The National Catholic Register ran an article this week entitled The Marriage Crisis is No Longer Just a Western Problem. The article articulates the trends worldwide away from traditional (and biblical) marriage. This quote seems to sum it up.
Julie Hanlon Rubio, a Santa Clara University theologian serving as an expert at the gathering, told the assembly on Oct. 12 that “the global trend away from marriage is accelerating,” citing declining marriage rates in the Philippines, Poland, Argentina and South Africa
When marriage declines, birthrates decline. It’s inevitable. We can make a “chicken or the egg” argument about which comes first, but the coincidental nature of the stats is unmistakable.
The decline of marriage and the family as a result is the way humanity commits suicide. While human beings have been preoccupied with nuclear war, global warming, and a myriad of real and perceived health concerns, we seem to be ignoring the most basic aspect of human thriving and survival—reproduction of the human race in a happy and healthy family environment. Abortion, same-sex unions, divorce, promiscuity, and more have all led here.
Now, I do believe humans will survive because Bible prophecy tells us how it will all end. But that does not mean that the present crisis is not real.
Social media is filled with both men and women complaining about what is happening. Women (at least some) complain that men are not pursuing women any more while men openly declare that the devastation of potential divorce—financial, loss of children, and more—makes marriage no longer worth the risk.
Meanwhile, even the language of our culture has evolved to reflect the depravity of our morality. The term “body count” used to describe the horrible aftermath of a violent event. Now it’s the slang term for the number of sexual partners a person has had. The fact that the partners are referred to as “bodies” rather than people reveals how meaningless the God-given act of sexual intimacy has become in the eyes of many.
We deny the Creator to our own destruction.
When we convince ourselves as humans that we are only the product of evolutionary chance, our behavior, and our survival don’t seem to matter that much. If there is no God, there is no reason to be worried about anything more than now. No morality. No moral consequences. Paul describes it clearly in 1 Corinthians 15:32.
If, in the manner of men, I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantage is it to me? If the dead do not rise, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!”
We deny God’s plan for marriage and family to our own destruction.
God created mankind and God created marriage. He made it. He defined it. He describes what it is supposed to be. He has regulated it. Many might not like what the Bible teaches about marriage, but God’s plan is the key to a successful marriages and families.
God did intend for a man and woman to walk through life together in a committed relationship. That is why He created Adam and Eve. That is why He made Adam name the animals, clearly indicating that Adam was alone. That is why God said regarding Adam,
“It is not good for man to be alone.”
The first two chapters of Genesis give God’s plan for humanity. His first command to Adam and Eve was to multiply and fill the earth (Genesis 1:28). Together, Adam and Even were commanded to dress the Garden and keep it, to have dominion (a healthy dominion over nature), and make use of this planet in a responsible way for themselves and the generations that would follow.
Biblical marriage is the foundation of the family unit.
The key elements of biblical marriage were established by God. Marriage is between a man and woman. This is not only by creative design recorded for us in Genesis 1 and 2, but also by the biological necessity imposed by God in creation. Babies come from mothers and fathers. It takes two by creative design.
While extended families are treated as valuable in scripture, the independence of the nuclear family is clearly indicated in the creative order in Genesis 2:24.
Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
Consider the implications of this foundational biblical text. God intends for people to be fathers and mothers—together. The father and mother are described as a unit. When the children, produced by that union take husbands or wives, they are supposed to start a new family unit, deliberately separate from the parents.
The building block of human culture is marriage—which is the foundation of the family unit. That family unit is designed by God to divide when the children depart from their parents. However the marriage itself is intended to be life-long. The two bodies become one. They should be joined in love and mutual affection. This is more than just a description of the sexual act. It is a description of the indivisible intimacy that God intends for the marriage bond. Two become one for life.
God’s design is for our profit.
God did not invent marriage as a punishment for Adam and Even. It is His beautiful and glorious gift to them. It is Satan who seeks to convince us that God had evil intentions in the good things He has given us. That has always been His practice starting in Genesis 3.
It is true that God calls some people to a life of singleness for His own purposes (1 Corinthians 7), and there are times when God sees fit to call a couple to childlessness for His own purposes. Paul’s instructions are to be content with where you are, but if you want to be married, by all means be married (1 Corinthians 7:8).
Find a person who shares biblical values with you!
If you are believer, find a believer. Find a true believer who agrees with what the Bible says about marriage and is committed to a lifelone, intimate, one-flesh (more than sexual) relationship.
Being joined together with someone who does not agree with God on marriage is a formula for disaster and the Bible specifically forbids it, not just for moral but for very practical reasons (2 Corinthians 6:14-15).
It is true. We are in a marriage crisis worldwide. And the solution to that crisis is to return the plan for humanity that God established at creation.
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