Tags
In light of Scriptural teachings on marriage and what it represents, do you agree or disagree with the following position?
John Piper: Should A Pastor Marry Non-Believers?
26 Monday Oct 2009
Posted in Videos
26 Monday Oct 2009
Posted in Videos
Tags
In light of Scriptural teachings on marriage and what it represents, do you agree or disagree with the following position?
To clear the air before posting my comment I want to say that I am not a stiff- necked legalist, nor a militant fundamentalist. I am a reformed believer who cherishes Christ’s love deeply and therefore wish to in every way show that to the world, but simultaneously I want give Christ the reverence He deserves and show that to the world, also.
With that being said, I respectfully disagree with John Piper regarding this matter. I love his teaching overall, but, again, respectfully disagree whether or not a pastor should marry unbelievers. Why? Because, to be blunt, it very much seems to be an abomination of the Gospel if, like Paul, we see marriage as representative of the Gospel.
The Gospel is sacred, and so, therefore, is marriage. I agree that unbelievers shouldn’t be condemned for wishing to marry, but for a pastor to celebrate the union of unbelief in a church is, at best, odd, and if in front of believers a clear perversion of marriage in comparison to the Gospel.
God has blessed the union of Christ to the Church. Would He do the same with Judas and a prostitute? No. To be clear, I’m not calling any unbelieving woman a prostitute. I’m just making the point that unbelievers are, by nature, children of wrath, and should therefore not be presented by a believing pastor as pleasing God, nor to those present as accepted by God or as representing a picture of the Gospel.
Piper, himself, said two things that I found interesting regarding what I’ve said thus far. 1) he said that anything not done in faith is sin. Again, I ask, then should we celebrate a picture of the Gospel, which is actually a perverted one rooted in mutual unbelief? 2) One of his reasons for saying it was okay to marry unbelievers is because he has the right, by secular law, to do so. As a pastor, I hope that secular law does not help him make decisions, as that sounded. Secondly, regarding that point, by law I can understand a pastor counseling a couple and signing the marriage license, but perhaps he should tell them he will not marry them before God and in the church, because it would be, indeed, a perversion of the Gospel we fight to sternly to present purely to unbelievers.
Those are my thoughts. I’m younger than Dr. Piper, and willing to be corrected by him or any on a biblical basis. This is simply how I biblically understand the issue. Thus, I would proceed with extreme caution in any acting recognizably before the presence of God regarding unbelievers.
P.S. I love your blog! Just found it a few days ago. Keep going!
Grace and Peace,
Justin
P.s.s. As Piper stated, if anything done outside of faith is sin, and in this context unbelievers uniting before God and ordained by a believer into marriage, is this really different than gay marriage? Homosexuality is a sin, unbelief is, too. Homosexual marriage is a perversion of the Gospel because it is the unity of sin. Again, is unbelief any different?