful enough to move the human mind at its deepest levels is up for grabs as a means of manipulation for the sake of profit. For purposes of profit and illicit gratification, that wonderful facet of God’s creation has been dragged out of the intimate confines of the marital bedroom and has been increasingly put on display for the entire world to see—including children.

The consequences have been—and continue to be—disastrous for the family and for society in general. Venereal diseases run rampant. Children are “sexualized” even before reaching puberty. And the concept of “sexual satisfaction” now focuses on “technique,” “experience,” and “experimentation,” instead of what God Almighty intended to be the ultimate source of “sexual satisfaction”: powerful, bonding intimacy between man and wife. Better to have an “experienced lover” in the bedroom than to experience love there. What a shame.

But a day is coming that the Bible calls the “restoration of all things” (Acts 3:21), when things will be as God intended. Like a beautiful gemstone placed in a perfectly fashioned setting of gold, sex will return to the place where its God-designed potential finds its fullest and most powerful expression: marriage.

If you would like to know more about how God has designed marriage to help in the fulfillment of His plan for mankind and how you can powerfully vitalize your marriage by applying that knowledge, please request our free booklet, God’s Plan for Happy Marriage.

Marriage is a gift from God—learn to make your marriage the gift it was intended to be.