Mockery of Marriage

Well, I’ve been saying for years that when you remove the biblical foundation for marriage found in Genesis, it can become whatever you want it to be—including a complete mockery!

The Guardian (based on an Australian Associated Press article) reported recently that two heterosexual men in New Zealand tied the knot with one another. The two men, who are best friends, decided to marry in order to win a radio contest. Edge Radio’s “Love You Man” competition was offering two “mates” (Australian/New Zealand lingo for good friends) coveted tickets to the Rugby World Cup in England if they would marry each other. So, in a ceremony in front of friends and family, the two men became legally married.

This news story shows the tragic decline of attitudes toward marriage in Western society. What used to be a solemn, sacred covenant between one man and one woman for life has become a means to acquire a contest prize for personal gain. This wedding makes a complete mockery of the sacredness of the biblical covenant of marriage, not to mention it violates God’s principles for what a marriage is—one man for one woman.

The newspaper of Australia’s largest city (Sydney), the Sydney Morning Herald, even reported on this “marriage” and included this:

Alex Greenwich, independent MP for Sydney and former convener of Australian Marriage Equality, said "all sides" of the marriage equality debate would be understandably upset.

"It essentially makes a mockery of marriage. Marriage is a really important institution about love and commitment and it's sad to see that there are people who are making a joke out of that," he said.

Really now! The doctrine of marriage comes from the Bible, based in Genesis where God made the first marriage (we could say God invented marriage) when He created Adam and Eve—one male and one female. Anything else makes a mockery of marriage!

Think about it: why do those advocating gay marriage want two men or two women? Having two in marriage is based on the Bible when God made the first marriage with two people—Adam and Eve!

Sadly, we can only expect things like this—and other perversions like polyamory, bestiality, and incest—to continue to increase as society drifts farther and farther away from a biblical foundation. One wonders why the contest promoters stopped at two men; why not three or four men? After all, if God is not the absolute authority and society can redefine marriage any way it wants to, why stop at just two individuals? After all, if there is no God who created you and therefore has the right to make the rules, then why not just do whatever you want? In fact, this is happening with more and more examples of polyamory—which involves any combinations of males and females. The only reason that marriage is a sacred institution between one man and one woman is because God says that it is. The Lord Jesus Christ, in answering the Pharisees, stated the following as he quoted from Genesis (which is where the doctrine of marriage originates):

Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning “made them male and female,” and said, “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh”? (Matthew 19:4–5)

If you replace this foundation with the philosophy that man is just another animal, that there is no God who makes the rules, everyone can “do what is right in his own eyes” (Judges 17:6). But man is not just another animal and there is a God who has revealed right and wrong to us through His Word. And we, as believers, need to stand firmly on the Word of God and proclaim His truth to a dying world.

You can learn more about this institution created by God on our marriage topic page.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken

This item was written with the assistance of AiG’s research team.