Do marriage vowels have to be accomplished through Church?

[gdemoss]

The idea that there must be witnesses is absurd. There was noone present when Laban and Jacob made their covenant agreement. Laban said so AND said God is witness between us.

Two people enter into a covenant and God sees THEREFORE God is witness of all covenants including marriage.

[Guest shiloh357]

If I were in love with the woman who was to be my wife, I would have no problem jumping through the legal hoops in order to be married to her.  I would do the marriage license, I would marry her in public in front of the Christian community, I would do whatever I need to do.   None of that is a huge price to pay, and if you love someone enough, you will do it right.

 

Roman 13 tells us that we are to be good citizens and to obey all laws that are right and reasonable for us to obey.   If you love someone, you will do what you need to  do and you will make sure that you do it right the first time.    

 

I get so tired of this snobby, self-righteous piety that  some Christian exhibit over something like a marriage license.   If all you are looking for is someone to have sex with, I guess the commitment that a marriage license represents isn't for you and you probably don't really love the other person anyway.

 

By the way (edited to add), having your marriage in a church in public with witnesses is a good thing because they keep you accountable.  You are making a public commitment to your spouse in front of the church and God that you will be faithful and true to your spouse.

[gdemoss]

Lol that is hilarious! Now a man doesn't love his wife if he doesn't do everything Shiloh decrees is necessary to establish said love. And of course the man who has never been married or had sex for that matter is the expert on the subject of love.

[Guest shiloh357]

Gary,  It's not about what I decree...    What I said is that if you are not willing to obey the law and do what is right and reasonable, then yes...  you probably don't love the person you claim you want to marry.   if you did, you would have no problem signing a license.

 

As for being an expert on love...  I made no such claims.  But not having had sex doesn't mean I don't know anything about love.   I know lots of people who have had plenty of sex and their marriages are in shambles, they are a train wreck when it comes to relationships.  There are lots of sad, miserable people out there who have had sex galore. 

 

Sex and love are not interchangeable concepts.  

 

Most people I have known who don't want to be formally married usually have commitment issues and have proven over time that they are not worth being married to.  They don't want to be married because if things go south in their relationship, they can just pack up and leave and they don't want a marriage they have to work at preserving.

 

A guy who doesn't love his spouse enough to what it takes to be married to her will make a lousy husband and isn't really much of  a man.  I think women would prefer to marry real men, not weaklings who aren't man enough to make a public commitment to them.

[other one]

This thread is getting crazy....  I don't know about all of you married folks, but I thoroughly enjoyed my wedding day.....   was in a church with most of my extended family and my wife's......      I enjoyed my son's wedding day and my daughters was one of the delights of my life....    a little expensive but a huge delight anyway.....     

 

 what we agreed to do concerning each other is that was important, and God himself was the only one there that would ever know if we kept those promises we made to each other....   opportunities have come and gone where not even my wife would/could have known much less any of those there witnessing our wedding.......    God alone was the entity that would know.    Just like me  Shiloh, with your relationship with him, it would take nothing but his knowledge to keep you true, not that any of the others might have some small effect, but lying to God is out of your personal reach.  I know enough about you from reading here for ten years to understand that.

[The_Patriot21]

Had my wedding performed be a preacher at a lake side. All pertinent paperwork was signed. Marriages are a covenant, yes, and the focus between our spouses and God, but God said that we need to follow the governing authorities to unless it goes against Gods word. There's nowhere in the Bible that says not to get a marriage license.

Regardless of who performs the wedding or where, those arnt that important, you need to follow societies rules, but you also need to follow Gods rules and mean your vows 100%.

[Guest Teditis]

The "a", "i", "a" & "e" in marriage should be performed* by any speller.

 

(*Edited to correct spelling, haha)

[OakWood]

Not to be picky but shouldn't the title be 'vows' not 'vowels'?

[Steve_S]

If I were in love with the woman who was to be my wife, I would have no problem jumping through the legal hoops in order to be married to her.  I would do the marriage license, I would marry her in public in front of the Christian community, I would do whatever I need to do.   None of that is a huge price to pay, and if you love someone enough, you will do it right.

 

Roman 13 tells us that we are to be good citizens and to obey all laws that are right and reasonable for us to obey.   If you love someone, you will do what you need to  do and you will make sure that you do it right the first time.    

 

I get so tired of this snobby, self-righteous piety that  some Christian exhibit over something like a marriage license.   If all you are looking for is someone to have sex with, I guess the commitment that a marriage license represents isn't for you and you probably don't really love the other person anyway.

 

By the way (edited to add), having your marriage in a church in public with witnesses is a good thing because they keep you accountable.  You are making a public commitment to your spouse in front of the church and God that you will be faithful and true to your spouse.

 

The main problem I have with marriage licenses is that when you empower the government to determine what a "legitimate" marriage is, then they can easily decide that their definition trumps God's. There were plenty of people who wanted to get married prior to the 60s in this country who were not "legally" allowed to, because of their races, without the hardship of literally having to move to a different state, as one of the main tools that the governments of some states used to institutionalize racism was to prevent people from different races from entering into a marriage covenant. Also, today, right now you have the government running around thinking that it has the legitimate ability to proclaim that people of the same sex can get married. What you choose to call snobby, self righteous piety I choose to call reasonable and practical caution. I think that believers should certainly have witnessed marriages as public professions of their entrance into a covenant, however, I think that your contention that a marriage license represents some sort of special "commitment" is errant in that if the same license can be used to legitimize a union that God doesn't recognize and that is in direct contradiction to His commands, then it is not really worth the paper it is written on in my mind. The covenant is between the people in a marriage in the eyes of God. The commitment is to each other and (hopefully) if they are believers, both should be walking in a Godward direction with God first. As someone who has a marriage license I can tell you right now, I viewed the piece of paper itself as nothing more than a formality. The part that mattered to me was taking vows with my wife before God.

[other one]

Not to be picky but shouldn't the title be 'vows' not 'vowels'?

I was going to try and let that slide..