Parents, teachers, and scholars vigorously search for the answer to preventing sexually active teenagers from teen pregnancy, disease, and from ruining their lives. They coordinate programs, both private and government, that will supposedly thwart this growing trend: they campaign over the television airways using pop stars and celebrities who blurt witty phrases and clauses they hope will permeate into young people's minds so they can stop the madness.

Scholars study families, students, and parents like scientist study lab rats, only to come up with a weak and exasperated solution that only gives consent to the problem, such as condoms, sex education, and safe sex courses.

Unfortunately, the answer is not in studies. Researchers avoid the root of the problem. Sex before marriage is a sin and many of those same minds that spend millions of dollars for these programs and campaigns commit the same sin. Unbridled sex is either fornication or adultery. Age does not matter when sin is in question, even if the person is only ten years old. If they have knowledge of sex and practice it purposefully, the moment they do they are committing an act of sin.

The most logical strategy society has come up with to combat premature teen sex - which brings about pregnancy, disease, and ruined lives - is abstinence, a strategy now gaining precedence among parents, some psychologist, and school officials. But before children can learn the concept of abstinence, the parents must first understand the concept themselves. This takes us to the issue of the Virgin Thief, which is at the root of the teen sex, consensual adult fornication, and adultery during marriage.

For anyone who has ever had sex before marriage, particularly at a young age, they are victims of the Virgin Thief. God intended for all, both males and females, to remain virgins until He placed them with their ordained spouse. The problem is that people do not have the patience to wait on God but they follow the trends of society.

Society says that sex is cool, nothing to be ashamed of, and the new age thing to do. Now that there is a teen sex problem, a disease problem, and a so-called overpopulation of the world problem, this sex problem is an epidemic. The Virgin Thief is a spirit that overshadows people, especially young virgins, and convinces them that sex is normal, everyone is doing it and at some point, they should too. This is where it all begins, at the point of virginity. Again, every parent should know the concept of abstinence and be able to answer any questions and give any explanations of its reasoning. Such as, why a young person should remain abstinent and what the benefits are of remaining a virgin. Well, here are the answers and the complete concept of abstinence and how to defeat the Virgin Thief.

We are all born virgins, and whether our parents attend church or not, we all belong to God in body and soul. Parents are responsible for instilling into their children the knowledge of God or a Supreme Being of any kind that enforces the laws of nature.

The parent is responsible for teaching the child right and wrong and what is good in life and what is not. Sex before marriage is as a bad thing and a seductive trap laid for the innocent soul. It is seductive because we are to save our bodies for the mate God has made for us and the seductive powers of sex wants us to share our bodies with anyone our bodies desire, which is called lust.

Once a person gives their body to another before marriage, they no longer belong to God, but to the power of lust, and they can never return to God unless they are born again. In only that manner will they become virgins again.

After lust has taken a body captive, that body falls into an abyss of sexual desire and promiscuity, which leads that body around from lover to lover. It is very difficult releasing the self from such a trap, unless the person regains control of their body. If they can once again regain control, they must stay abstinent for a period satisfactory to God before being cleansed again.

Cleansed again? Yes, cleansed again: if a person has sex before marriage, they have biblically committed fornication and have defiled the temple of God, which is the body. Their body is now joined to that of a harlot's body, which takes them into the abyss discussed earlier.

"What? Know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? For two, saith he, shall be one flesh. But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body, but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's" (1 Corinthians 6:16-20).

Once the temple is defiled by fornication, (premarital sex) the person has joined themselves to harlots and God no longer has complete custody of their body. This leads to other sins also. The servant is then slave to the master. If the master can convince the slave to give over their most precious possession to corruption, then the master can convince them to commit other sins. This is how marriages fall, by lies and deception. This is how relationships fall apart, by lust and obedience to seduction. And this is how we lose teens to many evil mentalities and immoral lifestyles, because they fall victim to the Virgin Thief.

Thus, we must address the root of the problem first, which is to defeat the Virgin Thief. Parents must convince their children, and themselves, that from birth and as long as they are virgins, they belong to God, but once they give over their bodies to fornication, they are the property of the Virgin Thief.

As long as one remains a virgin, they belong totally to God and can follow the direction of God more easily. They are pure in body, heart and in mind and can think clearer and judge soundly. They can live a more secure life, free from disease, unwanted pregnancies, and possibly heart-breaking or abusive relationships. Maintaining control over the body is practical and more logical than government programs, condoms, and sex education, and not to mention, cheaper.

© 2003 by C.R. Hamilton