Wake Up, Look Up

Hello everyone, and thanks for listening to Wake Up, Look Up, a podcast where we connect events happening in real time to the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm Zach Weihrauch and in today's episode, we're asking the question, is a prenup biblical? This is prompted by an article I read recently in Bloomberg News called More Americans are getting prenups, even if they aren't rich. the article was looking at a growing trend. In fact, a recent Harris poll found that 53% of engaged or married Americans under the age of 45. So over half under the age of 45 have signed a prenup. that's up significantly from polling only a few years ago. What's interesting. Two things are interesting. One is, women are initiating prenups as often as men. this has not been true historically. We think of a prenup. You think of a wealthy man protecting his income from a woman that he is marrying, making sure she's not marrying him for his money. but that's not true anymore. Women are just as likely to get a prenup, citing their future earnings and their desire to protect what they bring into a marriage. But what's also interesting is that prenups are no longer just about protecting wealth. In fact, they are about the future division of assets. In other words, a couple in their 20s that has no money is kind of saying, but we will. And when we do, I want to go ahead and have predetermined, how we will split things in the case of. Of a divorce. in fact, one couple cited in the article actually says their prenup was an act of love for each other. Should their marriage not make it. They don't want an acrimonious divorce. They'll just refer back to the original agreement. I find this heartbreaking look for two reasons. one is, prenups fly in the face of the biblical vision for marriage, which, again, I'll say, I hate to say biblical vision for marriage, because marriage belongs to God. He. He invented it. And every other version of marriage is a broken version. But in the biblical vision of marriage, marriage is a lifelong covenant. Let me break that apart. In Genesis 2:24, we're told, therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. Jesus will later say, what God has joined together, let no man separate. The biblical vision of marriage is that you cease to be an individual. You are joined together into your spouse. And where there used to be two people, there's now one family unit. and that bond is based on covenant, not a contract. Hey, as long as you do for me what I want you to do for me, as long as you make me happy, as long as you fulfill me, as long as you do the dishes, will stay married. A covenant says, before God, you are my spouse forever. That's why traditionally, marriage vows have been, for better or worse, richer or poorer, sickness and health, till death do us part. That's a promise to God. You're saying to the other person, I don't know what the future has for us, but I know this. I will be committed to you. prenups are anticipating the breaking of that covenant. They're pre building in the negotiating lines for an eventual dissolution of the promise you made before God. In other words, the biblical vision of marriage is there will be no end. The end of this will be death. And of course, post death, we don't have to worry about how the assets get divided. But the American version of marriage is, hey, you make me happy today, but you may not always make me happy. And when I realize you no longer make me happy, you, I want my stuff back. I say this because I do think pre baking into a marriage, the terms of its demise is actually part of what brings about its demise. It's the individualistic understanding of marriage that by coming into a marriage going, what matters most is that I'm protected, that I am cared for, that my assets are secure is a kind of poison, A, kind of cancer you bring into the marriage. I've said this before. Two people in a marriage saying, I'm looking out for me means two selfish people, neither of which cares about the other person. Of course, the biblical vision couldn't be more radically different. Two people saying, I'm here for you. No one being selfish and everyone cared for. I hope young Christians who are considering marriage will disregard this cultural trend. You don't have to worry about the division of assets, because we're not dividing anything. And I just wonder in America, as children grow up in divorced homes and deal with the wreckage, huh? Of that, the painful wreckage of that. When will a generation say, enough, enough. The relentless pursuit of individual fulfillment hurts people. It destroys lives. It destroys families. In the end, you know what it means? A bunch of lonely people sitting at home by themselves, totally unfulfilled, reject the American vision of marriage and its prenup and replace it instead with a vision of marriage that is surrendered to the lordship of Jesus Christ, who loves you, who's for you, and who knows how, marriage works best. Hey, thanks for checking out Wake Up, Look Up. For more content, be sure to visit the Christ Community Chapel app or website cccchapel.com.

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