What constitutes a marriage?

[levi501]

I was curious as to what must take place for two people to be considered married according to the bible and God?

 

[loriersea]

I think that two people making a serious, considered life-long commitment to each other before God constitutes a marriage in God's eyes.

 

[katautumn]

When we speak to one another and when we talk in our respective social circles, my fiance and I refer to one another as "husband and wife". We won't be taking legal vows until next month, but that's merely finalizing the matter from a legal standpoint so that financial and healthcare issues can be addressed and covered properly. We started calling one another husband and wife after we moved in together. We share a home. We share a bed. We share in the responsibilities of taking care of his mother who has Alzheimer's. We are a part of each other's lives.

 

[coyoteBR]

Where's the option about "true, overwhelming love" on this poll?

Sorry, I am a romantic doggy...

I tend to agree two adult, responsible persons know when they are married; they know when they want to epend every and each day at the side of the other person, talk about everything and nothing, smile and cry together, not care about who gets the remote or the window side of the bed.
That is what maters to God, in my opinion.

And some legal document is more than welcome to avoid tons of problems and to make life easier in banks, hospitals, tax payments, etc.

 

[praying]

I think that two people making a serious, considered life-long commitment to each other before God constitutes a marriage in God's eyes.

I agree, but I don't think that has to be at a church but should be done with witnesses of the commtiment.

 

[tocis]

I was curious as to what must take place for two people to be considered married according to the bible and God?

Duh - I voted before reading that you wanted just christian votes.

Subtract one from the last option then

 

[LittleNipper]

I was curious as to what must take place for two people to be considered married according to the bible and God?

For GOD to consider a union a marriage, two people must be able to have sexual relations in a way that might produce children, GOD willing.

 

[praying]

For GOD to consider a union a marriage, two people must be able to have sexual relations in a way that might produce children, GOD willing.

So those that can't have children naturally (sexual intercourse) but have sucessfully reproduced via artificial insemination aren't married in the eyes of God?

 

[coyoteBR]

For GOD to consider a union a marriage, two people must be able to have sexual relations in a way that might produce children, GOD willing.

And a couple with an infertile husband, or a wife who lost the uterus due to a illness and adopt a child are not married nor a family?

And God Is Worried, not with the persons fell to each other, but with what they do between four walls?

Please, allow me to say such Theology makes little sense.

 

[Ananel]

For GOD to consider a union a marriage, two people must be able to have sexual relations in a way that might produce children, GOD willing.

missaplication of the divine blessing, not command, of Genesis 1, wherein God blessed them, and said "be fruitful and multiply." To turn the term beraka from Genesis 1:28 into "command" or to change this imperative from one of wish or proclamation of a desire for someone into a command is to alter the multiple methods of usage of imperatives and to defy the meaning of the core hebrew word for blessing.

I quote Archer, Harris and Waltke on the subject, (Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament-Volume 1, page 132, heading 285, 285a-c

This root and its derivatives occur 415 times. The majority are in the Piel stem (214) which is translated "to bless." The Qal passive participle "Blessed" occurs sixty-one times. The meaning "to kneel" appears only three times, twice in the Qal and once in Hiphil. On this basis some argue that barak "to kneel" is a denominative verb from berek "knee" and is unrelated to barak "to bless." However, there may have been a felt association between kneeling and the receiving of a blessing. To bless in the OT means "to endue with power for success, prosperity, fecundity, longevity, ect."

Never will you find barak or its derivatives to imply a command. When god gives you a blessing, he does not take the rod of the law into his hand instead. He is a good father and his blessings are gifts, not commands. He blesses you, and he blessed Adam and Eve, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply." He did not command them. He gave a wish, in accordance with the standard grammatical forms of his divinely chosen language of Hebrew, the use of the imperative as the conveyance of a wish, An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax, Waltke/O'Connor, page 571, referencing Genesis 24:60 and Numbers 5:19 as examples of the usage.

Blessings are not commands, and I might remind you that the marriage of a barren woman or man in the OT and NT was still valid, even if it was known to have no possibility of bearing children. Or, were you intending to say that Zechariah's marriage was perhaps invalid until the promise of the birth of John, long after the time had come when childbearing was possible?

 

[Torchwood]

From what I can find in the bible, marriage then seems no different then now. A legal contract with commitments between two people, with standards set legally for property. The bible seems more concerned that you live within the laws of your land then giving ironclad rules for most things.

 

[LittleNipper]

So those that can't have children naturally (sexual intercourse) but have sucessfully reproduced via artificial insemination aren't married in the eyes of God?

I said the possibility of having children through the act, the LORD willing. I also feel that artificial insemination can be a blessing from GOD. I believe where artificial insemination is being abused is where say a third party is enlisted so a same sex couple can have offspring... This is an abomination. The child is not an abomination but the circumstances are....

 

[LittleNipper]

And a couple with an infertile husband, or a wife who lost the uterus due to a illness and adopt a child are not married nor a family?

And God Is Worried, not with the persons fell to each other, but with what they do between four walls?

Please, allow me to say such Theology makes little sense.

The difference is that they consumated the marriage bed with the intention of siring children. GOD knows everyone's heart. You cannot hide intentions from the LORD. GOD wants to see everyone become CHRIST like. So yes, GOD care about EVERYTHING you do. Theology make lots of sense, it is man's actions and desires that make little sense.

 

[LittleNipper]

It feels like I'm never going to be married in the eyes of God.

Dated my husband for 4 years... Apparently didn't count since I've been on birth control the whole time.

Got married October... Doesn't count since we're still having sex and I'm on birth control.

We've talked about having kids... But I'm starting college next week and he wants to change careers before we have children. So we're at least 2 years away from babies, which means at least 2 years away from us having sex without birth control. So that means that in the eyes of your god, LittleNipper, I'm still not married?

As a Christian who goes about thinking that unprotected sex equates marriage, how can you pick out the legions upon legions of married people who aren't truly married in God's eyes, and all of the teenagers who're apparently married according to God and don't know it?

How many unprotected encounters make a marriage in God's eyes? How many encounters with birth control dissolve a marriage in God's eyes?

Once you get done everything your heart wants to do, you may find that GOD decided to make your having children not as easy as you might have supposed.... This is the problem my wife and I ran into. It took us 11 years before we had our only child. I'm happy your PRESENTLY married and I do wish you and your husband all the best.

 

[praying]

Once you get done everything your heart wants to do, you may find that GOD decided to make your having children not as easy as you might have supposed....

That is very true regaridng it not being as easy to get pregnant as one might hope. I don't believe however God makes those decisions they are facts of nature. I have known so many people who had trouble conceiving.

 

[LittleNipper]

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt: unmarried legally. But now because she's pregnant and they're going to have a baby, are they married?

I feel that they are united if they had sex together. Adam and Eve didn't go to Church to get married; however, they did have sex and Adam claimed responsibility. The baby would be THEIRS and not just hers. The baby is a ******* if the father has nothing to do with it. So Mr. Pitt needs to make an open commitment / declaration. He should do this for the baby's sake.

 

[coyoteBR]

coyote said
And a couple with an infertile husband, or a wife who lost the uterus due to a illness and adopt a child are not married nor a family?

LN answered:
The difference is that they consumated the marriage bed with the intention of siring children.

Woman: Well, not that the marriage reception is over and we're at our hotel room, let's consumate the marriage because we want our children.

Man: Huh... I told you more than once I had a vasectomy in 2002.

Woman: Sorry. I can only sleep with ya with the intention of having children.

GOD knows everyone's heart. You cannot hide intentions from the LORD. GOD wants to see everyone become CHRIST like.

What means largely to Love God and your neighbours. Not watchdoggin' their beds

So yes, GOD care about EVERYTHING you do. Theology make lots of sense, it is man's actions and desires that make little sense.

There's not only one theology, LittleNipper.

 

[LittleNipper]

The church has come out and stated that artificial insemination is a sin regardless of who it's done for.

That is the opinion of one denomination. I don't see that the Bible says anything to this regard. The egg needs to be the wife's and the sperm must be the husband's ---- the marriage bed is undefiled.

 

[LittleNipper]

Woman: Well, not that the marriage reception is over and we're at our hotel room, let's consumate the marriage because we want our children.

Man: Huh... I told you more than once I had a vasectomy in 2002.

Woman: Sorry. I can only sleep with ya with the intention of having children.



What means largely to Love God and your neighbours. Not watchdoggin' their beds



There's not only one theology, LittleNipper.

I know cases where an impossible pregnacy became a miracle. GOD's will is paramount. That is the only theology that counts. GOD's will is paramount.

 

[praying]

That is the opinion of one denomination. I don't see that the Bible says anything to this regard. The egg needs to be the wife's and the sperm must be the husband's ---- the marriage bed is undefiled.

Why does the egg and sperm need tobe the wife or husband's suppose that is the infetility probelm, bad egg or sperm. Then what you are just stuck. There is always adoption but the fact is not everyone has the makeup to raise a child not of their own.