Friday, January 11, 2019

Tobit on Eternal Marriage

"But the angel [Raphael] said to him, 'Do you not remember the words with which your father commanded you to take a wife from among your own people? Now listen to me, brother, for she will become your wife; and do not worry about the demon, for this very night she will be given to you in marriage... Do not be afraid, for she was destined for you from eternity. You will save her, and she will go with you, and I suppose that you will have children by her.' When Tobias heard these things, he fell in love with her and yearned deeply for her." ( Tob. 6:15, 17)


"unless the LORD builds the house, the builders labor in vain." (Psalm 127)

Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet,”  (Acts 7:48)

“What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.” (Mark 10:9)

“And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” (Matt 16:18-19)

Nevertheless neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord. “ (1 Cor 11:11)

“For I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.”  (2 Cor 11:2)

“For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.  This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.”  (Eph. 5:31-32)

“As God made man in His own image, so He made earthly marriage in thr image of His own eternal marriage with His people” (Geoffrey Bromiley, God and Marriage, p. 43)

The woman who married 7 brothers nor the Sadducee asking the question were all Jews.  Jews did not accept Christ as their Messiah.  Therefore, the Jews without Christ (power) were not partakers of the blessing of eternal marriage. 

"For in the resurrection they [anyone without Christ] neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven"? (Matt 22:30)

“But if we believe the resurrection of the dead, of course we shall be bound to them with whom we are destined to rise, to render an account the one of the other. But if 'in that age they will neither marry nor be given in marriage, but will be equal to angels,' is not the fact that there will be no restitution of the conjugal relation a reason why we shall not be bound to our departed consorts? Nay, but the more shall we be bound (to them), because we are destined to a better estate— destined (as we are) to rise to a spiritual consortship, to recognise as well our own selves as them who are ours. Else how shall we sing thanks to God to eternity, if there shall remain in us no sense and memory of this debt; if we shall be re-formed in substance, not in consciousness? Consequently, we who shall be with God shall be together; since we shall all be with the one God— albeit the wages be various, albeit there be many mansions, in the house of the same Father having laboured for the one penny of the self-same hire, that is, of eternal life; in which (eternal life) God will still less separate them whom He has conjoined, than in this lesser life He forbids them to be separated.”  (Tertullian, On Monogamy, X)


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