Of Marriage

We hold marriage to be an ordinance of God, which God first instituted in Paradise, and confirmed in our first parents, Adam and Eve, who were created after the image of God, male and female, while they were both still in favor with God. Genesis 2, verse 22; Genesis 1, verse 27.

In accordance with this first institution, and in keeping with Christ's ordinance, Matthew 19, verse 5, the marriage of the children of God (who are not too nearly related by blood) must be entered into after prayer, and kept inviolable, so that each man shall have his own and only wife, and each wife her own husband; and nothing shall separate them except adultery. Leviticus 18; Leviticus 20; First Corinthians 5, verse 1; Matthew 19; Romans 7, verse 2; First Corinthians 7, verse 2; Matthew 5, verse 32; First Corinthians 9, verse 5.

So it is lawful for a brother to take a sister as his wife; and a sister, too, may be married to whomever she will, only in the Lord, that is, according to the ordinance and pleasure of the Lord, as mentioned before. But we do not find that God has anywhere, through His Word, ordained or instituted that a believing member of the church should enter into marriage with an unbelieving, worldly person. On the contrary, we find that God the Lord was very angry with those who did so, and declared that they were flesh, who would not be led by His Spirit. Therefore we reprove all those who follow in this the lust of their own flesh, in the same manner as we do other carnal sinners. First Corinthians 7, verse 39; Deuteronomy 7, verse 3; Nehemiah 10, verse 30; Nehemiah 13, verses 25 to 27; Genesis 6, verse 6.