Following non-Christian marriage rituals, ceremonies and practices.

Should the people coming into the Christian Faith from non-Christian backgrounds continue to follow their former non-Christian matrimonial rituals, or should they leave them? Should we wait for the Lord to change them?

  

Answer:

        God’s word the Bible has many things to say and teach about marriage and marital relationships, but there are no specific instructions given regarding particular marriage rituals, ceremonies, and practices – neither in the Old Testament and the Law given through Moses, nor in the New Testament teachings of the Lord Jesus or in the epistles written under the inspiration and guidance of God’s Holy Spirit. Momentarily, this may seem quite odd and unacceptable, but in fact it is a proof of God’s wisdom and foresight. Had it been written at any place in the Bible what the marriage related rituals and ceremonies ought to be, then all marriages not solemnized according to those rituals and ceremonies would have become Biblically ineligible and illegal. In such a situation, on the acceptance of the Gospel by the Gentiles and their coming into faith into the Lord Jesus, all their marital relationships (not having been solemnized according to the Biblically stated rituals and ceremonies) would have become ineligible and illegal, resulting in disruption of families, and causing a social chaos, making it even more difficult, rather well-nigh impossible for people to accept the gospel and come to Faith in the Lord Jesus. But in the existing situation, there is neither any need nor instruction to annul marital relationships on accepting the Gospel and coming into Faith in the Lord Jesus (1 Corinthians 7:10-14).

        All the marriage rituals, ceremonies and practices that we see amongst Christians, are actually not Biblical practices and ceremonies, but those brought by the European settlers from their places. Wherever they went in the world and wherever the Gospel was carried by them, they also carried their rituals, practices and ceremonies with them; and the local people of those places also started to emulate them and follow their “christian” practices. But at the same time over a period of time, some local practices also got mingled into those “christian” practices. Nowhere in the Bible has this been said to be an unacceptable or wrong practice. All that the Bible teaches and asks is that whenever a matrimonial relationship is entered into it should be lived out with all faithfulness and fidelity, as the Lord Jesus does with His Bride –the Worldwide Church, and as the Church is expected to live towards the Lord (Ephesians 5:22-32). Therefore for Biblical marital relationships, there is no other prescribed practice to be followed. Generally speaking, what the world accepts as “Christian” marital practices and ceremonies, are not from the Bible but from the European settlers who brought with them the Gospel of Salvation through faith in the Lord Jesus and spread it in the lands they settled in.

        Marital practices, e.g. wearing of Sindur (Vermilion) on the forehead, Mangal-sutra (Marriage Necklace), Marriage Bangles, and other similar practices etc., are all local practices of different regions of the Land. But all of them have some religious implications or significances attached with them. When these practices are followed, then automatically the understanding that goes out amongst the people is that the religious implications and significances associated with those practices is also being acknowledged and given due honor, even though the now Christian person has no intention of conveying such an implication. But on seeing the presence of those signs and their observances, inadvertently the message that goes across is that a religious acknowledgement and honor is being accorded to those non-Christian practices and rituals.

        Since it is the purpose of the life of Christian Believers to glorify and honor the Lord Jesus through their lives and to preach and propagate the life of salvation received from the Lord Jesus, therefore the presence of these practices and signs inadvertently and unknowingly negates this very important and primary purpose of a Christian Believer’s life, it runs contrary to the Christian Believer’s life of witnessing for the Lord Jesus. Moreover, it provides an opportunity for non-Christians to raise the question that when you can accept and follow these marriage related practices and signs then why can you not also accept and follow other religious practices and ceremonies of our religion? In such a situation if the Christian Believers says that they only accept them as signs of marriage, but do not accept any of their religious implications and significances, it can be a stumbling block for the people of other religions, and provoke them into giving an adverse reaction, they may take it as an affront or insult to their religion and religious practices, which can have serious adverse outcomes. Therefore it is better to observe and follow only those rituals and practices which the community and people know and accept as “Christian”; and after coming into faith in the Lord to leave aside all the other rituals, practices and ceremonies (1 Corinthians 10:31; 2 Corinthians 5:15)।

   The Lord has given the responsibility of taking His teachings to other people and of helping them in understanding and following His teachings to us Christian Believers (Matthew 28:19-20)। Therefore it is our responsibility to convey this message regarding the truth and implications of the marriage rituals, ceremonies and practices to those still engaged in following them. We cannot compel or forcibly ensure that people accept and follow these teachings – that is God’s work, He will do it in His way. But to bring God’s teachings to the people so that God can work in their lives is our responsibility. Therefore prayerfully and humbly explain the situation and its implications to the people, and God will use the seed of His Word sown by us in His own time and method to bring about the required change in the lives of the people (1 Corinthians 3:6-7).

What is Salvation according to the Bible, and how can it be obtained?

Take a look at some verses from the Bible related to the spiritual condition of man, its consequences and the way out of the situation, taken from the letter written by the Apostle Paul to the Christian Believers in Rome:

Romans 3:20-30 :-

Romans 3:20 Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

Romans 3:21 But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets,

Romans 3:22 even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference;

Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Romans 3:24 being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,

Romans 3:25 whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed,

Romans 3:26 to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Romans 3:27 Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith.

Romans 3:28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.

Romans 3:29 Or is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also,

Romans 3:30 since there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.

According to the Bible man is a sinner by nature i.e. he sins because of his inherent sin nature and not that because of sinning he becomes a sinner. In other words man is under the control of an inherent tendency to sin, because of which man is separated from the fellowship and life of God – because sin separates man from God: “But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear.” (Isaiah 59:2). This separation from God is death, i.e. the eternal separation from God in hell. Just as a person drowning in water is incapable of pulling himself out of the water by pulling on his head or hairs, and he needs someones help; similarly a person in his sins is incapable of either saving himself from the deleterious consequences or attaining to the standards of God’s righteousness and holiness. All of man’s righteousness is like filthy rags in the sight of God “But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away.” (Isaiah 64:6), and because of their spiritually unclean state nobody is capable of bringing out anything clean from themselves “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? No one!” (Job 14:4); “Who can say, "I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin"?” (Proverbs 20:9). Therefore, “How then can man be righteous before God? Or how can he be pure who is born of a woman?” (Job 25:4)।

The work of deliverance from their sins that man is incapable of doing, has been accomplished for mankind by God. God was born as man - the Lord Jesus Christ. Despite living as a man in the world the Lord Jesus lived a sinless and pure life “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). The Lord took upon Himself all the sins of the entire world, He who knew no sin became sin by taking upon Himself the entire sins of the whole world “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21), “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree")” (Galatians 3:13), “who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness--by whose stripes you were healed” (1 Peter 2:24); and then in that state of having become sin, the Lord bore for them the death that mankind had to bear – i.e. He took upon Himself and suffered the full punishment for all the sins of entire mankind. The Lord sacrificed Himself and died on the Cross, He was buried, and to prove His Deity and being victorious over death, He rose up from the dead on the third day in His physical body – “For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). The life, death and resurrection from the dead of the Lord Jesus are not mere beliefs or concocted stories, rather they are irrefutable historical facts whom no one till date has been able to disprove despite innumerable efforts to do so, and there are sufficient proofs for these facts outside God’s Word the Bible, in the writings of people from those days.

Because the Lord Jesus has, for each and every person of the world, whosoever he may be – of any time period, place, race or nation, religion etc. paid in full for their sins, therefore no man needs to seek a solution for their sins through their own efforts. Now whosoever believes on the Lord Jesus and, asks Him for forgiveness of their sins, and voluntarily with a honest heart accepts the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus on the cross, His death, burial and resurrection from the dead on the third day, and submits his life to the Lord Jesus, he receives the pardon for his sins from the Lord, and gets reconciled with God “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Romans 5:1-2); and this person then becomes a child of God, a member of His family – “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12-13)।

This is Salvation or Being Saved or being Born Again – being delivered from the perishable worldly state and eternal damnation of hell i.e. “death”, by the grace of God through coming to faith in the Lord Jesus becoming a child of God and receiving the life of eternal blessings and God’s fellowship and protection for eternity – being delivered from the state of death and coming into the state of eternal life; not through any works but solely by the Grace of God, through faith in the Lord Jesus.

Ephesians 2:1-9 :-

Ephesians 2:1 And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins,

Ephesians 2:2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience,

Ephesians 2:3 among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.

Ephesians 2:4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,

Ephesians 2:5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),

Ephesians 2:6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,

Ephesians 2:7 that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

Ephesians 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,

Ephesians 2:9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.