Romans 1 28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them over to a debased mind to do things that ought not to be done.
A debased mind, a depraved mind, a reprobate mind, a based mind, a condemned mind, a foolish mind, a sinful mind, a corrupted mind, a defective mind – these are all descriptions that you will find in other translations of this popular scripture. Even if you don’t understand every definition, I think that you can pick up what the scripture is getting at.
Gary Wilson’s Tedx talk is a good presentation, so good that you could almost believe it. I’m not attacking Gary Wilson nor do I have any major problem with his work because what he presented at Tedx is what I would expect to hear from secular education. None of these institutes are Christ-friendly and seize every opportunity to draw the truth away from the bible – like Darwin vs Creation, AI vs God.
What I do have a major issue with here is when believers, church leaders and especially faith-based ministries start teaching that pornography reshapes, rewires, reprograms your brain when 2000 years ago Romans 1 28 tells us it’s God who withdraws his protection from over your life and it is He who “gave them over to a debased mind”. This process doesn’t happen overnight but as you go deeper into pornography, He gradually removes His presence and peace and then reluctantly allows your sin to consume you whether it be porn, alcohol, money, drugs, food, materialism. Most men then start to believe that they have formed an addiction but God has handed them over to captivity for rejecting His word.
We have no idea how faithful God is. God will contend and put up with us as long as we are truly and honestly trying to overcome, but God will not be mocked if you insist on having your sin and hardening your heart to His Holy Spirit. The time will come when you will give God no choice but to surrender you over to the power of the enemy:
Romans 1; 24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity to the dishonouring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the creator”
God handed the Israelites over to bondage whenever they went whoring after false gods. Why should He be any different with us?
Numbers 11, 19-20 “you shall not eat one day two days nor 5 days nor 10 days but you shall eat it a whole month until it comes out of your ears”
So what God is saying in this verse is, if you want it more than me have as much of it as you can handle. So when you have those images 24/7 tormenting you in your mind, it’s not just pornography that’s changing your brain. It’s a warning that God’s presence and protection is starting to be removed from your life.
God presence gives us a sound mind: 2 Tim 17 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind
Gods removes His presence as we are: Rom 1 29-30 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, 30 Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents.
If by some miraculous event an ancient Israelite were to appear here today among us, he wouldn’t be concerned about your brain on pornography or recommending a self- help course for you to break free. He would recognise in a heart-beat the influence of Baal Peor and the religious conductive atmosphere that the whole earth is forced to live under today. As God warned they would spread their corruption, terror and devastation wherever they settled. Jeremiah 24:9. I will make them abhorrent and an offence to all the kingdoms of the earth, a reproach and a byword, a curse[c] and an object of ridicule, wherever I banish them.
Through scripture I hope you can see who is really in control.
Gen 3x