Does the Bible specifically prohibit any of these things?:
- Premarital sex (as opposed to adultery)
- Prostitution
- Gambling
- Contraception
- Pornography
If so where abouts?
Many thanks.
- prostitution
Leviticus 21:9
" 'If a priest’s daughter defiles herself by becoming a prostitute, she disgraces her father; she must be burned in the fire.
Deuteronomy 23:18
You must not bring the earnings of a female prostitute or of a male prostitute [ 23:18 Hebrew [ of a dog ] ] into the house of the LORD your God to pay any vow, because the LORD your God detests them both.
Genesis 38:6-10
(6)And Judah took a wife for Er his firstborn, whose name [was] Tamar.
(7)And Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the LORD; and the LORD slew him.
(8)And Judah said unto Onan, Go in unto thy brother’s wife, and marry her, and raise up seed to thy brother.
(9)And Onan knew that the seed should not be his; and it came to pass, when he went in unto his brother’s wife, that he spilled [it] on the ground, lest that he should give seed to his brother.
(10)And the thing which he did displeased the LORD: wherefore he slew him also.
- Gambling
The bible never specifically mentions gambling, though many people put it into the same category as covetousness, though I think you will agree that is a stretch. In fact, the bible mentions many places where “good” people draw lots for things.
Joshua 19:51
These are the inheritances, which Eleazar the priest, and Joshua the son of Nun, and the heads of the fathers of the tribes of the children of Israel, divided for an inheritance by lot in Shiloh before the LORD.
Of course, traditionally gambling, to my knowlege, has always been forbidden. Not in the bible though.
- Premarital sex (as opposed to adultery)
Yes. Romans 1:29 describes fornication as a Very Bad Thing. And if I’m not mistaken Jewish law required a man who deflowered a virgin to marry her. If her father wouldn’t allow it, he still had to pay Dad the bride’s price as if he were marrying her anyway.
2) Prostitution
Yes. Leviticus 19:29 tells people not to “degrade” their daughters by turning them out. Also in Levitical law marrying a prostitute was a no-no. 1 Corinthians (can’t find it) talks about prostitutes not inheriting the kingdom of God.
I would also point out, though, that while prostitution is a VBT, God’s willingness to forgive them is all over the book. Rahab was a hooker and God counted her worthy enough to be one of Jesus’ ancestors. Jesus Himself hung out with hookers too, and didn’t condemn them (although He did tell 'em to knock it off).
3) Gambling
Interestingly, no. I think the opposition to gambling comes from the idea that we’re to be good stewards of what God has given us. It could be argued that spending money on a game you have zero chance of winning isn’t being a good steward.
4) Contraception
No.
5) Pornography
You can’t find the word “pornography” but there’s some pretty strong language in the Corinthians about purity. Job mentions something about making a covenant with your eyes not to look lustfully at a girl. Jesus said in Matthew 5 that anyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Lust is “right out” and since porn inspires lust, you’re not gonna get God’s ok to look at a Hustler.
Here is a biblical quote to support your point, Abbie.
- Premarital Sex
Deuteronomy
22:28
If a man find a damsel that is a virgin, which is not betrothed, and lay hold on her, and lie with her, and they be found;
22:29
Then the man that lay with her shall give unto the damsel’s father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife; because he hath humbled her, he may not put her away all his days.
Re: Onan and contraception.
Those verses have been used to back up the anti-contraception idea for years and yet that passage is about Onan’s disobedience. The law required him to have a kid with his dead brother’s wife, and he didn’t. He disobeyed and that’s why God was displeased, it has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not we’re allowed to use the withdrawal method.
I can’t see why in the old testament times anyone would not have their daughter marry their lover (or rapist, the same law applies) as the woman could not otherwise marry and would then be a burden on the family.
22:13
If any man take a wife, and go in unto her, and hate her,
22:14
And give occasions of speech against her, and bring up an evil name upon her, and say, I took this woman, and when I came to her, I found her not a maid: Then the father shall bring forth the tokens of his daughter’s virginity to the elders of the city.
22:15
Then shall the father of the damsel, and her mother, take and bring forth the tokens of the damsel’s virginity unto the elders of the city in the gate:
22:16
And the damsel’s father shall say unto the elders, I gave my daughter unto this man to wife, and he hateth her;
22:17
And, lo, he hath given occasions of speech against her, saying, I found not thy daughter a maid; and yet these are the tokens of my daughter’s virginity. And they shall spread the cloth before the elders of the city.
22:18
And the elders of that city shall take that man and chastise him;
22:19
And they shall amerce him in an hundred shekels of silver, and give them unto the father of the damsel, because he hath brought up an evil name upon a virgin of Israel: and she shall be his wife; he may not put her away all his days. But if the tokens can’t be found, the men of the city shall stone her to death at the door of her father’s house.
22:20
But if this thing be true, and the tokens of virginity be not found for the damsel:
22:21
Then they shall bring out the damsel to the door of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones that she die: because she hath wrought folly in Israel, to play the whore in her father’s house: so shalt thou put evil away from among you.
So, any future husband she may have could have her executed whenever he wanted.
I believe that lust has no real biblical meaning for a married couple. I do not think the prohibitions on lust apply there at all. The didn’t have porno movies back then, so any prohibitions would be made upon drawings (of which I know no prohibitions) and writings. When you consider the Song of Solomon I think we can rule out that. So, if it inspires lust (out of wedlock) it is bad, but otherwise there is no proscription. So, a nice porno to get a married couple in the mood before having sex using birth control is just fine as far as the bible itself goes.
It depends a bit on what you mean by forbid. A Christian is obliged to live in a manner which demonstrates a love of God and man, which in turn means that they can not act in an manner which God finds distatesful, hurtful or evil. In that sense many of things are forbidden. OTOH most of htem are not grounds for excommunictaion or execution, they are just generic sins.
If by ‘forbidden’ you mean that a good Christian shouldn’t do them then we have:
- Premarital sex (as opposed to adultery)
“And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man.
For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,”
Mark 7
Since adultery is specifically mentioned as well we know that fornication in this sense means premarital and not extramarital sex.
2) Prostitution
Already covered by flight.
- Gambling
Already covered by flight.
4) Contraception
Is not forbidden. The example of Onan used by AWB is way off base and quite irrelevant. As thepassage makes clear Onan was killed for not fulfilling a duty to impregnate his broter’s wife (give seed to his brother), nothing ot do with contraception used with his own wife.
- Pornography
Is not specifically forbidden. However pornography is forbidden to married Christian men.
"You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
Matthew 5:28
Kinda hard to use visual pornography at least without looking at a woman lustfully.
OP here. Thanks for the great answers everyone.
I asked the question after a conversation I had with a (Christian) guy, who poked fun at Catholics over their stand against contraception, on the grounds that the Bible made no mention of it. I accepted his argument at face value, but then realised that his faith probably causes him to oppose certain practices that the Bible makes no mention of either (e.g. gambling.)
So if I can make an addition to my OP, what are some other practices, not mentioned in the Bible, which Christian faiths tend to disprove of?
You seem to be making a common mistake here by confusing the bible with what a Christian shoud and should not do. Protestantism believes in damn, what is that phrase? Sole Scetorae or something like that. It means bible only. The sperated themselves from the Catholics and went back to the bible itself for guidance. So, if you want to argue whether a Christian should or shouldn’t do something based on whether it is in the bible, they have to be a Protestant. The Orthodox and Catholic faiths hold to the bible as well, but their traditions are just as important. There was a vote on what to include in the bible and what not. There were some things that just missed out and others that were never part of the written record, but always part of Christian tradition. So, the bible is not everything to a lot of Christians.
I assume that your friend is a Protestant and does not understand that the Catholics do not consider the bible to be the singular thing that he does.
As to other weird nonbiblical things that Protestants believe, John Ashcroft believes that dancing is immoral and will not do so himself. Funny thing is the bible itself has dancing in it as a good thing done before God.
Good point in your last sentence, though I do not totally agree. Of course, I think we can say that printed pornography wouldn’t fall under that in any case.
So, a nice porno to get a married couple in the mood before having sex using birth control is just fine as far as the bible itself goes.
Um, no.
Supporting pornography is supporting prostitution (which is definitely not being a good steward of the money God has given you). Prostitution exploits women, destroys families, spreads disease, ruins men and many times harms children. Nothin’ biblical about that and certainly not anything that someone who professes the name of Christ should be participating in.
Huh? That makes no sense at all. Anyways, Song of Solomon is plenty pornographic.
OT condemnations of prostitution had more to do with ritual prostitution than anything else. It was about stopping people from going to the Canaanite temples and banging ritual prostitutes (or becoming ritual prostiutes. Both men and women served those temples as prostitutes). It was wrong not because of the sex. per se but because it was a was a form of false worship.
Women who became simply mercenary prostitutes were condemned. but the Johns were not, and neither were men especially condemned for pre-marital sex unless they raped a virgin, in which case they had to marry her (some God you’ve got there).
Trying to relate pornography to prostitution is rather specious, IMO. The Bible makes no such connection and as Gorsnak pointed out, The Song of Solomon is pornographic.
Pornographic means “intended to cause sexual excitement.”
How many couples YOU know break out Song of Solomon to get themselves in the mood?
There’s a hell of a lot of difference between Song of Solomon, which, yes, is sexy, but also conveys the deepest love and respect between husband and wife, versus, say, “Letters to Penthouse.”
But I don’t see how you relate it to prostitution at all.
So porno is ok if it’s married people that are getting it on?
And what makes you think the couple in Song of Solomon were married?
Oh, and sure, Song of Solomon works for me, either that or I’ll just read about Lot having a three way with his daughters. 
Well, since watching porn flicks just a few decades old tends not to do much for me, it should be no surprise that 3 millenia old erotic literature doesn’t work either. Doesn’t mean it’s not pornographic. I presume ‘your breasts are as two fawns, twins of a gazelle’ scanned better in Hebrew when embedded in the appropriate cultural milieu than it does in modern English. Anyways, there’s still no link between prostitution and pornography.