What is Marriage? (Part 2)

Biblical Authority as the Basis for Defining Marriage

Part 3. Premise 2. The God of the Bible is its designer. Special revelation. Biblical authority. The Bible has proven itself authentic in every area in which a test can be performed. Historically, scientifically, prophetically, textually, and applicably.

The Bible has stood the test of time, meeting every qualification required to satisfy the status of truth. Hundreds of fulfilled prophecies, scientific truths, proclaimed thousands of years before science discovered them, and martyrs who went to their deaths refusing to deny the miraculous, are just the drop in the bucket of mounting evidence for biblical authority.

However, it is not because of this evidence that the Bible is true. Rather, evidence exists because the Bible is true. Assuming that the Bible is true, let us examine what the God of the universe says about the institution of marriage.

Jesus' Teaching on Marriage and One Flesh

Marriage and the Bible. Quoting from Genesis, the Apostle Matthew records Jesus himself explaining the institution of marriage.

And he answered and said, Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female? And said, For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.

So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.

The union of man and woman is therefore an institution which God himself sanctions. Therefore, no government or religious institution can change God's decree. All they can do is either recognize or repudiate what is already established.

It should be obvious that the union which took place between the first man and woman was a universal blueprint for all of mankind. Neither Adam nor Eve had parents. However, it was from their juncture that God declared,.

For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

The previous verses indicate the cause for which marriage is established.

Creation, Complementarity, and the Purpose of Children

Then the Lord God said, It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make him a helper suitable for him. Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them.

And whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all the cattle and to the birds of the sky and to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him.

So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept. Then he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which he had taken from the man and brought her to the man.

The man said, This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman.

Women are therefore suitable helpers, but what help was woman supposed to assist man in accomplishing?

God blessed them, and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.

One of the very first commands in scripture, sometimes referred to as the Adamic dispensation, requires a heterosexual relationship. The command to produce children and rule over creation is still in effect today.

This command to be fertile goes beyond merely the production of children. It also encompasses training them.

Children, obey your parents and the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with a promise, so that it may be well with you and that you may live long on the earth.

Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

The survival and success of offspring depends very much on the parent's example and instruction. Another important purpose for marriage can be found in Paul's letter to the Ephesians.

Christ and the Church as the Pattern for Marriage

And be subject to one another in the fear of Christ. Wives, be subject to your own husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, he himself being the Savior of the body.

But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for her, so that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that he might present to himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she would be holy and blameless.

So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself, for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, because we are members of his body.

For this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother, and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is great, but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.

Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband.

Many modern critics of the Bible tend to focus in on wives be subject to your own husbands, forgetting to read the passage in context. Paul is postulating a parallel comparison to be made between the relationship between Christ and the church and between husbands and wives.

Even the non-Christian marriage demonstrates a picture of the love Christ has for his church when he loves his wife.

Marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled, for fornicators and adulterers God will judge.

We can see from this passage that God holds marriage in a place of honor. It is a sanctioned institution for the purpose of procreation, conservation of creation, and a picture of the relationship Christ has with his church.

Since the purpose of this video is to define what marriage is, and not to examine homosexual practices, we will not go into any of the natural or biblical consequences or punishments reserved for a sexually deviant lifestyle.

Conclusion: Marriage as a God-Ordered Institution

Part Four. Conclusion. It's what he said. Based upon these premises, it can clearly be seen that there exists an institution arranged by nature and sanctioned by God for the intention of producing and raising children, being good stewards of the earth, and mirroring the relationship that Christ has with his church.

This institution has, throughout the human experience, been designated by different names. In English, the name is marriage. The 1828 edition of Webster's Dictionary describes marriage as a contract both civil and religious by which the parties engage to live together in mutual affection and fidelity, till death shall separate them.

Marriage was instituted by God himself for the purpose of preventing the promiscuous intercourse of the sexes, for promoting domestic felicity, and for securing the maintenance and education of children.

This universally accepted term for marriage has only met challenges in recent times. The current edition of Webster's Dictionary describes marriage as. 1. The state of being united to a person of the opposite sex as husband or wife in a consensual and contractual relationship recognized by law.

2. The state of being united to a person of the same sex in a relationship like that of traditional marriage. The adjustment for same-sex relationships aside, what basis is being cited as having the authority to define what marriage is?

In the 1828 edition, God set the terms. In the current edition, man set the terms by the means of the law. Of course, if the two premises described in this article are true, then a horrible error has occurred.

Man has replaced God as the authority. To me, definitions are important. Without them, we couldn't communicate. The Pythagorean theorem would be impossible to prove if there was no consensus on what a line truly was.

If one person said a line was a curve in between two points, and another said it was the shortest distance, very different outcomes would become prominent when it came time to apply these definitions.

Applying this concept to marriage, Allen Keyes brilliantly stated in a 2004 debate with Barack Obama,.

But when it is impossible as between two males or two females, you're talking about something that's not just incidentally impossible, it's impossible in principle. And that means that if you say that that's a marriage, you are saying marriage can be understood in principle apart from procreation.

You have changed its definition in such a way as, in fact, to destroy the necessity for the institution. Since the only reason it has existed in human societies and civilizations was to regulate from a social point of view the obligations and responsibilities attendant upon procreation.

No matter how human beings try to twist words around, the universal facts will always remain. Both lines and marriages are straight institutions. Changing the definition of the word won't change the self-evident law of nature, or that of nature's God.

We can, as a people, either affirm what is true, or stick our heads in the sand in rebellion.

Say that you're tolerant and open-minded. Well, here's your chance to prove it to me. Tolerate this. I believe in marriage. Tolerate this. Between a woman and a man. Tolerate this.