They go together like a horse and carriage

In an article on why young Americans are deciding not to marry (the lowest numbers in the country's history, according to Pew), psychologist Deborah Khoshaba informs that young adults today claim serious relationships are unnecessary to happiness.

She writes, "I see this conclusion as an expression of our youth's despair, rather than of uselessness of intimate relating to their happiness. Perhaps, the decline in marriage rate results more from young adults' growing inablity to cope with life's failing ideals and difficulties. It seems that a growing number of young adults have lowered their expectations of being able to cope effectively with an ever-increasingly insecure world. They've reduced themselves to the lowest common denominator in coping ability, and in vision and meaning.

"I'm reminded of a dialogue between the Emperor Commodus and his sister Lucilla from the movie Gladiator (2000). They are debating the usefulness of the Senate, a long-standing Roman institution, to Roman life. The Emperor Commodus believes that all you have to do to keep people happy is to appeal to their lower natures, to give them 'bread and circuses'. . .

"It takes vision to forge a deeply meaningful connection to another human being, especially to celebrate that connection through an institution, like marriage. . . Today's young people are saying that they plan to follow a different path to fulfillment. They want more than a job; they want to be happy, be creative, and they want to define relationships as they wish. I am all for the younger generation's desire for true happiness, deeper meaning, authentic being, and for creating the world through their vision. This is their right.

"I'm perplexed however that they would treat intimacy so casually and throw away marriage as a relationship option, as relationships, not sex, promise the depth of happiness and quality of meaning and fulfillment that they crave and that makes life so worthwhile. More so, I'm struck at what the no relationship commitment trend says about today's young adults' casual relationship to themselves.

"The most dangerous thing to treat casually is yourself. Meaningful connection to self, others and the world enriches us. To approach oneself and life as important and worthwhile is a psychological strength that motivates you to engage in whatever it is that you are doing. Casual, fun relationships with no emotional attachment are in contrast to meaningful engagement as a strength of being.

"To engage fully, you have to express yourself emotionally and spiritually. To disregard these areas of being that most make you, or, even worse, to ignore these areas of experience as non-existent, is a sickness of being."
*****

"In marriage, the thinking has been changed from independent to corporate thinking and in corporateness the couple sees that their uniqueness adds beauty and true greatness to the whole," writes Ernie Kroeger and his wife, Mary. "This is the hour of preparation."

"The Greek word for adorned is KOSMEO, and primarily means to arrange, to put in order. Our English word, cosmetics, is derived from it. The noun form, KOSMOS, which means a harmonious arrangement, is often mistranslated as world . . . 

"The bride is now fully prepared and matured, qualified and glorified. By right of marriage she takes his name; she is the complement and has joint-ownership of all his possessions . . . 

"During our lifetime we build with gold, silver, and precious jewels, or with wood, hay, and stubble. These elements and substances refer to the outer expression of our inner being. The hay, wood and stubble represent the works of religiosity - like keeping regulations, precepts and traditions. Fire reveals the source and quality of our works, and causes them to become either a precious jewel or a heap of ashes. Works that are not destroyed by fire have their source in life, and are an expression of Christ's life within us."

*****

In Isaiah 62, God promises, “Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall thy land any more be termed Desolate: but thou shalt be called Hephzi-bah, and thy land Beulah: for the LORD delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married.
[5] For as a young man marrieth a virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee: and as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee.”

Jordan says, “That’s that thing about Beulah land—the word means ‘married’ and Hephzi-bah means ‘the one in whom I delight.’ God’s going to take Israel and marry them to the land. He’s going to put them in the land where they never depart again. And then He’s going to have them joined to Him so they’re never separated again.”

Beulah Land is a well-known gospel hymn dating from the late 1800s, in which the chorus goes:

O Beulah land, sweet Beulah land!

As on thy highest mount I stand,

I look away across the sea

Where mansions are prepared for me

And view the shining glory shore

My heaven, my home forever more.

Wikipedia defines Isaiah 62:4 as being “in reference to the return of the Jews from their exile in Babylon in which the Jews shall no longer be called Forsaken, but Hephzibah (My Delight Is in Her), and Jerusalem shall no longer be called Desolate, but Beulah (Married). This implies that the Jews have turned back to the worship of God.

“The idea the hymn presents that Heaven can be seen from Beulah land comes from John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress in which he states "Therefore it is, I say, that the Enchanted ground [i.e. Heaven] is placed so nigh to the land Beulah and so near the end of their race."

*****

Another very famous marriage passage, Jeremiah 31:31-33, states, “Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
[32] Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:
[33] But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.”

The implication is that what He’s going to do with Israel in the new covenant is to restore the marriage relationship that they’ve broken. He’s going to restore them back to Himself as His wife. That’s why Revelation talks about it being ‘the bride, the Lamb’s wife.’ She’s already His wife but now she’s going to be restored back to purity and fidelity.

*****

“What’s going on with Israel is they were committing spiritual adultery. They were going after all these other gods, and they were serially being unfaithful to God. They were spiritually polygamists, if you want to say that.

“People talk about polygamy, but I laugh at a culture . . . I was listening on the TV news recently about a Mormon guy in jail for having multiple wives. I’m thinking, ‘How in the world could a congressman put some dude in jail for having multiple wives when they believe in serial polygamy and most of them practice it!’

“Having one wife after another after another after another. I mean, it’s not a whole lot of difference, folks. If you’re going to have one wife and then get you a different one and then get another different one, okay you did it serially and the (Mormons) just did it all at once!

“Many times I’ve quoted (comics curmudgeon) Barney Google: ‘Pity the man with a soul so tough to say one wife is not enough.’ And I find that works the other way too.

“By the way, the passage people use to tell you the Body of Christ is the bride of Christ is generally Ephesians 5, where Paul’s talking about marriage. I scratch my head in wonderment why people would say our marriage is a picture of Christ when that passage says our relationship with Christ is a picture of our marriage. Would you want your marriage to be a picture of your relationship with Christ? Well, I hope not.”  

(new article tomorrow)