Eric stormed into my office and flopped into a chair. “I’m really mad at God.” Having grown up in a strong church family, he’d met and married a Christian girl. Now he was the picture of misery. “Okay…so why are you mad at God?” “Because,” he said, “last week I committed adultery.” Long pause. Finally I said, “I can see why God would be mad at you. But why are you mad at God?” Eric explained that for several months he’d felt a strong, mutual attraction with a woman at his office. He’d prayed earnestly that God would keep him from immorality. “Did you ask your wife to pray for you?” I said. “Did you stay away from the woman?” “Well…no. We went out for lunch almost every day.” Slowly I started pushing a book across my desk. Eric watched, uncomprehending, as the book inched closer and closer to the edge. I prayed aloud, “O Lord, please keep this book from falling!” I kept pushing and praying. God didn’t suspend the law of gravity. The book went right over the edge, smacking the floor. “I’m mad at God,” I said to Eric. “I asked Him to keep my book from falling…but He let me down!”
Alcorn’s point: “We all need foresight to see where today’s choices will leave us. With every little thought or glance that fuels our lust, we push ourselves closer to the edge, where gravity will take over and bring our lives crashing down. Don’t kid yourself that it can never happen to you–it can. And if you don’t think it can, it almost certainly will.”
The basic premise of the book is that immorality is not just wrong, it’s stupid. Alcorn’s purity principle is:Purity is always smart; impurity is always stupid. Not sometimes. Not usually. Always.