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NASB | Matthew 19:5 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'? |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Matthew 19:5 and said, 'FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND SHALL BE JOINED INSEPARABLY TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH'? [Gen 1:27; 2:24; Mark 10:7] |
Subject: Is marrying for citizenship real? |
Bible Note: I don't know if you followed the entire thread and I think I have failed to express myself correctly. I am not questioning whether justice of the peace marriage is binding to God. I believe it is. I'm not questioning the method, or the spiritual standing of either party. You don't have to be a christian to be married, nor do you have to marry a christian in order to make it binding. My central initial question was did this particular marriage become binding in God's sight even if the 2 people did not perceive themselves as making a consiencious, sincere vow? That legal vow, as far as they were concerned, was "fake" because they only did it so that one of the parties could get their citizenship. What I was questioning was does their perception make a difference to God or does God hold them accountable to that vow even though they didn't mean it? Some have made the argument that since the state is God's agent and the state constituted this vow as valid, then God did as well irregardless of the couple's perceptions and the state being deceived. These are the questions I presented to the forum. I have presented it in 3rd person here because I didn't want to get too personal. I apologize for my dishonesty. The truth is that I am the female that legally married the nonbeliever for the purpose of the attainment of his citizenship. I am a christian and dated this man who claimed to be a christian. Turned out he was pretending so that I would remain with him. He knew I wouldn't date a nonbeliever. About 6 months into the relationship, he was about to lose his job if he didn't produce proof of legal status and asked me to help him in this way, but it was perceived by the 2 of us that this was not a genuine vow on both our parts, it was a vow we were pretending to make so he could get his citizenship. My reasoning at the time was that it was a "technical marriage", but not a spiritual and therefore God recognized one. I thought then and do now that it doesn't matter who "joined us"; whether the state or a pastor, (that is not the significant issue for me). My thinking then was that since neither of us intentionally, conscientiously and sincerely believed ourselves to have actually joined before God, that God therefore didn't join us. As we continued dating after that legal contract was signed we never once believed ourselves to be married but lived as though we were not. Even more so than this, when he later proposed to me, as our relationship progressed, that is when I considered the notion of possibly marrying him. Does that make sense to you? When it came to light that he faked being a Christian, I cancelled the "genuine" wedding that was about to take place 4 yrs after the legal marriage took place. When I made that decision to not marry him genuinely the 2nd time, I felt then and find it difficult now to deny that God was prompting me to do so. I am having difficulty accepting that I imagined all that, but I want to be submissive to that possibility if it is true. Now here is my second question if the argument made is true. If it is true that "A state sanctioned marriage constitutes "What God has joined together" irregardless of what I believed to be doing, how then does God view the legal divorce? Understand that when we separated, we separated with the belief that our break up was not one from marriage, but one from dating. In other words, in our perception, we believed that a marriage never took place though one did according to the state of NJ. Now here is where it gets weird for me. Assuming it is true that our first legal marriage was binding and genuine in the sight of God, then did this man commit adultery in the sight of God when he entered a sexual relationship with this other woman immediately after our mutual break up and cancellation of the second so called "genuine" wedding? It was no secret to me that he became involved with this woman after our break up and I never thought of it as adultery since I never considered us truly married in the first place. As far as I was concerned he was free to date since we no longer were in a relationship or going ahead with our so called "genuine" wedding plans. What literally took place was this: (continued on the next post since there is not enough room here) |