www.lifeministries.org.au

Andrew Lansdown #fundie lifeministries.org.au

More women are turning to artificial insemination by donor (AID) as a method of conceiving a child. And not just lesbians. A study carried out in Perth last year showed that heterosexual women also were having babies by this method.

The main reason was that they wanted to rear a child, or children, without any interference from a father. They were independent women who sought the freedom to do things in their own way, and AID provided the solution. There was no contact with the father, no custody claims, no child-rearing clashes, visitation rights or any conflict whatsoever. Legally, he simply did not exist.1

Apparently, these “independent women” are so determined to avoid “any interference from a father” that they are prepared to be artificially inseminated like cows. There can hardly be a stronger rejection of fathers and fatherhood than that!

In some feminist and sociological circles there is talk about the New Father model. The whole thrust of this model is to strip fathers of all masculine characteristics so they will be just like mothers. New Father visionaries “grimace about maleness”. They want fathers to be androgynous, genderless. They want to redefine fatherhood so that it is indistinguishable from motherhood. Indeed, they speak of “co-ed mothering”; and ask earnestly, “Can a man and a woman mother together?” At heart, they believe that “there is nothing special about a father, that there are no fundamental tasks in family life that are properly and necessarily his work.” Consequently, it hardly matters whether fathers stick around or not. But if they do, they had better behave like mothers, or else!2

Andrew Lansdown #fundie lifeministries.org.au

I. The origin of marriage

The opening chapters of Genesis reveal that marriage originates from God. He is its author on two counts—by creation and by command.

In the beginning, “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27). Marriage is possible because God made human beings male and female. Had he made us asexual like the angels there would be no marriage. But as it is, he made humanity as a duality—masculine and feminine. Consequently, men and women possess contrasting but complementary bodies and natures, thereby making it possible for one to fulfil the other in marriage.

Furthermore, God made human beings in his own image. Among other things, this means that we possess personality, conscience, intellect, and will. All these spiritual qualities are necessary for the relationship we call marriage. A ram and a ewe, a dog and a bitch, cannot marry because they lack the spiritual dimension that marriage requires. A man and a woman, on the other hand, may marry precisely because their natures are more than biology and instinct. As spiritual beings, we are capable of love and commitment. In short, because he created us in his image, God created us with the ability to enter into a relationship with each other.

God further established the foundations of marriage by the special creation of woman from man. After the Lord had made Eve from Adam’s rib, he brought her to Adam, who said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man” (Genesis 2:21-23). Men and women are related by image and by blood. Therefore we yearn for one another.

Having made marriage possible by his creative power, God then made it necessary by his moral decree. He proclaimed that because woman was taken out of man to be his companion, “a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24). God mandated marriage at the commencement of human existence. Marriage is morally imperative for any couple who wish to proceed in their relationship beyond a certain level of intimacy.

II. The nature of marriage

The essential characteristics of marriage can be discerned from a statement by the Lord Jesus Christ recorded in Matthew 19:4-6, where he cites and comments on Genesis 2:24. Answering a question put to him by the Pharisees about divorce, Jesus said, “Have you not read that he who made them from 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’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder.” Six truths concerning the nature of marriage emerge from this statement.

Firstly, marriage is heterosexual. It is for male and female—not male and male or female and female. While this is a truism, such is the moral tenor of our age that some people are confused about it. But there is no confusion in Scripture. It condemns homosexual behaviour as biologically aberrant and morally abhorrent. The advocacy of homosexual marriage is nothing less than an attempt to clothe an unspeakable perversion in the robes of decency. Have you not read that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female? Marriage involves the union of members of the opposite sex.

Secondly, marriage is sexual. The first thing a man and a woman do when they are alone after their wedding is “become one flesh”. Marriage involves intimate physical and spiritual union between a man and a woman.

Thirdly, marriage is monogamous. It permits one man to unite with one woman for life. Christ clarifies this by the way he cites Genesis 2:24. While the use of the singular for “man” and “wife” in Genesis 2 ought to be enough to indicate the monogamous nature of marriage, Christ leaves no room for doubt or dispute by inserting the word “two”: the man and his wife, “the two shall become one flesh.” Marriage involves an intimate union of two people to the exclusion of all others.

Fourthly, marriage is solitary. A husband and wife must stand together, and this means that to a certain extent they must stand apart. The Lord declares that the first step in the marriage process is to leave mother and father. This is necessary so that the marriage partners may truly cling to each other. There must be no staying home with, or running home to, the parents. Old relationships must be broken so that the new may be embraced. Marriage involves two people setting out in life together, relying primarily upon each other for their desires and needs.

Fifthly, marriage is permanent. It is a union for life. Once a man and a woman become one flesh, they can never entirely separate themselves again. Their physical union establishes a spiritual union that affects their whole lives. They are spliced together, and cannot be separated without ongoing emotional and metal violence. In addition to this, the Lord Jesus reveals that it is God himself who actually unites a man and a woman in marriage; and he does so with a view to a life-long relationship. What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder! Marriage involves a commitment from each partner to the other as long as they both live.

Sixthly, marriage is sacred. It is no mere human invention: it is a divine institution. When they marry, a man and a woman enter into a relationship hallowed by God. He is a party to their marriage. He is a witness to their vows and their intimacies, and he binds them to both. He joins them together. Marriage involves the divine as well as the human, the spiritual as well as the physical, the eternal as well as the temporal.