It’s Time to Come Clean About Biblical Marriage
It’s not what you think it is
“Marriage was, and always will be, the God-ordained union between one man and one woman,” Shouted the pastor as he slammed his fist down on the pulpit. His face was beetroot red, and a little vein on his balded forehead bulged out as he delivered an impassioned exhortation to his earnest flock.
As my country prepared to vote in a nationwide plebiscite to determine the legal right of same-sex couples to marry, these sermons had regretfully, but not unsurprisingly, become increasingly common in my church.
Growing up in the world of Evangelicalism, I was taught in no uncertain terms exactly what constitutes “Biblical marriage.”
Hardcore conservatives like John Macarthur declare that the traditional pattern for marriage — the biblical model — is “one man and one woman, committing their lives to each other until death separates them.”
“The Bible is clear!” declares the chorus of the evangelical faithful.
But is it really?
There is no consistent view
According to my Evangelical upbringing, Biblical marriage was supposed to be a simple equation: one man plus one woman equals happily ever after.
