{"id":28852,"date":"2011-09-06T21:17:00","date_gmt":"2011-09-07T02:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=28852"},"modified":"2020-12-21T21:23:27","modified_gmt":"2020-12-22T03:23:27","slug":"is-marriage-optional-for-christians-because-they-are-saved-anyway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-marriage-optional-for-christians-because-they-are-saved-anyway\/","title":{"rendered":"Is marriage optional for Christians because they are saved anyway?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t

Question:<\/h2>\n

I am a Christian. I love the Lord God Yahweh and have asked for and long-ago accepted the salvation of His Son our Savior, Yahushua. I believe unmovingly in the price he has paid for me and the grace it gives me. I also believe in the “plan” and how it moves and influences our lives.<\/p>\n

Through this movement, I found someone after fortuitously having the opportunity to leave America and relocate permanently to another territory. There I met someone and fell instantly in love and have conceived a child of which was foretold to me by a minister. I am conflicted as to how to make this situation right. I love my child. He is only three months in development, but I feel him and know he is a blessing. My mate is willing and affiliated with the Lord through Catholicism and not as vehemently as me. But he is committed to having a close relationship with God for himself and foremost our family. Should we “shotgun” marry to hurry and get right with God or let things run their course?<\/p>\n

With the Judgment and tribulation upon us, my only concern is to have my child foremost and my mate for I know I am saved in the Calvary. I struggle as a young person with the thought that the institution of marriage today is very closely linked with the delusion of today’s society and program of culture. I know it is mentioned in the Bible but is not carried out the same in America where unfortunately I grew up and learned. I cannot change that. What should we do, so the Lord blesses us with His grace?<\/p>\n

I appreciate your consideration of this as it is a major issue of concern for me. Thank you.<\/p>\n

I also wonder when they speak of the Antichrist, I have some things I need to be clarified. I am starting to read the Word again. I have always had it embedded in my entire life and now as an adult, I desire to study it so I can fully understand what I am reading and seeing on and between the lines, today, concerning the tribulation and Lucifer’s rising. I know the Lord will be with me in the lion’s den and after so I do not fear too much, but I have read and heard that the antichrist will refer to himself as Jesus Christ. I have always referred to our Lord and Savior as the Christ as it was expressed in my spiritual upbringing. Should I not call or refer to him this way? Are there any ways to know the difference? Well, I guess there will be so I just want to know the first.<\/p>\n

The Bible says it will be 100 years after the years of tribulation and Jesus comes in the rapture that we will return to fight the army of Satan and rebuild a kingdom here. Yet it also says that the devil has dominion over the Earth. Is that forevermore or just in reference to while the Tribulation and Great Harvest occur? During the Harvest, we will lose our bodies if Lord sees fit but our souls will be delivered, right?<\/p>\n

I always hear of the possession and Satan taking souls. Please clarify this because I believe like I was taught. We will be gone in the blink of an eye to joining our Savior in the Kingdom of Heaven when he comes. So are we protected in death while the wait ensues?<\/p>\n

I am sorry for the length but I have put much thought into my ponderance Any advice and help on this is appreciated. I trust the Lord will give me the ability to find the truth in any replies I receive. Thank you again.<\/p>\n\t

Answer:<\/h2>\n

There are so many wrong ideas here that it is hard to know where to start. But let’s start out with this foolish idea that you are saved no matter what you do. “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God<\/em>” (Romans 6:1-2, 12-13). Christians avoid sin. They don’t act as if they are immune to the effects of sin. “Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him<\/em>” (I John 3:6).<\/p>\n

Yet, you committed fornication. In some ways you know it was wrong because you talk about getting right with God, but in other ways, you have deceived yourself in thinking that God approved your sin because some preacher said you would have a baby. That preacher should have been scolding you to get out of sin. “I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner–not even to eat with such a person<\/em>” (I Corinthians 5:9-11). “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God<\/em>” (I Corinthians 6:9-10).<\/p>\n

I find it so sad that you think you can have a close relationship with God without repenting of the obvious sins you are involved in.<\/p>\n

No one knows when Judgment will be. “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only<\/em>” (Matthew 24:36). That is why it is described as a thief. You don’t know when the next time your house will be burglarized. “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up<\/em>” (I Peter 3:10). Which, by the way, should be clear that when Jesus returns, there will be no world of tribulation because there will be no world. What you need to read and look up all the passages are:<\/p>\n