Are Civil Marriges Acceptable?

by hopelesslystained 15 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Beep,Beep

  You might want to show that elder the following from the Watchtower magazine October 15, 2006, pages 18-23)(HONORABLE WEDDINGS)

  "14) In some lands where customary marriage is recognized as legal, there are also provisions for civil (or, statutory) marriage. A civil marriage is usually carried out before a government agent, and. it may include both taking marriage vows and signing a registrySome Christian couples prefer this civil marriage to a customary one. There is no legal need for both; each procedure is legally valid. What is said in paragraphs 9 and 10 about a wedding talk and vows applies here too. The main thing is that the couple are married in a way that is honorable before God and man. -Luke 20:25; 1 Peter 2:13, 14."

  Taken from the following:

  http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/10/124683/2205590/post.ashx#2205590

  And I will give credit to Blondie here
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  A Paduan

  There is no legal need for both

  It's so heartening to know that, in this world today, there is a group we can rely on to explain the "legalities of gawd"
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  steve2

  Civil marriages are perfectly acceptable; it's the uncivil ones I worry about
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  J-ex-W

  I think there's a misunderstanding here. Any marriage that is legal in the law of the land you live in is acceptable (civil union included).

  But if they were wanting to be married by an elder (which is OPTIONAL), the elders are saying that they need to first basically 'show good faith' by straightening up their immoral track record of living together through living separately for a period of time and following all the other JW rules until after the wedding takes place.

  A JW friend of mine told me how it was for her and her husband 'coming into the truth.' They had been living together and began studying, and both wanted to make their lives right with Jehovah, so this is what the elders advised them to do. [so they did it]
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  J-ex-W

  Maybe it's a wedding re-do so all the family can attend? Maybe the family didn't attent the first wedding? Or maybe they want a renewal of vows to symbolize starting from scratch? I've known people in the world to do this kind of thing to please their religious families or just to please themselves, symbolic only to themselves. It sounds like a renewing their vows kind of thing to me.
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  blondie

  As long as the laws are legal in the eyes of the local government that are valid as far as the WTS is concerned. The legality comes from the civil/government area not whether a person is married in a KH and/or by a JW. Otherwise people married under the laws of the country they live in would have to get remarried in the KH and have a JW give the talk.

  There were just a WT study article on this so the JWs saying otherwise either never read the magazines, never went to that WT study, or slept through it.

  http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/10/124683/1.ashx

  Blondie