Fornication means unlawful sexual intercourse (Bible Study Guide 2011, Bible.com 2011). Sexual intercourse is physical sexual contact of the genitals of at least one of the involved. Unlawful means outside a valid marriage. Hence, premarital sex, adultery, homosexuality and bestiality are forms of fornication. Fornication is so grave a sin that fornicators are barred from inheriting the kingdom of God [1. Cor. 6:9-11]. It is so serious that it is the only lawful ground for divorce and remarriage [Matt. 5:32; 19:9] (Bible Study Guide, Bible.com). Otherwise, marriage is an indissoluble union between a man and a woman. The Holy Bible is firm and clear about its stand against fornication. It says that fornication emanates from the heart and defiles the person, as in Matt. 15:19-20 (Bible Study Guide 2011, Bible.com 2011). It is the work of the flesh [Gal. 5:19]. St. Paul exhorts Christians to avoid it [1 Cor. 6:18. 7:2, 10:8; 2 Cor. 12:21; 1 Thess. 4:3]. He says that Christians who are fornicators should be expelled and not named among saints [Eph 5:3, 1 Cor. 5:1. 9, 11]. He warns Christians who commit fornication that they defile themselves and fall short of God's grace. They are selling their birthright [Heb. 12:15-16]. They incur the wrath of the Almighty [Col. 3:5-6] (Bible Study Guide, Bible.com).

Conflict with Contemporary Cultural Worldview

In almost-ancient past, it was believed and assumed universally that fornication was wrong (Young 2011). Sexual abstinence before and outside marriage was the accepted norm. Today, the world sees that human libido or sexual instinct cannot be tamed. Contemporary focus is how to protect fornicators from the undesirable consequences of fornication rather than avoiding it. The single partner from the opposite sex is no longer the norm. One partner is not considered sufficient for his or her libido needs. This notion has become the accepted "truth" about human nature. This turnaround of life view moved former Republican presidential candidate Alan Keyes to describe contemporary times as...

In these times, it has become socially unacceptable and politically incorrect or "unreal" to keep husband-and-wife relationship sacred and to call homosexuality an abomination. This moral crisis is rooted in fornication or sexual immorality (Young).
Fornication can be committed by a man with a woman, between two men or two women or a person with an animal (Young 2011). Pornography comes under the definition of "illicit sexual intercourse" between two persons who are not married to each other. Married people can commit fornication as unmarried people can. The Bible condemns fornication in anyone: man, woman, child, saint or sinner. St. Paul the apostle exhorted Christians a number of times about this matter. He enjoined the Christians at Thessalonica to abstain from it [1 Thess 4:3], warned the churches of Galatia that the works of the flesh can cost them the kingdom of God [Gal 5:10-21] and described to Romans the consequences of indulgence in sinful sexual pleasures [Romans 1:24, 26-29a]. He taught that when God gives people up to their lusts, people dishonor their own bodies and change their natural use of one another. They "burn in their lusts," in that which is "unseemly." For this, fornicators receive the just reward of a "reprobate mind," which does not retain God but does things "that are not convenient" and being filled with "unrighteousness, fornication… wickedness." These passages stare people on the face that fornication is severely offensive to the Almighty God. St. Paul states the plan of God for the woman is "to marry, bear children, guide the house, (and) give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully [1 Timothy 5:14]." It clearly and strictly confines sexual relationship only in marriage. This plan also blesses marriage as honorable and subjects adulterers to judgment (Young).

Contemporary society rejects any abstinence-based plan to address current-day sexual immorality or fornication (Young 2011). It now condones sexual activity, especially among adolescents.…