Hello, everybody. My name is Colin, a member of Lithium Ministries. We're going to be doing
the third podcast today. For today's episode, I wanted to touch on the topic of marriage.
There's a lot of what I feel are misunderstandings and misconceptions of marriage
in the theological sense. And I just wanted to touch on a few things here.
Like the previous podcast, and honestly, most of the podcasts going here and out,
a lot more could be said than what I'm going to touch on today.
But I found three verses that I wanted to touch on.
Feathers are probably going to be ruffled today.
Some very, again, some misconceptions about marriage. People get pretty worked up about
some of the things the Bible has to say about marriage. So I'm going to, like always,
we're going to be providing verses and where you can find them in Scripture.
Feel free to find them yourselves. If you are offended by this, that is not our intention,
obviously, but I feel like this is very important for people to understand
that what the Bible has to say about marriage and not what the spirit of the world has to say.
Like always, we're going to be reading from the King James Version of the Bible.
We might change this up in the next podcast. I was looking for some verses and
some of the wording I might need to reword a little bit for people to understand.
So we're still thinking about that. But for right now, it can be King James Version of the Bible
and as always, I'll talk about them after the verse is read so we can get a good understanding of it.
Okay. Starting with Proverbs 18 verse 22.
Who so findeth a wife, findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favor of the Lord.
So immediately we have this imagery of marriage being an actual theological virtue.
I think a very popular understanding of marriage and really just any
sort of being or living with someone that you love nowadays is that it's kind of your own thing.
I feel like a lot of people, that's their understanding of it.
If you want to live with someone you love, what's the big deal? You know, you heard this a lot.
We hear a lot of people say, oh, we're practically married.
And even some people listen to the podcast right now, you may even be in this very scenario.
It is a very common thing nowadays.
The thing people very often forget is the word practically in that sentence.
You are practically married, you are almost married, you're basically married, but you're not though.
Marriage is something that's done in a church, done in front of a priest,
it's a theological virtue where God actually enters your union, wills the good of this union.
And again, a lot of people will just think of it, oh, what's the big deal?
You just get this piece of paper from the government.
Don't get me wrong, I totally see where that comes from.
It does seem a little silly when you put it that way, but I think people are really missing out
on that theological virtue of what marriage is.
It's not just two people just kind of chilling with each other,
it's not just two people just kind of having a good time.
It's not just two people just kind of chilling with each other in the same dwelling.
Again, God actually enters that union, God wills the good of this union that becomes marriage.
So I just wanted to talk about that.
Again, like the other podcasts, we're probably going to jump back to this verse, I read the other ones.
We're going on to the next verse though. I've got 2 Corinthians chapter 6 verse 14.
Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers?
For what fellowship hath righteousness and unrighteousness?
And what communion hath light with darkness?
Now this was not this exact verse, but the idea it is portraying is something I heard a lot as a kid,
where if you're going to date someone, maybe the guy, obviously a girl,
but if you're a girl, obviously looking for a guy.
Do you want to date someone who is a believer in Christ?
And that was just something I heard a lot growing up and I just thought it was just common sense.
It was very shocking as I got into my high school years to find that not everyone,
actually very few people held this understanding actually. Once again,
you will hear this a lot in our modern culture.
People will think, oh what's the big deal if someone doesn't share your beliefs,
share your value systems, share your political opinion, share, you know,
who cares? You could be the most polarizing people in the world and what does it matter?
And there's a little bit of truth there with a lot of misconceptions. There actually is a kernel of
truth. You obviously don't need to be the same person to get married. That's not even what
marriage is. It's not the purpose of marriage. You're not joining with someone that is you.
You are joining with someone that couples to you. You are joining with someone that
where you benefit each other. You're not marrying yourself if you did need to,
but any purpose of marriage obviously. You are joined with someone that betters you and where
you better them. So going back to the verse again, we're talking specifically with theological
virtues, with belief in Christ, which us Christians believe that that is the most important
thing that we can believe or hold to. Obviously you have political opinions and hobbies and past
times whatsoever. Those can obviously have some difference. One person plays tennis and one plays
baseball. You know, what is that going to affect your marriage for? But belief in Christ, that is,
again, I always assumed this was common sense. But
with, again, I think it was a lot of misnomers in the modern age. People just kind of lose sight of
that. That belief in Christ is our identities. Christians, we're not, you know, we may say we're
going back to sports, that we're a baseball player, we're a tennis player, we are x, y, z.
And in those scenarios, I'm not saying you're a bad person for saying you're that in that scenario,
but remember, ultimately we're Christians. We're children of God, children of Christ.
And I think it's very easy to lose sight of that in the modern age. And then obviously the topics
on marriage, sorry, I can't remember, but I think it's very easy to lose sight of that in the modern
age. Sorry, I kind of went on a tangent there, bringing this back to marriage. If what you are
is a child of God, child of Christ, Christian, and you are conjoined, sorry, not conjoined,
isn't the right word, joining with someone, marrying them, this union, this marriage that
God enters into, and you're not married to someone who believes in God, believes in Christ,
we call this the Christian, holds any of the virtues of Christianity.
Someone argued it's not even a marriage. I'm not going to go quite that far. That's a very
different discussion. But what are you left with in your marriage, truly? Just someone that you
enjoy hanging out with? Let's even say you love them. Where do you go with that? And especially
if you bring children in the mix, this gets very, very complicated and very ugly, very fast.
And I think even we could have done an individual podcast on just the idea of
is it okay to marry someone who's not a Christian? So if we get some feedback on that,
if people want me to elaborate, we'll do that. But for now, staying on these three verses,
topic of marriage, we can move on to this last verse. This was going to ruffle some feathers,
like I said at the beginning, so bear with me. Again, I'm sorry if I offended anyone here. This
is not my intention, but I think this is very important for us to talk about. So moving on to
Mark 10 verses 9, what therefore God hath joined together, let no man put asunder.
So the reason I believe this verse is going to ruffle some feathers, this has to touch on divorce.
And there's a very big argument, or I guess not argument, but disagreement discussion
going on between Christians about if divorce is valid or not. If the, not so much like individual
people's divorces, but just the idea of divorce, is that a real thing? And Mark 10 verses 9,
and Mark 10 verses 9 right here would imply no, you can't be divorced, but God has joined this union.
And what a lot of people like to put out there as a rebuttal to this is there's different verses all
throughout the gospels, Matthew and Mark, I think even somewhere in Luke, it even gets mentioned that
marriage is, sorry let me pull up the actual verse real quick, I'm gonna get this right.
But the, while I'm looking for this, let me give you the gist. It basically says that divorce
and remarriage is a sexual sin unless sexual immorality was in the marriage. And
a lot of people bring that up as a rebuttal to this, saying that divorce actually is valid if
per se your spouse cheats on you. Then it's getting divorced and it's okay to get remarried.
This is actually a translation error. The original Hebrew and
I think it was Aramaic was the other gospel original,
language, it doesn't actually mean sexual idolatry or what we would now call cheating or
in the modern day. It actually has to more touch on the idea of where you weren't actually
serious in the commitment of the marriage when the marriage happened. And once again,
this could be his own podcast on this entire idea. So again, if we have some feedback, we want us to
do his own podcast on this idea of divorce. Give us some feedback and I can elaborate on that.
Sorry, I kind of lost my train of thought there. But I'm just gonna go ahead and
read the verse again and kind of spark up this train of thought again. Again, Mark chapter 10
verses 9, what therefore God hath joined together, let no man put asunder.
Just going back to that idea of marriage being a theological virtue in itself,
this union that God actually joins together and wills the good of.
Just think about that for a moment. God has created this marriage and
what is just gonna get, this is gonna disappear. That's really what divorce is, what people will
argue it is. That this was once a good thing, but now it's not. It's not a good thing.
I truly can't understand how you can wrap your head around that. And once again,
this is gonna ruffle some feathers. I know people have gotten divorced, people in my family have
gotten divorced. I know that I'm making it sound a lot more straightforward than it is.
I know that I'm making it sound a lot more straightforward than it is. I know that I'm
making it sound a lot more straightforward than it is. I know there can be violence in marriage and
that people can wonder how can you expect victims of this violence to stay married to this person.
And once again, I'm not gonna, regardless of feedback, we might just do a podcast on divorce
because now I'm going to start rambling on this. So I guess stay tuned. Just real quick,
I don't leave everyone on a cliffhanger. Just want to mention, just like how I'm making it sound much
more simple than it is, it's obviously not this simple. And the same way that the answer isn't
just, oh, tough it out. It's a very simple answer. And that's not even the correct answer all the
time. I'm not going to argue that there's no new ones. I'm not going to even argue that
if there's violence going on, that is separation, not a permanent separation, but
a separation for safety, especially if there's kids involved. Again, a lot of these new ones
going on, that can never be inappropriate. But once again, just coming back to the idea of divorce,
that is not just a physical thing that happens. Once again, this is a moral, a spiritual,
a theological thing that God has joined and now is just being ripped apart.
So I'm going to move on now. Once again, I'll probably just make another podcast.
Once again, I'm not trying to hurt anyone's feelings here. And I know this is a very
sensitive issue for a lot of people. But I think it's very important that we do
reconcile with the idea of the Bible actually not
condoning marriage, or sorry, not marriage, divorce. Marriage is a very sacred thing in the Bible.
And I think it's important that we recognize that.
So once again, with the Mark 10, 9 verse, I didn't only want to touch on divorce, even though that
would seem to be the primary thing this verse is talking about. I also wanted to touch on the idea
of just one more misconception that the modern age has about marriage. Once again, I think everyone's
heard this before, some form or another, but people argue that the marriage is just between
two people. That's all it is. And like I'd have been mentioning throughout this podcast,
God is obviously involved in marriage. I think every Christian would
agree with that. I think a lot of you didn't. Obviously, a priest or pastor is involved.
They're the one actually ordaining the marriage. But the part I wanted to really talk about was the
idea of the community. Marriage isn't just between a man and a woman, and then yes, God and the
pastor, but where they got in the past, sorry, they got God and the pastor is just kind of
there for the moment. I don't agree with that. I think it's a lot of what I've been saying,
I don't agree with that. I think it's a lot of what a lot of people will think of with marriage.
Obviously, God stays in that marriage throughout the end of time, truly.
It's not like you die and go to heaven and like this is broken apart. You are joined forever.
A priest or pastor, hopefully when you are married, you're active in your church's community.
I know that is not always necessarily the case, but I think it's a very good thing if you're
married to be active in, even if you've moved away, not that church specifically, but in the church,
active in the community is a good thing. But also your family, going back to the community,
there's a reason why in marriage or the marriage ceremony,
you always see people make fun of this in movies, but people will ask if anyone objects to this
marriage, speak now or hold your peace. Some variation of that is usually said during a
marriage and people always make fun of it in shows and movies and whatnot, but there's actually
significance to that. This marriage actually impacts the world. It is not just these two people
and their religion that is involved in the marriage. Old weddings, especially a lot of
places in Europe, the entire town would come to this wedding and there would be a celebration
for days on end of when people would get married. The families would be there. They've come from
out of town here. Everybody would come to this marriage. It was a very important deal, very
impactful to the community. Another family is being created of the community and that is a
beautiful thing and that deserves celebration. I just wanted to mention that real quick because,
again, I think people misunderstand the idea of marriage and where it's just the two people
involved. That's not how it works. We're going to wrap up the podcast here. Sorry if I still
sound sick or my voice is raspy if I'm out of breath. I'm still getting over something. It's
been a long week too, so I apologize if I sound exhausted. I talked to Joseph, the leader of
the lithium industries. I think we are going to start putting the email in the description or
somehow the email is getting out there. If you have feedback for us, once again, we might change
the version of the Bible we're reading from just so that the wording can be a little more
straightforward. Any feedback on the podcast, any ideas you would like me to elaborate on or include
in a podcast, that is greatly appreciated. I think that's all the updates we have for now.
Once again, feedback is very much appreciated. Have a very blessed day, guys.