Marriage: A Sacrament or Contract?

The Catholic Thing ^ | June 2012 | Howard Kainz

[Persevero]

A Protestant marriage Is considered a covenant, hello. At least in my neck of the woods.

[imardmd1]

>> Marriage: A Sacrament or Contract? >>

Neither.
not a sacrament,
not a contract.
It is a covenant,an earthly one,
made between two adult humans,
one male and one female,
to unite them in flesh and bone
as one body, temporally inseparable.
The stipulations are very strict,
especially as to durability:
"As long as we both shall live.
until death do us part."
There is no escape clause.
The covenant prevails
independent of temporal conditions.
Once physical union is consummated.
God does not recognize severance
except that imposed by physical death;
separation perhaps; but divorce, no.
In the resurrection they neither marry,
nor are given in marriage,
but are as the angels of God in heaven.

[Texas_Guy]

Because we know it’s not a contract, it’s really a sacrament.

[MurphsLaw]

E It is a covenant,an earthly one,

What is an earthly covenant? Something between Man and the created world??

I understand the Covenant meaning to be between God and Mankind. The original covenant, broken by the Jews unable to fulfill obedience to the Law (works), is fulfilled in the New Covenant, through Christ...

+++-“ 28 For this is my blood of the new testament, which shall be shed for many unto remission of sins. ”

Bound in this New Covenant, “we are given the opportunity to receive salvation as a free gift through the forgiveness of our sins. Though our responsibility is to exercise faith in Christ, the One who fulfilled the old Law For us on the Cross.

So it is through Grace, and not law, that we enter into this New Covenant. I mention this so that no one is confused about the nature of Marriage. This grace God gives us in this human binding is only part of His Covenant and NOT THE Covenant.

Christ extends this grace to us in sacred (Sacramental) mysteries that impart God’s grace in our lives as we accept through a commitment of Trusting faith...“do unto me...”
The Sacraments Christ gave us, Baptism, Confirmation, The Eucharist, Confession, Matrimony to name some - are all outward signs, of Bestowed inward grace through The Faith in Christ’s redemption, as again instituted by Christ, through Scripture for our sanctification.

Marriage is one of the Sacraments by which we are offered Grace in this New Covenant. But it is not THE Covenant.

[cdcdawg]

ONLY a contract.

[imardmd1]

Yhere are many covenants, but the one called marriage is the consummation of unifying one man and one woman in the sane flesh, the result of which is the sharing of DNA of both, which we call "children." They are the twoc, combined un ine,

Why are you not grasping this? Apparently you do not know much about what covenants that God has made with m Man, not Mankind:

Adamic
Noachic
Abrahamic Mosaic
Davidic
Jesus as Christ
Christ as King

These are covenants conferred unilaterally upon certain men (and by it I mean males) and those who recognized them as the God-appointed leaders of their particular ages.

Marriage is not one of them. It is a covenant conferred by Adam unilaterally upon the mate Jehovah Elohim formed of his flesh and bone to help and comfort him.

Genesis 2:23-24 (AV):

²³ And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.  ²⁴ Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

I don't know why you took out after this other rabbit trail, except as to demonstrate your suppposed grasp of the sense of Holy Scriptures?

Uhhh.

This marriage covenant was not in the nature of a contract; neither was it sacrificial, sacramental, or sacerdotally administered.

[imardmd1]

Yes, Adam's covenant unilaterally conferred upon his helpmate Eve, formed by Jehovah Elohim and formed from Adam's DNA (without the male Y chromosome, consisting of many male-specific genes), is of the earthly temporal sphere only. And it has nothing to do with spirituality, seeing that many kinds of biological Y-chromosome-differentiated and sin-uncorrupted ability to bond for life also exhibit the same allegiance.

The novelist quoted in this article, being female, lacked the spiritual discernment gained inly by birth in the spirit, which would have prevented her from being converted to Romanism, whose entire premise forbids regeneration by faith alone in the Jesus Messiah alone and His Good News alone.

So anything that the divorced Catholic convert Sigrid Undset writes is suspect, as was Eve's ruminations in responding to the glittering rationalistic beguiling Serpent.

Now, if you want to know of Jehovah Elohim's Covenants concerning Man, as laid out in His Scripture for the examination of naturally-minded humans, digest the following:

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

O O O	———————	GOD'S	DEALINGS	WITH	MAN	———————	O O O
DOCTRINE	MORALITY	RESPONSIBILITY	PROMISE	LAW – ISRAEL	LAW – ISRAEL	GRACE–	RIGHTEOUSNESS
				THEOCRACY	KINGDOM	CHURCH	AND PEACE
———————	———————	———————	———————	———————	———————	———————	—————————
1. COVENANT SPHERE	ADAMIC	NOACHIC	ABRAHAMIC	MOSAIC	DAVIDIC	NEW	EVERLASTING
	Gen. 1:28,29	Gen. 9:1-17;	Gen. 12:1-3;	Ex. 19 – 30	2 Sam. 7:15-19;	Mt. 26:26-28;	Jer. 32:37-40
	Gen. 2:15-17	Gen. 6:18	Gen. 15:1-16,18		2 Sam. 23:5	Heb. 8:6-13;	Ezek. 16:60
						Heb. 10:5-10	Heb. 13:20
2. SIN	Gen. 3:1-15	Gen. 9:20-25	Gen. 16:1-6	Ex. 32:1-14	1 Kings 10:28	1 Cor. 15:34	NO SIN PERMITTED
					cf. Deut. 17:16	Phil. 3:17-21
3. WICKEDNESS	Gen. 6:5,12,13	Gen. 11:6	Gen. 37:19-36	Judges (entire)	1 Kings 11:1-10	Rom. 1:21-32	NO WICKEDNESS
(Evil Imaginations)			Gen. 38:12-26	1 Samuel (entire)
4. TOTAL DEPRAVITY	Gen. 6:12	Jos. 24:2,15	Ex. 1:22	1 Sam. 8:6-7	Jer. 11:7-10	Jude 8-23	NO DEPRAVITY
					Isa. 1:4-20	2 Pet. 2:1-20
5. PRONOUNCEMENT	Gen. 6:13	Gen 11:7	Gen. 15:13-16	Jer. 7:21-26	Jer. 15:1-14	Heb. 10:26-31	Rev. 20:6
					Jer. 7:25-34	Lk. 18:19
					Jer. 25:4-11
6. JUDGMENT	Flood	Babel	Bondage	Bondage	Captivity	Candlestick	Rev. 20:7-15
	1656 yrs. AC	1758 AC	to Egyptians	to Philistines	in Babylon	removed
	Gen. 7:1-8:14	Gen. 11:8,9			to Rome	Rev. 2:5
	esp. Gen. 7:11					Rev. 3:16
7. NEXT COVENANT	NOAH	ABRAM	MOSES	DAVID	CHRIST	CHRIST AS KING	ETERNITY
			Abram 2095 AC	Moses 2510 AC	David 3065 AC
					Lk. 1:26-33
O O O	———————	———————	———————	———————	———————	———————	O O O

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

All these except the last were successively terminated, the "Old" Mosaic-Davidic Covenant/Testament by the Jesus of Nazareth, the true Messiah of the Bible, a covenantal performance of righteous human living completely fulfilled by Him culminating in His Cross-death, and thus completed, abrogated, and abolished, no longer effective, done for the sake of all humans who through time had believed or would ever believe, who completely have committed themselves to Him.

Adam's covenant extended to his wife and was entered into by her one-time executed explicit verbal irreversible agreement and/or implictly established by connubial consummation. This covenant was in the physical realm and terminated only by the physical death of one of the parties. It could only be spiritually significant if and when both shared a commingled spiritual eternal union with Jehovah Elohim through faith alone in the existence of the incarnated faithful human manifestation of The Beloved Begotten Son of The God, Who is now fully alive and seated in Glory at the right hand of The Father, in the Third Heaven Realm.

Until you believe in this Living Jesus of the Bible, you are not redeemed according to Scripture (2 Cor. 11:4).

I know what it is like to refrain from remarriage adultery, for I was divorced in man's law by my spouse in 1972, after fourteen years of marriage. I have not engaged in remarriage, nor even imagined such an unwarranted unscriptural marital union since 1964, when I came to a full realization of it being an abomination to the God of my salvation. So I know of that Spiritual Truth pf which I am speaking.

Even the Apostolic Fathers, who were fallible, at least recognized the durability of the temporal earthly Adamic covenant involving himself, his mate Eve, and all the DNA offspring of that union to who and within which that covenant is instinctively admitted, until quenched by sin.

You do see now, don't you, why Jesus of Nazareth was celibate throughout his life on earth, right?

[Elsie]

A rose; by another other name; would be called something else.

[Elsie]

It's not good for man to be alone.

Genesis 2:23-25

23 The man said,
“This is now bone of my bones
    and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called ‘woman,’
    for she was taken out of man.”
24 That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.
25 Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.

Can either contract or sacrament be found here?

[metmom]

” ... although for a Protestant marriage is only a contract.”

What a bunch of hogwash.

Any man and woman married in a *Protestant* church by a pastor is doing it before God and taking marriage VOWS.

It's not simply a legal contract.

Honestly, Catholics have such a smug spiritual superiority complex. They think they're better than everyone else, and take the moral high ground, bragging how they don't condone divorce, and yet offer annulments, which are nothing more than Catholic religion sanctioned divorce.

When a couple stands in a church and takes vows before God *for better or for worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, to death do us part* that is beyond a legal contract and NOBODY can absolve someone else of those vows, not even a so-called church.

Clearly the Catholic religion just wants to hang onto members any way it can and by allowing for divorce by any other name, they can soothe the conscience, allow for remarriage, and keep their members. And make a few bucks on the side.

Selling divorce relabeled for money is reprehensible.

[Mr Rogers]

Given that ANYONE who acknowledges Jesus Christ is under attack from a major political party, with governors assuming the right to cancel public worship, the idea that Catholics need to attack Protestants over marriage - which Jesus allowed to be dissolved for adultery - seems really weird.

How about CATHOLIC JOE BIDEN AND NANCY PELOSI? How about dealing with the festering demonic politicians proudly proclaiming their Catholic faith instead of attacking Protestants with some silly, made up idea of what we believe about marriage? How about ANDREW CUOMO?

Heck, how about POPE CHE?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

“You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.”

Save the doctrinal debate until you deal with the vicious wolves racing around inside the Catholic Church!

[metmom]

All your *What if* scenarios are disingenuous.

The probably represent a small fraction of all marriages and are not the norm.

If you have to go to that extreme to build a case for what a valid marriage is, then you are don't have a case at all.

And it does NOT support the concept of what a *valid* marriage is by Catholic definition.

Catholicism does not own marriage, does not own the concept of marriage, does not own the definition of marriage. It has no authority over non-Catholics to define marriage for them or tell them their marriage is not valid.

Marriage was God's idea and cultures around the world for many, many years before Catholicism existed, had valid marriages.

So the question again arises, since y'all Catholics claim that only a Catholic marriage done by a Catholic priest under the right specific conditions is valid, does that mean that anyone and everyone who does not jump through the right Catholic hoops is living in sin? They are living in adultery with a partner the Catholic church claims they are not in a valid marriage with? Because that is your only option.

Nor is the concept of a valid or invalid marriage found ANYWHERE in Scripture. God never even alludes to it. It's strictly a Catholic fabrication to justify their approval of divorce.

[metmom]

A Protestant marriage Is considered a covenant, hello. At least in my neck of the woods.

Same here.

The holier-than-thou Catholic snark looking down their noses are non-Catholics is thick with this article and some of the FRomans posting.

[metmom]

Don’t forget the Kennedy clan.

All members in good standing and getting Catholic funerals, to boot.

[metmom]

Dontcha love how Catholics decide for *Protestants* what we believe, but when we challenge them on their beliefs, we are told that we can’t define it for them?

They allow themselves to do to others, what they forbid others to do to them.

[MurphsLaw]

Can either contract or sacrament be found here?

You sure about that?
Ahhh...but you left out the best part....didn’t you? Oversight?

"And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof." (Genesis 2:21)

Deep sleep?
Just what is that all about? Like Abram?....As God put Adam to sleep, what did he reveal to him? The Grace of a matrimonial bond? While he was sleeping a bride was born, a complete creation....That wasn’t Adam’s doing...he was living the Bachelor dream...It was God’s desire for him to have a partner/helper.....albeit a bit of an afterthought....just kidding.....But with this deep sleep revelation, the roots of our future Salvation are born of this bond of man/woman- where there was only future man-kind to play out. The Grace of this sacred bonding is obvious....

Same flesh, one flesh?

24 That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.

31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”[c] 32 This is a profound mystery-but I am talking about Christ and the church

WHO DOESNT LIKE A GOOD MYSTERY? Marriage as an aspect as that of Christ to his Church- His bridegroom? That’s a pretty sacred comparison.....

That is why what God HAS joined to become ONE flesh....SERIOUS enough (sacred) stuff That no one should put asunder....
Marriage is meaningless unless you can look at it in these sacred ways... Why isn’t something God joined in creation to bring about human race be Sacramental then? It has to be more than ancient words on pages of a book.....

[MurphsLaw]

Dontcha love how Catholics decide for *Protestants* what we believe,...

Pray tell which of the many Protestant sects out there really have a problem with divorce and remarriage? Is it really a serious matter or is it viewed as just part of life?
I would be interested to know which denominations treat divorce any differently than dissolving a relationship, to allow another- as it impacts their spiritual life? Consequences?

[linMcHlp]

Wiring:

Men, to hunt for women.

Women, to shop for men.

Emotions:

Man wants a woman to want him.

Woman wants a man to want her.

Contact:

A variety of connections with a woman, are important to a man.

A variety of connections with a man, are important to a woman.

Jesus:

Why we are here and doing this, matters to the man.

Why we are here and doing this, matters to the woman.

Responsibilities:

When a man has sexual intercourse with a woman, she is his wife.

When a woman has sexual intercourse with a man, he is her husband.

Match:

Some blend of the preceding, works for the man and woman; and there is a good chance for an enduring match, as they stand by each other.