Is a marriage ceremony performed by the state and not the church valid?
1 view
Is a marriage ceremony performed by the state and not the church valid? Yes it is.
- 00:05
- Is a marriage ceremony performed by an official of the state a legitimate marriage when that couple is not married by the church?
- 00:12
- The answer is yes. Let's take a look at Romans 13, 1 -2. Let every person be in subjection to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God.
- 00:26
- Therefore he who resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God, and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves.
- 00:35
- So we should be clear from the text, hopefully, that God has given the authority to the government and it is the authority of God.
- 00:43
- They're representing God. They're supposed to be. Well, at any rate, a marriage ceremony legally performed by a government authority is binding.
- 00:51
- It is legal. It is morally true. It would not be necessary to go through another ceremony in a church in order to validate that first ceremony.
- 00:59
- However, now, something to think about. If someone wanted to go through a marriage ceremony a second time in a church, that's perfectly acceptable.
- 01:05
- It does not invalidate the first marriage. But you have to be careful that you don't want to do this if you think the first one wasn't valid and you're a married couple and you're living together and you've been married by the state the first time and you think that, well, maybe it wasn't valid, then you shouldn't separate.
- 01:21
- I mean, excuse me, you should separate then at that point and not be living together because if you think it wasn't true, then you'd be living in sin.
- 01:29
- Because you'd be thinking, oh, it's not true, I'll be living in sin. In your mind, it would become sin at that point and that would be something that you'd want to avoid.
- 01:36
- So, let me just say, in conclusion, a marriage ceremony performed by the state is definitely valid because God has given the authority to the state to be able to perform such marriages.