Pulling Down The Altar Of Marriage
What Have You Sacrificed Upon The Altar Of Marriage?
Preface,
In these essays, my main goal is to explore and lay down Rhema. Rhema, to me, is the complete revelation of God from which the Bible was taken. It is akin to the Logos. I go where God leads me regardless of conventional sensibility. Laying down new understanding is not always user-friendly or welcomed. I admit I have struggled about saying this truth about the altar of marriage, because of its profound implications. No doctrine within the church, except perhaps the trinity, is more idolized than marriage.
Yet we stand before God and not man. Though the church wishes to be the sole arbitrator of truth, in the main they are deceived by centuries of false dogma. Therefore, we cannot trust them to speak what is right or to lead and guide us into truth. Only our Comforter does that and we owe allegiance only to God.
The altar of Baal
God says,
“And it came to pass the same night, that the Lord said unto him, Take thy father’s young bullock, even the second bullock of seven years old, and throw down the altar of Baal that thy father hath, and cut down the grove that is by it: And build an altar unto the Lord thy God upon the top of this rock, in the ordered place, and take the second bullock, and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the grove which thou shalt cut down. Then Gideon took ten men of his servants, and did as the Lord had said unto him: and so it was, because he feared his father’s household, and the men of the city, that he could not do it by day, that he did it by night.”
Judges 6:25-27
What we have to understand about Gideon’s situation is that all the men of the city, plus a fair number in his father’s house, were idolaters. Idolaters do not think that idolatry is bad, in fact, they view it as good. Furthermore, if you dare to challenge their world view, they might even desire to kill you.
Idolaters are upset when you pull down their idols,
“Then the men of the city said unto Joash, Bring out thy son, that he may die: because he hath cast down the altar of Baal, and because he hath cut down the grove that was by it.”
Judges 6:30
Whenever you go against strongly held beliefs, even if those beliefs are totally wrong, you risk retribution.
To us, in our modern era, we look upon those who practice idolatry as ignorant. We, being educated and refined, could never fall for such obvious falsehood. A piece of common wood, overlaid with gold and silver, would never fool us into believing it was a god.
Though we look upon idolaters as primitive, superstitious people, to those born into these cults, it is their whole worldview. Until someone challenges their deception, demonstrating it to be wrong, they literally cannot see the error of their ways.
Pulling down the altar of marriage
So it is with marriage and the Christian church. The Clergy make the act of joining a man and woman together in holy matrimony into an idol.
In the beginning, God brought Eve to Adam. There wasn’t a ceremony, vows, wedding dress, clergyman, or marriage certificate.
Earthly marriages misappropriate and institutionalize something that was, from the very beginning, God’s exclusive domain. Clergy usurp God’s role in men and women becoming one, disrupting the central part of God’s plan for their lives. Joining people together is God’s business, period.
In the restoration of all things, men and women are neither married or given in marriage simply because God did not create marriage in the first place. Marriage, as we know it, ceases to exist in the New Heavens and New Earth because it never existed in the Garden of Eden.
God creates us in His own image
From the beginning, God designed men and women to reveal His image and likeness to this creation. Not only that, God created men and women with the ability to bring forth after their kind. In complete union with their Creator, divine mates are meant to bring forth after God’s kind. The truth is, God takes part in every aspect of procreation, because without His presence eternal souls and spirits cannot be conceived.
This is how divine mates originated. God intended Adam and Eve to be joined with and by His Spirit from the very beginning. Their relationship was to be a template for their generations. The first woman was not just for Adam’s pleasure, but as she completed Adam, together they became one flesh for God’s purpose and pleasure.
Our Father says,
“Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.”
Revelation 4:11
The institution of marriage, as currently practiced by the religious system and secular world, is an idol. It is a man-made farce which we worship. Many sacrifice their futures on the altar of marriage, committing sin when we marry contrary to God’s will. However, from the beginning it was not so.
Unholy matrimony
Marriage, as performed by the church, is unholy matrimony because God never created it. God designs men and women to join by the leading of His Spirit, not by a religious institution declaring them to be “man and wife”. All that we needed, in the beginning, was the leading of the Holy Spirit. This is why many who are living together “in sin” according to the church, are more married in the eyes of God than people with marriage certificates. Today, young people practically bankrupt themselves or their families at the altar of marriage financing the “wedding of their dreams.” Most marry because they want to and not because God says to, and the church automatically sanctions their rash vows.
A marriage certificate
When you sign a marriage certificate, all you do is make a legal contract before the state and/or the church. Unless God leads you specifically to choose your mate, that contract means nothing in the eyes of God. Legally, you commit yourself to someone on earth till death do you part. Thus, odds are that your natural minded marriage has no more chance of success than a common coin toss.
Frankly, earthly divorce is all about control too. When a couple decides things are not working out, whether Christian or not, they hire lawyers. The gloves come off and the truth comes out: the marriage was never about God at all. When it comes right down to it, holy matrimony is nothing more than cheap wood ( humanity) overlaid by a wedding ring of gold.
When God speaks
Finally, it is God’s Rhema that counts more than our earthly marriage vows. For example, In the Old Testament, Jephthah’s daughter emerged from his tent dancing and playing her timbrel. To His horror, Israel’s Judge foolishly promised to sacrifice the first thing that came out of His tent. Our earthly marriage vows are much like Jephthah’s. Only after we make them do we realize the full extent of the damage we do.
If you have made a rash vow don’t sacrifice your eternal life on the altar of earthly marriage. Seek God’s will and make a change if necessary. Clergymen, who tout what they say as God commandments, lie to you for their own institutional gain. Hear God’s voice and do God’s will no matter what others say or threaten to do.
I just stumbled upon your site today and I’m getting acquainted with your belief system out of curiosity (and perhaps the possibility to learn something worthwhile). I’ve been reading for a few hours and one of the things I’m wondering is the basis for which you claim:
“Unless God leads you specifically to choose your mate, that contract means nothing in the eyes of God.”
“Many sacrifice their futures on the altar of marriage, committing sin when we marry contrary to God’s will.”
Off the top of my head, all the examples of marriage and marriage instructions in the Word, would certainly seem to debunk that position.
Dear Steven,
I write extensively on this topic in the website. I would draw your attention, initially, to the scripture where Jesus states, “In the beginning it was not so.” Also, in the New Heavens and New Earth marriage is not practiced. Therefore, originally it was not an institution of God and in the world to come, it will not be either. Therefore, if we are walking by the Spirit as God intends, it is not necessary and is an earthly contract.
Thanks for commenting!
Blessings,
Michael
Feel free to link me to any article that explains in detail if you’d rather do that. However, the fact that the “institution of marriage” was not formally/contractually established by God in the beginning would in no way render it unapproved or unsupported by Him. I think there have to be dozens of examples that would clearly point to that on both Testaments. And that’s only if we decide to consider the one flesh union from “the beginning” does not qualify as a form of marriage contract comparable to what came after it on its own.
I can certainly see logic in the position that a marriage contract is not the one true arbiter of if two individuals are married, but to state marrying who you want to marry is a sin would need some strong scriptural support (which off the top of my head, I can think of… for the opposite position).
Dear Valmore,
Thank you for your comment, I appreciate it. I can see your thinking on the matter and perhaps I can help by explaining a bit more.
To begin with, I do not object to people deciding to get married. The perpetuation of the human race, in the absence of God’s leading, depends on it. I am, however, speaking of a higher, original way that God intended for people to mate. I think you can understand what I am saying on that point.
Basically, marriage as a legal institution is fine, but just not at the expense of being led by His Spirit. Moreover, if you have made a foolish vow and married someone that is not God’s choice, i.e. things are going very wrong, the legal contract does not supersede our Lord’s heavenly leading. Thus, you are not bound by a marriage certificate (spiritually) if God decides that His will is better served by you divorcing with someone else.
Jesus is Lord of marriage just like he is Lord of the sabbath. If that which is created to be a blessing has become a cursing, then we must try to find out where or theology is wrong.
In the vast majority of the cases, there will be no advantage to break a marriage, because one or both of the people would not listen to God in their next selection of a mate anymore than they did in the first instance. However, if breaking an unwise and earthly contract will end benefiting His heavenly kingdom and/or one or more of the people in – it is God’s right to do so. Sovereign means sovereign.
Right now, in most of the Christian churches, there is no doctrinal mechanism which allows people to break marriages by the leading of the Holy Spirit. It’s adultery and that’s it. This is based on a false premise that all marriages, no matter how they are entered into, become “holy” matrimony once consummated. That notion is patently ridiculous on the face of it, but there it is.
What I advocate for is that people learn to hear the voice of God and do His will in the first place. Allow our Father to join people together by His Spirit and then, if it makes sense and the people involved desire, get married…or not. Neither the church nor the state has to sanction what God joins together.
I hope that clarifies,
Blessings,
Michael