Is Covenant Marriage a Sin?

Ours was $6.00 and they gave us a big box with laundry detergent, dish soaps, and other goodies. We got our STD tests on the Army base for free. Of course, our wedding cost about $300.

 

Then the state says you are cohabiting. The insurance companies will not recognize your spouse as a beneficiary or able to be covered under your insurance policy.

In the OT there was no such thing as a church or synagogue wedding. All weddings were civil ceremonies.

 

How would they know? I have never once had to display my marriage license to obtain insurance for my wife.

 

On the news today complaints were made about a former doctor who had his licence for practicing medicine revoked because of sexual abuse (rape). Yet he still practices medicine without a licence.

There are reports regularly of young people who get caught driving without insurance or registration. They can't afford it. Does it make it right?

So a couple gets married without a certificate from the government, does that make it right?

Judges 21:25 In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.

James 4:17 Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

 

I have been in management and there are ways of finding out more things than you can imagine. Some businesses may not ask for verification of a person being your spouse nor even check but there are companies that may check when it is time to pay their part of a bill especially if it is very much. It's a good way to lose your job if you lie. Usually when the person gets caught big time is when they are older and it is harder to get another job. Some jobs require the records from a past employer.

Do you call your live in lover your wife even though she is not recognized as wife legally? Are you telling the truth or lying? Do you call her wife even though there is no legal contract. Do you call her wife when your neighbors find out you are not legally married. The world calls that cohabiting and knows that's something Christians speak out against. How do you sign your name on contracts. How do you write your name when you get a driver's license. What will the person think who asks to see your wife's driver's license at the grocery store?

In the OT there was a legal contract drawn up before the betrothal and of course before the wedding.

Having a live in lover whom you would call wife does not fit the biblical model at all.

If a person is not willing to sign on the dotted line and get married then they do not love you enough to get married. They are just willing to use you.

 

But to get the insurance, you signed written statements that said she is your wife.
Those that sign such things inaccurately often find claims denied. It may never come up till a major claim is filed and investigated. But then it won't be paid.

Karen

 

good points. Also, I did find one issue within texas family code:

§ 2.001. MARRIAGE LICENSE. (a) A man and a woman
desiring to enter into a ceremonial marriage must obtain a marriage
license from the county clerk of any county of this state.
(b) A license may not be issued for the marriage of persons
of the same sex.

http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/statutes/docs/FA/content/htm/fa.001.00.000002.00.htm

I don't think this would be something I would break fellowship over. I can see both sides of the argument, and while I do believe that we should obey every ordinance of man, this is to be observed so long as man's laws do not conflict with God's laws. While I may not see a conflict, another brother may not agree, and can I forbid a man to marry because he sees a marriage license as an unholy contract with the state? I think as long as the man is married in his church, and his church holds the marriage to be valid, I would be out of line to contend with him on the issue.

 

It should be noted that a marriage from out of state is valid in Texas. If there were a state (or country) that did not require a marriage license, and a couple was married there, the fact that they did not have a marriage license would be moot.

 

There is not a single recorded instance of a marriage ceremony or a wedding being held or performed in a synagogue or in a church. So why would you put this restriction on marriage. No pastor in the Bible ever married any one. Every marriage in the Bible had to do with family, culture, social, and even legal transactions. When put in that perspective, the church had less to do with marriage then the law did.
DHK

 

When did they do away with the blood test? I had to have one?

I agree with Diane that covenant marriages are wrong.

Christ did tell us to respect authority.

There is also the simple fact that if the government does not honor your marriage your family is put at great risk in terms of many "earthly" realities. Certain provisions for widows and orphans will only be honored in state sanctioned marriages.

And frankly, I would tend to look at someone who told me they didn't get a state license, as a fornicator who didn't want any legal contracts binding them. I don't see a huge difference in, "I got a preacher to do it who didn't honor the state laws," and those people who say, "We went out into the woods and invited a few friends, and called it a marriage."

I don't know any minister who would preform one and NOT insist on a license.

And I deeply object to the statement that marriages which include a license make people polygymists. Where does THAT nonsense come from?

 

I have to agree with Diane on this point.


YIKES, Diane and I agree on something?
Just think: I have been identified as a "liberal," and I am in complete agreement with Diane. I just might convert you!!!!!!



Regards to all of you,
BiR

 

History of marriage licensing in the United States:

http://www.policyofliberty.net/CovenantMarriage.html

Covenant Marriage is not illegal. I know several couples who do not have licenses, yet their covenants are filed with the Recorder of Deeds in the counties in which they married.

 

You may be right. They may not be illegal in some places. But then homosexual unions may not be illegal in some places either.
DHK

 

There is not a single recorded instance of a marriage ceremony or a wedding being held or performed in a synagogue or in a church. So why would you put this restriction on marriage. No pastor in the Bible ever married any one. Every marriage in the Bible had to do with family, culture, social, and even legal transactions. When put in that perspective, the church had less to do with marriage then the law did.
DHK </font>[/QUOTE]I don't really know why I worded it that way, I don't care where the marriage occurs. I think what I meant was as long as he is in a church that holds his marriage to be valid before the eyes of God. We have couples who were married outside the church in civil ceremonies, but we certainly hold that they are married. If the man is not in church and seeking God's will, it really makes little difference who believes what about his marriage.

 

You may be right. They may not be illegal in some places. But then homosexual unions may not be illegal in some places either.
DHK </font>[/QUOTE]How is the marriage covenant/license discussion even remotely related to sodomy?

 

I never heard of this.

Hmmm. I kinda enjoyed going to the courthouse w/dh-to-be to get our license. I saw it as another aspect of our marriage. We made a celebration out it.

I know, I'm weird! lol

 

why do they need a state document to say they are married?

---
Stepping away from the theological debate a moment, looking at the practical.

1) Finances - Insurance companies won't cover "your roommate", social security won't pay benefits to your surviving "dear friend."

2) Daily, legal issues that come up in marriages. When my husband was at his worst in regards to his mental condition post car accident - I had legal rights to involve myself in his medical care. I worked with a person who was cohabitating, and when their companion recently had a heart-attack they couldn't even get into the ICU to visit them.

3) Children - A child's name.

4) Others - No matter how committed you say you are, the world will most likely think you are just fornicating and Christians (okay so I'm back into theology) are told to act in a way that doesn't turn others from God.

5) Joseph and Mary set the example for us. They were married by the legalities of their day. Christ told us to obey those in authority. While it may not be required to marry - there are no biblical grounds found to speak against it.

Someone said the license it is a new concept-that's not quite true. In the past, marriages were announced in public, usually at the church. Then people had a certain time period to come forward and show evidence regarding why the couple couldn't marry. That was considered a legal proceeding.