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Pariah said:
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So despite that they say one thing it really means something else? Where is God more lenient? In Leviticus he's very strict on sperm usage & in some fairly strange ways (by todays standards at least) but I don't see him being more lenient.



Dude, there was no masturbation involved. There was no waste of seed. These were examples of thought and lustful longing. It's the physical violations that matter most. Leviticus went over physical abominations.



I pointed out Leviticus because that was the one place God speaks about sex that I remembered off hand. Are there passages in the Bible that indicate something else concerning masterbation? Internet search brings up stuff like this...

http://www.biblechristians.org/answers.cfm?ID=105


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Is it a sin to masturbate?

Yes. Masturbation is a sin even if you are not thinking “sexual thoughts” while doing it.

Genesis 38:8-10 records the incident where God slew Onan for purposely spilling his seed, ie. Masturbation. (You will notice that it had nothing to do about whether he was thinking sexual thoughts.)

"Then Judah said to Onan, 'Lie with your brother's wife and fulfill your duty to her as a brother-in-law to produce offspring for your brother.' But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his; so whenever he lay with his brother's wife, he spilled his semen on the ground to keep from producing offspring for his brother. What he did was wicked in the LORD's sight; so he put him to death also." (Genesis 38:8-10)
Some theologians try to explain away this passage by saying that it was not Onan's act of purposely spilling his semen that angered God, but rather that it was Onan’s refusal to raise up children for his brother (the levirate marriage law) which offended God to the point that He punished Onan with death. However, though in Judah's day it was the custom of those people to give the widow in marriage to one of the brothers of the deceased husband, God had not yet instituted the levirate marriage law. God does not institute that law until Deut 25:5ff. And even if that law were to be applied in Onan's case, the punishment for refusing to carry out that law was only the removal of the man’s sandal and then spitting in his face--not death (see Deut 25:9). So why did God punish Onan with death? The only other thing Onan did was to purposely spill his seed (waste it). That is the answer. The reason why God punishes Onan with death is because he purposely spilled and wasted his seed in an act that is meant to be open to the possibility of God creating new life through that act.

In addition, masturbating usually, if not always, involves at least imagining sexual encounters with other persons in order to achieve orgasm. This sounds an awful lot like lusting to me. And lusting after imaginary women (or men as the case may be) while masturbating is still lusting - which our Lord condemned. (Mt. 5:28).

Fair play!