{"id":34345,"date":"2012-08-07T20:41:00","date_gmt":"2012-08-08T01:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=34345"},"modified":"2021-04-20T20:43:48","modified_gmt":"2021-04-21T01:43:48","slug":"before-becoming-a-christian-i-committed-fornication-many-times-my-preacher-says-i-need-to-wait-before-getting-married-isnt-it-better-to-marry-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/before-becoming-a-christian-i-committed-fornication-many-times-my-preacher-says-i-need-to-wait-before-getting-married-isnt-it-better-to-marry-now\/","title":{"rendered":"Before becoming a Christian, I committed fornication many times. My preacher says I need to wait before getting married. Isn&#8217;t it better to marry now?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t<h2>Question:<\/h2>\n<p>Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n<p>I write this e-mail with great shame over myself. I committed fornication with a girl who was not my girlfriend and got her pregnant. The girl whom I got pregnant knew that I already had a girlfriend whom I was planning to marry and had already paid a bride price for. We discussed the issue and I told her I could not marry her as I loved my girlfriend, and with her, it was purely a sin.<\/p>\n<p>During that time I was not saved, and I used to have sex with prostitutes and with several other girls just for the fun of it. Every night, when I was by myself, I just felt lonely and would try to find a girl to sleep with. This went on for a long time and even up to the time when I proposed to marry my girlfriend, who by the way is a Christian and is God-fearing. I got saved just recently and I confessed my sins to my pastor, who was also supposed to marry us. The pastor, however, now thinks that since the sins I confessed happened recently and that there is a pregnant girl involved, then we should postpone our wedding and wait for a period of eight months before we marry. I am confused now because I thought it was better for me to marry my girlfriend now than later.<\/p>\n\t<h2>Answer:<\/h2>\n<p>There is no requirement for how long a person should wait until marriage. What the preacher has stated is his own opinion.<\/p>\n<p>I must assume that the preacher isn&#8217;t certain that you&#8217;ve really repented of your sins. He may be afraid that there might be other children that you don&#8217;t know about yet (hence the eight months). He might also be afraid that you&#8217;ve picked up sexually transmitted diseases along the way.<\/p>\n<p>When you get married is between you and your girlfriend. But I would be inclined to tell your girlfriend that she would be better off to wait a bit to see if you are genuine or not. My concern is that you did not value your commitment in the past when you were having sex with other women while dating your fiancee. I hope and prayer that you&#8217;ve made a serious and radical change in your life, but it would be nice to see evidence of that change.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Question: Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ. I write this e-mail with great shame over myself. I committed fornication with a girl who was not my girlfriend and got her pregnant. The girl whom I got pregnant knew that I already had a girlfriend whom I was planning to marry and had already paid&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[149,1572,64],"class_list":["post-34345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-dating","tag-fornication","tag-marriage"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":37421,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-wrong-to-marry-a-non-virgin-woman\/","url_meta":{"origin":34345,"position":0},"title":"Is it wrong to marry a non-virgin woman?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 25, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: My girlfriend is in her mid-twenties. She has a very good heart and she is very beautiful both inside and out. She lost her mother at the age of 8 and was brought up by her grandparents. She had two previous affairs before me. Both of the affairs ended\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7238,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-getting-a-girl-pregnant-and-promising-to-marry-her-later-make-us-married\/","url_meta":{"origin":34345,"position":1},"title":"Does getting a girl pregnant and promising to marry her later make us married?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 10, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, I was baptized in the Catholic Church. I had a girlfriend, with whom I had dry-humped. Two weeks before having sexual intercourse, I told her that I was thinking about break up with her because I didn't feel we should be together. After a week of sexual intercourse,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":43759,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-do-i-do-the-girl-i-got-pregnant-wants-me-to-marry-her\/","url_meta":{"origin":34345,"position":2},"title":"What do I do? The girl I got pregnant wants me to marry her","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 27, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I had a girl I loved so much. I visited her parents and relatives and visited mine too. We agreed to marry, but before the marriage, it was found out that I had impregnated her. I left her silently and married another girl. I did this because I am\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":34160,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/im-in-love-with-a-man-who-has-a-girlfriend-whom-he-got-pregnant-should-i-marry-him\/","url_meta":{"origin":34345,"position":3},"title":"I&#8217;m in love with a man who has a girlfriend whom he got pregnant. Should I marry him?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 20, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi, I am 30 years of age, born again, having a boyfriend near my age also born again. We are related according to our culture as our mothers share the same clan name. We deeply love each other and all our conversations are always about God. We help each\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":43196,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-wanted-a-child-with-my-boyfriend-but-he-got-his-ex-girlfriend-pregnant-instead-i-need-help\/","url_meta":{"origin":34345,"position":4},"title":"I wanted a child with my boyfriend, but he got his ex-girlfriend pregnant instead. I need help","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 10, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: My boyfriend and I have been trying to have a child. Every month I worry about being pregnant. A few days back he told me his ex-girlfriend came over and he slept with her out of pity. Now she's pregnant. I am devastated right now because the one thing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":46639,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-i-tell-my-girlfriend-that-i-slept-with-her-sister\/","url_meta":{"origin":34345,"position":5},"title":"Do I tell my girlfriend that I slept with her sister?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 7, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Please sir, I strongly believe that it is not good to fornicate, but I did this some days ago. I've regretted what I've done. I want to start dating a woman whom I would like to marry, but the fact is that she is the sister of the girl\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34345\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}