Marriage
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Celibacy must be rejected |
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Mormons
reject celibacy. ‘Celibacy, the deliberate renunciation of marriage, is
foreign to LDS life. Like other forms of ascetic withdrawal, it may deprive
the participant of crucial life experiences. Spiritual maturity and
exaltation in the highest degree of the |
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Jews
also reject celibacy: ‘In post-Biblical literature Jewish opinion stands out
clear and simple: marriage is a duty, and celibacy a sin. "The world was
created to produce life; He created it not a waste, He formed it to be
inhabited" (Isa. xlv. 18; Git. iv. 5 = 'Eduy. i. 13). "Be fruitful,
and multiply" (Gen. i. 28) is taken as a command; marriage with a view
to that end is a duty incumbent upon every male adult (according to some the
duty devolves also upon woman; Yeb. vi. 8; Maimonides, "Yad,"
Ishut, xv.; Shulhan 'Aruk, Eben ha-'Ezer, 1, 13)...
"He who is without a wife is without joy, without blessing, without
happiness, without learning, without protection, without peace; indeed, he is
no man; for it is written (Gen. v. 2), 'Male and female created He them, and
called their name Man [A. V., "Adam"]'" (Yeb. 62b, 63a; Shulhan
'Aruk, l.c. l. 1, note). "He who is not married is, as it were, guilty
of bloodshed and deserves death: he causes the image of God to be diminished
and the divine presence to withdraw from |
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Confutation |
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The
Holy Scripture advocates celibacy, that is, the voluntary abstention from
marriage. What the Scripture does not advocate is the imposition of celibacy,
for it says that those who forbid people to marry teach a doctrine of demons
(cf. 1 Timothy 4:1-3). |
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The
apostle Paul – who was unmarried - wrote to the Corinthians: “Now concerning
the things of which you wrote to me: It is good for a man not to touch a
woman …. For I wish that all men were even as I myself. But each one has his
own gift from God, one in this manner and another in that. But I say to the
unmarried and to the widows: It is good for them if they remain even as I am;
but if they cannot exercise self-control, let them marry. For it is better to
marry than to burn with passion. …… Now concerning virgins: I have no commandment
from the Lord; yet I give judgment as one whom the Lord in His mercy has made
trustworthy. I suppose therefore that this is good because of the present
distress – that it is good for a man to remain as he
is: Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be loosed. Are you loosed from a
wife? Do not seek a wife. But even if you do marry, you have not sinned; and
if a virgin marries, she has not sinned. Nevertheless such will have trouble
in the flesh, but I would spare you” (1 Corinthians 7:1, 7-9, 25-28 - NKJV).
As you can see, Paul taught that celibacy is a gift given by God to some men
(v. 7); he affirmed that if the unmarried cannot exercise self-control they
must marry (v. 9), this means implicitly that if they are able to exercise
self-control it is good for them to remain unmarried or to remain as they are
(v. 8). He says also that those who are loosed from a wife should not seek a
wife. So Paul does not reject celibacy, rather he urges the unmarried to remain
as they are for it is good for a man not to touch a woman (v. 1).
Nevertheless, he also urges the unmarried who cannot exercise self-control to
marry, lest they commit fornication, as it is written: “Nevertheless, because
of sexual immorality, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have
her own husband” (1 Corinthians 7:2 – NKJV). He clearly says that it is
better to marry than to burn with passion. |