Do you remember the purity movement? Or perhaps it’s better to ask this: How could you possibly forget the purity movement? Though in many ways its aims were noble—sexual purity among teens and young adults—its methods were more than a little suspect and, in the long run, often even harmful. It framed sexual purity as a method that would gain a spouse rather than as obedience that would honor God; it led people to believe that those who had lost their virginity (or who had had it taken from them) were second-class citizens; it led those had maintained their virginity to believe they should expect God to reward them with a similarly virginal spouse and, once married, a wonderful sex life. Though these messages may not have been stated explicitly, they were not far under the surface. Not surprisingly, the movement left a trail of harm in its wake—one that the church is still reckoning with.

Dean Inserra witnessed this movement as an evangelical teen and now, years later, reflects on it in Pure: Why the Bible’s Plan for Sexuality Isn’t Outdated, Irrelevant, or Oppressive. This is not an academic examination of the movement but rather a kind of “now what?” analysis. “The purity culture of my youth launched a type of prosperity gospel wearing the disguise of piety. If I remain a virgin until marriage, God will give me a future spouse who did the same. In fact, they don’t deserve me if they failed to do what I did. The aftermath of this anti-gospel thinking is a trail of human brokenness.” With this trail of brokenness as his starting place, Inserra plots a better path toward purity and a better reason to maintain the Bible’s teaching on sexuality.
In the book’s first two chapters he takes a look at the True Love Waits campaign and then the book I Kissed Dating Goodbye. In both cases he commends them for attempting to counter troubling messages, yet critiques them for the problems they introduced. “At True Love Waits rallies, the testimonies were always, without fail, from college students or young adults (usually women) who had previously had sex outside of marriage and now were trying to do better as secondary virgins. The hope was that since God forgave them, maybe a future spouse would, too. Instead of championing the full and sufficient cleansing of Christ’s atoning death, these poor people were often treating themselves as cautionary tales for a younger generation, urging others to not become like them.” Meanwhile, in I Kissed Dating Goodbye though “Harris does write a very helpful and gospel-filled chapter about forgiveness in Christ elsewhere in the book, the unofficial premise remains, ‘Don’t mess things up for your honeymoon.’” Thus neither approach was truly consistent with Scripture since neither approach was directed toward obedience to God.
Though the purity movement is now history, there are still deep issues with Christians and sexuality. In fact, we have recently witnessed a counter swing to a view that treats sexuality too lightly and purity too casually. So what is the church to do? In the book’s next seven chapters, Inserra describes and counters a series of lies that are prominent outside the church and, increasingly, within it: that sex is a normal, expected, and perhaps even healthy part of a dating relationship; that it’s better to marry later in life than earlier; that pornography is normal and good; that cohabitation just makes sense; and so on.
In the final four chapters he turns to the matter of where Christians go from here. He writes about godly singleness and provides guidance for battling and overcoming sexual sin. He offers four lessons he wishes the True Love Waits movement had taught—lessons that would have provided a much more positive and biblical vision for sexuality. “The True Love Waits message of purity culture unintentionally placed a heavy burden upon a generation of young people in two primary ways: first, by misplacing the primary motivation for sexual purity onto a future spouse instead of on God, and second, by insinuating that those who had committed sexual sin had become second-class citizens.” He concludes with some encouragement for the broken, for those who carry shame and regret.
Overall, Pure is a good and helpful book that insightfully analyzes the shortcomings of the purity movement and offers a much better, much more compelling, and much more biblically-grounded vision for singleness, dating, marriage, and sex. It is written with care, with compassion, and with a deep rooting in the gospel of Jesus Christ. I am confident it will be of great benefit to a great many young Christians.

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The Lord be with you and bless you today.

Westminster Books has a deal on the excellent ESV Expository Commentary series—a series that will help with everything from personal devotions to sermon preparation.
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The cross is the essence of Christianity. It is the apex of God’s glory, the zenith of His revelation, the centrepiece of His plan for the universe. —Will Dobbie

There is a way of telling history that focuses on the impact of the few great figures that rise up in any generation. This “great man theory” says that history can best be understood when we focus on the dominant figures of the time. History, it says, turns on the actions, decisions, obsessions, and natural abilities of the few and the extraordinary—the Luthers, the Napoleons, the Lincolns, the Churchills. Understand them, and you understand the world as it was and the world as it has become.
I think Christians sometimes understand the church through a similar grid. We assume that the few figures who rise in prominence at any time are the key to understanding the church as a whole—that they in some way represent the Christian faith at that time. Hence if we tell the story of the church in the early twenty-first century, we may tell it through the lives and ministries of Sproul, Packer, MacArthur, Stott, and Piper. We assume that if we understand them, we have gained a representative understanding of Christians and ministries during their time. Understand them, we think, and you’re understanding all of us.
The great man theory has generally fallen out of favor among historians for a good number of reasons, among them that it’s too simplistic and that it’s difficult (or even impossible) to prove. That’s not to deny, of course, that some people have an outsized impact on any generation. It’s simply to deny that history revolves around the few rather than the many. And it’s to deny that the church depends on the few rather than the many.
We are thankful for preachers of extraordinary ability—the kind who step up to the podiums at the major Christian conferences or whose voice goes out over the airwaves. We are grateful for their ministries and grateful for all the ways we have benefited from their words. But at the same time, we know that the cause of the gospel would grind to a halt if it were not for 10,000 preachers of average ability—the kind who step up to pulpits in living rooms, school gymnasiums, and little churches far out into the countryside. Take away any one of those great men and the church would carry on unhindered; take away those ten thousand unknown men and the result would be catastrophic.
Similarly, we are thankful for those Christians of extraordinary wealth whose grand acts of generosity can make such a difference to churches and ministries. We enjoy reading about those individuals, families, or trusts who have made it their goal to give away vast amounts of wealth to the best of all causes. But if those families were to disappear or spend their last dollar, the church would survive just fine. However, if we were to take away the faithful giving of the ten thousands upon ten thousands who bring little more than their two copper coins, the ministry of the local church would be harshly hindered.
The most crucial work of ministry has little to do with “out there” in the wider Christian world and everything to do with “in here” in the local church.Share
We are thankful for the experts in marriage and parenting and a host of other important issues, experts who teach courses and lead seminars before great crowds. But most of us have had our marriages and parenting transformed far more by the examples before us each week in the local church. If the experts were to close down their seminars and shut down their conferences, the church would grieve for a moment, and then press on. But if the ordinary believers in your church and mine were to stop mentoring the people they see each and every Sunday, the church would be devastated. The most crucial work of ministry has little to do with “out there” in the wider Christian world and everything to do with “in here” in the local church. It has little to do with the few and the famous and far more to do with the many and the unknown.
It is good to thank God for those few men and few women who have been granted high podiums and wide ministries, and who have made their mark on so many of us. We truly thank the Lord for them. But they are not the story of what God is accomplishing in this world. The true story happens when the church gathers as God’s local community here and there, near and far, week by week. It’s in these little communities that God carries out the best of his purposes and in them that we see the strength of his hand.