Most Christians believe - or, at least their theology teaches them - that ideally Marriage is for Life; and is dissolved after death.
For modern Western people it seems like a great deal if marriage is for life - because for modern Western people life is all-that-there-is. To say that a marriage ought to last until death seems like saying Marriage is Forever...
But for a Christian who expects to live the life after biological-death everlasting, if Marriage is for Life, then that is not for very long. A human adult life is a lot less than eternity...
So 'Marriage is for Life' actually means 'Marriage is just for life'.
If we are serious about marriage on earth, in mortal life - as most real Christians claim to be; then surely the aim, the ideal, the hope should be that marriage is for eternity?
8 comments:
"marriage is for eternity?"
But what if your widow remarries?
@d - Then a decision must be made. Not all marriages are for eternity, just as not all dogs are for life.
Made by whom?
Dearieme, I suppose there exist higher dimensions of space and time. (Kind of like Dr. Who.) If so, it would logically allow "gods" to have multiple spouses, and keep them all simultaneously, but separately in different universes and different time-limes. You'd "step up" one dimension, bop on over to a different universe, step down, spend time with another spouse, but when you go back, up/shift-over/down again, you could pick up right where you had left off on that time-line.
As in... The Doctor spends several episodes in one story line, but when he goes back to Gallifrey, he could just dial the time back to within a second of when he left.
Along those lines, I suppose it possible God turned Noah's ark into a T.A.R.D.I.S., and that's how they got all the species in it -- it was bigger on the inside than it was on the outside.
I postulate this not entirely in jest. If God is Lord of the Universe, why can't He be a "Time Lord" too? Quantum/string theory propones, what, 10 spatial dimensions? If that is so, multiple dimensions of time are right along with them, because space-time is all one thing.
Michio Kaku, on page 173 of his book Hyperspace, says Superstring Theory requires 26 dimensions of space-time.
-Bookslinger
@Books - I would think that the idea of eternal marriage goes with God as Heavenly Parents, as literal parents (albeit not biological ones) - and against strange abstract and incomprehensible conceptions of deity. And eternal marriage goes with a Mormon metaphysics that assumes a single and sequential stream of time - real, 'normal' time.
So if someone undertakes to answer dearime; I think it needs to be in a commonsense, realistic, 'anthropomorphic' way.
@d - By whom? From what I understand to be the principles of Christianity; it would certainly have to be the participants in the eternal marriage - as their immortal, resurrected selves.
If you then go on to ask about the problems from this - my answer would be that Heaven is not without problems nor intended to be - a place of love and creativity can hardly be without problems.
(The idea of Heaven as a state of unvarying bliss is not really Christian - but derives perhaps from pre-Christian philosophy, or from some strands of Hinduism. To me, such a situation obviously abolishes love and creation.)
"Superstring Theory requires 26 dimensions of space-time."
I'm so old that it was only 11 in my time.
Oh my. This is another of the many conundra posted and commented upon in this blog that I'm not inclined to try and work out with anything less than a transfigured brain.
I'm fairly certain that those of us who make the grade / heed the call / follow the good shepherd will be quite happy with the arrangements. There will be love and creation-- and occasionally rest, as the Lord set an example of that in Genesis.
ap - Fine for yourself. But I think that modern people need some idea of what kind of thing Heaven is supposed to be, in order to know whether to follow the Good Shepherd.
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