The Government is Preventing Them From Geting Married!
“Hey Lori! Love your posts! Could you make one about wedding cancellations in light of COVID? I’m supposed to be getting married in nine weeks and we are unsure about whether to cancel or not. (Our state has even stopped allowing people to get marriage licenses.) As a couple who have remained pure for our wedding, we are obviously super against having to postpone/wait any longer. Also, we want to start having children! I know a lot of young women are facing this situation. (I have a few friends in similar situations and we all follow you on here.) Could you do a post about what your thoughts are on getting married and starting to have babies in this situation when the government is trying to prevent us from getting married?”
A young woman asked this question on my Instagram account yesterday. It reminded me of the verse in the Bible that states that in the last days, they will forbid people from marrying (1 Timothy 4:3). My encouragement to all of you who are in this situation is to go to your pastor and have him marry you as soon as possible, especially if you are in a state that has a Democrat as a governor since who knows when they will allow freedom to the people.
Have your family and close friends in a backyard or home for your wedding. These will be the witnesses of your vows to each other. God tells us that it is better to marry than to burn and there’s nothing about government involvement in any of this process. You can become one flesh without government approval! Once everything opens up, you can go to the justice and get a marriage certificate and even have a more fancy wedding if you want, although you may be pregnant by then but so what!
About having babies, as long as the good Lord is blessing your womb, then keep having babies! NONE of us know what the future holds but babies are one of His greatest blessings! Women have been having them through all of the difficult times since time began. It’s part of being a woman and allowing your body to do as God has created it. Have as many as He wants to bless you with!
There’s a young woman I know who is pregnant with her fourth. Her oldest isn’t even four years old yet! She LOVES being married and having children. She smiles at the future, because she knows God is in control and ALWAYS will be. There is no need to live in fear but live boldly by faith in Almighty God. Just make sure that you don’t ever neglect your husband. You were created to be HIS help meet first. Enjoy your husband and children, Don’t wait! Life is short. If you have a man who wants to marry you and have children, marry him and have children! Don’t allow this virus or government stop you from doing what God has called you to do. Many blessings to you and your friends. May the Lord abundantly bless you as you walk faithfully with Him.
I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully.
1 Timothy 5:14
30 thoughts on “The Government is Preventing Them From Geting Married!”
Wow so sad. I agree as long as her pastor marries them and there are witnesses its legit under God. She can always get the certificate later. Seems like they are so ready, just hope they have a biblical marriage :).
Amen! Get married. It is a covenant between you and God anyway-not you and your state. Blessings to the couple.
As you are so fond of pointing out about other things, state marriages are not biblical. There is no reason for them not to marry in a covenant ceremony. In fact, Christians should never have a marriage license and give that authority to the state. Of course, that would deprive them of all the legal protections that legal marriage provides to married couples, but they need to just trust God to take care of them.
:::throwing rice and confetti:::
My encouragement to all of you who are in this situation is to go to your pastor and have him marry you as soon as possible, especially if you are in a state that has a Democrat as a governor since who knows when they will allow freedom to the people.
If your pastor has kept your church’s doors closed for the last two months simply because Caesar ordered him to do so, then he’s unlikely to agree to do anything else for anyone in his congregation, and that would certainly include marrying them*.
To be brutally blunt, the overwhelming majority of pastors have proved themselves over the last two months to be complete failures in their roles as shepherds of the flock. If they had either a sense of human decency, or more importantly, true spiritual discernment, they would all resign their positions in disgrace. Their abject cowardice in the face of this artificial “crisis” has brought nothing but ridicule and shame upon the church and will serve as fuel for the persecution of the faithful that is about to become more intense than anyone can imagine.
As for Lori’s advice, I heartily endorse the rest of it. Draw up a covenant contract ahead of the ceremony that clearly states the marriage vows. Have at least two other married couples in your congregation sign and date it at the ceremony as witnesses to the event. Find a trustworthy and spiritually mature elder or lay leader perform the ceremony if your pastor hasn’t the decency to be there to do the right thing – and consider finding or even starting another, REAL church without him after the wedding!
Lori and other commenters here also stressed another very important point: KEEP THE STATE OUT OF IT!
God speed and blessings to the young lady and her intended mentioned in the OP. May they be united as one flesh in accordance with His Word soon!
We cannot allow Satan’s tool (i.e., the corrupt, tyrannical State) to subvert God’s ways and works! LET FREEDOM AND THE KINGDOM OF JESUS PREVAIL!
(*Has anyone else noticed how churches today, especially in America, seem extremely reluctant to perform weddings? When the church holds more memorial services each year than weddings. you know that it is in BIG trouble!)
I don’t want to get in a big discussion about this again but BIBLICALLY, neither the government nor the church has anything to do with marriage. Marriage was instituted by God with the authority given to families. It was only between the families of the bride and groom. Since the (virgin) woman is the (property) responsibility of her father until she is (either given or sold) to the groom, the fathers consent is the overriding concern.
Church – Before 1563 in the Catholic Church and 1753 in the Anglican Church, the Church’s did not have ANYTHING to do with marriage. They (rightly) knew it was not in the realm of the authority given them by God.
Government – In the US, marriage “licensees” did not begin to be issued until 1639. Our government, like all governments around the world has overstepped its bounds by having anything to do with marriage.
Were all of the marriages before those times null and void because of a lack of government and/or church involvement? Of course not! All authority comes from God and in the case of marriage, that authority is given to the Family, not the Church and certainly not the Government.
That said, there is nothing wrong if you want your ceremony officiated by a church pastor but (assuming you have never been married before) it is your fathers consent that makes it right before God.
In summary, the government is not stopping you from doing ANYTHING regarding marriage. They do not have the God given authority to do so.
Might I ask, feeriker, if you are a preacher or a pastor?
I have Christian American internet pals who managed to get married recently, it was in Texas and I don’t know the details yet but it’s possible at least. Good luck to this couple!
Just found out we’re pregnant with our 4th, due this winter. 🙂 When we told our kids, our oldest was so happy he started crying. When this baby arrives, we’ll have 4 under 5. I won’t let fear of man or of the future postpone what I know God wants me to do today.
I so agree! We’ve given too much power to the state. I hope you have your ceremony at home soon, and comply with the state when you want. Obviously, that piece of paper means little to the state since they allow people to tear it up as soon as their feelings change.
I agree, too, that you don’t need a preacher, just a believer. I grew up in a church that doesn’t have ordained ministers. My now brother in law performed our wedding ceremony. For the past 220 years, I and my ancestors have been married without a preacher presiding. All you need is fellow believers to witness the covenant before you and God.
I have appreciated our pastors and staff following governmental authority while taking a necessary pay cut. The pastors haven’t skipped a beat in their biblical teaching. These men are educated by reputable Bible colleges, with our lead Pastor earning a doctorate, which, in his humility, rarely acknowledges. It is important for my husband and I and our family to be led by educated men in a church setting, but we realize this is not possible temporarily, so we appreciate their continuation of ministry completed online. I would be disappointed if they disobeyed our Governor.
What kind of message does that send to our children? Our state isn’t requesting anything from our church or us personally that is unbiblical so we’re following the guidelines. Our church encourages us remotely via steaming and communicate often through email and social media. They’ve organized efforts to help church and community members in need.
My pastors and their support staff are far from “complete failures” and I suspect most churches are doing their absolute best in this uncertain time.
I agree that our pastors at our church are NOT complete failures by not having in person church services. Our pastors at our church ( as well as other pastors represented here ) are using wisdom by doing streaming sermons and they so much want to be us. We need to pray for our church leadership because they want to perform weddings. They want to visit the sick in the hospitals. They want to be there for the person is getting ready to go home to the Lord. But they can’t do any of that. Our church has many elderly members with health issues that if they caught COVID-19 or a severe case of the flu they would most definitely die. My young adult daughters don’t do very well with respiratory illnesses and my husband has asthma so who knows how it will affect them.
As far as COVID-19 being “artificial”, tell that to the people who lost family members from the disease.
My heart goes out to the young lady who wants to get married in nine weeks, I feel for you. I would contact your pastor about performing a wedding for you two sooner than nine weeks since I don’t know the situation in your state. Marriage certificates I think are mainly for purpose of proving you are married in case something should happen to one of you, insurance benefits etc.
It seems silly to require such documentation, but because there are dishonest people in the world marriage certificates are required.
Marrying off-the-grid…smart choice! After all, why invite the unwanted attention of having your name put in the local paper. Best to lay low, for awhile…and what better place, than among church-people.
This sounds like Isaac and Rebekah.
No, I’m neither one.
My pastor actually performed a very intimate wedding ceremony a couple of weeks ago with only him, bride and groom, witness and the couple’s parents.
Absolutely agree with you Anonymous!
Like every single other church in New Zealand, our small fellowship gathering has moved online, as it’s illegal for people to physically gather together right now.
NZ is a bit different as our goal was elimination of the virus, and the entire country has worked hard to make it successful. So churches flouting the law would not be looked upon favourably at all (and would likely get arrested too) and there is literally no good that can come from negative publicity like that.
Lori, I know this is off topic….but could you please write a post for women who have been sexually abused as children? How to cope and/or heal from it? Are they still considered virgins?
I love your page and appreciate your biblical teachings. God bless you!
The Catholic church is doing weddings with just the priest, couple, and two witnesses (who stand 6 feet away). Many people broadcast the wedding to their would-be guests. It can be done depending on your church and your willingness to put off the party part until later.
I got married in March!! After a 3 month engagement planning a simple (but big wedding) our plans changed pretty drastically. We had to ask 250 people to stay home and watch our wedding on livestream. But, we got married and while things were a lot different with our wedding and honeymoon than we planned God blessed us. The wedding and reception and honeymoon that we thoroughly planned all got completely changed or cancelled. BUT all the planning I did to prepare our house and home were so immensely valuable. If I was giving advice to a young engaged woman preparing to get married I would recommend that she thoroughly plan and prepare for household necessities – pantry items, baking supplies, seasonings and spices, food storage (zip lock bags, plastic wrap, foil), garbage bags, paper products, first aid supplies (including ice packs, hot packs, and a thermometer), office supplies, cards & postage stamps, vitamins & supplements, cleaning supplies, laundry supplies, seeds & garden tools, basic tool kit and hanging kit, sewing kit, hygiene products, etc. God really blessed all my planning and organization.
And I spent a lot of time putting together wedding registries that had the things we would need on them. I got most of those things at showers, and that was a blessing because we didn’t get wedding gifts like most people would because we had very few people at the wedding. We were able to purchase many things we still needed and wanted from our registries with gift cards we were given. After 5 weeks of marriage I can honestly say (and my husband would agree) we have not lacked for anything. I credit that in big part to my household planning that I did BEFORE the wedding. If my husband gets a small cut and asks for a bandaid, I just show him where they are. If he starts to feel a headache or a cold and asks for Advil or Airborne I just have to show him where it is. We have never once had to quickly make a trip to the store for something. It is always good to plan ahead for starting your home together, but in this time the benefits were greatly increased. At the time of our wedding things like toilet paper, flour, and yeast were not readily available, but we already had them and were not concerned because I had planned ahead.
Best reply ever! Congrats and happy wedding! Then go celebrate with another ceremony at the JoPeace, and a second honeymoon! Then have a fancy church wedding with a third honeymoon! “Kids, your dad and I got married three times!” Make fun memories… BRAKE THE MOLD!
Bring on the rice and confetti, bubbles, fireworks and celebration!
*applause*
*hugs*
Kelley~
I am Catholic and am glad to know that. Thanks for sharing that, Kate! I wonder if the priests would do home weddings. Even if the wedding ceremony had to be in a church, a reception could still be held after in the home. I was recently talking to my husband about this, that it might be that we’ll see a renewal of home weddings and funerals, even family burial sites on one’s property rather than at a public cemetery. I think we would do well to get off the grid as much as possible.
@feeriker
I would have to humbly disagree with you. I’ve watched my husband who is a preacher and his pastor and preachers friends be far from cowards. I would add that the men I know made decisions about their churches and worship after much prayer and not upon the demands of our governor.
I have seen these men go way outside their personal comfort zones by preaching live services. I can say this for the preachers I personally know (which is quite a few) they would have been much more comfortable disobeying the governor than preaching live services and parking lot services like they have. Our preachers and pastors need our prayers just as our leaders need our prayers. My husband is helping this week in his second online revival since quarantine orders. We have sit down and listened to live services most evenings since the quarantine. My family has been very blessed by the brave men who have been preaching from their homes. I would encourage everyone to pray for all the preachers trying to preach live right now. It is hard, new, scary thing for them to do. But I see God blessing them and God is good!
My best regards to you, feeriker, May the Lord bless you and your family!
Good to hear all of these responses. If myself or any of my kids were needing to get married now, I would be in full support of it. Just a small backyard or outdoor setting would be perfect. I am all for the big weddings to celebrate marriage, but we also shouldn’t let weddings become an idol. Definitely get married and get the paperwork done later. No reason to wait!
Good for you! I’m impressed! I’m glad you were still able to get married with a few family members.
It is not at all out of the realm of possibility that this COVID situation is an artificial one – though it is difficult to figure out what the powers that be hope to achieve from this.
This video by Dr. Buttar shows some of the insider connections. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdSrY9-viEA
Interested folks can also search for videos of Dr. Vandana Shiva, an Indian activist (and she has written books about this too) on the connection of Bill Gates with pushing not only the vaccine agenda, but also continuing the work of the likes of Monsanto etc. eg. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwxOxQ1AOEg
Hare Krishna!
Sridhara-syama dasa
No actually JESUS IS LORD!!!
lol – when did I ever deny that?
It’s interesting to see why couples are upset. For some, it seems like they’re more disappointed about the ‘wedding’ being cancelled than the ‘marriage’!
“We were looking forward to celebrating with our family & friends, dancing, my dress, etc.” when it should be “We were looking forward to being man & wife.”
It makes you wonder- are they more disappointed in losing the “party” or the “marriage,” and really tells you which they think is more important.
A leader of the ‘flock’ protects them from harm. A sheep dog does not run the flock into the wolves, it steers them away. Any good ‘leader’ would be telling you “NO” as well as trying to dissuade you from doing otherwise. No wonder pastor’s are dropping like flies around the USA.