Hi Rob,
I just scanned the paper by Ray again that Mark gave you a while ago; to get you the answer you
are looking for. It is plainly written in this paper, what is the Ceremony of Marriage, and then The
Institution Of Matrimony and who can conduct the legal requirements. I see no ambiguities there,
so read the three excerpts i pulled out to get your answers. http://forums.bible-truths.com/index.php/topic,5675.0.html3 Excerpts from: What is Marriage; by L Ray Smith.
A). God joined them together, that’s what nuptials are. You take a vow and what happens at the end of the ceremony? What does the minister usually say? I now pronounce you husband and wife. Why? Because they are now joined together.
Did they have sex? No. What did they do? They took the vows, they formed a covenant in front of witnesses, in a ceremony called a wedding in a public gathering. That’s what marriage is. It’s the joining of a unmarried man and a unmarried woman together in a public setting with witnesses, exchanging vows and making a covenant to be husband and wife with one another as long as you both shall live. That’s what a wedding is. That’s what nuptials are. That’s what ‘marry’ means, that’s what a marriage is, that’s what starts the matrimony of two people.
B). You know there may be more scriptures, I mean I just put this together in basically a day. There was a lot to put together, but I was even doing others things too…. I answered emails…. ran errors, whatever else I had to do. So if I would have spent weeks on this, who knows what else you could come up with. There may be a lot more that I over looked. But I think there is enough here to make the point. What is a wedding? What is a marriage? Okay that is just the first point of what is a marriage.
(2) Now from the scriptural point of view, marriage is a covenant. I’m going to quote some excerpts that I took from Rotherham’s translation, rather than King James.
Malachi 2:14 “Yet ye say, For what cause? Because, Yahweh, hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, with whom, thou, hast dealt treacherously, though, she, (here is where we learn one more aspect of what God has to say constitutes a marriage) was thy consort, and thy covenant wife.”
What does God throw in here as a necessary part of being legally married and being a husband and a wife? A covenant! We saw from the traditions of Israel, even the espousal, even the engagement was legal.
They have found actual marriage contracts, Jewish marriage contracts that go back to the 5th century B.C. So this idea of, ‘well they didn’t have ceremonies.’ Yes they did. In fact Malachi was written about 500 B.C.
(3) Jesus used a wedding ceremony in a parable. Matt. 22: 8 “Then saith he to his servants, the wedding is ready (what is the wedding? The ceremony, the wedding is the ceremony), but they which were bidden were not worthy.”
Are we bidding people here to the married couples’ house or into their bedroom while they are having intercourse or something? This is the CEREMONY of getting married. He puts His approval on the ceremony, because that’s what the wedding is. The wedding is the marriage ceremony, that’s what it is. Christ is putting His approval on it and building a parable around it.
(4) Christ’s first miracle was at a wedding. It says a marriage in the King James, but it should be wedding. The only place where that word ‘marriage’ really fits is in Heb. 13:4, where it says the bed is undefiled and so on. Where Concordant has it translated matrimony. This was a wedding! He was invited, He came, He puts His approval on it by turning water into wine and contributing to the marriage festivities, the marriage supper.
c). But notice what the opposite is, if it’s not marriage, “…but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.” If you are not in matrimony in your wedding bed, what does God consider you? A whoremonger and a adulterer. Now do I need to read Rev. 21:8, “All whoremongers will find their place in the Lake of fire.” Is that not clear enough there? People don’t put these things together. If you are not married, but you live together, you are a whoremonger and adulterer.
So how important is this ‘piece of paper’ as people like to spit it out. It’s very important. Not that the piece of paper itself is necessarily important. But what the piece of paper represents, a formal ceremony in public with witnesses, making a contract through nuptial oaths in agreement to be a husband and wife, that’s very important to God. Very important.
(9)
Marriage comes under the category of;
Rom 13:7 Render to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor. This is talking about the laws of the land, the governments, the enforcement people and everything else, and all of the regulations that come out of cities and counties and so on. “…tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom…” You may be familiar with someone who has as much as spit on this. You don’t just have to obey the laws, it says you have to obey the customs too.
george.