List of Doctrines on "Sin: Sexual Sin - Fornication"
781. Men and women are not to have sexual relations outside of marriage.
President Heber J. Grant, J. Reuben Clark, Jr., David O. McKay
Elder Spencer W. Kimball
Alma, the younger
Boyd K. Packer
Elder Harold B. Lee
Joseph Smith
Paul
Delbert L. Stapley
President Heber J. Grant, J. Reuben Clark, Jr., David O. McKay
J. Reuben Clark, Jr.
President David O. McKay
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 sexual relationships, which is fornication, and escape the punishments and the judgements 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.
Of the harlots and those who visit them, God speaks in terms of divine contempt. They are they who have bargained away the eternity of bliss for the momentary pleasures of the flesh.
The Lord will have only a clean people. CR1942Oct:11
Elder Spencer W. Kimball
Sexual sin receives repeated condemnation in the scriptures. To get our definitions clear, let us realize that heterosexual intercourse is the sin of fornication when committed by the unmarried and is adultery when indulged in by married people outside of their marriage covenants. Both are grievous sins in God's sight. (The Miracle of Forgiveness, p. 24 ) TLDP:71
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
Boyd K. Packer
There was provided in our bodies—and this is sacred—a power of creation, a light, so to speak, that has the power to kindle other lights. This gift was to be used only within the sacred bonds of marriage. Through the exercise of this power of creation, a mortal body may be conceived, a spirit enter into it, and a new soul born into this life.
This power is good. It can create and sustain family life, and it is in family life that we find the foundations of happiness. It is given to virtually every individual who is born into mortality. It is a sacred and significant power, and I repeat, my young friends, that this power is good.
You who are teenagers, like every other son and daughter of Adam and Eve, have this power within you.
The power of creation—or may we say procreation—is not just an incidental part of the plan: it is essential to it. Without it the plan could not proceed. The misuse of it may disrupt the plan. CR1972Apr:136-37
Elder Harold B. Lee
The divine impulse within every true man and woman that impels companionship with the opposite sex is intended by our Maker as a holy impulse for a holy purpose—not to be satisfied as a mere biological urge or as a lust of the flesh in promiscuous associations, but to be reserved as an expression of true love in holy wedlock. (At Weber State College, 1972) (Ye Are the Light of the World, pp. 266-67) TLDP:68
Joseph Smith,
receiving the Word of the Lord
receiving the Word of the Lord
Thou shalt love thy wife with all thy heart, and shalt cleave unto her and none else.
23. And he that looketh upon a woman to lust after her shall deny the faith, and shall not have the Spirit; and if he repents not he shall be cast out.
24. Thou shalt not commit adultery; and he that committeth adultery, and repenteth not, shall be cast out.
25. But he that has committed adultery and repents with all his heart, and forsaketh it, and doeth it no more, thou shalt forgive;
26. But if he doeth it again, he shall not be forgiven, but shall be cast out. (Revelation "embracing the law of the Church," Feb. 9, 1831) D&C 42:22-26
Related Witnesses:
Paul
For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication:
4. That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour;
5. Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God: (Letter to the Church at Thessalonica, comprising Jews and many pagan converts, A.D. 50) 1Thess. 4:3-5
Delbert L. Stapley
[T]here are two main requirements of this oath and covenant. First is faithfulness, which denotes obedience to the laws of God and connotes true observance of all gospel standards. For better understanding of the oath and covenant of the priesthood, may I propound these questions: . . .
Can a man be faithful who does not obey the law of chastity and is not morally clean in his life and habits? CR1957Apr:76
President Heber J. Grant, J. Reuben Clark, Jr., David O. McKay
(First Presidency)
You who have observed the law of chastity have kept the temples of God undefiled. You can stand unabashed before the Lord. He loves you. He will bestow honor and reward upon you. Every overcoming of temptation brings strength and glory to the soul. CR1942Oct:10
J. Reuben Clark, Jr.
[T]o keep the Children of Israel from committing these sins, the Lord proceeds to name them and to prescribe penalties for their commission. I am going to name a few of them.
First is incest. I am not enlarging on it. In the law incest included more than we now ascribe to it. It included marriage between people within prohibited relationships. The penalty for incest was death to both parties.
Fornication—sometimes adultery and fornication are used interchangeably. But for certain kinds of fornication, the penalty was death.
For adultery it was death for both parties.
For homosexuality, it was death to the male and prescription or penalty for the female I do not know.
. . . . Prostitution was called an abomination.
After the Lord finished his listing of abominations recorded here, he continued: . . . "Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgements, and shall not commit any of these abominations; neither any of your own nation, nor any stranger that sojourneth among you." CR1957Apr:87
President David O. McKay,
quoted by Elder Spencer W. Kimball
quoted by Elder Spencer W. Kimball
Your virtue is worth more than your life. Please, young folk, preserve your virtue even if you lose your lives. Do not tamper with sin . . . do not permit yourselves to be led into temptation.
Conduct yourselves seemly and with due regard, particularly you young boys, to the sanctity of womanhood. Do not pollute it. (The Miracle of Forgiveness, p. 63) TLDP:67
