This document discusses the Seventh-day Adventist views on marriage, family, and divorce. It outlines that marriage was divinely established as a lifelong union between a man and a woman. Divorce is acceptable only in cases of adultery, and remarriage is prohibited while the divorced spouse is still living. Children are a blessing when raised in the knowledge of God. The family plays an important role in spiritual nurture and is intended to reflect the relationship between Christ and the church.

1. 1
The 23rd
Fundamental Belief
Marriage
and
The Family

2. 2
Defining Marriage
• Marriage was divinely
established in Eden and
affirmed by Jesus to be a
lifelong union between a
man and a woman in
loving companionship.
• The Bible does not support
a union between the same
sexes.

3. 3
Defining Marriage
• And the LORD God
said, It is not good that
the man should be
alone; I will make him
an help meet for him.
(Gen 2:18 KJV)

4. 4
Defining Marriage
• And the LORD God caused a
deep sleep to fall upon Adam,
and he slept: and he took one
of his ribs, and closed up the
flesh instead thereof; (Gen
2:21 KJV)
• And the rib, which the LORD
God had taken from man,
made he a woman, and
brought her unto the man.
(Gen 2:22 KJV)

5. 5
Defining Marriage
• And Adam said, This is now
bone of my bones, and flesh of
my flesh: she shall be called
Woman, because she was
taken out of Man. (Gen 2:23
KJV)
• Therefore shall a man leave
his father and his mother, and
shall cleave unto his wife: and
they shall be one flesh. (Gen
2:24 KJV)

6. 6
Marriage is a Commitment
• For the Christian a
marriage commitment is to
God as well as to the
spouse, and should be
entered into only between
partners who share a
common faith.
• What about two Christians
from different
denominations?

7. 7
Marriage is a Commitment
• Be ye not unequally yoked
together with unbelievers:
for what fellowship hath
righteousness with
unrighteousness? and
what communion hath light
with darkness? (2Co 6:14
KJV)

8. 8
Marriage is Commitment
• Mutual love, honour,
respect, and responsibility
are the fabric of this
relationship, which is to
reflect the love, sanctity,
closeness, and
permanence of the
relationship between
Christ and His church.

9. 9
Marriage and Divorce?
• And said, For this cause shall
a man leave father and
mother, and shall cleave to his
wife: and they twain shall be
one flesh? (Mat 19:5 KJV)
• Wherefore they are no more
twain, but one flesh. What
therefore God hath joined
together, let not man put
asunder. (Mat 19:6 KJV)

10. 10
Marriage and Divorce?
• Regarding divorce, Jesus
taught that the person who
divorces a spouse, except
for fornication, and marries
another, commits adultery.

11. 11
Marriage and Divorce?
• And I say unto you,
Whosoever shall put away
his wife, except it be for
fornication, and shall
marry another, committeth
adultery: and whoso
marrieth her which is put
away doth commit
adultery. (Mat 19:9 KJV)

12. 12
Marriage and Divorce?
• Although some family
relationships may fall short
of the ideal, marriage
partners who fully commit
themselves to each other
in Christ may achieve
loving unity through the
guidance of the Spirit and
the nurture of the church.

13. 13
SDA Guidelines on Marriage and
Divorce
• Central to God’s holy plan
for our world was the
creation of beings made in
His image who would
multiply and replenish the
earth and live together in
purity, harmony, and
happiness.

14. 14
SDA Guidelines on Marriage and
Divorce
• He brought forth Eve from
the side of Adam and gave
her to Adam as his wife.
Thus was marriage
instituted God the author
of the institution, God the
officiator at the first
marriage

15. 15
SDA Guidelines on Marriage and
Divorce
• After the Lord had
revealed to Adam that Eve
was verily bone of his
bone and flesh of his flesh,
there could never arise a
doubt in his mind that they
twain were one flesh. Nor
could ever a doubt arise in
the mind of either of the
holy pair that God
intended that their home
should endure forever.

16. 16
SDA Guidelines on Marriage and
Divorce
• When Jesus said, “Let not man put
asunder,” He established a rule of
conduct for the church under the
dispensation of grace which must
transcend all civil enactments which
would go beyond His interpretation of
the divine law governing the marriage
relation. Here He gives a rule to His
followers who should adhere to it
whether or not the state or prevailing
custom allows larger liberty. “In the
Sermon on the Mount Jesus declared
plainly that there could be no
dissolution of the marriage tie, except
for unfaithfulness to the marriage

17. 17
SDA Guidelines on Marriage and
Divorce
• Unfaithfulness to the marriage
vow has generally been seen to
mean adultery and/or
fornication. However, the New
Testament word for fornication
includes certain other sexual
irregularities. (1 Cor. 6:9; 1 Tim.
1:9, 10; Rom. 1:24-27.)
Therefore, sexual perversions,
including incest, child sexual
abuse, and homosexual
practices, are also recognized
as a misuse of sexual powers
and a violation of the divine
intention in marriage. As such

18. 18
SDA Guidelines on Marriage and
Divorce
• The SDA Church adheres
to this view of marriage
and home without
reservation, believing that
any lowering of this high
view is to that extent a
lowering of the heavenly
ideal

19. 19
SDA Guidelines on Marriage and
Divorce
• All thinking and reasoning
in the perplexing field of
divorce and remarriage
must constantly be
harmonized with that holy
ideal revealed in Eden.

20. 20
SDA Guidelines on Marriage and
Divorce
• The SDA Church believes
in the law of God; it also
believes in the forgiving
mercy of God. It believes
that victory and salvation
can as surely be found by
those who have
transgressed in the matter
of divorce and remarriage
as by those who have
failed in any other of God’s
holy standards

21. 21
SDA Guidelines on Marriage and
Divorce
• In the event that
reconciliation is not
effected, the spouse who
has remained faithful to
the spouse who violated
the marriage vow has the
biblical right to secure a
divorce and also to
remarry.

22. 22
SDA Guidelines on Marriage and
Divorce
• A spouse who has violated
the marriage vow and who
is divorced does not have
the moral right to marry
another while the spouse
who has been faithful to
the marriage vow still lives
and remains unmarried
and chaste.

23. 23
SDA Guidelines on Marriage and
Divorce
• No Seventh‑day Adventist
minister has the right to
officiate at the remarriage
of any person who, …, has
no scriptural right to
remarry.

24. 24
Separation?
• It is recognized that
sometimes marriage relations
deteriorate to the point where
it is better for a husband and
wife to separate. “To the
married I give charge, not I but
the Lord, that the wife should
not separate from her husband
(but if she does, let her remain
single or else be reconciled to
her husband)—and that the
husband should not divorce
his wife” (1 Cor. 7:10, 11,
RSV).

25. 25
Separation?
• A separation or divorce
which results from factors
such as physical violence
or in which “unfaithfulness
to the marriage vow” is not
involved, does not give
either one the scriptural
right to remarry, unless in
the meantime the other
party has remarried;
committed adultery or
fornication; or died

26. 26
Marriage is Serving one another
• Submitting yourselves one
to another in the fear of
God. (Eph 5:21 KJV)
• Wives, submit yourselves
unto your own husbands,
as unto the Lord. (Eph
5:22 KJV)

27. 27
Marriage is Serving one another
• For the husband is the head of
the wife, even as Christ is the
head of the church: and he is
the saviour of the body. (Eph
5:23 KJV)
• Therefore as the church is
subject unto Christ, so let the
wives be to their own
husbands in every thing. (Eph
5:24 KJV)

28. 28
Marriage is Serving one another
• Husbands, love your
wives, even as Christ also
loved the church, and
gave himself for it; (Eph
5:25 KJV)
• So ought men to love their
wives as their own bodies.
He that loveth his wife
loveth himself. (Eph 5:28
KJV)

29. 29
Marriage is a Blessing
• God blesses the family
and intends that its
members shall assist each
other toward complete
maturity.

30. 30
Marriage and Children
• Children are a blessing
when they are raised in
the knowledge and fear of
the Lord.
• Honour thy father and thy
mother: that thy days may
be long upon the land
which the LORD thy God
giveth thee. (Exo 20:12
KJV)

31. 31
Marriage and Children
• Children, obey your parents in
the Lord: for this is right. (Eph
6:1 KJV)
• Honour thy father and mother;
(which is the first
commandment with promise;
see Exodus 20:12) (Eph 6:2 KJV)
• Italics added for emphasis

32. 32
Marriage and Children
• That it may be well with
thee, and thou mayest live
long on the earth. (Eph
6:3 KJV)
• And, ye fathers, provoke
not your children to wrath:
but bring them up in the
nurture and admonition of
the Lord. (Eph 6:4 KJV)

33. 33
Marriage and Children
• By their example and their
words they are to teach
them (children) that Christ
is a loving disciplinarian,
ever tender and caring,
who wants them to
become members of His
body, the family of God.
Increasing family
closeness is one of the
earmarks of the final
gospel message.

34. 34
Marriage and Children
• And thou shalt love the
LORD thy God with all
thine heart, and with all thy
soul, and with all thy
might. (Deu 6:5 KJV)
• And these words, which I
command thee this day,
shall be in thine heart:
(Deu 6:6 KJV)

35. 35
Marriage and Children
• And thou shalt teach them
diligently unto thy children,
and shalt talk of them
when thou sittest in thine
house, and when thou
walkest by the way, and
when thou liest down, and
when thou risest up. (Deu
6:7 KJV)

36. 36
Marriage and Children
• And thou shalt bind them
for a sign upon thine hand,
and they shall be as
frontlets between thine
eyes. (Deu 6:8 KJV)
• And thou shalt write them
upon the posts of thy
house, and on thy gates.
(Deu 6:9 KJV)

37. 37
Marriage and Children
• Train up a child in the way
he should go: and when
he is old, he will not depart
from it. (Pro 22:6 KJV)

38. 38
Marriage and Children
• Behold, I will send you Elijah
the prophet before the coming
of the great and dreadful day
of the LORD: (Mal 4:5 KJV)
• And he shall turn the heart of
the fathers to the children, and
the heart of the children to
their fathers, lest I come and
smite the earth with a curse.
(Mal 4:6 KJV)

39. 39
Marriage and Children
• Lo, children are an
heritage of the LORD: and
the fruit of the womb is his
reward. (Psa 127:3 KJV)
• As arrows are in the hand
of a mighty man; so are
children of the youth. (Psa
127:4 KJV)

40. 40
Marriage and Children
• Happy is the man that hath
his quiver full of them: they
shall not be ashamed, but
they shall speak with the
enemies in the gate. (Psa
127:5 KJV)

41. 41
In Conclusion
• God loves families. From
Adam and Eve to today,
He wants parents to stay
together and love each
other all their lives.
• He wants them to have a
home where everyone
feels safe and loved.

42. 42
Sources
• http://www.adventist.org/beliefs/fundamental/index.htm
• Seventh-day Adventist Believe: A
Biblical Exposition of
Fundamental Doctrines, PPPA
2005
• Please note that the SAU
guidelines in this presentation are
mere summarised reminders and
points of clarity as retrieved from
the SDA Official Policy, Church
Manual and Minister’s Handbook.