Comments on: Marriage, Divorce and the Church http://matthewdgreen.com/2009/09/marriage-divorce-and-the-church/ Matt Green's articles, commentary and book reviews Fri, 13 Jan 2012 13:37:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Heather Green Shimansky http://matthewdgreen.com/2009/09/marriage-divorce-and-the-church/comment-page-1/#comment-551 Heather Green Shimansky Mon, 12 Oct 2009 05:08:56 +0000 http://matthewdgreen.com/?p=1015#comment-551 You brought up some very interesting points, Matthew. We personally dealt with those kinds of questions when we were planning to get married. In Ukraine, a Christian couple is not considered married, unless they have been blessed by the pastor/church (even if they already have a marriage license). As you know, we got legally married (meaning we had a ceremony at the government center and received our marriage license) three weeks before our church wedding/blessing--and according to the Christians, we were not married. I always considered us married during that time, because if we changed our minds and decided to not go through with the church ceremony and not be "married" we would have had to get divorced and all our legal records after that would say we were divorcees. Also, because I grew up in a culture where it is acceptable to be married by the justice of the peace. Of course, we didn't begin our life together until we had our church wedding--because according to the Christians that was when we were really married. Since God is the creator of marriage, that seems to be the Biblical way to go about getting married. But I still think that government, in a sense, can marry people---I just cannot really explain why I think that....need to think through that logic, because, in a way, that contradicts the idea that marriage is something that God performs. But the fact that the Apostle Paul talks about others being married (and doesn't seem to be referring to Believers, only) means those married by government are really married. They have still made their vows, although perhaps not before a group of Believers. I remember one Ukrainian couple (who had actually immigrated here to the States and got married here) talking about how there was some mess-up with them getting their marriage license before their wedding day. They went ahead with the church wedding and the honeymoon and got their marriage license two weeks after the wedding. That seemed so strange to me--like they were living together before getting married. But to them, it was totally acceptable because they were married--they had had their church ceremony and made their vows before God and the congregation. I do think that in God's sight a couple is not divorced (even though they are legally divorced) because God didn't create divorce, man did.--and that would explain why God says that a person who marries someone who is divorced commits adultery. Perhaps our culture and society is mainly what shapes how we view marriage--to be something that God does or man/government. You brought up some very interesting points, Matthew. We personally dealt with those kinds of questions when we were planning to get married. In Ukraine, a Christian couple is not considered married, unless they have been blessed by the pastor/church (even if they already have a marriage license). As you know, we got legally married (meaning we had a ceremony at the government center and received our marriage license) three weeks before our church wedding/blessing–and according to the Christians, we were not married. I always considered us married during that time, because if we changed our minds and decided to not go through with the church ceremony and not be “married” we would have had to get divorced and all our legal records after that would say we were divorcees. Also, because I grew up in a culture where it is acceptable to be married by the justice of the peace. Of course, we didn’t begin our life together until we had our church wedding–because according to the Christians that was when we were really married. Since God is the creator of marriage, that seems to be the Biblical way to go about getting married. But I still think that government, in a sense, can marry people—I just cannot really explain why I think that….need to think through that logic, because, in a way, that contradicts the idea that marriage is something that God performs. But the fact that the Apostle Paul talks about others being married (and doesn’t seem to be referring to Believers, only) means those married by government are really married. They have still made their vows, although perhaps not before a group of Believers.
I remember one Ukrainian couple (who had actually immigrated here to the States and got married here) talking about how there was some mess-up with them getting their marriage license before their wedding day. They went ahead with the church wedding and the honeymoon and got their marriage license two weeks after the wedding. That seemed so strange to me–like they were living together before getting married. But to them, it was totally acceptable because they were married–they had had their church ceremony and made their vows before God and the congregation.
I do think that in God’s sight a couple is not divorced (even though they are legally divorced) because God didn’t create divorce, man did.–and that would explain why God says that a person who marries someone who is divorced commits adultery.
Perhaps our culture and society is mainly what shapes how we view marriage–to be something that God does or man/government.

]]> By: Matt http://matthewdgreen.com/2009/09/marriage-divorce-and-the-church/comment-page-1/#comment-491 Matt Thu, 03 Sep 2009 19:46:40 +0000 http://matthewdgreen.com/?p=1015#comment-491 Thanks, Michael. I think this conversation is crucial to the "gay marriage" debate. From the biblical perspective, it's not that gay marriage is not allowed. It simply doesn't exist. The interesting thing is that, with my view, the government has no authority to grant marriage licenses. Therefore, a secular government may be free to provide for certain legal partnerships between same-sex couples or heterosexual couples. But it's not marriage. Thanks, Michael. I think this conversation is crucial to the “gay marriage” debate. From the biblical perspective, it’s not that gay marriage is not allowed. It simply doesn’t exist. The interesting thing is that, with my view, the government has no authority to grant marriage licenses. Therefore, a secular government may be free to provide for certain legal partnerships between same-sex couples or heterosexual couples. But it’s not marriage.

]]> By: Michael McDonald http://matthewdgreen.com/2009/09/marriage-divorce-and-the-church/comment-page-1/#comment-490 Michael McDonald Thu, 03 Sep 2009 19:34:05 +0000 http://matthewdgreen.com/?p=1015#comment-490 because I don't want to spend a lot of time in a reply i will just say - I agree with your points. The church is very lax in the way we deal with marriage. Part of our work here in Russia is to counsel per-marrieds and married couples n the local churches we serve - you have given me some interesting things t think about. Some of your thoughts will certainly be incorporated into our teaching and will affect families here. Thanks Just because I like to provoke people to think - How can/does/should all the above affect the current battle in America over homosexual marriage? because I don’t want to spend a lot of time in a reply i will just say – I agree with your points. The church is very lax in the way we deal with marriage. Part of our work here in Russia is to counsel per-marrieds and married couples n the local churches we serve – you have given me some interesting things t think about. Some of your thoughts will certainly be incorporated into our teaching and will affect families here. Thanks

Just because I like to provoke people to think – How can/does/should all the above affect the current battle in America over homosexual marriage?

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