Marriage with Unbelievers
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Remember, you have a heaven to gain, an open path to perdition to
shun. God means what He says. When He prohibited our first parents
from eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge, their disobedience
opened the floodgates of woe to the whole world. If we walk contrary
to God, He will walk contrary to us. Our only safe course is to render
obedience to all His requirements, at whatever cost. All are founded
in infinite love and wisdom.
The spirit of intense worldliness that now exists, the disposition to
acknowledge no higher claim than that of self-gratification, constitutes
one of the signs of the last days. “As it was in the days of Noah,” said
Christ, “so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat,
they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the
day that Noah entered into the ark, and the Flood came, and destroyed
them all.” The people of this generation are marrying and giving in
marriage with the same reckless disregard of God’s requirements as
was manifested in the days of Noah. There is in the Christian world
an astonishing, alarming indifference to the teaching of God’s word
in regard to the marriage of Christians with unbelievers. Many who
profess to love and fear God choose to follow the bent of their own
minds rather than take counsel of Infinite Wisdom. In a matter which
vitally concerns the happiness and well-being of both parties for this
world and the next, reason, judgment, and the fear of God are set aside,
and blind impulse, stubborn determination, is allowed to control. Men
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and women who are otherwise sensible and conscientious close their
ears to counsel; they are deaf to the appeals and entreaties of friends
and kindred and of the servants of God. The expression of a caution
or warning is regarded as impertinent meddling, and the friend who
is faithful enough to utter a remonstrance is treated as an enemy. All
this is as Satan would have it. He weaves his spell about the soul,
and it becomes bewitched, infatuated. Reason lets fall the reins of
self-control upon the neck of lust, unsanctified passion bears sway,
until, too late, the victim awakens to a life of misery and bondage. This
is not a picture drawn by the imagination, but a recital of facts. God’s
sanction is not given to unions which He has expressly forbidden. For
years I have been receiving letters from different persons who have
formed unhappy marriages, and the revolting histories opened before
me are enough to make the heart ache. It is no easy thing to decide
what advice can be given to these unfortunate ones, or how their hard