The Missing Bridegroom

From My Perspective - - -

Traditional Marriage – what happened to it? The Bride – where is the Bridegroom? Matrimonial Bliss – why is it missing? Home and Family – does this generation know what that is? Family Values – do they not matter anymore? An Associated Press article on November 18, 2010 has this headline: “40% Believe Marriage Is Becoming Obsolete!” Does that shock you? Does Society and our Culture care? What about the Church – does it matter to the broad cross-section of Denominations?

The AP article includes: “As families gather for Thanksgiving this year, nearly one in three American children is living with a parent who is divorced, separated or never-married. More people are accepting the view that wedding bells aren't needed to have a family. A study by the Pew Research Center, in association with Time magazine, highlights rapidly changing notions of the American family. And the Census Bureau, too, is planning to incorporate broader definitions of family when measuring poverty, a shift caused partly by recent jumps in unmarried couples living together… about 39 percent of Americans said marriage was becoming obsolete. And that sentiment follows U.S. census data released in September that showed marriages hit an all-time low of 52 percent for adults 18 and over. In 1978, just 28 percent believed marriage was becoming obsolete. When asked what constitutes a family, the vast majority of Americans agree that a married couple, with or without children, fits that description. But four of five surveyed pointed also to an unmarried, opposite-sex couple with children or a single parent. Three of 5 people said a same-sex couple with children was a family… The changing views of family are being driven largely by young adults 18-29, who are more likely than older generations to have an unmarried or divorced parent or have friends who do. Young adults also tend to have more liberal attitudes when it comes to spousal roles and living together before marriage, the survey found. But economic factors, too, are playing a role. The Census Bureau recently reported that opposite-sex unmarried couples living together jumped 13 percent this year to 7.5 million. It was a sharp one-year increase that analysts largely attributed to people unwilling to make long-term marriage commitments in the face of persistent unemployment…” USA TODAY adds in their report: “Marriage is still the norm for college grads (64%) but less so for those with no college (48%). Blacks are much less likely to be married (32%) than whites (56%), the report finds. Cohabitation has nearly doubled since 1990. Pew found 44% of adults (and more than half ages 30-49) have cohabited. Among these, 64% say they considered it a step toward marriage…”

The concept of Marriage with a Bride and Bridegroom – where does it originate? Does Culture and Society’s Laws define and mandate what constitutes a bonafide marriage? The Bible records, at the time of The Creation, in Genesis 2:18 this purpose – “…it is not good for man to be alone.” That brought about the act of God to create a woman to be man’s helper – Genesis 2:23-24. The text includes: “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh." It was intended to be one man with one woman for one lifetime. The idea of a woman being man’s helper in Genesis 2:20 is that man is incomplete unless or until the right woman enters into the commitment of marriage with him. When the Pharisees asked Jesus about marriage in Matthew 19:3-6, He replied: "Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate." The relationship and responsibility of a husband to his wife is amplified in Ephesians 5:21-32. It is a passage that speaks of the relationship of Jesus Christ to His Church, with the application being made in the text to the minimal Biblical Standards and Values for marriage. “Husbands, love your wives…He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it…a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh…let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.” Cultural Trends will never satisfy or bring fulfillment. Biblical Mandates will bring fulfillment and completeness. Consider these things with me!