New Warhorn Media post by Nathan Alberson:
Conversion, not catharsis - Warhorn Media?
Your discussion about the sin of pornography being combatted through the self-discipline of loving a life vs. the (futile) self-discipline of just trying to say no to the sin reminded me of Chalmers, The Expulsive Power of a New Affection.
“To bid a man into whom there has not yet entered the great and ascendant influence of the principle of regeneration, to bid him withdraw his love from all the things that are in the world, is to bid him give up all the affections that are in his heart. The world is the all of a natural man. He has not a taste nor a desire, that points not to a something placed within the confines of its visible horizon. He loves nothing above it, and he cares for nothing beyond it; and to bid him love not the world, is to pass a sentence of expulsion on all the inmates of his bosom. To estimate the magnitude and the difficulty of such a surrender, let us only think that it were just as arduous to prevail on him not to love wealth, which is but one of the things in the world, as to prevail on him to set wilful fire to his own property. This he might do with sore and painful reluctance, if he saw that the salvation of his life hung upon it. But this he would do willingly, if he saw that a new property of tenfold value was instantly to emerge from the wreck of the old one."
It’s never enough to say no to sin. We must be saying yes to something better.
I appreciated this episode. Thanks.
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