Biblical purity and faithfulness cannot be distorted to permit any sexual activity outside the context of the biblical, monogamous, heterosexual marriage covenant.

Two Biblical Terms: “Adultery” and “Fornication”

Key to this study are the definitions of the words “adultery” and “fornication.” Fornication “may be regarded as more generic in meaning, and thus in certain contexts including adultery” (Louw and Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, 1989).

Where the two are distinguished, adultery (Greek m oicheia ) is “voluntary cohabitation of a married person with any other than his or her lawful spouse” (Elwell, Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, 1984, p. 14).

Fornication (Greek p orneia ) in its narrow definition is “voluntary sexual communion between an unmarried person and one of the opposite sex” (Elwell, p. 422); but in its broader usage means “to engage in sexual immorality of any kind, often with the implication of prostitution—‘to engage in illicit sex, to commit fornication, sexual immorality, fornication, prostitution’” (Louw and Nida). Therefore, it includes all sexual immorality by those who are married or unmarried.

Sex Outside of Marriage is Condemned for the Married or the Unmarried

It is impossible to view extra-marital sex by someone married or unmarried as permitted by God’s Word. To do so is to reject the definition of the biblical words and completely miss the repeated condemnation attending both acts. Regarding adultery by the married, this point is obvious throughout the Scriptures, and regarding the unmarried it is also clear, because these two terms for sexual sin are distinguished from each other and condemned in 1 Corinthians 6:9 and Hebrews 13:4.

As Informed by Marriage Doctrine

An examination of marriage doctrine, a unique covenant relationship paralleling God’s faithful and unique relationship with his people; the finality of the terms “leave” and “cleave” constituting the marriage vow (Genesis 2:24); and the profoundness of the “one flesh” union, also clearly dictate sexual purity for the unmarried and absolute faithfulness for the married. Sexual satisfaction is not a value regarded at all in the Scriptures except in the context of marriage, in which husbands and wives are commanded not to deprive their spouses of intimacy (1 Corinthians 7:3–5).

Purity and Faithfulness is the Rule of Life for All

Purity and faithfulness are expected of all people as the rule of life; so much so that the Old Testament regulations for Israel instructed that immorality and unfaithfulness receive the highest punishment for the protection of the people of God (Leviticus 20:10; Deuteronomy 22:22–29). Note that the church is not Israel; in the dispensation of the church, our instructions are to discipline immorality to the point of true repentance, or evident unrepentance and removal. Ultimately an immoral person who will not receive biblical instruction must be “removed” from the church (see 1 Corinthians 5; Matthew 18:15–20). This is not an immediate dissociation from sinners, since all have sinned; rather, it is a clear commandment from Jesus himself and also through the apostle Paul to remove the unrepentant who regard themselves as believers. This discipline is God’s means of awakening the darkened heart of those who reject God’s Word by their immorality, unrepentance, and disregard of God and his church.

Clarity Regarding Engagement, Divorce, and Separation

All sexual union outside of or in violation of a marriage covenant is clearly prohibited by God’s Word. This is a clear prohibition of adultery for the married as well as premarital sex of any kind for the unmarried or extra-marital sex of any kind for the divorced and widowed.

• Engagement does not include the rights and privileges of marriage; therefore, those who are engaged are unmarried, and sexual relations by an engaged couple is fornication.
• Also, when a married couple becomes legally divorced, they are not permitted to have sexual relations with each other or anyone else they are not married to. To do so is fornication.
• Finally, for a couple who is separated, but not legally divorced, sexual relations with anyone besides the legal spouse is adultery; and even if they are legally divorced, is prohibited as fornication.

Other Biblical Terms Also Thoroughly Address Sexual Immorality

The seriousness of sexual purity and faithfulness throughout the Bible is also highlighted in statements like Job’s in Job 31:1, the extensive instructions of Proverbs on the subject, Jesus’ and Paul’s regulations concerning marriage and divorce (see the DBC Marriage, Divorce, Remarriage Policy), instructions regarding “sensuality,” “fleshly desires,” “carousal,” “lusts,” and “impurity,” at least seventy-six passages, all of which speak of the same thing, such as Mark 7:22, Romans 1:24; 6:12, 19; 13:14; 1 Corinthians 6:13, 18; 7:2; 10:8; 2 Corinthians 12:21; Galatians 5:19, 21; Ephesians 2:3; 4:19; 5:5; Colossians 3:5; 1 Thessalonians 4:3–8; 1 Timothy 1:10; 2 Timothy 2:22; Titus 3:3; 1 Peter 1:14; 2:11; 4:2, 3; 2 Peter 2:2, 7, 13, 18; 3:3; 1 John 2:16; Jude 1:18; and Revelations 21:8; 22:15. Revelations describes the final example of corruption and idolatry, Babylon, in terms of sexual perversion, Revelation 2:14, 20; 9:21; 14:8; 17:2, 4; 18:3, 7, 9; and 19:2.

Rejection of Sexual Purity is Rejection of God

Not only are we not to practice these things, but any taint of our reputation should be unheard of (Ephesians 5:3), and rejecting this teaching about sexual purity and faithfulness is rejection of God (1 Thessalonians 4:8). Furthermore, Paul warns Timothy it is characteristic of the rebellion of false teachers to confidently assert immoral, lawless philosophies to stray from the love of the gospel, which is from “a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith” (1 Timothy 1:3–11).

Genesis 2:24 (NASB) For this cause a man shall leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.

Exodus 20:14 (NASB) “You shall not commit adultery.”

Leviticus 18:20 (NASB) “And you shall not have intercourse with your neighbor’s wife, to be defiled with her.”

Leviticus 20:10 (NASB) “If there is a man who commits adultery with another man’s wife, one who commits adultery with his friend’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.”

Deuteronomy 5:18 (NASB) “You shall not commit adultery.”

Deuteronomy 22:22–29 (NASB) “If a man is found lying with a married woman, then both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman, and the woman; thus you shall purge the evil from Israel. 2 3 If there is a girl who is a virgin engaged to a man, and another man finds her in the city and lies with her, 2 4 then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city and you shall stone them to death; the girl, because she did not cry out in the city, and the man, because he has violated his neighbor’s wife. Thus you shall purge the evil from among you. 2 5 “But if in the field the man finds the girl who is engaged, and the man forces her and lies with her, then only the man who lies with her shall die. 2 6 But you shall do nothing to the girl; there is no sin in the girl worthy of death, for just as a man rises against his neighbor and murders him, so is this case. 2 7 When he found her in the field, the engaged girl cried out, but there was no one to save her. 2 8 If a man finds a girl who is a virgin, who is not engaged, and seizes her and lies with her and they are discovered, 2 9 then the man who lay with her shall give to the girl’s father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall become his wife because he has violated her; he cannot divorce her all his days.”

Job 31:1 (NASB) “I Have made a covenant with my eyes; How then could I gaze at a virgin?”

Proverbs 3:32 (NASB) For the crooked [perverse or devious] man is an abomination to the LORD; But He is intimate with the upright.

Proverbs 4:20–27 (NASB) My son, give attention to my words; Incline your ear to my sayings. 2 1 Do not let them depart from your sight; Keep them in the midst of your heart. 2 2 For they are life to those who find them, And health to all their whole body. 2 3 Watch over your heart with all diligence, For from it flow the springs of life. 2 4 Put away from you a deceitful mouth, And put devious lips far from you. 2 5 Let your eyes look directly ahead, And let your gaze be fixed straight in front of you. 2 6 Watch the path of your feet, And all your ways will be established. 2 7 Do not turn to the right nor to the left; Turn your foot from evil.

Proverbs 5:1–23 (NASB) My son, give attention to my wisdom, Incline your ear to my understanding; 2 That you may observe discretion, And your lips may reserve knowledge. 3 For the lips of an adulteress drip honey, And smoother than oil is her speech; 4 But in the end she is bitter as wormwood, Sharp as a two-edged sword. 5 Her feet go down to death, Her steps lay hold of Sheol. 6 She does not ponder the path of life; Her ways are unstable, she does not know it. 7 Now then, my sons, listen to me, And do not depart from the words of my mouth. 8 Keep your way far from her, And do not go near the door of her house, 9 Lest you give your vigor to others, And your years to the cruel one; 1 0 Lest strangers be filled with your strength, And your hard-earned goods go to the house of an alien; 1 1 And you groan at your latter end, When your flesh and your body are consumed; 1 2 And you say, “How I have hated instruction! And my heart spurned reproof! 1 3 “And I have not listened to the voice of my teachers, Nor inclined my ear to my instructors! 1 4 “I was almost in utter ruin In the midst of the assembly and congregation.” 1 5 Drink water from your own cistern, And fresh water from your own well. 1 6 Should your springs be dispersed abroad, Streams of water in the streets? 1 7 Let them be yours alone, And not for strangers with you. 1 8 Let your fountain be blessed, And rejoice in the wife of your youth. 1 9 As a loving hind and a graceful doe, Let her breasts satisfy you at all times; Be exhilarated always with her love. 2 0 For why should you, my son, be exhilarated with an adulteress, And embrace the bosom of a foreigner? 2 1 For the ways of a man are before the eyes of the LORD, And He watches all his paths. 2 2 His own iniquities will capture the wicked, And he will be held with the cords of his sin. 2 3 He will die for lack of instruction, And in the greatness of his folly he will go astray.

Proverbs 6:20–35 (NASB) My son, observe the commandment of your father, And do not forsake the teaching of your mother; 2 1 Bind them continually on your heart; Tie them around your neck. 2 2 When you walk about, they will guide you; When you sleep, they will watch over you; And when you awake, they will talk to you. 2 3 For the commandment is a lamp, and the teaching is light; And reproofs for discipline are the way of life, 2 4 To keep you from the evil woman, From the smooth tongue of the adulteress. 2 5 Do not desire her beauty in your heart, Nor let her catch you with her eyelids. 2 6 For on account of a harlot one is reduced to a loaf of bread, And an adulteress hunts for the precious life. 2 7 Can a man take fire in his bosom, And his clothes not be burned? 2 8 Or can a man walk on hot coals, And his feet not be scorched? 2 9 So is the one who goes in to his neighbor’s wife; Whoever touches her will not go unpunished. 3 0 Men do not despise a thief if he steals To satisfy himself when he is hungry; 3 1 But when he is found, he must repay sevenfold; He must give all the substance of his house. 3 2 The one who commits adultery with a woman is lacking sense; He who would destroy himself does it. 3 3 Wounds and disgrace he will find, And his reproach will not be blotted out. 3 4 For jealousy enrages a man, And he will not spare in the day of vengeance. 3 5 He will not accept any ransom, Nor will he be content though you give many gifts.

Proverbs 7:1–27 (NASB) My son, keep my words, And treasure my commandments within you. 2 Keep my commandments and live, And my teaching as the apple of your eye. 3 Bind them on your fingers; Write them on the tablet of your heart. 4 Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,” And call understanding your intimate friend; 5 That they may keep you from an adulteress, From the foreigner who flatters with her words. 6 For at the window of my house I looked out through my lattice, 7 And I saw among the naive, I discerned among the youths, A young man lacking sense, 8 Passing through the street near her corner; And he takes the way to her house, 9 In the twilight, in the evening, In the middle of the night and in the darkness. 1 0 And behold, a woman comes to meet him, Dressed as a harlot and cunning of heart. 1 1 She is boisterous and rebellious; Her feet do not remain at home; 1 2 She is now in the streets, now in the squares, And lurks by every corner. 1 3 So she seizes him and kisses him, And with a brazen face she says to him: 1 4 “I was due to offer peace offerings; Today I have paid my vows. 1 5 Therefore I have come out to meet you, To seek your presence earnestly, and I have found you. 1 6 I have spread my couch with coverings, With colored linens of Egypt. 1 7 I have sprinkled my bed With myrrh, aloes and cinnamon. 1 8 Come, let us drink our fill of love until morning; Let us delight ourselves with caresses. 1 9 For the man is not at home, He has gone on a long journey; 2 0 He has taken a bag of money with him, At full moon he will come home.” 2 1 With her many persuasions she entices him; With her flattering lips she seduces him. 2 2 Suddenly he follows her, As an ox goes to the slaughter, Or as one in fetters to the discipline of a fool, 2 3 Until an arrow pierces through his liver; As a bird hastens to the snare, So he does not know that it will cost him his life. 2 4 Now therefore, my sons, listen to me, And pay attention to the words of my mouth. 2 5 Do not let your heart turn aside to her ways, Do not stray into her paths. 2 6 For many are the victims she has cast down, And numerous are all her slain. 2 7 Her house is the way to Sheol, Descending to the chambers of death.

Proverbs 11:22 (NASB) As a ring of gold in a swine’s snout, So is a beautiful woman who lacks discretion.

Ezekiel 23:43–49 (NASB) “Then I said concerning her who was worn out by adulteries, ‘Will they now commit adultery with her when she is thus?’ 4 4 “But they went in to her as they would go in to a harlot. Thus they went in to Oholah and to Oholibah, the lewd women. 4 5 “But they, righteous men, will judge them with the judgment of adulteresses, and with the judgment of women who shed blood, because they are adulteresses and blood is on their hands. 4 6 “For thus says the Lord GOD, ‘Bring up a company against them, and give them over to terror and plunder. 4 7 ‘And the company will stone them with stones and cut them down with their swords; they will slay their sons and their daughters and burn their houses with fire. 4 8 ‘Thus I shall make lewdness cease from the land, that all women may be admonished and not commit lewdness as you have done. 4 9 ‘And your lewdness will be requited upon you, and you will bear the penalty of worshiping your idols; thus you will know that I am the Lord GOD.’”

Matthew 5:27–28 (NASB) “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery’; 2 8 but I say to you, that everyone who looks on a woman to lust for her has committed adultery with her already in his heart.

Mark 7:22 (NASB) deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness.

Romans 1:24 (NASB) Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, that their bodies might be dishonored among them.

Romans 6:12 (NASB) Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts,

Romans 6:19 (NASB) I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.

Romans 13:14 (NASB) But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.

1Corinthians 5:1–13 (NASB) It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father’s wife. 2 And you have become arrogant, and have not mourned instead, in order that the one who had done this deed might be removed from your midst. 3 For I, on my part, though absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged him who has so committed this, as though I were present. 4 In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled, and I with you in spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus, 5 I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. 6 Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough? 7 Clean out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. 8 Let us therefore celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. 9 I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people; 1 0 I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters; for then you would have to go out of the world. 1 1 But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he should be an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler — not even to eat with such a one. 1 2 For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church? 1 3 But those who are outside, God judges. Remove the wicked man from among yourselves.

1Corinthians 6:9–10 (NASB) Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, 1 0 nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the kingdom of God.

1 Corinthians 6:12–20 (NASB) All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything. 1 3 Food is for the stomach, and the stomach is for food; but God will do away with both of them. Yet the body is not for immorality, but for the Lord; and the Lord is for the body. 1 4 Now God has not only raised the Lord, but will also raise us up through His power. 1 5 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? May it never be! 1 6 Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a harlot is one body with her? For He says, “The two will become one flesh.” 1 7 But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him. 1 8 Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. 1 9 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? 2 0 For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.

1Corinthians 7:1–5 (NIV) Now for the matters you wrote about: It is good for a man not to marry [This is in light of the persecutions common in Paul’s day (7:26).]. 2 But since there is so much immorality, each man should have his own wife, and each woman her own husband. 3 The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. 4 The wife’s body does not belong to her alone but also to her husband. In the same way, the husband’s body does not belong to him alone but also to his wife. 5 Do not deprive each other except by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

1Corinthians 10:8 (NASB) Nor let us act immorally, as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in one day.

2 Corinthians 12:21 (NASB) I am afraid that when I come again my God may humiliate me before you, and I may mourn over many of those who have sinned in the past and not repented of the impurity, immorality and sensuality which they have practiced.

Galatians 5:19 (NASB) Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality,

Galatians 5:21 (NASB) envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you just as I have forewarned you that those who practice such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

Ephesians 2:3 (NASB) Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.

Ephesians 4:19 (NASB) and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality, for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.

Ephesians 5:3–8 (NASB) But do not let immorality or any impurity or greed even be named among you, as is proper among saints; 4 and there must be no filthiness and silly talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. 5 For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. 7 Therefore do not be partakers with them; 8 for you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light.

Colossians 3:5 (NASB) Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.

1 Thessalonians 4:3–8 (NASB) For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality; 4 that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, 5 not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God; 6 and that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter because the Lord is the avenger in all these things, just as we also told you before and solemnly warned you. 7 For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification. 8 Consequently, he who rejects this is not rejecting man but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you.

1Timothy 1:10 (NASB) and immoral men and homosexuals and kidnappers and liars and perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching,

1 Timothy 5:2 (NASB) the older women as mothers, and the younger women as sisters, in all purity.

2Timothy 2:22 (NASB) Now flee from youthful lusts, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.

Titus 3:3 (NASB) For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another.

Hebrews 13:4 (NASB) Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled; for fornicators and adulterers God will judge.

James 1:14 (NASB) But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust.

James 4:2 (NASB) You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. And you are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask.

1 Peter 1:13–16 (NASB) Therefore, gird your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 1 4 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, 1 5 but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; 1 6 because it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

1Peter 1:14 (NASB) As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance,

1Peter 2:11 (NASB) Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts, which wage war against the soul.

1Peter 4:2–3 (NASB) so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. 3 For the time already past is sufficient for you to have carried out the desire of the Gentiles, having pursued a course of sensuality, lusts, drunkenness, carousals, drinking parties and abominable idolatries.

2Peter 2:2 (NASB) And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned;

2Peter 2:7 (NASB) and if He rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men

2Peter 2:13 (NASB) suffering wrong as the wages of doing wrong. They count it a pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are stains and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, as they carouse with you,

2Peter 2:18 (NASB) For speaking out arrogant words of vanity they entice by fleshly desires, by sensuality, those who barely escape from the ones who live in error,

2Peter 3:3 (NASB) Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts,

1John 2:16 (NASB) For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.

Jude 1:7 (NASB) Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example, in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.

Jude 1:18 (NASB) that they were saying to you, “In the last time there shall be mockers, following after their own ungodly lusts.”

Revelation 2:14 (NASB) ‘But I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit acts of immorality.

Revelation 2:20–21 (NASB) ‘But I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and she teaches and leads My bond-servants astray, so that they commit acts of immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. 2 1 ‘And I gave her time to repent; and she does not want to repent of her immorality.

Revelation 9:21 (NASB) and they did not repent of their murders nor of their sorceries nor of their immorality nor of their thefts.

Revelation 14:8 (NASB) And another angel, a second one, followed, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who has made all the nations drink of the wine of the passion of her immorality.”

Revelation 17:2 (NASB) with whom the kings of the earth committed acts of immorality, and those who dwell on the earth were made drunk with the wine of her immorality.”

Revelation 17:4 (NASB) And the woman was clothed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a gold cup full of abominations and of the unclean things of her immorality,

Revelation 18:3 (NASB) “For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the passion of her immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed acts of immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich by the wealth of her sensuality.”

Revelation 18:7 (NASB) “To the degree that she glorified herself and lived sensuously, to the same degree give her torment and mourning; for she says in her heart, ‘I sit as a queen and I am not a widow, and will never see mourning.’

Revelation 18:9 (NASB) “And the kings of the earth, who committed acts of immorality and lived sensuously with her, will weep and lament over her when they see the smoke of her burning,

Revelation 19:2 (NASB) because His judgments are true and righteous; for He has judged the great harlot who was corrupting the earth with her immorality, and He has avenged the blood of His bond-servants on her.”

Revelation 21:8 (NASB) “But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”

Revelation 2 2:15 (NASB) Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the immoral persons and the murderers and the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices lying.