Expert: Joe Norman - 5/3/2010

Question
Joe; there is no place in the Bible where anyone stands before a Govt approved Official, preacher or otherwise and "gets Marriage" The coming together of a man and a woman to be married is in every case a "joining" of a man and woman beginning with Adam and Eve. In most noted marriages of the Bible they occurred when the lady was sent in to the bed of Isaac, Jacob etc. Marriage to God is a sexual joining pure and simple. Our common laws even recognize that. Acknowledging that, which most want especially men of god, would settle many issues on Marriage, divorce,remarriage,premarital sex, selection of elders.what say ye

Answer
I have heard this argument many times before and I reject it. It fails because when someone had sex with a harlot, it was said they became one flesh, but there is no evidence anyone was considered to be married to the prostitute. I also think back to Lot and his daughters.

Gen.19:31-38
31 Now the firstborn said to the younger, "Our father is old, and there is no man on the earth to come in to us as is the custom of all the earth. 32 Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve the lineage of our father." 33 So they made their father drink wine that night. And the firstborn went in and lay with her father, and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose. 34 It happened on the next day that the firstborn said to the younger, "Indeed I lay with my father last night; let us make him drink wine tonight also, and you go in and lie with him, that we may preserve the lineage of our father."
35 Then they made their father drink wine that night also. And the younger arose and lay with him, and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose. 36 Thus both the daughters of Lot were with child by their father. 37 The firstborn bore a son and called his name Moab; he is the father of the Moabites to this day. 38 And the younger, she also bore a son and called his name Ben-Ammi; he is the father of the people of Ammon to this day.

Nowhere does it say his daughters became his wives. There are many other instances I could point to as well. But no, God does not view all sex as making someone married to the person with whom they have had sex. God didn't give instructions as to how to perform a "Christian" marriage. God also didn't give instructions as to how to perform a "Christian" divorce proceeding. He left it to the laws of the land and local cultures. The only marriages which are not recognized by God as a marriage that I know of are homosexual marriages, incestuous, or bigamy or polygamy. Only recently have some states allowed and recognized homosexual marriages but since homosexuality is already understood as unnatural and sinful, we KNOW God will never accept a homosexual marriage as being a true marriage.

I do hope that I have answered you well, but if you have follow up questions or want to ask a completely new question, just let me know. I am happy to help in any way I can.

In Christian Love, Joe Norman