In Brad Wilcox’s new book, he recommends that people get married. It will be published within a couple of days. One cannot, in good conscience, do anything but cheer this advice. A strong stable marriage works to the benefit of participants. A society where more people are married manifests greater social stability and cohesion. These are good things.
Everything one needs to know about marriage, its purpose and how to successfully achieve it may be found in The Bible. God made Man and Woman in His image, male and female He made them, admonishing them to be fruitful, multipy and subdue the earth. Jesus, the physical embodiment of God in human flesh, said, "... Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, and said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder." After expressing this ideal of the marriage bond, when challenged by some pharisees regarding divorce, He acknowledged man's inability to attain the ideal in marriage (or anything else for that matter) and, "He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so. And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery." So these things are clear: first, that marriage is only for a man and a woman; second, that it is meant to be for life; third, that because Man is depraved (in the dramatic but accurate phrase of Calvin) there would be times when the ideal is not only not obtained but actually shattered by the actions of one of the marriage partners. The Bible thus allows for both a romantic, loving basis for marriage as well as a practical one along with an overarching spiritual purpose, viz., to represent in earthly terms the ideal relationship between God and Hs creation, mankind. In a generally secular society, this Biblical ideal is achieved only by committed Biblical believers, something that is now only rarely encountered. It should not be a source of puzzlement, then that our society has also become depraved.
Everything one needs to know about marriage, its purpose and how to successfully achieve it may be found in The Bible. God made Man and Woman in His image, male and female He made them, admonishing them to be fruitful, multipy and subdue the earth. Jesus, the physical embodiment of God in human flesh, said, "... Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, and said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder." After expressing this ideal of the marriage bond, when challenged by some pharisees regarding divorce, He acknowledged man's inability to attain the ideal in marriage (or anything else for that matter) and, "He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so. And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery." So these things are clear: first, that marriage is only for a man and a woman; second, that it is meant to be for life; third, that because Man is depraved (in the dramatic but accurate phrase of Calvin) there would be times when the ideal is not only not obtained but actually shattered by the actions of one of the marriage partners. The Bible thus allows for both a romantic, loving basis for marriage as well as a practical one along with an overarching spiritual purpose, viz., to represent in earthly terms the ideal relationship between God and Hs creation, mankind. In a generally secular society, this Biblical ideal is achieved only by committed Biblical believers, something that is now only rarely encountered. It should not be a source of puzzlement, then that our society has also become depraved.