Proper legal counsel can give you the particulars to any contract, including the signatures needed in our legal system today (for a prenuptial / marriage contract). Many lawyers do not prefer to do this. But, you may persist in finding such counsel. Obviously, you need good legal counsel, as contracts such as this can be breached in the courts, due to their often poorly structured and/or unenforceable character.

In Scripture, the covenant is established by sworn oath (the pledged word of the parties to the marriage). Witnesses can help the contract become enforceable.

In addition, the father who gives his daughter, is a signatory as witness. Scripture mandates his sworn oath concerning a number of issues such as Deuteronomy 22:15 - 17 - This passage is designed to hedge her claim to chastity - which in turn, is both physically/financially protective concerning good health, hygiene, and safety , and spiritually protective as per Scriptural concerns about emotional stability, (in)continence and faithfulness; Numbers 30: 1- 5, is another example. This passage is NOT arbitrary. It is a general provision worded in such as way as to be applied to several circumstances. It is not given to frustrate the right and desire of a legitimate Christian marriage union. Quite the contrary. It is designed to protect Christian marriage. [That cannot be fully "flushed out" here. See Marriage Plague for more thorough treatment of these kinds of issues.]

When applied to marriage, Numbers 30 is designed to uphold and protect 1) Leviticus 18 - laws of consanguinity and affinity; 2) protect the daughter in particular against abuse; 3) protect against marriage with unbelieving (non-Christian) partners.  4) Scripturally, his oversight is also designed to enjoin inheritance and dowry provisions. 5) Also, the father testifies to the integrity of his daughter’s faith and faithfulness. 6) If chastity is already a lost issue, the father testifies that the spouse knows all such as the father knows, so that there are no secrets going into the marital relationship. 7) If the father refuses to be a witness (will not give his blessing - his oath of agreement), that fact should take the issue to the Church court. [Too much to flush out here or now. Read Marriage Plague for more on these issues.]

Other family members, and the elders of a church with the presiding minister, can also be witnesses to the contract. That means the presiding Church court members have examined the marital couple’s claims to be wed, and approve.

Again, however, (please forgive the necessity of stating this - but that is the nature of the society we live in today) given the nature of state laws involving marriage, know what is demanded by law, so you know what you must face. Proper legal counsel can give you that information, though the object of attorney involvement is often to subject the marriage to statutory regulations which gives authority to the state to be a contracting party to the marriage. Do your "due diligence" and seek proper legal counsel. Learn to ask the right questions as to your rights, protections, and obligations.

This issue does take research. Marriage is the second most important decision you will make. (Our response to the call of Jesus Christ is the first, most important.). As such, marriage should be entered with sobriety and planning. (See Marriage Plague for the pre-marital events that can shape future divorces. It will sober you… or sicken you. But, it will also show WHY and HOW divorce ravages the churches.).

- submitted Wayne Sedlak, ICHR

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Christian Marriage, an Essential Right

Scripture empowers a fundamental right of all parties to marry or remarry with only three limitations:

• Disallowing “Christian marriage” in any claim of a believing Christian to marry a person who is not a believer.

• Disallowing “Christian marriage” in the breach of the laws of affinity (Lev.18).
• Disallowing “Christian marriage” in any breach of the laws of consanguinity (you cannot ever marry your parent, a sibling, an aunt, an uncle - direct, blood relationship). These hygienic laws have been one of the cornerstones of Western civilization for two millennia, yet few Christians know these laws concerning Christian marriage prohibitions even exist (Lev. 18).

State licensure laws violate Biblical injunctions concerning Christian marriage and Christian divorce (seek competent spiritual and legal counsel to handle this issue if necessary). That explains how the same sex issue has such legal power. The Bible does not authorize the state to legitimize marriage. It does give the state the authority to deal with divorce, violation of consanguinity, and affinity according to the civil mandates given in Scripture.

Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers… – Romans 13:1

For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid …– Romans 13:4

For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. – Romans 13:9

This latter verse agrees with Deuteronomy 24:1ff allowing even the adulteress to remarry. It is explicitly stated there.

That does not mean she got off without sanction. The Old Testament “put to death” individuals in such civil matters by disinheritance (Adam and Eve for example were cast out of the Garden as a direct consequence of Christ’s warning “In the day you eat thereof, you will surely die.”).

Adam physically died over nine centuries later. But, he and his wife were “put to death” by being exiled (disinherited from Paradise) that very day.

This fact explains a number of issues:

•   Christ did not endorse the stoning of the woman taken in adultery.
•   Nor was He denying Moses in the case.
•   There was no record of an adulterer being put to physical death in the Old Testament.
•  The two harlots (harlots are adulteresses in the Bible) who stood in court before Solomon as known harlots were not put to death then or later.
•  When God divorced Israel in the Old Testament (Jer. 3:8), Israel was exiled (sent into Captivity).

 Yet, God “remarried” Israel and brought His people back into His married relationship with Himself.

If we deny the right to Christian marriage (which includes remarriage), as specified in the Scriptures, we are culpable of violating St. Paul’s prophetic injunction in I Timothy 4: 1 – 3. We may be unwittingly participating in a “doctrine of devils”.

Please refer to The Marriage Plague for more information

- submitted by Chrys Ostom

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Edward Gibbon, in his classic work, the Decline and fall of the Roman Empire, once wrote:

“The primitive Christian demonstrated his faith by his virtues…” and as a result, won the heart of the culture.

Gibbon wrote that that single factor helped bring cultural influence and victory to the Church of Christ against the Roman Empire in the 4th Century AD.1

1) Christian history and the obedience of Christians: Such obedience rendered to the Lord is designed to actively portray principle and way of life higher and wiser than anything known to mankind naturally. Its values outshine all other systems of “morality” put together.

As a result, Scripture tells us that each Christian is to be a distinct “sign” and a “wonder” of Christ to society round about them. In other words, our Christian life credentials our Christian message, despite our sinful nature. This credentialing has moved our Christian history among the nations for the last 2000 years.

One example: the Christian history of the church records the fact that Afra of Augsburg, a former prostitute, repented of her sinful way of life and embraced Christ, she set up an orphanage for abandoned children of prisoners, smugglers, slaves, and thieves. Later, she became even more efficient in her love for these children by setting up a network through the churches for finding and putting them out for adoption.2 She very much represents the adage: “It’s not so much the presence of sin in life as it is the absence of repentance in the heart that distinguishes a bad man or woman from an upright one.”

The Roman state resented her work, especially since the “perception” was created by the propaganda of state agencies persecuting her saying that she was aiding and abetting “enemies of society” by helping these children… and saving children whom the state could only wish would “better” serve it as “productive” slaves.

So, the reality was that her activities put anything else to shame, including Roman “morality”. More to the point, she was caring for children who, in the eyes of slave masters and Roman rulers, could be put to work in places such as the Roman sulfur mines. That was money out of their pockets as far as they were concerned.

Afra was murdered by the Roman police state in the infamous persecution of Diocletian which began in the year 303 A.D. and extended over the next 10 years, the worst persecution to that date in the Christian history of the church.

2) Christian history and cultural institutions: Gibbon’s principle described far more than individual heroics throughout Christian history. Christians, he noted, are invariably moved to build institutions which makes their work more efficient and powerful.

Several such institutions, such as marriage and the family, are second nature to the creative impulse of Christian people. Christians have built schools, businesses, clinics, media, hospitals, charities, ministries of all types.

For example, the great 4th Century minister, Basil of Byzantium, built leper’s colonies for the humane medical treatment of lepers. His work drew the ire of many Roman aristocrats but such health care works undertaken by Christian people and churches glorified the Name of Christ.

In other words, Christianity is a new kind of civilization, not just a way to heaven. But, also, the way to heaven is credentialed by the quality of life and testimony we have shown throughout the Christian history of the church.

3) Christian history and deep societal reform: But Gibbon’s observation goes even deeper. Christ’s people bring a way of life that exposes and displaces a contrary civilization. For example, Telemachus of Laddia undertook the celebrated reform that eventually brought an end to the cruelties of gladiatorial combat in the arena. He was martyred in the arena for his work.3

The arena was used by the Caesars as a means of “corrupting the masses” for support and power politics. Cicero, the Roman Senator once described the real power and agenda of the arena. He said:

Setting out to seek power, and unable to gain their objectives by their own resources, they use every means to bribe and corrupt the masses. Then again, when they have rendered the many greedy for public benefits through their insane appetite for prestige, it evolves into a state of government by force. Once the people are accustomed to feeding off the property of others…they find a champion who is ambitious and daring, who brings the rule of force to completion carrying out murders, exiles and redistributions of properties – until, having come to live in the manner of beasts - they find a tyrannical master and monarch.4

4) Christian history and Christian virtue: Barlaam of Antioch, a humble shoe maker, represents yet another valuable lesson. As an infant boy, he had been rescued by Christians from the horrid Roman practice of placing unwanted children at a place just outside along the wall of the city designated by Roman law. There roving packs of dogs would find an easy meal. The historian puts it this way:

Barlaam of Antioch was a cobbler for the imperial forces who devoted all his free time to the care of orphans and widows in his church. Because he himself had been saved from the infanticide wall outside the city, he was especially concerned for exposed children. Even though he was not a pastor or church leader, his good deeds were so widely known that the enemies of the faith sought to have his witness silenced. During the calamitous persecution in 304, they succeeded in having him martyred.5

These virtuous lives – and many like them - won the culture.

Such a faith represented a wise and upright view of life in a corrupt world, which even the agnostic Edward Gibbon could see and admire.

Today, maintaining that heritage is the calling of the Christian faith as it stands poised to render its assistance to a beleaguered culture. Today, the sacred bond of marriage is “on trial” in our society. The issue of divorce among Christians has led to chaos in the churches and devastation in the homes.

But, Christians aren’t speaking out as they should. Scripture tells us pointedly, “As a trampled spring or a polluted well so is the upright who give way before the wicked.”

You can speak out. Leave your comment here!

- Chris Ostom

1.  Gibbon, Edward. The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Vol. 1. (Milman edition. The John C. Winston Co., Philadelphia, 1788) p. 543.
2.  Grant, George. Third Time Around. (Wolgemuth and Hyatt Publishers. Brentwood, Tennessee, 1991) p. 28.
3.  Grant, George. Third Time Around. (Wolgemuth and Hyatt Publishers. Brentwood, Tennessee, 1991) p.29.
4.  Beacham, Richard C., Spectacle Entertainments of Early Imperial Rome (Yale University Press, New Haven, Conn. 1999) p. 46.
5. 5 Grant, George. Third Time Around. (Wolgemuth and Hyatt Publishers. Brentwood, Tennessee, 1991) p.28-29.
   

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Too many of us in the Christian community speak of the divorce itself as if it were the dominating problem we face in the breakdown of marriages among Christians. What if the problem is not divorce, per se? Maybe we are looking for solutions in all the wrong areas. Maybe something is wrong in our marriages. Divorce, like death, is a problem. But, the “cure” must concentrate on the “CAUSES”, not as much the results, if we are to change the way things are going in Christian marriages.

Perhaps, one of the problems is the way we “use our Bibles” in dealing with a case of divorce – and the steps leading up to it. In other words, our (mis)understanding of the Bible sends us in wrong directions. A glaring symptom of this very issue is the fact that many Christians throughout Christian history quote the Gospels concerning divorce but do not recognize our Lord is commenting upon Deuteronomy 24:1ff, enforcing its tenets.

Why Divorce in Christian History: Deuteronomy 24

Deuteronomy (one of three books of the Old Testament quoted/referenced most often by Christ Himself) commands us as to how to handle the rebellious in a divorce situation. But current Christian culture shies away from the “Law” of God, where Christ did not. In fact, in Luke 16, where Christ speaks of the Law as never perishing nor in any manner passing away, the very first illustration used is Deuteronomy 24:1ff.

Throughout Christian history, poor interpretive principles and understanding has been a continual source of strife and culture “plague” (ongoing social strife and hurt).

Why Divorce in Christian History: The Early Church & Interpretation

Let’s illustrate. For the first three centuries of the Christian era, many in the churches did not know how to describe/understand Christ’s two-fold nature as both fully God and fully man. They didn’t know whether to define Him from the Bible as …

• two persons in one body (Nestorianism)
• one “mixed” person with a different nature than anyone else (God mingled with flesh) (Eutychianism)
• a lesser divinity with manlike characteristics (Gnosticism)
• a phantom like being (Gnosticism)
• a finite man of outstanding character (rationalism)

The problem was, they all used Scripture to justify their positions.

Note that. They used a poor understanding of the Word of God to define Christ.

Why Divorce in Christian History: Interpretations Leading to Abuse Read the rest »

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