Bible Question Box

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Bible Question Box

• The importance of marriage

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The Decline of Marriage
Only 67 percent of American women aged 35 to 44
were legally married as of 1998. This contrasts
with 81 percent in the period 1890-1940, before
the unusually high marriage levels of the baby
boom years. This trendreflects several
developments, including rising age of marriage,
increasing popularity of cohabitation, high
divorce rates and growth in the number of
children born out-of-wedlock.
-Rodger Doyle, The Decline of Marriage,
ScientificAmerican.com, Dec. 20, 1999
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Marriage is important because

• It is from God honors God, Gen. 218-25
• Relationship that completes, Prov. 1822
• God is the witness of your covenant God
  hates divorce, Malachi 214, 16
• God joins husband wife together Do
  not put asunder, Matthew 196
• Honorable preciousas of great price Hebrews
  134

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Marriage is important because

• It lasts a lifetime, Rom. 71-2 Matt. 194-5
• Permanency is the foundation
• Commitment is the glue
• Union is the blessed result
• PROBLEM
• American marriage rate 9.8 per 1,000
• American divorce rate 4.95 per 1,000

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Marriage is important because

• It is the foundation of a stable society, Gen.
  224 (Psa. 1271)
• Intact families stabilize, Psa. 1273-5 Prov.
  41-4
• Marriage the basis of parenthood, Gen. 128
• Other arrangements damage parenthood society

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Death of Marriage in Scandinavia

• Experimental families
• Majority of children in Sweden Norway are born
  outside of marriage 60 of Denmarks first-born
• Unmarried parents break up 2-3 times married rate
• Same-sex registered partnerships reinforce the
  view that marriage is unrelated to parenthood
• Sweden gave adoption rights to same-sex partners
  in 2003
• Death of Marriage in
  Scandinavia, Stanley Kurtz The Boston
  Globe, 3/10/2004

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• 45 of teenagers (ages 13-18) live with both
  biological parents
• 25 are in two-parent families where one parent
  is a step-parent
• 24 live in some kind of single-parent household
• 7 live with cohabiting couple
• Source Federal Reserve Board, Survey of Consumer
  Finance, 1998

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Broken HomesBroken Society

• Adolescents in intact families, as a group, are
  the least likely to feel depressed compared to
  those with divorced, step-, cohabiting, or single
  parents (National Longitudinal Survey of
  Adolescent Health)
• The rate of youth incarceration is significantly
  greater for children raised in single-mother and
  stepfamily homes than for those raised in intact
  families (National Longitudinal Survey of Youth)

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Broken HomesBroken Society

• Children in non-intact families are three times
  as likely to have children outside of marriage
  (National Longitudinal Survey of Youth)
• Rates of engaging in problem behaviors such as
  lying, stealing, drunkenness, and violence are
  sharply higher for children of divorce compared
  to children in intact families (National
  Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health)
• Marriage What Social Science Says and Doesnt
  Say Jennifer Marshall, The Heritage
  Foundation

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Marriage is important because

• It is the foundation of a stable society, Gen.
  224 (Psa. 1271)
• Provides occasion for moral constancy, Heb. 134
• Training ground for teaching next generation to
  serve God, Psa. 784-7 Eph. 533-64

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Marriage is important because

• It protects against immorality, 1 Co. 71-5
  (612-13, 18)
• God expects us to keep our bodies morally pure, 1
  Ths. 43-8 (Rom. 1312-14 Eph. 53, 11-12)
• Mutual responsibility to fulfill needs of mate, 1
  Cor. 73-4

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Marriage is important because

• It exemplifies Christ His church, Eph.
  522-33
• Christ, the head church submissive
• Husband the head wife submissive
• Outrageous to todays culture
• Modern society can offer no better model

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Marriage is important because

• In marriage, God teaches us the virtue of loving
  someone else more than self, Song of Solomon
  63 710 86
• Love must be learned to be lived, Gen. 224
• In marriage, love is learned lived, 1 Cor.
  134-7 Eph. 525-29 1 Pet. 35-7
• Wife Gentle quiet spirit, submissive life
• Husband Understand honor your wife

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The Importance of Marriage

• God gives marriage it purposes, pleasures
  precious value, Eccl. 311, 5
• Be enraptured in your love, S of S 49-11 (Prov.
  518-20)
• As goes the home (marriage), so go a nation, the
  worldand your soul!

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