Another question is, do we respect the governing laws (Romans 13). While it’s understandable God doesn’t look at the piece of paper he looks at the hearts of individuals.
1 Sam. 16:7
But the Lord said unto Samuel, “Look not on his countenance or on the height of his stature, because I have refused him; for the Lord seeth not as man seeth. For man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.”
There is no law on the books of any state that requires governmental recognition of a marriage. It's completely voluntary. As I have said in the above post (#9), there are other legal avenues for providing for the wife having the husband's last name, and the children also having the father's last name. It doesn't require that "license" from City Hall.
People who want to pass on their name down to their children will get married because that is a way they can have their name go on forward here in this earth.
There are people who are married and will cheat their tax so to grovel or dispute over things is not tenable; all us have cheated sometime in life. It’s what do you believe is the right thing to do, by the flesh or by the spirit.
So, if I understand you correctly, a couple who is married in the eyes of God, according to His definition in Genesis 2, are living by the flesh by not having that piece of paper, because some people cheat on their taxes? People cheating on their taxes is something that happens irrespective of marriage licenses. There are many who have that license and still cheat on their taxes.
When I first filed my taxes in the year I was first married, the IRS didn't demand to see that license. I have never heard of them requiring proof. Did they demand that of you?
Because people can get fined if they find out a couple are married they just don’t have a certificate. And that is something a person would want to avoid.
Fined? In what way? By whom? What state? Domestic relationships can be defined and established by many other legal means without that license, so what's the basis of your claim, if I may ask.
To go one step further, in this climate of perverseness and embracing perverted lifestyles, what entity has the courage to go after all the perverts for what they are doing outside of having that license? Surprisingly, MOST homosexual couples don't want that license, mainly because they don't want the entanglement of courts to jump over into a different relationship. Setting a precedent in court cases against those without the license is a can of worms spineless politicians don't want to foist upon the communities they have chosen to embrace in order to get the votes.
While the biblical narrative simply explains that a marriage is a ceremony between a man and woman - when they become one flesh - this is why Sex education from a biblical stand point is important.
I would very much like to see the reference for that, if you don't mind showing it, or quoting it. Where do you see in God's definition of marriage any sort of ceremony. How does does a man ceremoniously become one flesh with a woman?
Actually, there is such a thing as ceremonial sex (ceremonial one flesh), but that took place in the temple of Diana in Corinth...they were known as the "vestal virgins" who were not at all virgins, but prostitutes.
For those who find this repugnant or unbelievable, please see the following:
1 Corinthians 6:16 What? know ye not that
he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh.
Additionally, all the Patriarchs who had plural wives were one flesh with every one of them.
Wow! I really had not planned to go into all this because it violates the socially engineered sensibilities of many...ONLY because so many don't know their Bibles. If this grates against the sensibilities of some here, then please keep in mind that there are many things in the word of God you don't know nor understand, and that learning those things only solidifies one's faith - or it drives them away from the faith, but only those who want a god they prefer to define for themselves. Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses have gods fashioned after their own desires, and so some are better suited to join up with them.
The God described within the Bible is VASTLY and INFINITELY superior to any god created in the minds of men. Get to know Him...better yet, let Him show Himself to you:
1 John 2:26-27
26 These [things] have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you.
27 But
the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of ALL things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him. [Emphasis mine]
I use to think it was simply the sex part which between a man and woman should mean something becoming one together.
No, there are three elements in God's definition of marriage:
Leaving
Cleaving
Becoming one flesh
Many out there who have those licenses have not met all three of God's criteria, and are therefore living in sin, even though they may have a license from the state. That is fornication and/or adultery, depending on their previous situation(s).
So, where it is NOT a sin to NOT have a license for marriage, it is indeed a sin for anyone to at all be having sex together who do not adhere to all three of God's required elements for marriage.
Well maybe they shouldn’t have been married in the first place. Could it be redeemed some are some are not. Some marry again after their first wife dies.
That's me. My first wife passed away in October of 2021, and her murderers will pay the price when they stand before God. My current wife if my wife because we both met the three criteria within God's definition, not because of some silly piece of paper from a state pretending to be an authority over our marriage. The state has long since departed from God. The governmental system of marriage is totally corrupt, and is therefore not within the acceptable limits of God's authority for government in the arena of marriage. Nobama is the one who trashed the system when he declared that he was not going to enforce DOMA. The system is therefore null and void. It has betrayed the moral absolutes God set forth for government to uphold.
The laws that are in keeping with God's sanctions for governance, they still stand. I will abide by them as a law abiding citizen. Those who do not have a license for their marriage, they are not necessarily living in sin as a result.
Total freedom of choice is awesome, and what children are taught going up is important at least in sharing with them how God set things up and they decide if they wanna follow after God or not. That responsibility is on the parents.
Well, my boys understand the corrupt nature of marriage licenses and the destructive power that license has enabled in the lives of so many. It has distracted many from God's definition of marriage. If that were not true, then we would not be seeing 50%+ divorce rate among professing believers.
MM