Is it true that God ordains marriage?
“How can you say religious marriage ceremonies are not really ordained by God?!” asked someone by email about my last blog post Does Divorce Cause Negative Karma?
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints believes that God ordains marriage: “My purpose in speaking out on this topic is to declare, as an Apostle of the Lord, that marriage between a man and a woman is sacred—it is ordained of God. Only those who are married in the temple and whose marriage is sealed by the Holy Spirit of Promise will continue as spouses after death and receive the highest degree of celestial glory, or exaltation.”
According to this site, God ordains marriage: “Marriage is the oldest institution, extending back to the Garden of Eden. According to the Scriptures God made man and then God made the woman, and subsequently “He brought her to the man” (Gen. 2:22); thus, marriage is ordained by God and was initiated by Him at the time of creation. Properly understood, therefore, marriage is Theistic: it is of God not man.”
“Marriage is neither a human invention nor an evolutionary development; its origin resides in the mind of God as part of His plan for the first couple, a man and a woman, and the subsequent couples that would come to populate the earth. Properly understood marriage is of God and is not merely a social contract between two people.”
Marriage is not a human invention? I disagree. Based on my reincarnation, life-between-life, and metaphysical empirical research over the last 25 years, I’ve never found any evidence that marriage was God’s plan for all “subsequent couples” that came to Earth.
However, I have found evidence that suggests many relationship beginnings and endings are destined, and we then have free will as humans to react to those circumstances.
I’ve also found religion is optional on the other side, where your soul goes after death of the body. Once you die, shed your earth-based thinking and fears, and cross over, you realize that we all have many soul mates and some relationship and marriage traditions are quite dysfunctional and incompatible with soul growth.
Could it be that the only way many people can adhere to the strict rules of traditional marriage is if they fear retribution by God? Maybe those who desire a life-long marriage, from a young age, need this sort of encouragement to carry out the (challenging, in most cases) ideal they cherish.
Based on my metaphysical and matchmaking experience, I believe that marriage and God, from either a religious or spiritual perspective, can be compatible, but I don’t believe God ordains marriage.
Copyright (C) 2013 Stephen Petullo
photo credit: Lawrence OP via photopin cc
