Confused about masturbation
The subject of masturbation stirs up a good bit of controversy among God’s saints. The Bible doesn’t mention masturbation. The story told in Genesis 38:2-10 of Onan spilling his seed on the ground doesn’t refer to masturbation. According to the custom of the country, it was Onan’s duty to marry his widowed sister-in-law, Tamar. He refused and spilled his semen on the ground to keep from producing offspring for his brother. According to Scripture, what he did was wicked. He refused to do his duty, acted rashly, and because of his sin, died without leaving an heir. But this incident didn’t involve masturbation. Onan used what we would term “withdrawal” to keep from impregnating Tamar.
To help us understand what masturbation is, let’s first clarify what it is not: It is not a child’s examination of his or her own genitals. It is as natural for young children to examine their genitals as it is for them to examine their fingers and toes. Masturbation is not something husbands and wives do for each other during lovemaking. People have used the term mutual masturbation to refer to a couple stimulating each other sexually, usually to the point of orgasm. This is a misnomer because masturbation is an act of self-stimulation. Nor is masturbation the nocturnal emissions commonly called “wet dreams” that most young men experience after puberty. A nocturnal emission is an involuntary release of seminal fluid after this fluid has accumulated in the seminal vesicles.
What then is masturbation? It is stimulation of one’s own genitals, usually to the point of sexual climax. It is a sexual activity that involves only one person. The drive toward masturbation usually reaches maximum intensity between the ages of three and six years of age, subsides and reappears at age eleven or twelve, when it increases in intensity once again.
Before 1950, people thought masturbation caused insanity, deafness, blindness, epilepsy, baldness, weight loss, weakness, and sterility. Children who were caught “in the act” were often beaten and warned that they would go to hell because of it. And most authorities reported only the ill effects of masturbation. There are still, within the ranks of conservative Christendom, those who consider it to be one of the most vile and sinful vices one can practice. However, current society as a whole has come to decry the idea that masturbation might have the slightest influence on mind, body, or morals. The majority of professionals in medicine, social services, and the field of psychology actually encourage it. However, little investigation has been done to determine the safety of this practice that some now recommend so freely.
It is highly unlikely that a single or even an occasional act of masturbation would lead to insanity, deafness, blindness, epilepsy, or any of the other illnesses listed anymore than would intercourse in marriage have deleterious effects on a married couple. However, many who masturbate do so several times daily or weekly – many more times than a couple engages in sexual intercourse, at least after the first few months of marriage.
Over the years, bits and pieces of research have reported some ill effects. Most of this research reports only the opinions of the authors. In 1987, the medical journal Patient Care suggested that if boys or girls complained of genital problems or lower abdominal pain, they should be questioned about masturbation. An Australian report suggested that anxiety resulting from masturbation and guilt associated with it plays a major role in frigidity and impotence later in life. Other research found that in 120 persons ages 22 to 38, blood pressure levels increased in all cases when they were masturbating. The researchers commented on the apparent stress that resulted in the discharge of epinephrine and norepinephrine from all adrenergic nerve endings in the body and brain. Laboratory tests found an increased level of both hormones after masturbation. And another journal reported the rupture of a berry aneurysm with sub-arachnoid hemorrhage during masturbation.
Again, the frequency with which a person masturbates likely plays a part determining whether an illness or other malady results. Certainly, any behavior, including masturbation, that people engaged in continuously, repetitively, and compulsively, would have pathological effects. And masturbation engaged in while viewing pornographic material or while fantasizing about someone other than a spouse would not qualify as marital faithfulness. Pornography and masturbation go hand in hand. The use of such materials to stimulate erotic fantasies flies in the face of all that the Bible says sex can and should be.
God’s ideal for the ultimate of sexual expression for husband and wife is that of mutuality. According to Genesis 2:18, 21-24, men and women were created for companionship and to establish a permanent commitment to each other in love. The physical union of their bodies was meaningful within the setting of permanency and love. Scripture indicates that a person is not just a body that can be detached from the totality of his or her being, to function only for pleasure, for sexual satisfaction. People can’t separate their personal value system from their bodies. Doing so would dehumanize the body, mar one’s self-image, and carve permanent scars on the soul. A lone act of sex without love and permanent commitment is spiritually, morally, and emotionally degrading.
Now, where do you see yourself fitting into the big picture? It’s your body, your sexuality, and your future. You have to make the final decision. Remember, God won’t leave you to struggle alone. He promises, “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.” (1 Cor. 10:13).