The very building blocks of society are being torn from underneath of us by our evil, Satanic culture. We must recapture the simple, but profound understanding of the big picture on marriage for the Church, both in this generation and the next.
It seems like we have been talking a lot about marriage and family this spring, but in God’s providence there is no doubt that this is a good thing. As we continue to take a walk through the Westminster Confession of Faith on Thursday’s we are coming to the confession’s own teaching on the subject. Now, it may seem strange that a body of divinity focused on making sure the Church knows what it believes about doctrine and faith would have a chapter focused on the relations between husband and wife.
However, if you remember that we just completed a chapter on the Civil Magistrate (the Government) and before that one on Oaths and Vows, and that the next chapter will be on the Church it makes perfect sense to round out the 5th Commandment with a word on the family, especially when you consider the effect this has on the others.
In the second section of this part the WCF says:
“Marriage was ordained for the mutual help of husband and wife, for the increase of mankind with a legitimate issue, and of the Church with an holy seed; and for preventing of uncleanness.”
Here we see even more reason as to why the divines at Westminster felt the need to include teaching on marriage. For the people of God to confess and to believe what the Bible says about marriage is to ensure that the generational covenant promises of the Lord are fulfilled. It used to be said that married couples having children within the covenant was called, “Presbyterian Church Growth”, and there is much truth to this. Remember how the Israelite tribes flourished in Egypt despite their being in slavery? Pharaoh complained to his retinue that, “…and he said to his people, ‘Look, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we'”. What a wonderful truth! It should be the case that as we raise up our children in the covenant promises of Baptism that they be shepherded in a Christian home, and then as we have more and more children, and our children have lots of babies, and that soon we will find ourselves overwhelming the Egyptians with ARP’s!
