Thank you for your website, I check my emails every day for Grace Thru Faith. I have a question about the Q&A the other day “Married or Not? ” Did you mean that all marriages in the world that don’t involve a believer are not approved by God? Since God began marriage in Genesis for many good reasons, like being the foundation of society, and the best way to have and raise children, wouldn’t He be glad people are making use of His good idea even if they aren’t saved?
Our country was blessed when living by God’s principles even though most of the people weren’t saved. Doesn’t 1 Cor. 7:14 mean that the unsaved one in the marriage, and the children are set apart for some blessings from the Lord because there is a saved person in the family praying for them and being a testimony to them?
You’re referring to Married or Not, Follow Up. I think your understanding of 1 Cor 7:14 is somewhat different from what Paul said. It’s not that they’re set apart for special blessing, it’s that the believing parent saves the children from being rendered unclean. Here’s the verse.
For the unbelieving husband has been sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife has been sanctified through her believing husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.
In this statement the word unclean means that the children of unbelievers are not considered holy and do not qualify for any blessing from Him. They are still God’s children, as are all children under the age of accountability, but their status is similar to believing adults who have placed themselves out of fellowship with God by living in a state of unconfessed sin. Their salvation is secure, and they’ll go in the rapture, but they don’t enjoy the earthly blessing that would otherwise be theirs.
The faith of one parent is sufficient to make the under age children of the marriage holy, but if both parents are unbelievers their children are ceremonially unclean. To me this means God doesn’t put His seal of approval on the marriages of unbelievers even though they’ve inadvertently done the right thing. Remember it’s our motives that count with Him, not just our actions. Unbelievers can’t seek His approval because they don’t believe He exists. Even if they’re married in a church by a minister of God, they’re really just following a human tradition.
As for the USA, I believe this country has long benefited from the residual blessing that accrued to us during the time when the majority of its citizens were believers. Remember, the Northern Kingdom of Israel continued to prosper for over a hundred years after they rejected God and fell into idolatry. He is patient, not wanting any to perish, but His patience is not endless.