This is a subject on which my view has changed. Now I would have to say something like: Yes (as a generalisation) most Christians (except those who are called to celibacy, for various reasons) should be aiming-at one, permanent 'marriage' - but I have to put marriage into 'scare quotes'.
I would say that Chrstians should get really-married; which here-and-now has almost nothing to do with the institutions that call themselves Christian churches... in so far as 'Christian churches' may, at some point in the future, actually come back-into existence.
Because; let's not forget that the self-styled Christian churches have (for the past few months and currently) agreed that they are 'non-essential business', have closed themselves down, and ceased conducting marriages - and done so without any defined end-point.
So - the situation is that 'legal' marriage (civil marriage) is a sub-worthless, non-contract (not a contract, because its promises can legally be broken unliaterally without penalty) - under a continual process of subversion, erosion, re-definition, and indeed inversion. So legal marriage is clearly immoral.
What of church marriage? As a generalisation, it is no better than civil; because the major Christian churches are revealed to be net-evil institutions. To insist upon having one's marriage validated by - for example - the Church of England; is morally equivalent to approval from a government bureacracy, or the mainstream mass media - since that is what controls the CofE (or rather what the CofE is part-of - bureaucratically and psychologically).
So, a Christian couple should get married; but the moral and spiritual focus of their marriage must come from each-other or it will not be there at all.
Whether you want to call this 'marriage' or not, is up to you; but when external authorities are so obviously evil, then one should not regard this form of demonic approval as the essence of a transcendentally vital sacrament.
It is precisely because marriage is of such central Christian significance, that Christians cannot any longer allow marriage to be owned by external institutions.
2 comments:
I agree Bruce. Christian marriage can only work if husband and wife hold themselves to a higher standard than the rest of the fallen world and if they eschew all the temptations and false promises the world offers.
This is of the highest importance. Considering that marriage is eternal, and thus of eternal significance, and thus of eternal cosmic significance, it is a deep error to entrust it to institutions which have proven themselves, objectively beyond any doubt, to be in thrall to the master whose prime aim, is precisely to ruin as far as possible, the harmonious and healthy development of that eternal cosmic divine relationship between beings.
A deep dive into understanding real Marriage is, and will become, a very big topic in the near future as more people (in general) slowly realise what you have succintly pointed out in this blog, and its implications.
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