Matrimony, Drive-Through Style”

You’ve probably heard about the couple who recently were married inside a Taco Bell restaurant. Since they didn’t have a church to call home, they tied the knot where they frequently hang out. No, they didn’t use the drive-through, but it might have crossed their minds. Guests to their big day seemed content as they ordered their reception meal from Taco Bell’s menu. Different, but according to the laws of the state where they live, they’re married.

“Drive-through style” pretty well describes the way things have been in South Korea until recently. Before June of 2008 couples could file for divorce for a fee equivalent to only a few dollars, and be handed the official termination papers within an hour. Judges complained that their busiest days were Mondays. Weekend arguments spilled over into quick decisions to end the marriages.

As of June, however, couples with children now have to wait for three months for their divorces to become official. Those without children must wait a month. Already a significant turnaround has been seen, according to a story from Reuters. The number of couples canceling their petitions to divorce has increased, and the number actually divorcing has dropped.

God’s counsel on the subject of marriage sounds harsh to modern ears. Malachi stated it clearly: “For the Lord God of Israel says that He hates divorce, for it covers one’s garment with violence” (Malachi 2:16). Why, you might ask, would God hate divorce? Perhaps it’s because God loves people. He wants to spare us the pain of ripping apart intimate relationships.

Jesus confirmed this heavenly view of the seriousness of the marriage vow: “So then, they [husband and wife] are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate” (Matthew 19:6). Three verses later Jesus would state the only exception to this high standard: sexual unfaithfulness on the part of one of the spouses. Marriage is a sacred vow.

You don’t have to look very far to find people whose lives have been deeply wounded by divorce. Scars that don’t disappear are carried by people who didn’t want their marriages to end. Selfishness, however, leads many to abandon the vows they once spoke, leaving pain and grief in their wake.

I once wondered about a preacher’s sermon upon hearing its title: “The Time To Get A Divorce”. It struck me as strange that a man who preaches from the Bible would encourage any circumstance in which to dissolve one’s marriage. When I heard his point, though, I understood. The time to get a divorce, he said, was before you get married.

I applaud legislators in South Korea for changing this law. Many people rush into lifelong decisions and later regret what they’ve done. That applies to forming marriages just as it does to breaking them apart. Decisions like these require much time and help from above.

If we take seriously what God has said on the subject of marriage, we’ll approach our own marital decisions with a great deal more sobriety. We’ll follow admonitions like this one: “Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband” (Ephesians 5:33).

Come to the light God offers! Study His word, the Bible. Worship Him in spirit and truth (John 4:24). Get in touch with us if you’d like to discuss these ideas further.

Timothy D. Hall

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“You don’t think the Bible is historically accurate, do you?”

“Moses didn’t cross the Red Sea. It was the Reed Sea, only a couple of inches deep.”

“Jesus was a good man, but the Son of God, born of a virgin, resurrected from the dead? Come on!”

“I just can’t buy that Moses wrote the first five books of the Old Testament.”

“Creation took place in six, literal, 24 hours day? Who believes that?!”

These are some typical questions people ask, and increasingly they are being asked by professed Christians as well as agnostics and atheists. The concept of a truly limitless God doing the incredible in the unfolding of history and His plan of salvation troubles many.

But there seems to be an inconsistency if not a contradiction with many of these doubters. They will aver that they, their family or their friends have had many encounters with the paranormal. They have seen ghosts or UFOs. They have communicated with “the dead” with Ouija boards or séances. They go to palm readers, read Tarot cards and tea leaves, or religiously scour their horoscopes to get a bearing on how to plan their future. They put complete trust in psychics and spiritualism.

They are willing to swallow every fact spouted by humanistic, evolutionary scientists. In fact, a good number of things are simply assumed to be true because of the sources themselves.

Why do these glaring inconsistencies exist? Because some of this deals with the heart and motives, one must be careful in assessing the whys.

However, it is manifest that such a reality prevails. The Bible talks about the mindset that leads one to put faith in the fanciful all while rejecting the reasonable explanation of God and his ways found in scripture. Certainly, we can treat the claims of scripture as fairly as we can a crystal ball or a Himalayan guru.

The pagan mind of the average Roman citizen was susceptible to the mystical and the cultic.

Paul writes,

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures” (Romans 1:18-23).

Ironically, with that worldview as a foundation, immorality of the grossest varieties followed (Romans 1:24-28) as well as unrestrained, chaotic behavior that was violent and destructive (Romans 1:29-31).

Tucked into the middle of this latter list was the fact that such were “haters of God”(30). Could this be a viable factor? People might not articulate their personal philosophy in such pungent terms, but what is the consequence of their belief system? They reject out of hand the idea of the incarnation (literally, “God in the flesh”), a vicarious death (an innocent one dying for the guilty), an objective, normative and authoritative divine revelation (i.e., that the Bible came from God’s work in guiding men to write down his will to guide all people of all time) and such Bible themes as sin, repentance, redemption, a universal judgment, heaven, and hell.

Could it be that mankind is disturbed by the thought of accountability and submission? Would we rather have our fancy tickled by clairvoyance, black magic and Martians than have it all explained by special revelation brought about by an Uncaused Cause who not only set things in motion but takes an active role and shows active concern in our individual lives even today?

I cannot speak for what drives a person to choose the ethereal over the eternal, but I can counter the fanciful with some basic facts of faith.

Our morality, our spirituality, our drive to have standards of right and wrong and our yearning to adore and worship cannot be satisfactorily explained by evolution, synapses of the brain or even inexplicable chance.

In our desire to titillate ourselves with apparitions and interpreting space noise, we have aimed infinitely low. If we will look up and put our trust in the all- powerful, perfect God and live our lives from that perspective, we unlock for ourselves the portal to peace and the pathway to purpose.

In our heart of hearts, we know that belief in God is the better explanation. To that end, may we follow our hearts.

Neal Pollard