Dating & Courtship, Stephen Picklesimer [e textbook reader TXT] 📗

continue to view these passages in relation to the process of how people are influenced to date, court and select marriage partners.
No one enjoys being told that he is deceived, and no one enjoys hearing that he is ignorant of God’s Purpose. These statements wound human pride, but not as much as remaining in deception wounds those who permit this.
If one cannot accept Revelation 12:9 as coming directly from the mind of God, any hope of breaking free of this awful deception will be lost! Such people will have chosen to remain under their captor for the remainder of the age. (If you doubt the Bible as the inspired Word of God, read our booklet Bible Authority...Can It Be Proven? and take the time to prove its authority to yourself. This Book is the most misrepresented, misinterpreted, misunderstood book of all time. Yet, it can be PROVEN to be the plain Word of God!)
Prince of the Power of the Air
Now consider the following vital scripture. Ephesians 2:2 is speaking of the devil when it says, “…according to the course of this world, according to the PRINCE of the power of the air, the SPIRIT that now works in the children of disobedience.”
This is a fascinating passage, with the thought continuing at the end of verse 3. The apostle Paul tells the Ephesian brethren that at one time, they “were by nature the children of wrath.” Who are the “children of wrath”—also called the “children of disobedience” in Ephesians 5:6? How do they relate to the phrase, “prince of the power of the air”?
Again notice Ephesians 2:2. It says that Satan’s “spirit…works in the children of disobedience.” Did you see that? He has “power” to use the “air” to broadcast, through his spirit, an attitude of disobedience! He sends moods, feelings, attitudes and pulls of the flesh into people’s minds, and this broadcast “works” within people’s minds and thinking. This “air power” gives the devil tremendous INFLUENCE, allowing him to send thoughts of confusion, deceit, anger, pride, hate, foolishness, vanity, jealousy, lust, greed, envy, rebellion and much more directly into people’s thinking!
Let’s continue examining the devil’s influence through the use of an analogy. In a manner of speaking, Satan owns the largest radio station on earth, broadcasting 24 hours a day, reaching and deceiving the ENTIRE WORLD!
Are you beginning to see from where the preoccupation with merely dating for sex comes—why so many singles seem to have so little else on their minds?
At this point, some vital understanding is necessary before continuing. A Christian obeys God, through His Law. Paul recorded that God has a SPIRITUAL law (Rom. 7:14). Christians keep it. When they do, it “keeps them,” so to speak. But when people break God’s Law, similarly, it “breaks them”!
In Acts 5:32, Peter referred to “the Holy Spirit, [which] God has given to them that OBEY HIM.” Take time to turn to this verse and read it carefully. True Christians understand and practice—FULFILL—its meaning. God’s Holy Spirit is given upon repentance and baptism (Acts 2:38). This Spirit helps Christians obey the Ten Commandments!
Sexless Being
There is a central aspect of Satan that has a direct bearing on dating and courtship.
Consider the design of all angels. The Bible explains that these beings do exist and that they are on a higher plane than men. God created man a “little lower than the angels” (Psa. 8:5).
Notice how Jesus spoke of how the future Sons of God will have a certain parallel to angels: “…they neither marry, nor are given in marriage…as the angels of God in heaven” (Matt. 22:30). Although angels invariably manifest themselves as men, they are neither male nor female, and are therefore without sex. The devil—a fallen angel—is also SEXLESS. He has no ability to reproduce himself and is completely unable to experience the marriage and family relationship, including sexual relations, made available to human beings! He resents its great purpose and potential, one that offers men a “Son of God” status that he can never receive. He resents the marriage institution. It is therefore in his interest to twist and pervert the institutions of marriage and the family. This includes inspiring the growing acceptance of alternative unions and “marriages.”
In contrast, God has given human beings the marvelous ability to reproduce. In the correct atmosphere of a wholesome family, this brings unparalleled joy and happiness. And, as parents rear their children correctly, those children will grow up to be wonderful parents themselves.
Grasp this all-important truth. Satan can never experience the wonderful blessings that God has given to mankind. Hence, the catastrophic mess the family has become through his influence. (Recall the awful statistics listed in Chapter One.)
Brilliant in intelligence, Satan understands the law of CAUSE and EFFECT. He knows that to ultimately defeat the fulfillment of happy marriages and families—and to destroy the values of children and teens before they reach the age of marriage—he must begin at the cause. One way he does this is by attacking the FOUNDATION—right dating and courtship!
Today’s Society
For 6,000 years, the devil has been relentless in guiding mankind off track. All that you see around you today—your community, your country and every institution within them—have faulty foundations.
You must come to accept that this is not God’s world—that He is not the author of its governments, religions, cultures, education systems, family values, and “alternative lifestyles,” practiced by ever-increasing numbers. These are all humanly-devised institutions and ideas, created and developed by men under the sway of the devil. While some of these things are not completely evil, they are, at best, the mixture derived from the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”
Take a hard look at the world around you. Search your local newspaper. Visit the magazine section of any large bookstore. Scan through television channels. At best, most of what you will see is semi-lewd, and filled with an emphasis on physical beauty, excess, grossness of culture and driven by lust. These are the influences—with powerful messages—that are competing for your attention, and the attention of young people moving toward the dating age. Recognizing them sets the stage for understanding their effect on the modern dating culture.
Further, the western world is drowning in communication devices such as mobile phones, pagers, handheld computers, e-mails—possessed by people who must be instantly, and continuously, linked to each other for fear of being “out of the loop” for even a moment.
Then there are those who, wanting to rebel against mainstream society, choose to wear “character” clothing outfits to “express themselves.” Today, large numbers of middle and upper class teens dress as though they are no more than hardened urban street thugs. It is as though they want to reflect a culture that is trapped in an endless cycle of poverty, violence and hopelessness.
Some who are “depressed” about growing up in a two-parent, middle-class family dress in black “Goth” styles, also wearing black and white makeup and black lipstick in the most garish fashion. Others fill their lives with endless parties, including parties after the parties, all the while pouring a virtual pharmacy of drugs—often on top of alcohol—into their systems. Seeing no hope or purpose in their lives, large and growing numbers live to “get high,” refusing to face the sober realities of life. Needless to say, the large majority of singles are left completely unprepared to choose lifelong mates or to understand what such relationships mean if they found one.
But let’s continue. A visit to virtually any independent music store reveals another subculture of the modern world: A generation of youth full of pride and vanity, yet “pure in their own eyes” (Prov. 30:12). With hairstyles resembling everything from spikes to lions’ manes, to unkempt, unwashed and undesirable, today’s teens and twenty-something’s collect the latest “underground record.” Such lyrics set to noise could be rock, rap, punk or hip-hop, but to a young person it does not matter—as long as his peers approve. So many idolize whatever is the most popular band to unleash crashing wails labeled as “music”—but more accurately described as howling shrieks emitted by people who must be in some kind of severe pain.
Also observe any music-award television show. Notice how so many in the audience wear tight-fitting, virtually painted-on outfits that are flashy and attention-getting. They reveal parts of the body that were meant to be concealed, and often make those wearing them look like aliens from outer space! Yet, almost an entire generation has come to consider such garish dress and outlandish behavior to be normal—even chic and fashionable.
Next, notice the way people walk, especially in the inner cities. They swagger as if to say, “Don’t mess with me.” Full of haughtiness, arrogance and a kind of bravado, they are often covered in tattoos, body piercings and outrageous hairstyles. Worse, however, is that endless television commercials explicitly promote this culture by a daily bombardment of an entire generation of young people who are watching—and copying what they see. The almost endless—and outrageously crude—sexually suggestive beer commercials alone tell you this.
Then listen to how people speak. Even those with master’s degrees curse and use slang words as though they have little more than a third-grade education. It is as though some have chosen to “dumb down” themselves to be accepted by people whose opinions never used to matter. Others love to copy those who cannot form complete sentences without cursing or using God’s name in vain.
Take a look at mainstream entertainment and media. So much of this is little more than what has been described as “what’s hot, what’s new, what’s next”—the latest hit movie or sitcom. Today, entertainment means “how far can we go?” in pushing (or blurring) even past human boundaries of decency and good taste. Never mind what God thinks, or what His standards are. Most want more extramarital sex, more violence, more blurring of the lines between good and evil, less morality, less common sense, less decency, and the promotion of situational ethics instead of having to choose between right and wrong.
Desperate to show how sophisticated their tastes are, many embrace the world of independent films—a subculture of absolute sickness and depravity passing itself off as intellectually fashionable.
The music, dance, dress, language, books, plays, conduct and other trends that are underground and cutting edge today invariably become mainstream tomorrow. This drives the underground scene to be even more extreme, knowing that today’s extreme is tomorrow’s MAINSTREAM!
Across college campuses, and in high school and middle school hallways, the air is charged with sexual tension, mixed with peer pressure and bad judgment. Using a “band-aid” approach, adults turn a blind eye to the misadventures of the next generation, which is sexually active, jaded and always ready to move on to the next perversion, generally translated as the latest “trend.” Sadly, many are in awe of homosexuality and lesbianism, thinking these to be “cool,” and as something to experiment with. More and more early-teenage girls are adopting the trend of having a casual lesbian relationship with a school friend on the side, while simultaneously—and actively—remaining heterosexual.
So many have gone from periodically visiting the sewer to living in a cesspool—and the cycle of perversion will continue and grow worse, until this world mirrors the times of Noah and of Sodom and Gomorrah (Luke 17:26-30).
This is the world YOU live in—and it is trying to instill in you every wrong principle of dating and courtship. But Satan’s world is not the only roadblock to a happy marriage.
Human Nature—Whose Nature?
Recall Satan’s influence. Before the invention of radio, his power—as arch broadcaster and prince of the power of the air—could not be as easily understood. Now you can comprehend!
We can now better understand the “children of disobedience.” Like Christians, these people are also inspired and guided by a spirit—but that of the god of this world. Satan broadcasts