PREMARITAL SEX

•Sexual activity practiced by persons who are not married

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•Alternative terms for pre-marital sex have been suggested, including non-marital sex youthful sex, adolescent sex, and young-adult sex.

•It is generally not accepted in many cultures and considered a sin in many religions

•The World has seen an increasing frequency of premarital sex among unmarried people from 12% in 1910 to 50% in 2001

•Beginning in the 1950s, as premarital sex became more common, the stigma attached to it diminished.

•Being in love with someone to become enough for a reason to practice sex, instead of marriage or engagement.

•By 2000, roughly a third of couples in the United States had lived together prior to marriage.

•Premarital sex has become, if not acceptable, tolerable.

•In a 2005 study of US teenagers, 29% of teens reported feeling pressure to have sex,

•24% had "done something sexual they didn’t really want to do".

•Several polls have indicated peer pressure as a factor in encouraging both girls and boys to have sex.

•The increased sexual activity among adolescents is manifested in increased teenage pregnancies and an increase in sexually transmitted diseases.

STATISTICS IN - TANZANIA

•40% of men have never married

•By the age of 18 years 60% of women had sexual intercourse; mean age for men is 18.5%

•27% of women and 24% of men reported to have unlawful sexual relations

•8% of women and 6% of men reported having sexually transmitted infections

UNPLANNED PREGNANCIES

•The rates of teenage pregnancy vary and range from 143 per 1000 girls in some sub-Saharan African countries to 2.9 per 1000 in South Korea. The rate for the United States is 52.1 per 1000, the highest in the developed world – and about four times the European Union average.

•The teenage pregnancy rates between countries must take into account the level of general sex education available

SEX AND EMOTION

•Sex is an emotional experience and it affects our lives in ways we don't understand.

•After engaging in premarital sex, many people express feelings of guilt, embarrassment, distrust, resentment, lack of respect, tension, and so much more.

•Remember that God's love for you as a primary reason for sexual purity. God does not want you to experience unnecessary emotional pain

•The primary purpose of sex is not recreation, but rather re-creation. In other words, sex is for reproduction.

RISKS OF PREMARITAL SEX

•Physically, premarital sex poses health risks; it can be a disease vector, transmitting chlamydia, gonorrhea, genital herpes, HIV and other diseases such as cancer of cervix.

•There is also a risk of an unplanned pregnancy in relationships; more seriously teen pregnancies.

•Scientific research shows how sexual activity releases brain chemicals that trigger emotional bonding and a powerful desire to repeat the activity.

BENEFITS OF ABSTINENCE

•People have given the testimony based on their own experience that premarital sex only kills relationship and causes mistrust and lost of respect.

•Clear conscience with God.

•Peace of mind in your life and future relationships, and marriage.

•More self-respect and more respect for each other and respected by other people.

•Always remember, in a healthy relationship, respect precedes love. And premarital sex only throws away your self respect and your partner's.

•You enter marriage with a more positive outlook and without carrying emotional baggage.

•Personal freedom for both of you and your (future) marriage partner.

•Significantly better chance in having more satisfying and more stable marriage.

•Longer lasting relationship. Premarital sex surprisingly breaks up more dating couples than any other factor.

•No comparing or being compared sexually in marriage. It also means "being free to enjoy marital life, in the way God intended" that is in the covenant of marriage.

•No worries about pregnancy and STDs.

•Less worries about bad reputation.

•Observations have showed that persons and couples who have premarital sex are more likely to have extramarital affairs as well.

•Premarital sex often fools a person into marrying someone who is not right for them.

•Realize there is a 98 percent chance you will never marry the person you get involved sexually, so it is always better to keep yourself pure for the right person, that is your future wife or husband.

STRATEGIES FOR GUARDING PURITY

•Establish your own standard-try to anticipate and avoid things that will put you in danger

•Select good friends – bad company can corrupt goo morals (1Corinthians 15:33)

•Be careful with music, TV, movies and magazine, they influence your mind. Don’t flirt with temptation.

•Do not go alone to the house or room of anyone of opposite sex

•Build a friendship and not a sexual partnership

•Pray for strength from GOD; He is willing to help

BIBLE AND PREMARITAL SEX

•Religion recommend abstinence until one gets married

In 1corinthian 7:2, Paul states that marriage is the “cure” for sexual immorality, it is essentially saying that, because people cannot control themselves and so many are having immoral sex outside of marriage, people should get married. Then they can fulfill their passions in a moral way.

•Sex before marriage is included in the biblical definition of sexual immorality. There are numerous Scriptures that declare sex before marriage to be a sin (Acts 15:20; 1 Corinthians 5:1; 6:13; 18; 10:8; 2 Corinthians 12:21; Galatians 5:19; Ephesians 5:3; Colossians 3:5; 1 Thessalonians 4:3; Jude 7). The Bible promotes complete abstinence before marriage.

•Sex between a husband and his wife is the only form of sexual relations of which God approves (Hebrews 13:4).