Letters    

ON WOMEN'S HEAD COVERING

Dear T. C.                                                                                                      February 6, 1992

     ...Regarding doctrinal beliefs, we believe in separation from the world although we live in the world. We believe in modest dress, but do not dress differently so as to attract people's attention to ourselves. Consequently, we do not believe the Bible requires Christian women to wear a head covering. The Apostle Paul said a woman's hair "is given her for a covering" (I Corinthians 11:15).

ON CHRISTIAN MARRIAGE

Dear F. W.                                                                                                   December 9, 1987

      ...I wish I could express to you what makes our marriage work. People in our day choose a woman instead of a wife, or a man instead of a husband. They do not know the difference between "lust" and "love." When they choose a companion on the basis of physical appearance, they choose using the same standard as the animals.

     True love is not mercenary: it is characterized by giving, not by getting. "God so loved" that "He gave...." It is characterized by serving, not by tyrannizing, and it is evidenced by a commitment that makes each willing to die for the other.

     I did not marry Catherine because she was a goddess: I married her because I saw something rare in her that even today is matched by no one else. She has a faith that makes her willing to stand by me in the ministry, and a difficult ministry it is because it is a different kind of ministry than most.

     Families today are founded upon emotions. They ought to be founded upon faith and reason as well. For instance, in Genesis 18:17-19, God points to Abraham as one who would command his children to keep the way of Jehovah, and to do what is right.

     My marriage affects more than my wife and I: it affects my children, and will affect my children's children until time shall be no more. Marriage is an ordinance of God to keep the truth of God alive in the earth. It therefore involves more than pleasure or convenience.

     When our children were in their first digit years, we taught them to pray for their future husband or wife. We prayed for them when once we knew Catherine has conceived. We prayed the Lord would call our boys to preach the Gospel, but have cautioned them that they must not enter the ministry to please their parents, but because they are called by God. We believe God answers prayer: we do not believe we call upon Him in vain. Consequently, we believe God will call our boys into the ministry to carry His truth to their generation. Must go. "May God Smile On You"—Bach.

Dear C. C.                                                                                                  December 23, 1993

     ...I congratulate you on this wonderful event. Christian marriage is God's blessing to His people. It is "heaven on earth." John Angell James said that if a man is happy at home, he need be miserable nowhere; but if he is unhappy there, he can be happy nowhere.

     "Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favor of the Lord" (Proverbs 18:22). "Marriage is honorable," says the writer of Hebrews (13:4). Believers who desire to live together in the holy estate of marriage, who desire to establish a home where the name of Christ is loved and adored, who desire to teach and to train their children in the ways of the Lord—this is indeed the envy of angels.

     Our prayers are with you that the God of all grace will lead you in the paths of righteousness and fruitfulness both for time, and for eternity.

ON THE MARRIAGE CEREMONY

Dear J. Z.                                                                                                 September 22, 1987

      ...Jesus said, "...whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" (Matthew 16:19b). Comparing this verse with Matthew 18:18-20, it is clear that Jesus used the word "whosoever" to refer to Peter, and the disciples, and to their successors. "Whatsoever" they should bind on earth would be bound in heaven. The context does not speak of marriage, but who can deny that it is included in the word, "whatsoever?"

      The fact that the Puritans were horrified that a preacher of the Gospel would be involved in the marriage ceremony is irrelevant. They had flaws as undoubtedly we have, and one of their chief flaws was their theology of the Church-State.

      On June 6, 1753, a bill passed Parliament for the better regulating of marriages performed by the chaplains of the Fleetwood Prison where disreputable clergymen made a trade of marrying everyone who desired it. Schaff declares one man by the name of John Gayhan, himself a prisoner from 1701-1740, boasted of having performed 36,000 marriages during that time.

     I thought it rather quaint that while you reprove me for alluding to the Reformers who returned preaching to the place it held in the early church, you used the Puritans, who were themselves reformed, to justify your position on the marriage ceremony.

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