Marriage, Divorce and Remarriage

Most people don’t ever think that they will get a divorce but the reality is that almost half of marriages will end in divorce. Divorce is not a decision that is made or taken lightly; its effects on families are damaging and not to mention long lasting. The Oxford Dictionary (2017), describes divorce as “a legal decree dissolving a marriage by a court or other competent body”. When a couple decides to separate numerous aspects of their lives are affected. Divorce affects family dynamics, physically and emotionally health, education, finances, job stability, income potential, drug use and crime. Divorce does not simply affect the lives of families; it affects America as a whole religiously, economically, and it immensely impacts the lives of the children involved.

Many legal and financial advantages can be attained through marriage. Instead of getting married after high school, people tend to go to college, get their life together, and then marry. The average groom is now thirty-seven and bride thirty-four (Discuss). According to Associated Press Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, “41 percent of spouses admit to infidelity, either physical or emotional.” Couples these days aren’t communicating the proper way. Instead they get mad at each other and ignore one another. One or both people in the relationship have “checked out”, but they don’t want to divorce for the sake of the children. Or they still love each other, valuing each other as a support system and as close friends, but don’t feel that intimacy toward one another. As said in a marriage article from faqs.org, “The study, by the National Marriage Project at Rutgers University, found that the marriage rate among Americans is at its lowest point ever. Over the last forty years, the rate has fallen forty-three percent. In addition, fewer people are reporting themselves as being “very happy” in their marriages.” Today, most wedding ceremonies involve a religious service, which contains many traditional features that are significant to their cultures. Christian’s services contain wording that has been unchanged since the

The patterns of marriage, divorce and cohabitation over the past 40 years has varied considerably. In 1972, over 480,000 couples got married subsequently making this the highest amount of marriages within a year ever since the Second World War. According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) this was down to the baby boom generation of the 1950’s reaching the age of marriage.

The majority of people who join together with their significant other through the act of marriage hope and dream that marriage will surround them with infinite love and happiness; unfortunately that is not always the case. In fact, “according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2013 American Community Survey, 10 percent of Maine women and 11 percent of men in Maine are divorced.”1 Though 10 and 11 percent seem like fairly small percentages, 10 percent of Maine women is approximately 67,831 women, and 11 percent of Maine men is approximately 71,506 men, which truly are not small figures to take into consideration. Since marriages do not always have a happy ending

Dr. Andreas Kostenberger is the Director of PhD Studies and Professor of New Testament at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. Dr. Kostenberger uses the Word of God from the Old and New Testament on marriage, gender roles, headship, sex, child-rearing, divorce, and homosexuality. In the second edition of God, Marriage, and Family, by Köstenberger and Jones investigate the most recent contentions, social movements, and teachings inside both the congregation and society and further apply Scripture 's immortal standards to contemporary issues. We live in a time period of a crisis in regards to marriage and the family, and the only way the institution of marriage can be rebuild is by the biblical foundation in the Word of

The scriptural definition of marriage in the bible is “A holy covenant before God, which can also be an eternal relationship between a man and a woman.” (KJV) This simple definition is believed to be a controversial meaning in Biblical scripture. The dictionary definition of marriage from www.merriam-webster.com states that “Marriage is the state if being united to a person of the opposite gender/sex in a consensual and contractual relationship recognized by law.” In society, the sentimental value of marriage has severely decreased over the past 95 years. Statistically proven in 2014, the divorce rate of Americans in the United States is sadly higher than the marriage rate. In a survey taken in February of 2014, taken by www.huffingtonpost.com, “The marriage rate of all Americans in the U.S. was 92.3 percent. In 2014, it was sadly recorded that the marriage rate of all Americans was only 31.1 percent. The divorce rate for all first marriages recorded for the U.S. is currently at approximately 60 percent. (Huffington Post) It was said by people in our society that “The top three reasons for getting married under the age of 25 are; 1.Teen pregnancy 2. To escape parents 3.They feel they are running out of time.” (ezihearticles.com) “The average age for a male to get married is approximately 29 years of age, as the average for a female to get married is approximately 27 years of age. With this, the average age for

“Marriage is the way in which a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life, is by its nature ordered toward the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring; this covenant between baptized persons has been raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity of a sacrament.” (Vatican) In today’s world divorce has become a rather recurring theme. Men and women marry younger and younger, and in many cases it has nothing to do with love. In these cases people marry for selfish reasons such as sexual desires, pride, or principal. These reasons have nothing to do with love and marriage should not be built upon them.

Looking at Marriage today, as the age of enlightenment has hit America, Timothy Keller says in his book The Meaning of Marriage: Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God, “Marriage was seen as a contract between two parties for mutual individual growth and satisfaction. In this view, married persons married for themselves, not to fulfill responsibilities to God or society.” Although marriage is only between two people, the concepts can be applied to any community, as God ordained marriage as the holy community, sealed by and through him. Marriage is supposed to be all about serving one another, and growing spiritually and morally through the years, not about feeding off of sexual gains and other individual desires. This is why divorce rates are so high, and why so many fights happen. It is because America has lost the definition and beauty of marriage, as it is often portrayed as a trap, or a “settle down” type thing. Not at all, because marriage is all about spiritual growth through each other and the

There are fundamental differences between a God-made marriage and a man-made marriage. Marriage is a reflection of God’s love and Christ’s relationship with the church is likened to a marriage. You cannot take God out of marriage because marriage was His idea. It is difficult to manage what you did not create. Just as a car cannot run without an engine, a marriage cannot work without God and His principles. He is the only One able to help you manage your life and your marriage effectively. God started by saying “It is not good for a man to be alone…” What God intends for every married couple is a marriage of unending love, joy, peace and fruitfulness. God never intended for marriages to fail. His plan is for marriages to last until death do us part. Marriage is God’s idea and divorce is man’s idea. Since marriage is God’s idea, He alone has the power and tools to keep it. God says He hates divorce, not the people getting the divorce. Why? Because Divorce is devastating for everyone involved, especially the children and the consequences often last a lifetime. God hates to see what Divorce does to lives and families which is the opposite of what He wants for every family. Let us take a look at some of the differences between a man-made marriage and a God-made marriage.

Most people argue that the family is in ‘crisis’. They point to the rapidly increasing divorce rate, cohabitation, illegitimacy and number of single parent families.

According Leo Gozich (2010), “the divorce rate in America for first marriage is 41 percent; the divorce rate in America for second marriage is 60 percent; the divorce rate in America for third marriage is 73 percent” (Para 3). The journal also states that 50 percent of all marriages are ending in divorce. This means that aleast half of all marriages are failing and ending in divorce. This is true to worldly and Christian marriages alike.

Divorce is a huge issue that has affected many Americans. We as a nation have been experiencing a crisis. It’s said that over 50% of all marriages will end in divorce. Why is this? When this trend towards divorce did do began. In this paper we will be going briefly over the cause of the rise in divorce, as well taking a look at the divorce rate among evangelicals that are active in the church. We will then conclude with what the bible says about the topic. Through this paper I hope we can gain a better understanding why divorce has infiltrated our countries culture, the number of people getting a divorce, and what the bible has to say about divorce.

In the Christian religion, there are two basic laws allowing divorce without the commitment of sin, infidelity and marriage to a nonbeliever whom has abandoned the commitment. However, in today’s society divorce has become a very common thing, as people decide to split part in their many marital dissolutions, and only one of these are considered to be a top five reasons why married couples actually divorce. Furthermore, infidelity or parting upon religious conversions only take upon circumstances of high sin in the views of the Christian God, rather than depicting compelling rational views that affect couples in everyday life.

Throughout the last half of the century, our society has watched the divorce rate of married couples skyrocket to numbers previously not seen. Although their has been a slight decline in divorce rates, “half of first marriages still were expected to dissolve before death.” (Stacy, 15, 1991) Whatever happened to that meaningful exchange of words, “until death do us part,” uttered by the bride and groom to each other on their wedding day? What could have been the cause of such inflated divorce rates? Perhaps young married couples are not mature enough to be engaged in such a trremendous responsibility, or, maybe, the couples really do not know each other as well as they thought. Possibly, they have been blinded by infatuation rather than by

Today, the idea of marriage conjures images of bashful brides beautifully draped in all white, of grandiose flower arrangements climbing towards the ceiling, of romance personified. As an institution in this modern world, marriage represents the apex of romantic love, with an entire industry of magazines, movies, and television shows devoted to perpetuating marriage as an idealized symbol of the ultimate love between two people. Contrarily, as a sociological institution, marriage comes from much more clinical and impersonal origins, contrasting with the passion surrounding modern understandings of the institution. Notably, french anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss theorizes that the institution of marriage emerged from a need to form alliances between groups, with women functioning as the property exchanged so that such alliances could be solidified (Levi-Strauss).