Christianity Today

Benefits of marriage which promote a strong society: http://www.nationformarriage.org/atf/cf/%7B39D8B5C1-F9FE-48C0-ABE6-1029BA77 854C%7D/ProtestantEnglish.pdf

PaulT, are you implying the fact "that Israel himself had two wives" is a valid argument against monogamy today? Have you forgotten that Jacob was tricked into marrying Leah, that it was not his choice to marry anyone BUT Rachel? I do agree with you that "the entire institution [of marriage] has been so loaded with unrelated concepts that the original purpose is destroyed." I just think you didn't go back far enough. Christ Jesus confirmed God's will for His people re: marriage as shown in Genesis, in Matthew 19. Kudos to Scott Lachut - my experience mirrors his, and I praise God for it. Waiting years to marry doesn't prepare most people for marriage - only divorce, as they typically have a series of 'serious' relationships along the way, and the serial break-ups do not serve to prepare them to be faithful husbands and wives whose marriages reflect the love of God for His bride.

This article is an incredible insight. It's something I have pondered since even before my own early marriage (26 years ago and still going). I have never been able to articulate it like this. Our wider culture has completely lost the idea of the significance of marriage and it is leading us to the social chaos we are seeing around us. Thank you so much. Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth, a lovely deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight; be intoxicated always in her love. (Pro 5:18-19)

The immature female mentality (Lose/Win) is no more mature than the immature male mentality (Win/Lose), and this fallacy that women mature faster than men is complete falsehood, as the final, mature human mentality is Win/Win, and neither gender makes it there quickly or naturally. I know too many women who have never (and have no intention to ever) grow up and learn Win/Win because of this oft-stated fallacy, and on the other side of the coin, there are greater and greater pressures for a boy to never grow into a man because of the massive load of laws and rules that don't allow him to make mistakes, which are the very situations that make him mature. The concept of marriage today is nothing like the biblical relationship, or for example, the Roman concept of monogomy would have no place in our arguments (or has everyone forgotten that Israel himself had two wives?). Basically, the entire institution has been so loaded with unrelated concepts that the original purpose is destroyed.

Martin Luther would agree: "Now, I speak of this in order that the young may be so guided that they conceive a liking for the married estate, and know that it is a blessed estate and pleasing to God. For in this way we might in the course of time bring it about that married life be restored to honor, and that there might be less of the filthy, dissolute, disorderly doings which now run riot the world over in open prostitution and other shameful vices arising from disregard of married life. Therefore it is the duty of parents and the government to see to it that our youth be brought up to discipline and respectability, and when they have come to years of maturity, to have them married in the fear of God and honorably; He would not fail to add His blessing and grace, so that men would have joy and happiness from the same." (Large Catechism, 6th Commandment, 217-218) http://www.bookofconcord.org/lc-3-tencommandments.php