List of Doctrines on "Sin: Sexual - Chastity"
777. Every person should be chaste, free of sexual sin.
778. Sexual sin stands in its enormity next to murder.
777. Every person should be chaste, free of sexual sin.
President Heber J. Grant, J. Reuben Clark, Jr., David O McKay
Melvin J. Ballard
Joseph Smith
President Spencer W. Kimball
Mormon
John A. Widtsoe
J. Reuben Clark, Jr.
Jesus
Jacob, brother of Nephi
Jacob, brother of Nephi
President Heber C. Grant, J. Reuben Clark, Jr., David O. McKay
Paul
Paul
Melvin J. Ballard
Peter
Joseph Smith
John
President Spencer W. Kimball
Marion G. Romney
President Heber J. Grant, J. Reuben Clark, Jr., David O McKay
(First Presidency)
By virtue of the authority in us vested as the First Presidency of the Church, we warn our people who are offending, of the degradation, the wickedness, the punishment that attend upon unchastity; we urge you to remember the blessings which flow from the living of the clean life; we call upon you to keep, day in and day out, the way of strictest chastity, through which only can God's choice gifts come to you and His spirit abide with you.
How glorious is he who lives the chaste life. He walks unfearful in the full glare of the noonday sun, for he is without moral infirmity. He can be reached by no shafts of base calumny, for his armor is without flaw. His virtue cannot be challenged by any just accuser, for he lives above reproach. His cheek is never blotched with shame, for he is without hidden sin. He is honored and respected by all mankind, for he is beyond their censure. He is loved by the Lord, for he stands without blemish. The exaltations of eternities await his coming. CR1942Oct:11-12
Melvin J. Ballard
Certainly our teachers were right when they held up an ideal that virtue was as sacred as life itself, and that we had better lose our lives than lose our virtue . . . . [N]ext to the crime of murder itself is the crime of sexual impurity. CR1929Apr:69
Joseph Smith
We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul—We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things. (The thirteenth of the thirteen Articles of Faith; letter to John Wentworth, March 1, 1842) Articles of Faith :13
President Spencer W. Kimball
May I talk to you just a moment or two about that which is most dear and precious above all things. Can you think what it would be? Would it be bonds, stocks, or diamonds? Would it be herds or flocks? Would it be automobiles and houses? Would it be medals in athletics? This is the greatest blessing, the most dear and precious above all things—above all things. It cannot be purchased with money, but may be enjoyed by all, even those of humble circumstances as well as the affluent, as much by the high school student as by those who have doctors degrees. Even mortal life when placed upon the balance scales weighs less. That of which I speak is chastity and virtue. The lack of it has caused rivers of tears to flow, broken numerous homes, and deprived large numbers of innocent children. ACR(Sydney)1976:54
Mormon
[T]hat which was most dear and precious above all things, which is chastity and virtue— (Mormon to his son Moroni, prior to A.D. 384) Moroni 9:9
John A. Widtsoe
Virtue is youth's dearest possession; and chastity is the strongest bulwark against the many temptations of life. Of all earthly possessions virtue should be cherished most. If one values life's happiness, one must enter the married state with an unstained, unviolated body. (IE1940Oct:637) TLDP:67
J. Reuben Clark, Jr.
[O]ne of the worst of the teachings that come [to the youth] is that teaching which is becoming too common, that the sex-urge is a natural urge to be gratified like the urge for drink or for food. Satan has not invented any more unrighteous, hideous doctrine than that, and he knows it. CR1957Apr:87
Jesus,
recorded in Matthew
recorded in Matthew
Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery:
28. But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. (Jesus Christ to the multitude, about A.D. 30) Matthew 5:27-28
Jacob, brother of Nephi
For I, the Lord God, delight in the chastity of women. And whoredoms are an abomination before me; thus saith the Lord of Hosts. (Jacob teaches the Nephites in the temple, 544-421 B.C.) Jacob 2:28
Jacob, brother of Nephi
And now I, Jacob, spake many more things unto the people of Nephi, warning them against fornication and lasciviousness, and every kind of sin, telling them the awful consequences of them. (Jacob speaks to the people of Nephi denouncing unchastity) Jacob 3:12
Related Witnesses:
President Heber C. Grant, J. Reuben Clark, Jr., David O. McKay
(First Presidency)
To the youth of the Church . . . above all we plead with you to live clean, for the unclean life leads only to suffering, misery, and woe physically, —and spiritually it is the path to destruction. How glorious and near to the angels is youth that is clean; this youth has joy unspeakable here and eternal happiness hereafter. Sexual purity is youth's most precious possession; it is the foundation of all righteousness. Better dead, clean, than alive, unclean. CR1942Apr:89
Paul
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. (Paul's letter to the Church in Rome, about A.D. 55) Romans 6:12
Paul
This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
17. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. (Letter to the churches of Galatia in Asia Minor, about A.D. 55) Galatians 5:16-17
Melvin J. Ballard
Men . . . have no true conception of the sacredness of the most marvelous power with which God has endowed mortal men—the power of creation. Even though that power may be abused and may become a mere harp of pleasure to the wicked, nevertheless it is the most sacred and holy and divine function with which God has endowed man. (Sermons and Missionary Services of Melvin J. Ballard, p. 167) TLDP:524
Peter
Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;
12. Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation. (Peter to the churches in modern Asia Minor, about A.D. 60) 1 Peter 2:11-12
Joseph Smith,
receiving the Word of the Lord
receiving the Word of the Lord
Therefore, cease from all your light speeches, from all laughter, from all your lustful desires, from all your pride and light-mindedness, and from all your wicked doings. (Revelation received Dec. 27/28, 1832) D&C 88:121
John
Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
16. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
17. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. (Letter to the churches in Asia) 1 John 2:15-17
President Spencer W. Kimball
To be specific, let us postulate clearly and unmistakably that all sexual life outside of the proper marriage association—I said the proper marriage association—are evil and forbidden by God, and the unrepentant and those who indulge in these will be disillusioned.
Easy it is to create excuses and escapes to cover our own weaknesses. The fornicator minimizes his sins. The robber justifies his thievery. The pervert says that God made him that way. The petter rationalizes his act into insignificance. Let it be understood without equivocation that the common indulgences are transgressions, for sin is the breaking of the divine law. ACR(Sydney)1976:54
Marion G. Romney,
also quoting J. Reuben Clark, Jr.
[A]s President Clark used to say, the Lord has made no "fine distinctions . . . between fornication and adultery" (CR1949Oct:194). Nor may I add, between adultery and sex perversion. CR1974Apr:117-18
Author's Note: Chaste: "Pure in character or conduct; not indecent." "Not guilty of unlawful sexual intercourse; virtuous." (Funk & Wagnalls Standard College Dictionary, p. 231)
Lust: Longing desire; eagerness to possess or enjoy; depraved affection or desire; more especially, sexual appetite; unlawful desire of sexual pleasure; concupiscence. (The New Webster Encyclopedic Dictionary of the English Language, p. 505)
778. Sexual sin stands in its enormity next to murder.
President Heber J. Grant, J. Reuben Clark, Jr., David O. McKay
Melvin J. Ballard
Melvin J. Ballard
Hyrum Mack Smith
President Harold B. Lee
Jeffrey R. Holland
Alma, the younger
President Joseph F. Smith
President Heber J. Grant, J. Reuben Clark, Jr., David O. McKay
(First Presidency)
The doctrine of this Church is that sexual sin—the illicit sexual relations of men and women—stands, in its enormity, next to murder.
The Lord has drawn no essential distinctions between fornication, adultery, and harlotry or prostitution. Each has fallen under His solemn and awful condemnation.
You youths of Zion, you cannot associate in non-marital, illicit sex relationships, which is fornication, and escape the punishments and the judgments which the Lord has declared against this sin. The day of reckoning will come just as certainly as night follows day. They who would palliate this crime and say that such indulgence is but a sinless gratification of a normal desire, like appeasing hunger and thirst, speak filthiness with their lips. Their counsel leads to destruction; their wisdom comes from the Father of Lies.
You husbands and wives who have taken on solemn obligations of chastity in the holy temples of the Lord and who violate those sacred vows by illicit sexual relations with others, you not only commit the vile and loathsome sin of adultery, but you break the oath you yourselves made with the Lord Himself before you went to the altar for your sealing. You become subject to the penalties which the Lord has prescribed for those who breach their covenants with Him. CR1942Oct:11
Melvin J. Ballard
I call you, my brethren, to work, to pray and to guard the flocks over whom God hath made you overseers . . . that we shall live up to the standards under which I was raised, and you were raised, that we shall teach our sons and daughters that next to murder itself, is the crime of sexual impurity. We have that standard. We expect the boy to be just as clean and as pure as the girl whom he marries, to be his wife and the mother of his children. CR1921Oct:102
Melvin J. Ballard
[N]ext to the crime of murder itself is the crime of sexual impurity. CR1929Apr:69
Hyrum Mack Smith
"Thou shalt not commit adultery." Another soul destroying crime which is very rare among the Latter-day Saints. There is no other sin, save murder only, that will so soon destroy the spiritual and moral life of men—why, it is spiritual suicide to participate in any such deadly crime. CR1906Oct:44-45
President Harold B. Lee
I want to warn this great body of priesthood against that great sin of Sodom and Gomorrah, which has been labeled as a sin second only in seriousness to the sin of murder. I speak of the sin of adultery . . . and besides this, the equally grievous sin of homosexuality, which seems to be gaining momentum with social acceptance in the Babylon of the world, of which Church members must not be part. CR1972Oct:127
Jeffrey R. Holland
The body is an essential part of the soul. This distinctive and very important Latter-day Saint doctrine underscores why sexual sin is so serious. We declare that one who uses the God-given body of another without divine sanction abuses the very soul of that individual, abuses the central purpose and processes of life, “the very key”7 to life, as President Boyd K. Packer once called it. In exploiting the body of another—which means exploiting his or her soul—one desecrates the Atonement of Christ, which saved that soul and which makes possible the gift of eternal life. And when one mocks the Son of Righteousness, one steps into a realm of heat hotter and holier than the noonday sun. You cannot do so and not be burned. (CR 1998Oct; Personal Purity, Ensign, November 1998, p.75)
Related Witnesses:
Alma, the younger,
quoted by Mormon
quoted by Mormon
And this is not all, my son. Thou didst do that which was grievous unto me; for thou didst forsake the ministry, and did go over into the land of Siron, among the borders of the Lamanites, after the harlot Isabel.
4. Yea, she did steal away the hearts of many; but this was no excuse for thee, my son. Thou shouldst have tended to the ministry wherewith thou wast entrusted.
5. Know ye not, my son, that these things are an abomination in the sight of the Lord; yea, most abominable above all sins save it be the shedding of innocent blood or denying the Holy Ghost? (Alma to his son Corianton, about 73 B.C.) Alma 39:3-5
President Joseph F. Smith
What has come to be known in present day literature as the social evil is a subject of perennial discussion, and the means proposed for dealing with it are topics of contention and debate. That the public conscience is aroused to the seriousness of the dire condition due to sexual immorality is a promising indication of prospective betterment. No more loathsome cancer disfigures the body and soul of society today than the frightful affliction of sexual sin. It vitiates the very fountains of life, and bequeaths its foul effects to the yet unborn as a legacy of death. It lurks in hamlet and city, in the mansion and in the hovel as a ravening beast in wait for prey; and it skulks through the land in blasphemous defiance of the laws of God and man. (Published by the President in the Improvement Era, June 1917) MOFP5:63-64
