I think a huge problem is trying to apply the words of the old testament literally. Jesus himself preached against that.
When the prostitute was to be stoned to death, in accordance with the law, it was Jesus who put a stop to it. Jesus said that they should ignore the letter of the law. They, who were not without sin, were unfit to make such judgments.
Should we say that the prostitute Jesus saved was actually married to the first of her tricks? Hey wait a minute. That guy was probably a married man as well, wasn't he?
There are a lot of folks here at ISF. Very few believe in any sort of divine law, and many are openly hostile to the idea of divine law, but among the rest of us, we just hate to see divine law used irrationally or unjustly, and that's where some of us are coming from. Your ideas, carried to a logical end, would result in much misery. There just hasn't been much thought put into them. We're asking you to put some thought into it. Now, back to that prostitute Jesus saved from stoning.
So the virgin prostitute has sex with a married man. So far so good. Nothing out of the ordinary here. Who is now married to whom? She can't be married to him, because he was married to someone else already. We could solve the problem by stoning her to death, but Jesus put the kibosh on that, so there's no solution there. He can't have two wives. She can't be married to a man who is married to someone else. Jesus says we can't stone her to death to solve the problem. Now what?
The idea that sex= marriage cannot be correct.
All too often people pick and choose Bible passages that they like, but that isn't really acceptable. Obviously, the passages that suggest that sex automatically equals marriage cannot be correct, because that is inconsistent with other biblical teaching. They must be describing an ideal form of behavior, rather than some sort of magical transformation that occurs due to physical contact.
Looks like you want to complicate a very simple issue—where do you come by a “virgin” prostitute, if she is a virgin how can she become a prostitute?
The prostitute that Jesus saved from the mob, was caught in the very act, so where is the man?
Jesus did not set aside the law, he stated that the one without sin must throw the first stone, so he upheld the law.
So now he showed mercy to the woman and did not condemn her, but told her to leave her life of sin. This is still applicable today—forgiveness on the basis that one does not return to a life of sin.
Sex as shown throughout the Scriptures is an act of marriage---a man takes a woman and lies with her and they become married.
Gen_4:1 Adam lay with his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, "With the help of the LORD I have brought forth a man."
Gen_4:17 Cain lay with his wife, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Enoch. Cain was then building a city, and he named it after his son Enoch.
Gen_38:2 There Judah met the daughter of a Canaanite man named Shua. He married her and lay with her;
Gen_16:3 So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian maidservant Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. Gen 16:4 He slept with Hagar, and she conceived. When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress.
We are here in discussion of what marriage should be and not what it is today—so again what Jesus proclaimed is what the Creator ordained in the beginning, and that is what the Creator requires in the future.
It will be on this basis that man and women will be judged---it is the express purpose of God to do away with adultery as the source of corruption---(Rev 19:1 After this I heard what sounded like the roar of a great multitude in heaven shouting: "Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God,
Rev 19:2 for true and just are his judgments.
He has condemned the great prostitute who corrupted the earth by her adulteries. He has avenged on her the blood of his servants."
