This website does not necessarily represent the views of University Bible Fellowship or any other individual than the author
This was a draft I made years ago for publication that I performed a lot of work to proofread and add and remove sections on 2022 April 17 but I found out it seemed to stop in the middle before ending and I either never finished it or accidentally deleted a large section of it at the end. A large portion of what I intended to write about in the draft that is missing here is in other articles.
The following links provides a explanation for how other Bible verses not explained in detail here do not line up with the marriage by faith policies It is better to read the articles at the links below first before reading this article
https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://marriagebyfaith.blogspot.com/2018/02/what-is-wrong-with-ubf-private.html
https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://marriagebyfaith.blogspot.com/2018/01/you-can-marry-anyone-who-consents-that.html
Unlike those two articles this article addresses how Exodus 21:1-6 creates problems for the University Bible Fellowship no dating policy and how Deuteronomy 20-21 brings about problems for the UBF policy prohibiting marriage of non UBF members to UBF members
Information from online sources below were accessed on 2018 January 13
Updated Note : I have added other online source information since then so maybe some of the sources were accessed on those dates. That date most likely refers to when the Bible verses were copied from online sources which may change results as the NIV changes what version is published on Biblegateway and with it the text for the same link.
"By asking the person to tell you what they see in the inkblot, they are actually telling you about themselves, and how they project meaning on to the real world."
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-18952667
https://web.archive.org/web/20140321233525/http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-18952667
Members of University Bible Fellowship generally read historical narratives in the Bible like ink blots when it comes to moral teachings and avoid more clear teachings elsewhere in the Bible. Marriage by faith frequently is based on using Genesis 24 and Genesis 2 as proof texts and reading them like an ink blot. The books of Moses however provide a more objective teaching of marriage for the time and place they applied to. Before someone complains that I am using the old testament keep in mind that Genesis is in the old testament and that Genesis 2 may have been written by Moses.
There are 6 ways to get married in the books of Moses.
I will address how all six run contrary to the marriage by faith doctrine after explaining additional issues of consent in relation to marrying captive woman and marriage through premarital sex.
1. Exodus 21:1-6 Marriage of two servants working for a single individual
2. Exodus 21:7-11 Selling of a daughter as a servant
3. Deuteronomy 21:10-14 Marrying a captive woman
4. Deuteronomy 22:28-29 Marriage through premarital sex
5. Deuteronomy 24:1-4 Marrying a divorced woman
6. Deuteronomy 25:5-10 Marrying a widow
Updated Note : Seven instead of six, if you split exodus 21:7-11 in two, either a man designating a woman for himself to marry as in Exodus 21:8 or a man designating a woman for his son to marry as in Exodus 21:9
In every one of these 6 ways except for possibly marrying a captive woman or marriage through premarital sex both parties can clearly opt out of marriage. In the case of marriage through premarital sex both parties would have consented to sex and they would have likely known the rule that the punishment for consensual premarital sex is forced marriage.
The New International Version translates Deuteronomy 22:28-29 using the word rape but the Contemporary English Version uses the phrase, "talks her into sleeping with him."
28 If a man happens to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her and they are discovered, 29 he shall pay her father fifty shekels[a] of silver. He must marry the young woman, for he has violated her. He can never divorce her as long as he lives.
Footnotes: [a] Deuteronomy 22:29 That is, about 1 1/4 pounds or about 575 grams
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=deuteronomy+22%3A28-29&version=NIV
28 Suppose a woman isn’t engaged to be married, and a man talks her into sleeping with him. If they are caught, 29 they will be forced to get married. He must give her father fifty pieces of silver as a bride-price and[a] can never divorce her.
Footnotes: [a] 22.28,29 talks her into sleeping with him. . . bride-price and: Or “forces her to have sex.29 Then if they are caught, he will have to marry her. He must give her father fifty pieces of silver as a bride-price and."
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=deuteronomy+22%3A28-29&version=CEV
There are many other translations you can look at on your own. I believe the New International Version translation is incorrect in the context of the Bible as a whole, because an Israelite raping an Israelite would have generally had a death penalty result as an Israelite could not rape a Israelite without kidnapping an Israelite.
Exodus 21:16 New International Version (NIV)
“Anyone who kidnaps someone is to be put to death, whether the victim has been sold or is still in the kidnapper’s possession.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus+21%3A16&version=NIV
Deuteronomy 24:7 New International Version (NIV)
If someone is caught kidnapping a fellow Israelite and treating or selling them as a slave, the kidnapper must die. You must purge the evil from among you.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy+24%3A7&version=NIV
Kidnapping is still forbidden in the new testament
1 Timothy 1:8-11 New International Version (NIV)
8 We know that the law is good if one uses it properly. 9 We also know that the law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, 10 for the sexually immoral, for those practicing homosexuality, for slave traders and liars and perjurers—and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine 11 that conforms to the gospel concerning the glory of the blessed God, which he entrusted to me.
Regarding marrying a captive woman there are two possibilities about the consent of the woman.
1. A man is allowed to marry a captive woman but only with her consent
2. A man is allowed to marry a captive woman without her consent. Remember if this woman was a war captive her entire community may have planned to murder the Israelites and perhaps she could have been rightfully executed to prevent her from murdering the Israelites as a hostile enemy. Imprisonment and forced marriage may seem like a human rights violation but it maybe merciful compared with the alternative of execution to prevent the woman from murdering Israelites.
How marriage through premarital sex in Deuteronomy 22 may run contrary to marriage by faith
UBF Bible teachers often tell their students not to date but to marry by faith. Sometimes UBF Bible teachers pray for their Bible students to break up with their boyfriends or girlfriends even if the Bible student had sex with their boyfriend or girlfriend, I would presume even if the woman lost her virginity to her boyfriend and wants to marry him.
By trying in very sneaky ways to forbid a Bible student from marrying a boyfriend or girlfriend the Bible student had sex with they are running contrary to the principle in Deuteronomy 22
Someone might argue Christians are no longer required to get married as a penalty for premarital sex in the new testament moral codes and Christian communities are not obligated to force people who had premarital sex to marry each other because such forced marriages were only for the Israelite nation during that time period.
That might very well be true but if it was mandatory for people to get married who had premarital sex in Mosaic law it would not make sense for it to be mandatory for people who had premarital sex not to get married in the new testament moral code in the time period after the writing of the New Testament if both the New Testament and the Mosaic Law were originated from the same divine law giver.
If it was a sin to get married after premarital sex in Mosaic Law they would not have been commanded to get married if they had premarital sex. Therefore one could conclude that according to the rules set by the God who gave Moses the law, it is not a sin to get married to someone who you had premarital sex with, although that does not mean that having premarital sex in the first place is not a sin.
Now I am not saying that people who had premarital sex should be forced by a Church to marry each other but I am saying that people who had premarital sex should not be forced by a Church not to marry each other. A Church organization forbidding people who had premarital sex from marrying each other runs contrary to the principle in Deuteronomy 22.
Now a Church organization that would force a boyfriend and girlfriend who did not have premarital sex to not marry each other instead insisting that they break up but allow a boyfriend and girlfriend who had premarital sex to marry each other would be punishing people for not having premarital sex, which would not make any sense from any Church that preaches that people should not have premarital sex.
Now if people in such a Church organization believe dating someone you are not married to is sinful they could say either get married or break up, but sometimes they simply tell people to break up as their only option in UBF which runs contrary to the principles in Deuteronomy 22.
Most other Church organizations in the United States from at least the years of 1930 to 2018 that taught people should not have premarital sex also taught that it is acceptable to date and or court people as long as you do not have sex with them before or outside of marriage.
1930 is the first year that is not part of the 1920s
The first decade of the 20th century was marked by the figure of the gentleman caller. If a young man was interested in a young woman, he would follow the proper protocol of calling upon her, which meant that he would come to the family's home and (hopefully) be welcomed into their parlor. If he was invited back for subsequent visits, he would be free to come and call upon the young woman during hours specified by her parents.
As the years rolled on into the 1920s, however, this system quickly became outdated and unfavorable. Author Beth L. Bailey writes in her book From Front Porch to Back Seat: Courtship in Twentieth Century America, "Dating had almost completely replaced the old system of calling by the mid-1920s — and, in so doing, had transformed American courtship."
https://web.archive.org/web/20170630044605/https://www.thelist.com/62575/dating-changed-last-100-years/
Fortunately not all Bible teachers in University Bible Fellowship force people dating to break up and not get married. I knew one who had a woman Bible student who got pregnant by her boyfriend and they got married without objection from her Bible teacher, this Bible teacher soon left UBF later. I am not saying UBF should force Bible students to marry people they had sex with but they should at least allow them to marry.
How marrying a captive woman in Deuteronomy 21 may run contrary to the interfaith marriage prohibitions of the UBF marry by faith policies
Look at some of the context of the previous chapter
Deuteronomy 20:10-18 New International Version (NIV)
10 When you march up to attack a city, make its people an offer of peace. 11 If they accept and open their gates, all the people in it shall be subject to forced labor and shall work for you. 12 If they refuse to make peace and they engage you in battle, lay siege to that city.13 When the Lord your God delivers it into your hand, put to the sword all the men in it. 14 As for the women, the children, the livestock and everything else in the city, you may take these as plunder for yourselves. And you may use the plunder the Lord your God gives you from your enemies. 15 This is how you are to treat all the cities that are at a distance from you and do not belong to the nations nearby.
16 However, in the cities of the nations the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes.17 Completely destroy[a] them—the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—as the Lord your God has commanded you. 18 Otherwise, they will teach you to follow all the detestable things they do in worshiping their gods, and you will sin against the Lord your God.
Footnotes: [a] Deuteronomy 20:17 The Hebrew term refers to the irrevocable giving over of things or persons to the Lord, often by totally destroying them.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy+20%3A10-18&version=NIV
By genocide I do not necessarily mean mass execution of a genetic group or biological race of people but possibly the mass execution of a cultural group of people identified by a unifying set of behaviors deemed unethical enough to merit execution by the Biblical God according to my understanding of the Biblical narrative.
Such a cultural group may have strong correlation with certain genetic groups but the goal might not have been to wipe out a genetic group even if that might indirectly occur as a result of wiping out a cultural group.
Some people think that the goal was to wipe out a genetic group and such people were biological descendants of fallen angels, evil rebellious angels or demons who mated with humans.
If it was a genetically based genocide another possibility would be that the genocide could be to wipe out incest related problems that would effect future generations mentioned to have occurred in Leviticus 18 and Leviticus 20.
The mass execution might have also been done to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases as a result of the bestiality and other practices mentioned to have occurred in Leviticus 18 and Leviticus 20.
Each of these reasons for the execution are not necessarily mutually exclusive as it could be punishment for the behavior of incest, bestiality and human sacrifice and also to wipe out the symptoms of incest and bestiality which would have been genetic defects and diseases that could spread to the rest of humanity if those people were not eliminated.
This would especially make sense in explaining the destruction of "anything that breathes" if they even spread these infectious diseases among non human animals in that area through bestiality and even the domesticated animals in those locations needed to be destroyed to prevent the spread of these diseases.
Perhaps humans mating with non human angels or non human demons would be classified as a type of bestiality.
Answers in Genesis claims incest was not initially forbidden until a certain time period when it no longer could be done without too much danger of genetic defects resulting.
Perhaps God told those people not to do incest anymore from that time period onward and those people would not listen before they were assigned to be wiped out.
The captive women permissible for marriage were from places far away that did not come under the special judgment of the women in the groups listed for genocide in Deuteronomy 20.
The groups listed for genocide worshiped other gods in such a way that their value system included human sacrifice, incest and bestiality (See Leviticus 18 and Leviticus 20.)
I am going to suggest that the woman from far away cities did not have the same religion as the Israelites and even if they did worship the same God as the Israelites their religion's legal code and rituals would have looked very different than the Jews at that time being far away from where Moses physically spoke the Jewish laws.
These women might have even worshiped different gods but they were explicitly permitted for marriage.
There was something especially evil about the value system of idolaters in the area targeted for genocide different than modern polytheists such as Hinduists today who generally do not practice human sacrifice in modern times.
If one Bible student goes to a UBF Church and they want to marry someone who goes to a Presbyterian, Baptist or Lutheran Church who does not attend University Bible Fellowship, UBF Bible teachers will frequently discourage this but in the Mosaic time it was probably permissible to marry women from other religions or at least the equivalent of a different denomination of the same religion.
An exception like this can not prove a rule allowing interfaith marriages to apply universally but it can disprove a rule forbidding interfaith marriages from applying universally.
This example could mean that interfaith marriage was allowed under at least some circumstances but would not mean interfaith marriage is allowed in all circumstances (in which a factor other than religious faith would not forbid a marriage from occurring.)
This example could mean it is wrong to say interfaith marriage is forbidden by the God of the Bible under all circumstances.
Although these verses alone may not be sufficient to demonstrate my point I may write another article discussing what is wrong with UBF members forbidding interfaith marriage.
Marriage of two servants working for a single individual in exodus 21:1-6 has at least three mutually exclusive common interpretations I have found either online, reading commentaries or talking to people.
1. It is not actually marriage. A Male Jewish servant would have sex with a woman gentile slave of the same master, never actually marrying the woman. Any children born to this woman, as well as the woman belong to the master when the man's term of service is up.
This was my understanding from talking to someone dressed in orthodox Jewish type clothes who had a sign to ask questions about Judaism.
I asked this individual who appeared to me to be orthodox Jewish the meaning of Exodus 21:1-6 and particularly if the woman is still married to the man or no longer married to him after the six years are up if he chooses not to stay working with the master
I mentioned that it was not easily comprehensible to me because everywhere else in the Bible marriage appears to be designed to be an agreement to a permanent commitment that should only be ended by death or divorce and that you should not premeditate to get divorce before you get married but have the goal of getting along with the person you will marry and the goal of not needing to get a divorce where as in Exodus 21:1-6 it appears someone could agree in advance that it would end before they marry that person if they are not planning to continue working for that master at the end of the six years and do so without sinning or violating the law since the law specifically allows that option as one of two options you are specifically permitted by the Biblical God to choose to do of either continuing to be married and working for the master or ending your marriage and not working for the master.
This person who appeared to be Orthodox Jewish told me that the man does not marry the woman, that the woman is a gentile who he would have sex with and produce children with but not marry. He also told me he did not know the source for that answer but read it somewhere.
2. This verse allows a temporary marriage in which at the end of the duration the couple is no longer married. If this is the correct interpretation there would at least be some very specific situations in which a couple can pre plan to end their marriage a certain number of years in advance without sinning because it is permitted in the Bible. Muslims sometimes use Exodus 21:1-6 to justify temporary marriage. Numerous protestant Bible commentaries imply the marriage does indeed terminate or end in a divorce if the male servant does not choose to stay a servant to his master, these commentaries were written before Islamic teachings were well known in western Christian scholarship and I find it doubtful they got this interpretation directly from Muslims. If temporary marriages are allowed then UBF may have great guilt for the way they treat dating Bible students who chose to have sex with some people they do not make a lifetime marriage commitment to if temporary marriages are an option.
Updated note : Upon editing this "now" years later I remember trying to read and find as many Jewish and Christian commentaries on this as possible in the past but do not remember if the commentaries really say what I wrote above or which ones. "Now" for this specific update note is 2022 April 17
Updated Note: When I say some Muslims use Exodus 21:1-6 I mean that they claim based on Islamic religious texts that temporary marriage is permissible and then claiming that Allah also gave the Jewish and Christian scriptures which also mention the practice of temporary marriage in Exodus 21:1-6
Updated Note : Some Muslims choose to have temporary marriages in order to avoid premarital sex and also avoid making a lifetime marriage commitment with the wrong person. If dating people want to have sex without making a lifetime marriage commitment they could get a temporary marriage to avoid sex outside marriage if the Bible allows such temporary marriages as some Muslims claim. Or in such a case people could also claim to get a temporary marriage to avoid dating before marriage which some people in UBF might label as sinful without actually having sex during the duration of marriage in order to decide if they will get a permanent marriage later. Whether or not a no sex marriage is a valid marriage is an interesting question which has been debated but I am simply saying they could tell people they are in a temporary marriage if the Bible allows temporary marriages and UBF people say unmarried people are not allowed to date each other and someone should only go out on dates with their spouse. Ironically although some Muslims forbid dating before marriage to find a marriage partner sometimes a Muslim couple while get a temporary marriage in which the marriage contract or agreement says they are not actually allowed to have sex during the duration of that specific temporary marriage but are still considered to be married for that time period so they can date someone to decide if they will marry them permanently so that they are technically not dating someone they are not married to. Not all Muslim temporary marriage contracts or agreements have no sex clauses but some do. If people did do such temporary marriage agreements to get around a no dating policy there would be a further question of if Deuteronomy 24 would restrict them permanently marrying someone who they temporarily married to get around the no dating policy if they temporarily married someone else in between to also get around that policy. Of course none of this would work to persuade anyone at UBF that the relationship should not be forbidden by using the Bible because some people in UBF top leadership positions do not actually use the Bible they simply say they use the Bible to get their policies but actually get their policies from Samuel Lee. So I do not recommend telling your Bible teacher you are in a temporary marriage to get around the no dating policy because it will not work to persuade them, I am simply saying this to point out how their policy is not from the Bible.
Updated Note: I personally am not endorsing people having casual sex with people who they do not intend to reproduce with for the purpose of raising a family. I am simply explaining that if Exodus 21:1-6 allows people to have temporary marriages this completely undermines UBF justification of practices being from the Bible. I do not believe condoms and birth control prevent STDS and pregnancy 100% of the time and people having casual sex with random people thinking they will not get pregnant or STDS by doing so because they are using condoms is a bad idea in my opinion. Even if people could technically get temporary marriages with random strangers they hook up with without intending to reproduce with them for the purpose of raising a family and still not have sex outside of marriage I think doing so would be a bad idea.
3. The third common interpretation is that the woman married still owes a debt to the master after her husbands term of service to pay off his debt expires and that she is still married to him when the man is set free but is property of the master until her debt is paid off. This interpretation has potential problems because either someone enters a six year contract or a lifetime contract, if she entered a six year contract the debt would be repaid at the end of six years at the same time as her husband, since the six year contract can end early at certain cyclical times when all six year servants are dismissed early. At least that is the way I currently understand how debt relates to this but I do not wish to write an article on this in more detail unless there is popular demand to do so. You should really research these three possibilities for yourself.
Updated note: Upon rereading this draft to make it suitable for publication I have not recently reread those sections of this Bible involving the relationship between debt, yearly debt cycles, yearly servanthood/servantship cycles, lifetime servitude and temporary servitude recently enough to be sure this is accurate and it may or may not be correct. Yearly debt cycles and yearly servanthood cycles would include but not be limited to events like the Jubilee. 2022 April 17
Regarding marrying widows and divorced women
Updated note: This draft ends here maybe that is why it was never published or maybe I accidentally deleted the sections after this.
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