Why does Matthew 22:30 cause me SO MUCH PAIN?

Jamdoc

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Jamdoc, reading through this thread prompted me to create an account because my perspective aligns almost exactly with yours. Matthew 22:30 has been a serious stumblingblock for me just as it has been for you, and I believe I am destined to be alone despite an extremely strong desire for marital love. I'm not going to pretend I can "cure" your pain. But I will say there are some Bible verses that might give you real consolation. The logical implications of these passages have often helped pull me out of the pit of despair.

First, consider three verses:

Psalm 16:11 - Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.

Along with that,

Ephesians 3:19 - And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.

Also,

Psalm 107:9 - For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.

If two passages of scripture seem to contradict one another, the contradiction must be a problem with our interpretation, not with scripture. Now, with the words "fulness," "satisfieth," and "filleth," the quoted verses seem to say that we will experience ALL joy in Heaven. But Matthew 22:30 says we won't marry in Heaven, and Genesis and the Proverbs say it's good for man to marry (in this world, at least). How can we reconcile these statements? It seems to me there are two options:

1) The words "fulness," "satisfieth," and "filleth" don't actually mean we'll experience every joy in Heaven.

2) The pleasures of Heaven make conjugal bliss utterly REDUNDANT, in a way that we cannot even begin to fathom.

Option 1 seems unjustifiable to me; the whole body of scripture--including those three verses themselves--points to an afterlife that is quite literally "perfect." And you can't have perfection if any joy is lacking. That leaves Option 2.

Now, you've said you don't like Lewis's chocolate analogy, so how about this one: Imagine that throughout your whole life, the only type of hot dog you've ever eaten is a crappy convenience-store hot dog. But you really enjoy those hot dogs and they give you great satisfaction. (Feel free to choose a different type of food for this analogy if you prefer. :laughing:) One day, however, you're given a gourmet bratwurst. This is still a "hot dog," but for whatever reason it completely blows the old convenience-store frankfurter out of the water. From that point on, whenever you crave a hot dog, you'll be hoping for the gourmet type, NOT the worse type--though you will settle for that lesser choice if necessary.

Apply this scenario to sex, marriage, and Paradise. Marriage is the convenience-store hot dog, which will be replaced by a much better bratwurst (so to speak) in Heaven. Now, it's crucial to note that a gourmet hot dog is still a hot dog--it gives you the SAME joy, categorically speaking, as the inferior hot dog, just to a much greater degree. Similarly, we may be justified in assuming that in Heaven, God will give us a joy that is the SAME joy as that which we get from sex/marriage, but to such a higher degree and intensity that the old, earthly manifestation of that joy seems like an invariably inferior option. Thus, in Heaven, whenever we desire the joy that in this world manifests itself in marriage and sex, we will not even think to desire marriage or sex--in fact, it would be laughable to do so--because whatever form that joy takes in Heaven will be so much better than mere conjugal happiness. There would be no need or desire to settle for that inferior form of the joy, as Islam does when it posits 72 virgins. Rather, the joy that we currently know as marriage will be provided to us in a more glorious way--yet still be "the same joy"--in the next world. In that sense, the Christian afterlife is incomparably more desirable than the Islamic one, even for those of us who never get married.

Logically, I think this harmonization of scripture is satisfactory, and indeed necessary. The remaining difficulty is emotional rather than logical: it's hard to put our faith in such a joy because we don't know what it would look like. We can't understand how Jesus can possibly satisfy our desire for sexual joy (or, more precisely, "the joy that we call 'sexual'"), for obvious reasons. But this lack of understanding is only to be expected, as 1 Corinthians 2:9 says: Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. Indeed, this joy "passeth knowledge," as Paul says. We are also given indications that it is theoretically possible to overcome the emotional difficulty in this life: Isaiah 26:3 - Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. In trusting God's promise to give us all joy and thereby fill our every desire in the afterlife (not by simply cutting out our desire, but by truly satisfying our yearnings), we can look forward to redemption, set aside bothersome cares, and focus on living a godly life. Of course, no one can trust perfectly in Him all the time, but that doesn't mean we're not supposed to try.

I'll leave you with one more verse. This one doesn't address your central concern, but it does suggest marriage is not all that great:

Ecclesiastes 2:24 - There is nothing better for a man, than that he should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labour.

So there you have it--there is something better than sex. :wink:

I hope all this helps in some way. Praying for you, brother; you're not alone.

A male cannot fulfill the desire for a female, and so no, relationship with Jesus is not a replacement for a marriage to a woman, because I am male, and Jesus is male.
It just doesn't work like that. That'd be just... Gross if a male believer's desire for eros love is to be fulfilled by a male Jesus.
 
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Perfect_Peace

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I addressed that objection in the last big paragraph. We have literally no idea how eros is to be fulfilled in heaven; therefore, to label it "gross" is to apply our earthly knowledge of eros to a situation that will be completely different. I am not making the blasphemous claim that we will have sex with Jesus. I am saying that the very means by which that desire is fulfilled in Heaven will be entirely different from what we can currently imagine. When you say "gross," you are imagining that the desire will be fulfilled in Heaven in the same way it is in this world, which would indeed be disgusting if there is no marriage in Heaven. But scripture compels us to assume that the desire would NOT be fulfilled in the worldly way, but in a different way. God is omnipotent; he can make it happen.
 
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Jamdoc

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I addressed that objection in the last big paragraph. We have literally no idea how eros is to be fulfilled in heaven; therefore, to label it "gross" is to apply our earthly knowledge of eros to a situation that will be completely different. I am not making the blasphemous claim that we will have sex with Jesus. I am saying that the very means by which that desire is fulfilled in Heaven will be entirely different from what we can currently imagine. When you say "gross," you are imagining that the desire will be fulfilled in Heaven in the same way it is in this world, which would indeed be disgusting if there is no marriage in Heaven. But scripture compels us to assume that the desire would NOT be fulfilled in the worldly way, but in a different way. God is omnipotent; he can make it happen.

If man had been meant from the beginning to have eros love fulfilled by relationship with a male God, woman would not have been created. God didn't need to create woman for reproduction, and if He was sufficient, there'd have been no need for woman, ever. Is woman a mistake then since God intends to be totally sufficient for us by Himself?
God did repent of making man in the first place in Genesis, so does God repent of making man sexual beings?
 
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Perfect_Peace

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Eden is not the same as the new heavens and new earth to come. Just because Adam needed Eve on this earth does not mean he would need her on the new earth. Our relation to God and everything else will be different than Adam's, because we will have partaken of the Tree of Life.
 
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Jamdoc

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Now I am not debating that God does not provide every need, but throughout all history that is how it has been. provide

at no point did God ever say "just stare at me and you won't be hungry anymore"
God provided food
When Adam was lonely God did not say "He has me, he can't be lonely" God provided companionship, first with animals (I always think of them as pets, I mean we all do enjoy pets don't we?) then by creating woman.

The idea that I wrestle with and challenge is the viewpoint of many Christians that in eternity God does not provide for needs to be met, God just is the fulfillment of those needs and that just by staring at Him we won't be hungry, thirsty, lonely, cold, hot, tired, etc.

I think that God still provides for needs to be met.

Revelation 22:2
2 In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

This shows continuing provision for the need of food, and even for medicine (which I find odd considering the resurrection/glorified body supposedly does not need to eat and cannot die, but that verse suggests a continued need to eat and even that you will need healing)

So I kinda reject the notion that relationship with Jesus entirely fulfills a need for human companionship, and eros love. Obviously we'll have brotherly/sisterly love and human companionship, agape love, like the love we have for Jesus.
but for eros love....
I feel like the only 3 views are that 1. God takes away eros love completely so we don't even think of it. Which is like... brainwashing. I would hate that "fulfillment". 2. That God is in Himself the fulfillment of eros love which.. doesn't work for me because male/male, eros is something that is designed for male/female.
Both of these views can be seen as "man as a sexual being/women being created was a mistake"
3. Lastly that God provides for the fulfillment of eros love, but without marriage, that is a question of how?

Of course many Christians just say "agape love is better" which is the same fallacy as the chocolate and sex analogy. Viewing love as quantitative rather than qualitative.
You love Jesus
you love your spouse
you love your children
you love your parents
you love your biological brothers and sisters
you love your brothers and sisters in Christ
you love your friends, even those outside of Christ

Love for Jesus being the quantitatively greatest does not mean you do not have all those other kinds of love and that those other kinds of love are irrelevant, because they are all qualitatively different.

People would sacrifice themselves for another in agape love but having been in the military and while I would have died for a brother in arms.. my heart didn't go aflutter for any of them.
similarly I'd die for Jesus, but I don't feel eros love for Him.
 
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Perfect_Peace

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I agree in part, but the point is that God could genuinely "provide for the fulfillment of eros love" in a way that is foreign to all our notions of eros love in this world. If God is all-powerful, who's to say he couldn't provide fulfillment for all types of love even without marriage, and without having you "fall in love" with Him in a sexual/romantic way? There's no logical reason he couldn't, as far as I can tell. After all, he created all forms of love; he can use them however he wants. We are limited by our own imagination, but He is not.

Your last couple sentences seem to suggest, "The only way God could truly fulfill all a man's desires in Heaven is if the man turns gay for Him" (pardon the sacrilege). But I don't think that's true. Who's to say what God can and can't do? We are massively ignorant compared to God. And, as I argued, if we accept the truth of scripture, we have to assume that he WILL satisfy all our desires in a perfect way. The "turn people gay" option is clearly not a valid method because of the violence it would do to the soul, so there must be another possibility that we can't think of. God has only revealed to us a narrow portion of reality and His powers.

You asked:

3. Lastly that God provides for the fulfillment of eros love, but without marriage, that is a question of how?

Exactly, that is the question! And it's probably unanswerable by us (1 Corinthians 2:9). But that doesn't mean it doesn't have an answer.
 
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Jamdoc

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I agree in part, but the point is that God could genuinely "provide for the fulfillment of eros love" in a way that is foreign to all our notions of eros love in this world. If God is all-powerful, who's to say he couldn't provide fulfillment for all types of love even without marriage, and without having you "fall in love" with Him in a sexual/romantic way? There's no logical reason he couldn't, as far as I can tell. After all, he created all forms of love; he can use them however he wants. We are limited by our own imagination, but He is not.

Your last couple sentences seem to suggest, "The only way God could truly fulfill all a man's desires in Heaven is if the man turns gay for Him" (pardon the sacrilege). But I don't think that's true. Who's to say what God can and can't do? We are massively ignorant compared to God. And, as I argued, if we accept the truth of scripture, we have to assume that he WILL satisfy all our desires in a perfect way. The "turn people gay" option is clearly not a valid method because of the violence it would do to the soul, so there must be another possibility that we can't think of. God has only revealed to us a narrow portion of reality and His powers.

You asked:

3. Lastly that God provides for the fulfillment of eros love, but without marriage, that is a question of how?

Exactly, that is the question! And it's probably unanswerable by us (1 Corinthians 2:9). But that doesn't mean it doesn't have an answer.

Well, all forms of love are a relationship, you don't experience those forms of love without a relationship, so if you are to have an eros love fulfilled by relationship to Jesus.. well..
that is where that sacrilege comes into play and why my mind recoils in horror from the suggestion.
to experience eros love, or the love of a parent for their children, without those relationships.. would be like self love, which is selfishness which is the opposite of how God wants us to be, so that makes no sense.

Which is why most Christians lean towards the first two positions.
1. that Eros love just doesn't exist (brainwash)
2. that we feel that love for Jesus instead (which is all kinds of wrong as we both know)

It's part of why I don't really follow John Piper anymore. This "Christian Hedonism" thing he talks about, it makes it sound like a junkie, that everything is a dopamine fix and God's the biggest one so you just don't care about anything else.

it doesn't fit with the plan, God intended us to love more than just Him. Jesus told us not to just love God but to love each other.

Literally the only thing I think that would feel right to me, is that by marriage being over Jesus meant just contract marriage, Levirite marriage.
In the same vein that we're told that there's an "end of the world" but the "Earth abides forever"
The world being the civilization and society that we created, not the planet that God created.
on that logic path the Levirite marriage is done away with, but there will still be unions between men and women akin to how Adam and Eve were together as man and wife.
There's just no biblical support for such an idea.
So I can't really entertain that thought, in fact the holy spirit has rebuked that idea.
So I'm unhappy about that.
so I'm left with the repulsive idea that we experience eros love toward Jesus, as a man.
or the depressing idea that God just brainwashes us into not remembering that it ever existed.
 
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Perfect_Peace

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Well, all forms of love are a relationship, you don't experience those forms of love without a relationship, so if you are to have an eros love fulfilled by relationship to Jesus.. well..
that is where that sacrilege comes into play and why my mind recoils in horror from the suggestion.
to experience eros love, or the love of a parent for their children, without those relationships.. would be like self love, which is selfishness which is the opposite of how God wants us to be, so that makes no sense.

Which is why most Christians lean towards the first two positions.
1. that Agape love just doesn't exist (brainwash)
2. that we feel that love for Jesus instead (which is all kinds of wrong as we both know)

It's part of why I don't really follow John Piper anymore. This "Christian Hedonism" thing he talks about, it makes it sound like a junkie, that everything is a dopamine fix and God's the biggest one so you just don't care about anything else.

it doesn't fit with the plan, God intended us to love more than just Him. Jesus told us not to just love God but to love each other.

Literally the only thing I think that would feel right to me, is that by marriage being over Jesus meant just contract marriage, Levirite marriage.
In the same vein that we're told that there's an "end of the world" but the "Earth abides forever"
The world being the civilization and society that we created, not the planet that God created.
on that logic path the Levirite marriage is done away with, but there will still be unions between men and women akin to how Adam and Eve were together as man and wife.
There's just no biblical support for such an idea.
So I can't really entertain that thought, in fact the holy spirit has rebuked that idea.
So I'm unhappy about that.
so I'm left with the repulsive idea that we experience eros love toward Jesus, as a man.
or the depressing idea that God just brainwashes us into not remembering that it ever existed.
I hear you, and I would still argue that the two alternatives you mention at the end of your reply are not the only ones. There must be another option that we can't comprehend right now. Otherwise, Heaven would be imperfect, which would contradict scripture.

We might put it this way:

1) The joy experienced in marriage is a blessing.

2) Our enjoyment of Heaven will be perfect (according to scripture).

3) Enjoyment cannot be "perfect" unless it includes all blessed joys.

4) Therefore, the exact same joy that is experienced in marriage in this life will also be present in the afterlife, but not in the form of marriage (Matthew 22:30).

5) We don't know how this is to be accomplished, but it must be achieved somehow.

6) And it has to be achieved in a morally perfect way because of the nature of God, and because anything less would violate premise 2.

So I lean toward the "mystery" interpretation, where I have faith that the desire will be adequately fulfilled somehow and leave the details up to God.
 
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Jonathan Dahlin

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I honestly think that is the dumbest analogy that anyone has ever put pen to paper on.
It never ceases to make me facepalm because it's a dumb idea, and yet a lot of well meaning Christians use it.
People who have had sex still enjoy chocolate, sometimes people enjoy chocolate longer than they enjoy sex.
CS Lewis is doing the absolute boneheaded idea of thinking of every pleasure a person experiences quantitatively. Where it's all just dopamine fixes and God's the biggest dopamine fix so why would you want any lesser ones
That's a junkie's way of thinking.
Things are all qualitatively different. Nobody except junkies likes just one single thing and never wants anything else. You're either a junkie or deceiving yourself to think in that lines.

I think even seeing Jesus face to face
you'll still like chocolate.
I have a better comparison: model airplane vs. real airplane. I'd rather fly a real airplane... As long as I don't crash. Maybe heaven is a real airplane and marriage and sex is just a model airplane.
Two more comparisons: First of all, milk vs. real food. An infant craves milk But when an infant grows up to eat real food, the milk becomes unnecessary. So marriage and sex is milk and heaven is real food. Last but not least, marriage and sex is a teaser trailer and heaven is the movie.
 
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Jamdoc

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I have a better comparison: model airplane vs. real airplane. I'd rather fly a real airplane... As long as I don't crash. Maybe heaven is a real airplane and marriage and sex is just a model airplane.
Two more comparisons: First of all, milk vs. real food. An infant craves milk But when an infant grows up to eat real food, the milk becomes unnecessary. So marriage and sex is milk and heaven is real food. Last but not least, marriage and sex is a teaser trailer and heaven is the movie.

I still enjoy milk and dairy products quite a lot.
and if I was an aviation enthusiast, I'd probably still enjoy building and displaying model airplanes.

There's really no analogy that fits where you just stop liking something because it's "lesser"

You could say "oh it's like when you got an HD TV instead of a SD CRT!" well, to some degree, but there are people who still use CRT's for some purposes that they enjoy, such as playing retro video games that just perform better on a CRT (something about the input timing)

In order to be a true replacement the "new and improved" needs to be directly comparable, it cannot be qualitatively different in any way, otherwise, you'll probably still find you have desire for the old for some reason. People can get a new car but find there was something about their old car they liked more.

Chocolate for a better chocolate
sex for better sex
not chocolate for sex
and not sex for heaven.. because those things are qualitatively different.
 
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Jamdoc

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I hear you, and I would still argue that the two alternatives you mention at the end of your reply are not the only ones. There must be another option that we can't comprehend right now. Otherwise, Heaven would be imperfect, which would contradict scripture. (Either that, or we're left with the Levirate marriage interpretation, which also contradicts scripture as you say.)

We might put it this way:

1) The joy experienced in marriage is a blessing.

2) Our enjoyment of Heaven will be perfect (according to scripture).

3) Enjoyment cannot be "perfect" unless it includes all blessed joys.

4) Therefore, the exact same joy that is experienced in marriage in this life will also be present in the afterlife, but not in the form of marriage (Matthew 22:30).

5) We don't know how this is to be accomplished, but it must be achieved somehow.

6) And it has to be achieved in a morally perfect way because of the nature of God, and because anything less would violate premise 2.

So I lean toward the "mystery" interpretation, where I have faith that the desire will be adequately fulfilled somehow and leave the details up to God.

Can God bathe your brain in the chemicals that make you feel like you have eros love? Sure. the drug MDMA even does that. That's why people take that drug, because it bathes their brain in serotonin, dopamine, noradrenaline and oxytocin. They think in those few hours that they are in love with the entire world and everyone around them.
But it's still qualitatively different because you're not in actual loving relationship to any of those people much less a marital relationship.
They may even get physical, cuddling, kissing and having sex.
But it's still qualitatively different than to actually be in a loving marriage.
Without being in an intimate, loving relationship with a person of the opposite sex.. anything else is going to be qualitatively different. You agreed that God is not going to give us partners to have that relationship with, and you agree that experiencing eros love in relationship to Jesus as a male believer is also blasphemous.
So whatever it is, is qualitatively different. Not a direct comparison.
 
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Perfect_Peace

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Can God bathe your brain in the chemicals that make you feel like you have eros love? Sure. the drug MDMA even does that. That's why people take that drug, because it bathes their brain in serotonin, dopamine, noradrenaline and oxytocin. They think in those few hours that they are in love with the entire world and everyone around them.
But it's still qualitatively different because you're not in actual loving relationship to any of those people much less a marital relationship.
They may even get physical, cuddling, kissing and having sex.
But it's still qualitatively different than to actually be in a loving marriage.
Without being in an intimate, loving relationship with a person of the opposite sex.. anything else is going to be qualitatively different. You agreed that God is not going to give us partners to have that relationship with, and you agree that experiencing eros love in relationship to Jesus as a male believer is also blasphemous.
So whatever it is, is qualitatively different. Not a direct comparison.
Jamdoc, you still appear to be clinging to the idea that the only options in Heaven are options that you yourself can imagine right now. And I have been saying that God can work miracles that you and I cannot even begin to contemplate by ourselves. Scripture is full of support for the idea that God is both inscrutable and omnipotent. While according to your mortal intellect, "whatever it is, is qualitatively different," you still do not know all the possibilities of what that "whatever it is" could be. Therefore, your statement may well be false from God's perspective.
 
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Jamdoc

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Jamdoc, you still appear to be clinging to the idea that the only options in Heaven are options that you yourself can imagine right now. And I have been saying that God can work miracles that you and I cannot even begin to contemplate by ourselves. Scripture is full of support for the idea that God is both inscrutable and omnipotent. While according to your mortal intellect, "whatever it is, is qualitatively different," you still do not know all the possibilities of what that "whatever it is" could be. Therefore, your statement may well be false from God's perspective.

The only thing that would be qualitatively the same is eros love relationship with someone of the opposite sex.

anything other than that is qualitatively different.
You and everyone else are basically trying to say apples are better than oranges. You might hold that opinion (or the reverse) but the reality is they're not directly comparable. They're qualitatively different and both good in a unique way.
 
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Perfect_Peace

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The only thing that would be qualitatively the same is eros love relationship with someone of the opposite sex.

anything other than that is qualitatively different.
You and everyone else are basically trying to say apples are better than oranges. You might hold that opinion (or the reverse) but the reality is they're not directly comparable. They're qualitatively different and both good in a unique way.
No, I am not comparing apples to oranges. I am saying that God knows about special apples currently unknown to us.

Proverbs 3:5 - Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

Romans 11:33 - O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!
 
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Jamdoc

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No, I am not comparing apples to oranges. I am saying that God knows about special apples currently unknown to us.

Proverbs 3:5 - Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

Romans 11:33 - O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!

anything other than an eros love relationship with someone of the opposite sex is an orange.

you might really like the orange.
but sometimes you'd still want an apple.
 
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Perfect_Peace

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anything other than an eros love relationship with someone of the opposite sex is an orange.

you might really like the orange.
but sometimes you'd still want an apple.
...Anything that you yourself can think of, that is. But God is not you.
 
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Hazelelponi

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I don't take it to offense. People can only really go off their own experiences, circumstances, and history a lot of the times. So for most people, if you desire to get married, then you're calling by God is to get married, so they do that. For other people, they have no desire whatsoever, not even for sex, their calling is obviously the "gift of singleness" and they desire to stay single out of a desire to be closer to God.
I have a desire, but God's will is not for that desire but for some other plan, I have an unwanted gift of singleness. It's one thing to desire singleness out of a desire to serve the Lord, it's another thing entirely to not want the gift of singleness and have it anyway and not know why. It's not like God is calling me to be a pastor or something because Pastors have to be married. I thought I had a professional calling, I thought it'd be something I was good at, but God said no there too. A big part of the pain is in this mixed message. Where you think you're called to one thing but God tells you He has another plan and His corrective action to make you realize it is difficult. Then you ask "okay so if not that, then what?" and don't get answered. I suppose I'm not really the best at listening since God had to do quite a bit to get His "no" across.

Look, marriage is a beautiful thing, or at least can be. What it is as a Christian however, is a foreshadowing institution; a foreshadowing and a human shadow for the covenant between the people of God and God Himself.

When we have sex with our spouse for the first time on our wedding night, it's called consumating the marriage covenant. When Jesus returns at His second coming it's called Christ consumating his Kingdom.

Everything about the marriage covenant foreshadows the covenant we have as believers with God. One that is a wedding indeed; the truest of relationships with God as His bride.

That of course begins now, after saving faith, but is still not fully understood or fully consummated until we pass from this life to the next and see God face to face. As Paul says, for now we look through a glass darkly, but then face to face.

We won't have marriage in heaven because God will be that marriage, it's what we were created for. Not for the type or the shadow, but for the very real thing with God...

We see this in small bits and pieces in our marriages, which is why there's any joy at all, but then? We'll see the real intention, the fullness of everything - and its more beautiful than any imagining...

So don't cry about perhaps missing out on a type and shadow in the flesh, look forward to the consummation that is the purpose of us all... for real.
 
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Jamdoc

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...Anything that you yourself can think of, that is. But God is not you.

No... anything is qualitatively different.
the very fact that it is not the same makes it inherently different.
That's the meaning of different.
that is not the same.
 
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Perfect_Peace

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No... anything is qualitatively different.
the very fact that it is not the same makes it inherently different.
That's the meaning of different.
that is not the same.
For the tenth time, God may have ways of giving you the exact same joy that you're looking for that YOU CANNOT CONCEIVE OF RIGHT NOW. I'm sorry to get frustrated, but I'm having to repeat myself a lot.
 
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Jamdoc

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Look, marriage is a beautiful thing, or at least can be. What it is as a Christian however, is a foreshadowing institution; a foreshadowing and a human shadow for the covenant between the people of God and God Himself.

When we have sex with our spouse for the first time on our wedding night, it's called consumating the marriage covenant. When Jesus returns at His second coming it's called Christ consumating his Kingdom.

Everything about the marriage covenant foreshadows the covenant we have as believers with God. One that is a wedding indeed; the truest of relationships with God as His bride.

That of course begins now, after saving faith, but is still not fully understood or fully consummated until we pass from this life to the next and see God face to face. As Paul says, for now we look through a glass darkly, but then face to face.

We won't have marriage in heaven because God will be that marriage, it's what we were created for. Not for the type or the shadow, but for the very real thing with God...

We see this in small bits and pieces in our marriages, which is why there's any joy at all, but then? We'll see the real intention, the fullness of everything - and its more beautiful than any imagining...

So don't cry about perhaps missing out on a type and shadow in the flesh, look forward to the consummation that is the purpose of us all... for real.

Then if the real relationship was always intended to be male + male, why create female, and why declare homosexuality an abomination, if the ultimate fulfillment of eros love is a male + male relationship?

Makes 0 sense.
 
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