To concerned Christians and religious peoples everywhere - the whole world seems to be collapsing by the onslaught of ungodliness on every hand. The cultural war against Christianity, and morality of any kind, seems to be winning on every front. Civilization, as we knew it, has lost any semblance of civility. Conduct that once seemed unthinkable is now the order of the day.
Marriage, the final bastion of the family, is crumbling before our eyes. Great Britain is in the process of legalizing "gay marriage." Some of our own states are sanctioning the same. Girls are insisting on having the child "out of wedlock" so the government will pick up the tab. "Shacking up" now becomes "friends with benefits." It did not happen overnight. Glen Campbell's popular ballad, Gentle on My Mind comes to mind. Consider, "I'm not shackled by forgotten words and bonds and the ink stains that are dried upon some line ..."
The attack on marriage is two pronged. First, there is the effort to make the solemn marriage vows meaningless to the modern generation. Vows to tell the truth in a court or to defend the constitution from foes within and without are fast disappearing into the ash heap of history. Secondly, there is the effort to make homosexual marriage meaningful. Marriage has always referred to the formal union of a man and a woman, by which they become husband and wife.
The appalling part, to even the casual student of history, is the fact that Christianity in the first century changed the world morally while in the twenty first century the world is changing Christianity. Disciples of Christ today need to, in the words of Jude (verse 3) "earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints."
The Bible points out that woman was created as a "help meet" for the first man, Adam (Genesis 2:18ff). They were man and wife. Anspacher pointed out that "Marriage is that relation between man and woman in which the independence is equal, the dependence mutual, and the obligation reciporcal." It has also been pointed out that "God did not take woman from man's head that she might rule over him, nor from his feet that he might trample her, but rather from his side that she might be a companion and help mate all the days of their life."
Marriage today is indeed relevant! Furthermore, marriage as God would have it, will always be relevant as it always has been relevant. Fads may come and go BUT the word of God will stand the onslaughts of the Devil and his followers. Marriage then, as God would have it, is the union of a man and a woman. They constitute the beginning of a family. Marriage is for the entire life time of the spouse. Marriage in the sight of God is terminated only by death (Romans 7:1-3) or adultery (Matthew 19:3-9).
Dale I. Royal, Elk City OK
