In the Catholic Church, marriage officiated by Catholic authorities is the only one acknowledged. Civil marriage is considered invalid.
Sacraments 101: Matrimony (2:00)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uq2RDYlOLrs
According to them “civil marriage” is not a true marriage.
While applicants do not pay for civil marriage, the Catholic Church requires a fee for their official marriage that makes it biblically invalid. As Catholic authorities invalidate civil marriage, the Bible in turn invalidates their official marriage. How?
II CORINTHIANS 11:7
Have I committed an offense in abasing myself that ye might be exalted, because I have preached to you the gospel of God freely?
Everything sacred in the Bible must be given without payment. When it is paid, it loses its sanctity. The Bible gives many examples that should be given free since inherently the power to do it comes from God.
MATTHEW 10:8
Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.
True marriage was instituted by God Himself. And everything that comes from God must not be sold or be paid for.
PROVERBS 23:23
Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.
Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.
Can a marriage paid for with a considerable amount of money be better and more binding than the free and divinely instituted marriage taught by the Bible? Let us examine!
Marriage or giving a man a “help meet for him” was originally instituted by the Creator with the purpose of procreating a godly seed.
GENESIS 2:18, 21-24
18 And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a help meet for him.
21 And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;
22 And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
23 And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.
24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
GENESIS 1:27-28
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
MALACHI 2:15
And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.
The first marriage, which is of the first man and woman, does not carry with it conditions, prerequisites, and prohibitions in contrast to later divine marriages.
HEBREWS 13:4
Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.
Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.
While later marriages have many do’s and don’ts, the first divinely instituted marriage emphasized only on “be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth.” Be fruitful means the couple, Adam and Eve, have to continuously reproduce their kind, while to multiply is to teach all of their offspring to do the same.
Multiplication cannot be attained without a multiplicand and a multiplier. The first couple served as the multiplicand while their offspring served as the multiplier, and the fruits of the multipliers serve as the products to fill the earth! It is in the intent of producing and multiplying of “godly seeds” that God instituted marriage. Same sex marriages cannot do so. Whosoever or whichever government or body that approved of same sex marriage, practically did not consider the divine intention of marriage.
There is a host of great things that a divinely instituted marriage can produce. From the physical, mental, and spiritual side of life, the marriage initiated by the Creator is unparalleled by any marriage invented by man!
Physically, kissing to the opposite sexes boosts their health and promotes their intimacy. Here’s an excerpt from an article written by Dr. David. E. Bratt of The Trinidad Guardian (4/13/2004).
The excerpt underscores the wonderful effect of kissing on hormones called oxytocin or the love hormone. The author also mentioned what kissing does to release adrenaline and dopamine, both resulting in feelings of pleasure.
There are also health benefits of sex in marriage. Take note that whenever marriage is mentioned, the universal meaning is the one referred to in the Bible - the heterosexual union – of man and wife that God had intended. It is not the one where a Catholic priest has become the symbol and where money is the enabler for the ceremony.
Here’s an excerpt from an article written by Carol Wagstaff of Christian ExaminerDotCom (9/4/2008) about needing to support [heterosexual] marriages -
Men and women who unite themselves to each other in a loving marriage have better heart health, healthier lifestyles and fewer emotional problems. Men and women who are happily married experience greater fulfillment and well-being than their single, divorced or widowed friends.
Having a partner in life is way advantageous in facing challenges. Even the Bible says for two are better than one.
ECCLESIASTES 4:9-11
9 Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labor.
10 For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up.
11 Again, if two lie together, then they have heat: but how can one be warm alone?
Biblically and psychologically, having a faithful sexual partner is like having another “you” that is perfectly consoling.
MATTHEW 19:6
Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.
Wisely speaking, a partner should not be considered “a better half” but a “better self.”
The Greek word used in the English translation “joined together” is:
G4347
προσκολλάω
proskollaō
pros-kol-lay'-o
From G4314 and G2853; to glue to, that is, (figuratively) to adhere: - cleave, join (self). What seals and glue the twain to be one is the power of the Creator.
προσκολλάω
proskollaō
pros-kol-lay'-o
From G4314 and G2853; to glue to, that is, (figuratively) to adhere: - cleave, join (self). What seals and glue the twain to be one is the power of the Creator.
MATTHEW 19:5
And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave (proskollaō) to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh.
“What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.” But how does God join or glue a man and a woman together?
THE ROMANS 7:2
For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.
In our dispensation, it is the law of Christ that obtains -not Moses’ law.
THE ACTS 13:39
And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.
GALATIANS 6:2
Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
The law is for those under the law.
THE ROMANS 3:19
Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
Back to the RCC not recognizing civil marriage, here’s a National Catholic Reporter that get’s stunned. Michael Sean Winters in “Pope Francis and Civil Marriage for Catholics” (1/14/2014) wrote -
My colleague John Allen reported yesterday on the fact that the Holy Father baptized the child of a couple who had contracted a civil marriage. And, as Allen notes, this is a pretty stunning development, one that, as I see it, entails several key issues of increasing depth and significance.
First, there is the strange canonical situation of Catholics who do not marry in the Church. Those marriages are not only considered illicit, but invalid. This has never made sense to me.
Marriage understandably concerns two people (a man and a woman) making a pact with each other with God as their judge. The laws of the land provide for civil marriages. As defined, civil marriage is a marriage performed, recorded, and recognized by a government official. Most people go for this in an effort to avoid expenses.
Since the RCC does not recognize civil marriages, does this mean some Catholic couples are actually unwed in the eyes of God?
Definitely, the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) is not under the law of Christ. No law of Christ will apply to a church inventing its own doctrines and imposing sacraments with payments and monetary considerations!
THE ROMANS 10:3
For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
Even if we do not fault the RCC for exacting toll on their members in order to get married, they are in dire straits for the following practices and tradition that they teach their people -
1. Bow down to graven images
DEUTERONOMY 5:7-9
7 Thou shalt have none other gods before me.
8 Thou shalt not make thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters beneath the earth:
9 Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me,
2. Impose man-made doctrines and commandments like infant baptism with fee, confirmation, the use of rosary and repetitious prayers, use of the “sign of the cross,” and the like.
MARK 7:7
Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
3. Teach traditions contrary to the Bible such as: Mary being the “Queen of heaven and of the apostles,” Mary being a “Mediatrix,” “Immaculate Conception,” and many more invented honors that constitute slander against the person of the mother of the Lord Jesus and blasphemy against God!
TITUS 1:14
Not giving heed to Jewish fables, and commandments of men, that turn from the truth.
God bless you.
