Ask Your Preacher - Archives
“Sacraments”
Categories: CATHOLIC, DOCTRINE, FALSE WORSHIP, RELIGIONS, THE NEW TESTAMENT CHURCH, WORSHIPDid the first century church celebrate special events that commemorated each person's journey of faith? In several Christian denominations, there are events like that called 'sacraments'. I am wondering specifically about the sacrament of marriage and how it fits into the first century church and also what the Bible says is proper practice for this type of event.
Sincerely, Practices Made Perfect
Dear Practices Made Perfect,
The Bible doesn’t have any sacraments – but it does teach there are some important events in a christian’s life.The term ‘sacrament’ is not a Biblical word - it is a Catholic one.The Catholic Encyclopedia describes ‘sacrament’ thusly:
Noun, a visible sign of an inward grace, esp. one of the solemn Christian rites considered to have been instituted by Jesus Christ to symbolize or confer grace: the sacraments of the Protestant churches are baptism and the Lord's Supper; the sacraments of the Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox churches are baptism, confirmation, the Eucharist, matrimony, penance, holy orders, and extreme unction. (Catholic Encyclopedia)
Using that definition, we could loosely say a sacrament is equivalent to an event that is commanded by God for every christian to partake in.There are some scheduled events like that in the Bible:
- Baptism to become a christian (Rom 6:4)
- weekly observance of the Lord’s Supper (Acts 20:7)
- weekly contribution (1 Cor 16:1)
These are the only things even remotely close to a ‘sacrament’ (although that still isn’t a Biblical term) ever seen in the New Testament church.Marriage wouldn’t be on that list because marriage is not required of every christian.
This does not mean marriage isn’t instituted by God. It is - as early as Adam and Eve (Gen 2:24).God has never laid down specific rules for the marriage ceremony. He has left those details up to individual cultures.God’s concern has always been about how we act within the sacred bonds of matrimony (Col 3:18-19). He leaves the 'wedding feast' to our discretion.
