A word about the Hulk Hogan sex tape scandal

Our world is such as sad place on many fronts.  Most people (even some who call themselves “believers”) are IN the world.  They look like the world, act like the world and talk like the world – yet they wear crosses around their necks so everyone can see they’re “holy.”    One such person is the wrestler, Hulk Hogan, who recently took “Gawker Media” to court and was awarded $115 million for “invasion of privacy and “emotional distress” after  Gawker published a two-minute highlight reel of a 2012 tape  of Hogan and another man’s wife having sex.  The sex tape was viewed 2.5 million times.  

On one hand, I’m GLAD “Gawker” was slapped down, because it’s about time that “freedom of speech” was required to include some common sense and decency.  Certain private things should remain private because they are no one else’s business.  On the other, hand, whether or not Hogan knew he was being taped, he was committing adultery – which is a sin.  So, what’s with the cross around his neck?  It seems in our world there is a blurring of the lines when it comes to “right and wrong” and “good and bad”;  and many are willing to overlook all manner of sin, and to “be tolerant” and instantly “forgive” those who commit the sins…because they are under the erroneous impression that “Jesus died” to forgive us everything.  “We’re free!  We’re under grace!  God forgives us!”

Really?  Perhaps they need to take a closer look at what happens to those who commit purposeful sin.  (And let’s face it, if you’re having sex with someone else’s spouse, you are breaking the Seventh Commandment!  You didn’t accidentally do this – it’s a planned thing in a secret place where their spouses hopefully won’t discover them!)

Numbers 15: 30 "'But an individual who does something wrong intentionally, whether a citizen or a foreigner, is blaspheming ADONAI. That person will be cut off from his people.

Hebrews 6: 4. But they who have once descended to immersion and have tasted the gift from heaven and have received the Ruach haKodesh 5. and have tasted the good Word of Elohim and the power of the world to come, 6. cannot again sin and a second time be renewed to repentance; or a second time execute him on a stake and insult the Son of Elohim. 7. For the earth that drinks the rain which comes often upon it and produces the herb that is of use to those for whom it is cultivated, receives a blessing from Elohim. 8. But if it should put forth thorns and briers, it would be discarded and be approaching closely to a curse, and its end would be a conflagration. (AENT)

Hebrews 10: 26 For if we deliberately continue to sin after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but only the terrifying prospect of Judgment, or raging fire that will consume the enemies.

The above Scripture is not referring to those unclean bondages that dwell in our flesh but to the conscious choices believers make. It refers not to our unintentional sins but to those we pursue knowingly and willingly.

2 Peter 2: 19 They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption; for a person is slave to whatever has defeated him. 20 Indeed, if they have once escaped the pollutions of the world through knowing our Lord and Deliverer, Yeshua the Messiah, and then have again become entangled and defeated by them, their latter condition has become worse than their former. 21 It would have been better for them not to have known the Way of righteousness than, fully knowing, to turn from the holy command delivered to them.

How many of today's believers behave in a way they know is sinful and yet they go ahead and do what they feel like doing, anyway? That's because they mistakenly think Divine grace covers intentional sin. That is a huge misconception! Divine grace has made wonderful provision for unintentional sin. But there is no provision for intentional sin. The Bible tells us so.

Deliberate, premeditated sin is willful disobedience and rebellion against ELOHIM. It results in severe punishment or even loss of our salvation.

Leviticus 26: 23 If, in spite of all this, you refuse my correction and still go against me; then I too will go against you; and I, yes I, will strike you seven times over for your sins.

1 Corinthians 6: 9. Or don't you know, that the unrighteous will not inherit the Kingdom of Elohim?* Make no mistake! Neither sexual sinners, nor idol-worshippers, nor adulterers, nor the corrupt, nor men who lay down with other men, 10. Nor the oppressors, nor thieves, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, will inherit the Kingdom of Elohim. (AENT)

FOOTNOTE: Compare this to Matthew 5:17-20, where we are told that breaking the least commandment of Torah and teaching others to do the same makes a person "least in the kingdom" but they still get in. Y'shua implies that those with more serious sins won't make it in: "Depart from me, workers of iniquity, I never knew you"; but here, Rav Shaul gives a more specific list of what will keep them out.

1 Corinthians 6: 17. But he that joins himself to our Master (Y'shua), is with him one spirit. 18. Flee from sexual sin. For every (other) sin which a man commits, is external to his body*; but he that commits sexual sin, sins against his own body. (AENT)

FOOTNOTE: Actually the sexual sin goes deeper than the body, as the note on Romans 1:26 shows. But the other point is also that a sexual sinner brings sin upon himself rather than his partner, and vice versa, unless rape or abuse is involved.

It is not sin per se that causes a person who professes to be a believer to be eternally estranged from YHWH but, rather, it is our surrender to sin which causes our faith and faithfulness to dim or completely die out. We flirt with spiritual disaster if we - by our thoughts, words, and conduct - deny Messiah, reject grace, spurn redemption, and push away the Holy Spirit.

Deliberate sinning is a death knell for believers.  YHWH expects His people to turn from sin and “be holy because I am holy!” (something He reiterated again and again throughout Torah). And how does one know how to "be holy"? It was revealed to us in Leviticus 18:

Leviticus 18: 1 ADONAI said to Moshe, 2 "Speak to the people of Isra'el; tell them, 'I am ADONAI your God. 3 You are not to engage in the activities found in the land of Egypt, where you used to live; and you are not to engage in the activities found in the land of Kena'an, where I am bringing you; nor are you to live by their laws. 4 You are to obey my rulings and laws and live accordingly; I am ADONAI your God. 5 You are to observe my laws and rulings; if a person does them, he will have life through them; I am ADONAI. (CJB)

Being holy doesn’t mean you wear a cross around your neck so everyone can “see you’re a Christian.”  It means you do everything in your power to BE set apart in mind, body and soul.  You LIVE your faith because you KNOW you are not fooling our ELOHIM!