Are you okay with common law marriage?

This is a statement about common law requirements. Where do you find the requirements of common law?

 

You may not have intended it, but it came across since you have been arguing for the need to have a marriage license and a solemnizing ceremony. There was no such thing (other than the consummation) in Isaac and Rebekah's case.

No one has argued against that. Some of us are pointing out that there is no consistent biblical guideline for a marriage ceremony other than the consummation of the sexual relationship and a presentation to the community that you are husband and wife.

Nowhere in scripture does marriage require a priest, rabbi, apostle or minister of the gospel. Neither does it require sanction from the governing authorities.

Yes. That's why they are identified as "common law marriages" instead of simply "marriages." They are legal where I live. If they are illegal where you live, they are not legal marriages.

Isaac and Rebekah's marriage would not be legal in a number of states today.

Years ago when I was pastoring, a older woman in the congregation told me about her wedding. She was 14 and her future husband was 22 or 23 (I can't remember exactly). They met at her parent's farm and decided they were in love. Her father wanted her to have nothing to do with the fellow, so he threatened him and told him never to return. He got word to her when she was out in the fields that he wanted to marry her and they could elope that night. She met him and his mother late that evening down the road from their farm and they rode off to the next county in a horse drawn wagon (this was sometime in the early 1920s in rural Central Texas). Early the next morning, they woke a Justice of the Peace to get him to do their marriage ceremony. Her future mother-in-law posed as her mother to give her consent, since she was under age. They were married under false testimony that morning and lived as husband and wife from that day forward.

When she told me this story, about 63-65 years later, she had been widowed for about five years.

In your opinion, had she ever been married?

Strictly according to the laws of Texas, I don't think so. Not until the "common law" aspect of it kicked in.

Were they married before God? Yes, I think God knows what is really marriage and what is not. She often talked fondly of her husband, their rich family life, and his kindness toward her.

I certainly think there is an aspect that John is alluding to, but there are a number of themes in the Gospel of John that are working together at that point to teach the readers, and I don't think the account of the wedding at Cana is there to teach us about what constitutes a legal. God-sanctioned marriage.

Actually, Jesus apparently did not want or intend to perform a miracle there, but His mother put Him on the spot (John 2:3-5).

I realize some people are going to have kittens regarding the way I phrased that, but that's essentially what John presents in those verses. Let's not be too hasty to rationalize away the interaction between Jesus and his mother by imposing theological ideas that insinuate God is not moved by our requests for assistance. That's one of the Gnostic ideas that John was combating with his gospel.

 

No matter what you continue to post, we will just disagree.

 

I have called probate and divorce lawyers about the issue. It's a futile endeavor, 1) because the meter is running the moment he gets on the phone (unless he will say it's a free consultation), and 2) because attorneys do not know the law. They have staffs who research the statutes and case law relevant to the specific cases they are working on.

Case law is where the implications of the marriage contract and the unique position the state occupies as the third party is said to be revealed.

What you need to do is to interview men and women who've been through a particularly harrowing divorce or other matter of probate and the doctrines judge may have cited to decide certain matters especially in regard to what was deemed the best interests of the children.

There is a search tool that will eliminate the kook sites concerning the issue and display results only from sources reviewed and approved by its legal professionals: lexisweb.com

 

Earlier in one of the marriage at common law threads, Marcia asked why the trend away from common law marriage?

The answer: control.

There is a common law doctrine of parens patriae, or parent of the state. A government is charged by God to protect the weak. It, therefore, has the duty to intervene where children are neglected or abused, but only then, and the burden of proof rests with the state. However, where a marriage license exists, the state is a party to the union. It gives the state broader power to define what is in the best interests of the children beyond the scope of the parens patriae.

States have been slow to push their interest, and where they have, they have been smacked down by the Supreme Court, which has traditionally recognized the unalienable right to marry, and the rights of parents to raise their children in the philosophies they espouse. Thankfully, they have been kept in check, but the cases have shined the light on the reasoning and purpose behind marriage licensing.

There is one memorable situation (and I'm still researching it) involving the Faith Baptist Church in Louisville, Nebraska. The church began a Christian school, but would not license their teachers. They disobeyed cease and desist orders to find the doors of their church where the school operated chained closed. The arrest of the minister, Everett Sileven, was a national spectacle. If I'm remembering this correctly (this happened prior to the advent of the Internet, so it's difficult to look up) some of the parents who enrolled their children in the "illegal" school had their children taken into the custody of the state. When challenged, the argument was that as the superior party to their marriage contracts, the state had the right to intervene.

Because of the national outcry concerning Nebraska's abuse of power, Nebraska changed their laws and yielded to the right of parents to be the judges of what is in the best interest of children in regard to education, and many states followed suit.

Every homeshooling parent owes a debt of gratitude to Faith Baptist Church in Louisville, Nebraska.