Evangelist Doug Lowery visited us this past weekend for a Family and Marriage Seminar.  Here are some echoes from his first session on Saturday morning:

There are five foundational elements when it comes to a biblical marriage:

1. God is the Producer of Marriage (Genesis 1-2).  He created it (Gen 2.18-25), commends it (Heb 13.4), and constructs it (Psalm 127.1).  There are four institutions set in place by God:  Marriage, Government, Israel, and the Church.
2. A Man and a Woman are the Partners of Marriage (Genesis 2).  God established heterosexual and monogamous marriage.  Homosexual unions are despicable or abominable before God.  While the Scriptures reveal rampant polygamy in the Old Testament, God never commends are endorses it.
3. The Permanence of Marriage is formed by the bond of God’s cement and our covenant.  The covenant of marriage is formed by the thee-fold cord of the husband, the wife, and God (Matt 19.4-6; Ecc 5.1-6; Mal 2.14-16).
4. The Purity of Marriage is reinforced by making sure the husband and wife have an intimate, committed relationship (Gen 2.25; Heb 13.4; 1 Cor 7.1-2, 8-9; 1 Thes 4.1-7; 1 Tim 5.22; 2 Tim 2.22).  Brother Lowery used an illustration involving a fireplace to illustrate this point.  A fire confined to a fireplace provides warmth and comfort (sex inside the marriage bond), but if you pull that same fire into the middle of the room (sex outside the marriage bond), it becomes dangerous and destructive.
5. The Pictures of Marriage are three-fold:  Our present relationship with Christ is called an engagement (2 Cor 11.2).  The roles of husband and wife depict the relationship which exists between Christ and the church in this age (Eph 5.22-27).  Our future relationship with Christ is also termed a marriage (Rev 19.7-9).