Tag Archives: Marriage

Putting Asunder What God Has Joined

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Bill Smith, a fellow teaching elder in the PCA, has put together a great piece on divorce over at his blog The Christian Curmudgeon. The Westminster Confession of Faith has given two reasons for divorce. The first is that of adultery, in which the offending party has had actual physical relations with someone other than their spouse, thereby breaking the one-flesh union of the couple. The other is desertion, in which one spouse leaves the other.

He discusses both positions and shows that the two reasons are biblical. He also gives us a good section on the church’s responsibility in the matter:

What is the responsibility of the church? The church’s responsibility is (1) to train its youth according to the Biblical teaching regarding sexuality and marriage; (2) to do everything possible to strengthen the marriages of its members; (3) to uphold Biblical standards regarding the grounds for divorce; (4) to approach every troubled couple with love, understanding, and help with the goal of restoring the relationship; (5) to support the party who does not cause the divorce*; (6) to minister to the needs of children for whom divorce is almost always destructive; (7) to seek pastorally, with humility and showing grace, to help the erring party to repent and find forgiveness, according to his/her profession; and (8) as a last resort to use the Bible’s disciplinary process (Matthew 18:15-20; 1 Corinthians 5:1-13; Galatians 6:1) to uphold the honor of Christ, to protect the purity of the church, and to reclaim the person who (it is be hoped) had temporarily gone astray.

Read the rest of the article here.

 

Jesus Defines Marriage For Us: We Don’t Need the Supreme Court’s Definition

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I know that many people are waiting with baited and stinky breath on the United States Supreme Court to tell us what the definition of marriage is according to the Constitution, but the Supreme Being of all eternity has already defined it for the Christian. In other words, it matters not what the Supreme Court says, as Christians, Jesus has done so for us.

Matthew 19:4-6 And He answered and said to them, “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ 5 and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? 6 So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.”

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Uh, thanks but no thanks

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Reblogged from Eternity Matters:

In an obvious sp*m email to random bloggers, a man named Joseph invited me to link to a list of the top 100 "marriage equality" blogs on his gay dating site.  Here is my response.  It also goes out to the people on Facebook with the red equal sign pictures and anyone else who abuses words like equality.  Remember, the warnings in…

Read more… 584 more words

In lieu of the fact that I haven't been blogging lately, here is Neil's latest and greatest...

Roundup That Matters

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Just a few things going on that I’m able to comment on, and not able to pass up…

What Makes You Think the “Democratic Party” Has Changed? – Great piece by a woman that identifies herself as FDF NY (Ayesha Kreutz?) on how what I’m calling the party of death, the Democratic Party, hasn’t changed much since its inception and identification with the KKK. She writes:

I look around see these inner cities that are devastated by broken families, abortion, poor education (which borders criminal), high incarceration rates, illiteracy, drug infestation and general black genocide; and I see the power structure is mostly all democrats, in city after city and for 15 and 40 years and I have to ask you people what in the world makes you think the “Democrat Party”, which …was the party of the KKK, Segregation and now socialism has changed. I mean I hear you all say it and I hear a lot of these folks say a bunch of sweet and “well intentioned” things but when I look around and see the pain, devastation and brokeness, it seems like they are feeding you a line of bull… just the same old planned genocide and eugenics, they wanted all along only more cloaked, today, in fancy elitism and patronizing niceties. So again I ask, what in the world makes you think these people have changed from their past?

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Defending Marriage

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I think the Alliance Defending Freedom has done an excellent job of making the case for marriage on a secular level. They are trying to defend the Defense of Marriage Act. I don’t think we are going to win on this in the long run, because liberals and the left never give up. They have to suspend reason in their pursuits of fleshly lusts. We know that from Romans 1. The flesh never satisfies and this is why the left will never stop unless those in authority close that door for them (or the Spirit moves in our nation). Since the governmental authorities are on the side of the gay lobby, marriage will be redefined and organizations that stand against them will become enemies of the state. But it is good to see the stand that is being taken.

Bishop E.W. Jackson Points Out Inconsistency of Democratic Party for Christians

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The Bishop E.W. Jackson speaks out against the Democratic Party, saying that it is antithetical to those of us who are Christians. I’ve been saying it for years, how can the party that cherishes killing the unborn have anything to do with the Light of the World? How can the party that recognize two men in an unholy relationship have anything to do with the ONE who said it was an abomination to Him? How can the party the cherishes every level of sinful and rebellious behavior have anything to do with the One who submitted Himself to the death of the cross out of humble obedience?

The Democratic Party and Christianity are incompatible with one another. Christians should leave the party and not vote for those who stand with them.

Here is the Bishop E.W. Jackson saying the same thing from his perspective as a black Christian. I truly am encouraged by his words. Even though he is speaking mainly to black Christians, he reminds us that we need to stand with God, not some political party or candidate. God is the One who will take care of us, not the fallen government. Speaking of which see the second video in which Dr. Barbara Beller points out just how ridiculous it is for us to think that Obamacare will take care anyone at all.

Midweek Humor

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Just some humor for your day. My favorite is this one in which the husband is clearly too involved in politics to answer the serious question from his wife. However, I think it’s a great response:

As Jeff Foxworthy points out, any man married for more than 5 minutes knows the correct answer to THAT question is: “Honey, you look fantastic in those pants.”

And this one…

And the final one, not quite as funny but makes a point.

Roundup That Matters 5/28

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Obama Stands For Islam — but then, are we surprised about this? He is anti-First Amendment in his stance. People slander Jesus Christ all the time and yet, you don’t see Christians rioting and killing people over it. Only the religion of peace does that.

Divorce Rate Among Devoted Christians Much Lower Than National Average — For years we have been hearing that the divorce rate among Christians was just as bad as that among non-Christians… at 50 percent. That stat is erroneous and misleading in nature as well. But there is a new study out showing that those who are devoted Christians actually have a lower divorce rate than those non-believers. Here the key poing:

People who seriously practice a traditional religious faith—whether Christian or other—have a divorce rate markedly lower than the general population.

What the study shows is that the more a couple is committed to their beliefs, the less likely they are to become divorced.

Gloria Jackson Show — I like the following video from the Gloria Jackson Show. She interviews Comedian Brad Stine about freedom of speech. The more I listened to it the more I like Brad Stine. Not only does he discuss the problem of Marxism and political correctness, but he goes on to talk about the true equality we have because of Christ and Christianity.

BTW, I actually started paying more attention to Gloria Jackson when I was listening to a debate between a Calvinist and Armenian recently and she was one of the people who asked a question during the Q&A.

Paganini Humor — Another video that I have found very humorous, and entertaining are those put out by PAgagNINI, a couple of violinist who put humor to playing music. The following is one of my favorites in which they cover U2′s With or Without You. It’s beautiful. (Hattip Andrew M.)

And there is this rendition of Pachelbel’s Canon in D


The Death of Love

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Jerry Johnson, of the Nicene Council, does an excellent job of showing that true-biblical love has slowly died since the beginning of the Romantic age in literature. What has replaced biblical love is romantic love, based upon our base emotions toward a person instead of our covenantal commitment spoken of in Scripture. For example, we know that Christ died on the cross for the love of His people, who, were quite unlovable when He died for them. Had He waited for the modern-day emotion that so many base love upon, He would have bypassed the cross all together.

True love for a person is a covenantal commitment before God, not emotions that determine our happiness. After all, if we base our marriages on emotional happiness, what will happen when that happiness fades? The question isn’t: “will it fade?” But, “when will it fade?”

When it does fade, we need to remember that true, covenantal love is a commitment toward a person, not just an emotion toward a person. This is alteration of the definition of love is the reason so many have caved in the area of marriage, be it biblical marriage, or the current debate surrounding gay unions. Since so many believe that love is based on emotions and not commitment, then who are we to truly question the emotions of people who divorce and remarry, who marry people of the same sex, or marry their dog (which is coming next). When we return to the biblical understanding of love, and marriage, these arguments fall by the wayside.

Watch the video:

Here is the true definition of love according to 1 Corinthians 13:

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. 2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned,[a] but have not love, it profits me nothing.

4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part.10 But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.

11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.

13 And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

16 Year Old Gets It Right on Gay Marriage and the Left

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Madeleine McAulay, a 16-year-old native of North Carolina gets it right when it comes to the left and the controversy about Gay “marriage.” She points out how ludicrous it is that President Obama is considered wise because he gets his opinion about gay marriage from his two daughters, but she’s considered mean, homophobic and backwards because she doesn’t share the same opinion as those on the left. I hope there are more and more 16 year olds who understand the issue like Madeleine. Watch the video: