Marriage is treated as normal in Scripture, and is a gift from God. That is why God gave Eve to Adam, and she became his wife. For all of church history, Christians have understood that the union of man and woman in the marriage covenant is a good thing, and marriage is how we fulfill God's command in Genesis 1 (before the Fall) to be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. Man is made in God's image, so it honors God to make more of them. (Referring to the human race as "man" includes both male and female.) God created woman because, by His own reasoning, it is not good for the man to be alone. God's Word tells us in Proverbs 18:22 that finding a wife is a good thing and obtains the favor of the Lord.
Modern feminism has made a mess of society. Far from being something that lifts up women, modern feminism and rejecting sex differences has caused too many people to not even know what a woman is.
Radical feminists are an easy target for conservative Christians, and it is easy to mock their assertion that marriage is oppression and slavery. However, the threat we face in the Church is MGTOW and "Red Pill" hatred of all women. The most common way they do this is by twisting and mutilating Holy Scripture as some sort of support for permanent singleness. They do this partly by equating singleness with the gift of celibacy. The gift of celibacy and singleness are best represented by a Venn Diagram of a tiny dot in the middle of a huge circle. We are using a tiny, tiny exception to justify a much larger phenomenon.
It is true that the Apostle Paul wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in I Corinthians 7 that it would be his desire for people to be like him - someone who is unmarried. But the Apostle Paul, and the Holy Spirit, recognized an important fact: The vast majority of people do not have the gift of celibacy. (And the human race would go extinct if everyone was celibate.) That is why Scripture tells us it is better to marry than to burn. But who has the gift of celibacy? Here is a quick test: If you are a man and you desire sexual relations with women, you do not have the gift of celibacy.
"But Jesus was single! Paul was single!"
True. In the case of the Apostle Paul, very limited exceptions do not invalidate a general truth. Plus, Jesus was God incarnate in a man's body, and was without sin. Jesus assumes marriage in His ministry and preached against divorce.
"Jesus surrounded himself with single dudes."
That is not true, as documented in 1 Corinthians 9 when Paul points out that other Apostles are permitted to take a believing wife on missionary journeys. The claim that all of the Apostles were single does not match up with Scripture. Furthermore, marriage for leaders in the Church is assumed in the Apostle Paul's first letter to Timothy and in the book of Titus. This is because a qualification for leadership in the Church is to be the husband of one wife and to rule one's own home well.
On every statistical level, including sexual satisfaction, married people are better off than single people. This is true for both sexes. Why would we not want that for people? Marriage was created by God as a Creation ordinance, is praised in Scripture, and is assumed to be normal for God's people. Recognizing this is not a "cultish" take. The cult is those who reject what God has ordained, mutilating God's word and leading people into a life of sexual sin and temptation. Remember, the Apostle Paul says in 1 Timothy 4:1-5 that forbidding marriage is a doctrine of devils.
As I said a couple days ago, I can cite statistics about the benefits of marriage all day long and cite Scripture alongside those statistics, but bitter feminists and bitter "Red Pill" men who see themselves as oppressed by the other group are going to believe what they want no matter what is written. The anti-marriage heresy spreading in the Church is one of faith and obedience, and rebellion against God. Do we trust God or not? Do we believe His Word or not? Far too many men have chosen bitterness and despair over trusting God. They do not need to be convinced, because they already know the truth. They need to repent of their idolatry and trust God instead.
♣ - Previously: There is no Biblical endorsement of singleness.
There is still no Biblical endorsement of singleness
A tiny number of exceptions do not invalidate a general truth. This is basic logic.
