Christian girl, undecided guy

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#17053By Leah on Thursday, December 22, 2005 - 12:12 pm

I'm a big Christian girl and my and my boyfriend have been serious for a while. We both want to marry eachother, but I have a very bad consicence about marrying someone who isn't a Chrsitian. He has agreed to raise out children Christian and respect going to church. He believes there is a God, that Jesus is the Messiah, and all of that. He can't comprehend the trinity and the crucifixion. He was raised Mislim, but decided he didn't believe when he was about 12. He's still torn between the 2 faiths. Does anyone have any advice for me...or know where it talks about inter-faith marriages in the Bible?

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#17106By anonymous on Friday, December 30, 2005 - 1:23 am

Dear Leah - it is at least good that your intended is open to studying Christianity and allowing to raise children Christian. however, I would say please think long and hard before making a commitment to someone who is not already a solid follower of Jesus.

As for your ? as to what the Bible says - obviously you too are lax as a Christian if you do not already know the answer and various verses in the Bible - in both Old and New Testament believers are told not to marry anyone who does not have same belief in God. There are many stories and examples of people trying this (interfaith marriage) in the Bible and in every case their lives were much complicated or turned out disasterous. Why? because they began to be influenced by different beliefs about God/gods (and wrong beliefs) of the people/family they married into - and this led to their falling away from true faith.

Here is your example - yes, Muslims believe in Jesus as "Messiah" but this is not same as Christian belief - muslims only say this as to them Jesus will be the one who returns to earth - but Jesus is not, as Christians belief, the One who will judge the earth and have EVERY knee bow to acknowledge Him as Lord God of all humanity and the universe. So can you truly say that you want your future husband to be teaching this "belief" about Jesus to your children? Or that one of his family members would not? and that finding these differences children would not be confused? is this truly the future you want for yourself and kids?

I think what is best for you to do is to BOTH begin to strongly study the Bible on this (interfaith) and other matters. As a Christian you should also pray to the Holy Spirit for wisdom and guidance. Bible references you can see that outline God's command to marry only another that believes in TRIUNE nature of God (Jesus and Holy Spirit are EACH found in the OT as well, not just NT) and can commit their life to following Jesus' way as outlined in the NT are: Ezra 10: 10--44; 2 Samuel 12 (entire); 1 Kings 11: 1-13; and 2 Corinthians 6:11-18. The ONLY time that the Lord "allows" interfaith marriage is when people are already married and one comes to faith in Jesus - then we are commanded to remain married and set the example, explain as we are able and pray for salvation of an unsaved spouse (1 Corinthians 7: 12-17).

I hope you appreciate this as advice from the LORD and not myself, as citings are taken from His Holy Word, the Bible.