Marriage Matters

marriage matters part two:

The marriage controversy today is primarily the result of the clashing of two world views.  A worldview is how one “digests” reality.  The two world views are — A Biblical Theistic worldview versus a Humanistic worldview.  Below illustrates the thinking according to each world view. The real issue here is not about marriage but really which world view “digests” reality comprehensively and coherently.   

Biblical Theistic Worldview	Humanistic Worldview
Marriage created by God	Marriage is a man-made social convention
Genders: male and female are equal but different complement each other	Gender: male and female gender is blurred and obscured
Marriage is between a man and a woman only	Marriage is open to whim of the society
Sex: sex is designed specifically for the marriage relationship	Sex: sex is open
Men and women are different from animals not just in degree but also in kind.	Men and women are only different in degree from animals.
Authority:  The ultimate reality is God and His authority	Authority: The ultimate authority is mankind.  “Man is the measure of all things.”

The last statement regarding authority is really the issue here.  By whose authority do choose — God’s or man’s or the State?  This is the long struggle of mankind: “Do we submit to God’s design of reality or do we define our own reality independent from God?”  

The reason we have such a moral culture clash today is because we have cast God off like an old worn out coat and we are determined to make our own reality.  Yet, ideas have consequences.  What we are witnessing is the changing of our moral mores to catch up with a humanistic worldview.  We have declared “God is dead” — He is no longer relevant to us. Now, we can chart our own course and make it on our own.  However, if God is dead, then man is dead.  And this is where our culture is headed.  We have turned our celebration of marriage and so much more into a dance of death.

So, which worldview comports most with all of reality?  A humanistic worldview “sees” reality as material only.  There is no spiritual truth or reality to life.  According to a humanistic or materialistic worldview all can be explained through the natural processes of our materialistic universe.  

Really?  

Is the materialistic universe really all there is or is there a spiritual reality as well.   A spiritual reality of justice, significance, purpose, love, and beauty for example.  In a humanistic-materialistic worldview these words are really meaningless.  

But are they?  Do not the words justice, love, purpose have weight to them or they simply empty vacuous words?  When we get down to it, many may claim that the materialistic world is all there is but they actually live contradictory lives in the day to day.  They live as though there was real justice, love and purpose.

We have lost the sacred view of marriage, of gender, and what it means to be human and now we are lost.  

What is Marriage?

Same Sex Marriage — What Say You?

“If we truly love each other why don’t we have the freedom to marry whomever we want regardless of gender?”  

Sounds right doesn’t it?  I mean who is against freedom?  

However on second thought what do we mean by freedom and is it true we are free to choose to do whatever we want?  Really?  Freedom is not the ability to do whatever we want but the power to do what is right.  Yes, we have freedom but not absolute freedom to do whatever we want.  

I heard a man on the radio use this analogy. He said, “ just as we should not discriminate and prohibit people from two different races from marrying so also we should not prohibit two people of the same sex to marry. They should be free to marry whomever they want.”   Is he serious?  As Dennis Prager has stated, “There are enormous differences between men and women, but there are no differences between people of different races. Men and women are inherently different, but blacks and whites (and yellows and browns) are inherently the same. Therefore, any imposed separation by race can never be moral or even rational; on the other hand, separation by sex can be both morally desirable and rational. Separate bathrooms for men and women is moral and rational; separate bathrooms for blacks and whites is not.”

We are not free to marry whomever we wish and there are many good reasons for this.  We are not free to marry a family member — incestual marriage is an illegitimate marriage.  We are not free to marry another if we are already married — polygamy is illegitimate.  Why are these two examples taboo?  And what right do we have to continue to say these are illegitimate marriages if we permit same sex marriage?  In doing so, don’t we open Pandora’s Box to all sorts of possible so-called marriages?  If not, why not?  

Why should we care who marries whom?  Marriage is the oldest institution of mankind.  It is over 5,000 years old and exists in every single human culture around the globe.  Every culture, every civilization, every religion has recognized marriage as that of between the two sexes: a man and a woman.  Why is this?

There are two questions that need to be asked in answering the original question of being free to marry whomever we want.

The first is, “What is marriage?” The second is, “Why does the government have an interest in regulating marriage?”   

The issue today is not ultimately about same sex marriage, but about marriage itself.  “Marriage is, of its essence, a comprehensive union of will (by consent) and body (by sexual union); inherently ordered to procreation and thus the broad sharing of family life; and calling for permanent and exclusive commitment, whatever the spouses’ preferences.”  (What is Marriage by Girgis Sherif; Anderson, Ryan T.; George Robert P.)

If same-sex “marriage” is allowed, then we misunderstand what marriage really is.  It becomes simply an emotional union versus a comprehensive union.  If marriage is merely an emotional union, then what is the difference between marriage and a deep friendship?  

We don’t legislate friendships and thus the government should not be interested in legislating marriage if marriage is nothing more than an emotional union.  However, even though emotional union is important in marriage, it is much more than that.  Marriage as defined above is a unique union which can only take place between a man and a woman.  It is the basic building block of the family and of society.  It is for this reason that the State has a vested interested in protecting traditional marriage.  For, in doing this, it helps to protect and sustain itself.  

If two people of the same sex want to live together and commit immorality, that is their choice but don’t call it marriage.  

Ebola:  This virus strikes fear in the heart of men and women.  It is described as a severe and often fatal virus.  Since this past March, 2014, the largest outbreak of the Ebola virus has taken place since 1976 and the result there is more deaths from this outbreak than all of the others combined.  It is estimated that 1.4 million people from Liberia and Sierra Leone by the end of January.  

Cure:  There is treatment that is effective if ebola is caught early.  

Sin:   This “virus” is even more virulent than ebola.  It has infected the entire human race inherited through the first man, Adam.  It is deadly, for one out of one dies.  Sin has ravaged the human race, the environment and the entire cosmos, Romans 8:20-23.  

No Human Cure:  There is no human cure for sin.  We try hard, though.  We make ourselves look good on the outside but on the inside we are full of greed, rebellion and selfish ambition.  We are like whitewashed tombstones:  outwardly we appear beautiful but within we are full of dead people’s bones. 

Heavenly Cure:  There is hope — for there is a cure.  The cure is from Jesus Christ.  Jesus is immune to sin and we can be cured through His blood.  We need to be “vaccinated” through the blood of Christ, for it is like an antibiotic that counteracts, overcomes and restores us to spiritual and moral health.  Then one day, we too, we too will be impervious to sin for all time. 

Free:  The “vaccination” is free because it has been fully paid for by God Himself.  But each one of us must choose choose Christ in order to be “vaccinated”.  

Have you been “vaccinated”?