Does the Bible Approve of Interfaith Marriage?

Marriage

What is marriage?

Marriage is a spiritual partnership designed to help couples pursue God’s will together.

Is marriage a natural outcome of evolution?

No, marriage is not an outcome of evolution. Neither did it arise by chance. If you look at all the cultures around the world, they all practice some form of marriage. However, marriage is unique to human beings. It is not practiced by angels, animals or plants.

If humans can reproduce outside of marriage, what is its purpose?

As we shall see, the purpose of marriage is not to be able to reproduce. Human beings are able to reproduce outside of marriage. Animals and plants don’t marry but are still able to reproduce.

Is marriage merely a social contract or construct?

No, marriage is not a social contract OR construct. It is a ‘spiritual partnership’, the purpose of which is to help us to carry out the will of God in this world. But, as we shall see, the institution of marriage has been corrupted because of sin.

Is there only one type of marriage?

There is only one type of marriage according to the Bible, which is between a man and a woman. But due to sin, other forms of partnerships have developed. For example, in some societies one man may marry four women. In the past, kings had hundreds or even thousands of wives. Today, it’s possible for two men or two women to get married. However, these forms of marriage are rooted in lust and greed, not spiritual partnership.

God’s Original Design for Marriage

And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that creeps on the earth.” (Genesis 1:27, 28)

God created man in His own image

God created human beings for fellowship because God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, themselves, are in perfect fellowship.

God created man male and female

God could also have created Adam with the ability to multiply on his own, just like how amoeba split into two. But he created human being’s male and female. So, it is natural for men and women to be attracted to each other and to want to be with each other.

God commanded humans to multiply

God commanded human beings to reproduce, because that was the only way they could multiply.

God commanded humans to have dominion over the earth

In order to have dominion over the earth, human beings had to first grow in number through reproduction.

Then Yahweh God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him (Genesis 2:18)

God created men and women to help each other

God created men and women as partners, so they could help each other.

God wanted them to help each other to fulfill his command of multiplying and subduing the earth.

Then the man said, “This one finally is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called Woman, because this one was taken out of Man.” (Genesis 2:23)

Husband and wife become one body

Here, we see that Adam accepts God’s plan for marriage.

Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother, and cleave to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. (Genesis 2:24-25)

Husband shall cleave to his wife

Here, Moses (the narrator) accepts the institution of marriage. So, at this point, we see that the institution of marriage is fully established and accepted by Israel.

Principle 1: God established the institution of marriage as a spiritual partnership between a man and woman so they could help each other carry out God’s commands.

Marriage Got Corrupted Due to Sin

Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you. (Genesis 3:16b)

The husband shall rule over the wife

Notice the stark change. Before the fall, the partnership between a husband and wife was on equal terms. They were both equal partners, and their job was to rule over the animal kingdom. Now, the partnership becomes uneven, and the husband gets to rule over the wife.

The institution of marriage was corrupted by sin

That is why we see so many deviations from the standard form of marriage between a man and a woman. That is also why we see so much abuse in marriages today and the reason why so many marriages end in divorce.

The relationship between man and woman was broken

Just like the relationship between man and God was broken because of sin, the relationship between man and woman was also broken. That is why marriage, in its corrupted form, can never lead to happiness.

Principle 2: The institution of marriage was corrupted due to sin

The Old Testament Prohibits Interfaith Marriage

In the Old Testament, a huge effort is made to ensure the Israelites would only marry Hebrews:

Abraham ensured that his son marries a Hebrew

And Abraham said to his servant, the oldest of his household, who ruled over all that he owned, “Please place your hand under my thigh, and I will make you swear by Yahweh, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you shall not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I live, but you will go to my land and to my kin, and take a wife for my son Isaac. (Genesis 24:2-4)

Rebekah and Isaac were disgusted with Esau’s non-Hebrew wives

And Esau was forty years old, and he took as a wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and also Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite; and they brought bitterness to Isaac and Rebekah…Then Rebekah said to Isaac, “I am tired of living because of the daughters of Heth; if Jacob takes a wife from the daughters of Heth, like these, from the daughters of the land, what good will my life be to me?”…So, Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan were displeasing in the sight of his father Isaac; 9 and Esau went to Ishmael and took Mahalath, the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, the sister of Nebaioth, to be his wife, besides the wives that he had. (Genesis 26: 34-35; 27:46; 28:8-9)

Isaac sent Jacob to Rebekah’s family to find a wife

So, Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and commanded him and said to him, “You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan. Arise, go to Paddan-aram, to the house of Bethuel your mother’s father; and from there take to yourself a wife from the daughters of Laban your mother’s brother. (Genesis 28:1-2)

God forbid Israelites to marry non-Hebrew women

Furthermore, you shall not intermarry with them; you shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor shall you take their daughters for your sons. For they will turn your sons away from following Me, and they will serve other gods; then the anger of Yahweh will be kindled against you, and He will quickly destroy you. (Deuteronomy 7:3-4)

The prohibition is repeated

For if you ever turn back and cling to the rest of these nations, these which remain among you, and intermarry with them, so that you go along with them and they with you, know with certainty that Yahweh your God will not continue to dispossess these nations from before you; but they will be a snare and a trap to you and a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from off this good land which Yahweh your God has given you. (Joshua 23:12-13)

Interfaith marriage led to the downfall of king Solomon

Now King Solomon loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, from the nations concerning which Yahweh had said to the sons of Israel, “You shall not go along with them, nor shall they go along with you, for they will surely turn your heart away after their gods.” Solomon clung to these in love. And he had 700 wives—princesses—and 300 concubines, and his wives turned his heart away. Now it happened at the time that Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other gods; and his heart was not wholly devoted to Yahweh his God, as the heart of David his father had been. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and after Milcom the detestable idol of the Ammonites. And Solomon did what was evil in the sight of Yahweh, and did not follow Yahweh fully, as David his father had done. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable idol of Moab, on the mountain which is east of Jerusalem, and for Molech the detestable idol of the sons of Ammon. Thus also he did for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods. Now Yahweh was angry with Solomon because his heart was turned away from Yahweh, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice, and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not walk after other gods; but he did not keep what Yahweh had commanded. So Yahweh said to Solomon, “Because this has happened with you: you have not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded you, so I will surely tear the kingdom from you, and will give it to your servant. (1 Kings 11:1-11)

Interfaith marriage leads to the downfall of king Ahab

Now it happened, as though it had been a trivial thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians as a wife and went and served Baal and worshiped him. So, he erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal which he built in Samaria. Ahab also made the Asherah. Thus, Ahab did more to provoke Yahweh, the God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him. (1 Kings 16:31-33)

Israel repented from intermarriage under Ezra’s guidance

Now when these things had been completed, the princes approached me, saying, “The people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands, according to their abominations, those of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians and the Amorites. For they have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy seed has intermingled with the peoples of the lands; indeed, the hands of the princes and the officials have been foremost in this unfaithfulness.” When I heard about this matter, I tore my garment and my robe, and pulled some of the hair from my head and my beard, and sat down in consternation…Now while Ezra was praying and making confession, weeping and prostrating himself before the house of God, a very large assembly, men, women, and children, gathered to him from Israel; for the people wept bitterly. And Shecaniah the son of Jehiel, one of the sons of Elam, answered and said to Ezra, “We have been unfaithful to our God and have married foreign women from the peoples of the land; yet now there is hope for Israel in spite of this. So now let us cut a covenant with our God to put away all the wives and their children, according to the counsel of my lord and of those who tremble at the commandment of our God; and let it be done according to the law…Then Ezra the priest arose and said to them, “You have been unfaithful and have married foreign wives adding to the guilt of Israel. So now, make confession to Yahweh, the God of your fathers, and do His will; and separate yourselves from the peoples of the land and from the foreign wives.” Then all the assembly answered and said with a loud voice, “This is so! As you have said, so it is our duty to do. (Ezra 9:1-3; 10:1-3, 10-12)

Principle 3: God forbids marrying non-believers because that would render impossible the spiritual partnership in the pursuit of fulfilling God’s commands.

The Old Testament Encourages Marrying Believers

The Bible encourages young men to look for women of noble character

“An excellent wife, who can find? For her worth is far above pearls. The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain. She deals bountifully with him for good and not evil all the days of her life. She searches for wool and flax and works with her hands in delight. She is like merchant ships; she brings her food from afar. And she rises while it is still night and gives food to her household and a portion to her young women. She makes plans for a field and buys it; from the fruit of her hands, she plants a vineyard. She girds herself with strength and makes her arms strong. She senses that her gain is good; her lamp does not go out at night. She stretches out her hands to the distaff, and her hands hold fast the spindle. She extends her hand to the poor, and she stretches out her hands to the needy. She is not afraid of the snow for her household, for all her household are clothed with scarlet. She makes coverings for herself; her clothing is fine linen and purple. Her husband is known in the gates, when he sits with the elders of the land. She makes linen garments and sells them and gives belts to the tradesmen. Strength and majesty are her clothing, and she smiles at the future. She opens her mouth in wisdom, and the instruction of lovingkindness is on her tongue. She watches over the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children rise up and bless her; as for her husband, he also praises her, saying: “Many daughters have done excellently, but you have gone above them all.” (Proverbs 31:10-20)

What is the hallmark of a ‘noble character’?

Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears Yahweh, she shall be praised. (Proverbs 31:30)

Principle 4: God encourages marrying believers because that would make possible the spiritual partnership in the pursuit of fulfilling God’s commands.

The New Testament Prohibits Interfaith Marriage

A marriage with a non-believer will not be spiritually fruitful

Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? (2 Corinthians 6:14)

Only a Christian spouse must be chosen for marriage

A wife is bound as long as her husband lives; but if her husband has fallen asleep, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord. (1 Corinthians 7:39)

A Missionary’s wife must be a Christian

Do we not have authority to take along a believing wife, even as the rest of the apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas? (1 Corinthians 9:5)

The New Testament Presents the Restored Vision of Marriage Prior to Sin

and being subject to one another in the fear of Christ. Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body. But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she would be holy and blameless. So, husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, because we are members of His body. For this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is great, but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church. Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband. (Ephesians 5:21-33)

Then one of the seven angels who have the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and spoke with me, saying, “Come here, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, (Revelations 21:9-10)

Principle 5: Marriage represents the redeeming love of Christ for His Church.

But I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ. (1 Corinthians 11:3)

Principle 6: Marriage represents the loving relationship between God the Father and God the Son.

The Purpose of a Christian’s Life

“O righteous Father, although the world has not known You, yet I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me; and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.” (John 17:25-26)

Principle 7: A Christian lives to know God through Jesus Christ. And in knowing, love, honor, worship, and follow God.

Conclusion: A Christian cannot fully live out his or her God-given purpose while being unequally yoked to a non-believer.