Question:
If two people are married under any other law besides God’s, are they married in His eyes? That is, if you are a Buddist and are married under those laws, are you truly married?
Answer:
The wedding ceremony can be a most beautiful time for the couple to celebrate with friends and relatives how God has brought them together through their mutual bonds in Christ as Saviour and Lord. It can also be used to present the Scriptures which show that the marriage of one man and one woman is a picture of Christ’s wonderful union, in the soon coming day, with His bride, the church (Revelation 19:7).
Marriage is God’s creation (Genesis 1:27) by making the woman from man’s rib, and He instituted marriage by bringing her “unto the man” (Genesis 2:22). The first recorded words by man utter the acknowledgment that the woman is “bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman” [i.e. lady]. The man is also to take the initiative to “leave father and mother and cleave to his wife” (Genesis 2:23,24). This relationship between man and woman was constituted before sin came into the world, and is in no way the result of the fall, but God will judge those who violate it. “Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge” (Hebrews 13:4).With this in mind, in answer to your question, the important thing to God is what is vowed between the man and the wife. If they vow to “cherish and nourish” one another until parted by death, they are married, even though they make this vow in a Buddist ceremony. However, there is nothing wrong with the couple also celebrating their vows, and God’s goodness, in another ceremony with Christians.