An article by Dr. Ted Baehr in World Net Daily, June 27, 2011, had some good points relative to marriage, but it went far afield in the discussion about who controls the marriage of two people. He was attempting to use heterosexual marriage and the church to make homosexual marriage invalid, in view of the fact that New York passed a law making it legal.

Baehr was wrong on more than one statement concerning what God considers valid for the relationship. He quoted at length a speech Rev. Henry Morris gave in 1837 in defense of marriage; that it was not the states business to be involved in the matter. While Morris was eloquent in his defense, he demonstrated a lack of Bible knowledge by claiming only the church could sanctify a union between a man and a woman. (Read the article for Morris’s statement).

The thrust of the Baehr’s article is that only the church can proclaim marriage legal or valid. He wrote, “The church has to reclaim marriage as its unique institution. Whatever anyone wants to do outside of the church may be their business, but it is not sanctioned by God's law. The state has the right to regulate only what the Constitution allows it to regulate, because there is no liberty for license. But, the state does not have the right to tell the church that any couple outside of the faith is married.”

Baehr’s position is very similar to the Catholic Church, which doesn’t want to recognize any marriage if the couple is not wed in the Catholic Church. Does Baehr unintentionally make homosexual marriage valid if it is done in a church, as some churches are doing? Surely not, but that is the direction he is going with the argument.

Using the last sentence of Baehr’s statement cited above “But, the state does not have the right to tell the church that any couple outside of the faith is married” is not biblical in any sense. First, he doesn’t define what he means by faith, but presumably, it refers to the some church. Second, that means that anyone who is not married in a “church” by a clergy is not married. Baehr needs to tell God that Adam Eve weren’t married and that all who were married prior to the beginning of the church on Pentecost were in a sinful relationship. The fact is simple. Marriage is ordained by God, but he left the rules to government for declaring the nature of a legal marriage that conforms to God's teaching.

Jesus said in But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female. 7 For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; 8 And they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh. (Mark 10:6-8) Further , in Hebrews 13:4 we find, Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge. The word all in the verse translated from the Greek means, among all, every [one], whole and whosoever. The import in the verse is that all marriages between men and women were/are valid as long as they conform to what God has given in the Bible. Paul had a few things to say in I Corinthians Chapter 7 and Ephesians 6. What is very noticeable is that in those verses, not once was the church mentioned as being the manager of marriage or the one that sanctioned it. The people of that day were married prior to obeying the gospel and their marriages were recognized as valid. If they weren’t valid, Dr. Baehr needs to explain the reason and give the scriptures to back up his false assertions.

Homosexual marriage is a farce and the state has no more authority to make it valid (since God made marriage between a man and a woman) than it does to rule heterosexual marriage invalid. The politicians of New York usurped God’s plan that has been the norm since the beginning of creation. The best that can be said of them is that they are playing God.    

As a reminder Baehr, wrote that, “Whatever anyone wants to do outside of the church may be their business, but it is not sanctioned by God's law.” The man needs to cite the scriptures for that edict not sanctioned by God’s law. It is suggested that he study the Bible a bit more and read the verses cited above and the reasons for them instead of stating things that aren’t so. What God says and what a church may declare are two different things.

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