Question for Orthodox Christians

[urbanlemur2005]

As I was perusing this section out of curiosity, I came upon a recent post regarding eternal marriage from an orthodox position that intrigued me. Being a protestant, the general stance is that there is no marriage in heaven based on the scripture regarding Jesus' answer to the Sadducees about the ressurection. After reading said post, I got the impression that it is believed that there is some form of relation between husband and wife in the afterlife. Keep in mind that I don't want to start a debate here.....I am simply curious to learn how this is understood and accepted n the orthodox belief system. Please use scripture(s) to illustrate your point of view and lend your own ideas. Thank you in advance for your comments and thoughts. God bless all.

[HandmaidenOfGod]

First, thank you for your question and welcome to TAW!

I would like to offer the below quote taken from antiochian.org (http://antiochian.org/), as I believe it easily defines the Orthodox definition of marriage:

MARRIAGE in the Orthodox Church is forever. It is not reduced to an exchange of vows or the establishment of a legal contract between the bride and groom. On the contrary, it is God joining a man and a woman into "one flesh" in a sense similar to the Church being joined to Christ (Ephesians 5:31, 32 (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians%205:31-32;&version=50;)). The success of marriage cannot depend on mutual human promises, but on the promises and blessing of God. In the Orthodox marriage ceremony, the bride and groom offer their lives to Christ and to each other-literally as crowned martyrs.

[Philip]

After reading said post, I got the impression that it is believed that there is some form of relation between husband and wife in the afterlife. Keep in mind that I don't want to start a debate here.....I am simply curious to learn how this is understood and accepted n the orthodox belief system. Please use scripture(s) to illustrate your point of view and lend your own ideas. Thank you in advance for your comments and thoughts. God bless all.

We believe that marriage is an icon of the marriage between Christ and His Church. Since the latter is eternal, the former is, by the grace of God, as well. We do not suppose that the love in this continued marriage is erotic. Rather, it is kenotic-agapic. Of course, this is the goal of earthly marriages as well.

It has been speculated that our bond to our spouse will not be unique. Rather, by the grace of God, we will all be connected by this love as we partake in the Divine Nature.

[Akathist]

Here is an interesting article about Orthodox Marriage: http://www.fatheralexander.org/booklets/english/marriage.htm

[urbanlemur2005]

Thanks to you all for your help and the insightful articles. I still have a question regarding Christ's comments to the Sadducees and the idea that there will be no marriage in heaven. Does anyone have any idea why the orthodox church sees His statement differently from the protestant stance?

[Akathist]

I am not qualified to answer that question. I believe that no one is taken or given in marriage in the after life.

Whether I will still have a special bond with my husband in the after life I do not know. Neither do I know if he will have a bond with his first wife or not.

That is all a mystery. I don't really know the official position from the church about this. I do know that we have more than one example in Saints of spouses that prayed for a dead spouse and there is some reason to believe that this prayer led to some good end. (St. Xenia of St. Petersburg, not my namesday Saint actually, but still a wonderful Saint just the same.) This is all of course before the second coming of Christ. So things could be different in the Afterlife beyond that point than before.

The happenings in the Afterlife is a Mystery in Orthdoxy which means that there is an allowance for different points of view to a degree.

[Philip]

Does anyone have any idea why the orthodox church sees His statement differently from the protestant stance?

I don't think I can offer an answer other than to say we see most things differently from the Protestant stance.

[choirfiend]

My understanding always was that we are not "taken and given in marriage" in heaven--meaning that we are not going to be up there dating and marrying each other once we're there--not that the uniting of two people that begins on earth ends at death. The Sadducees didn't even believe in the Resurrection, so they weren't asking an honest question. That's why Christ didn't bother answering it, but answered THEM.

[Annoula]

i don't really know the Orthodox official stance but what i understand is that in the afterlife we will be able to understand who is who and probably this will allow us to become "friendly" with souls that we were close in this earthly life.

if a spouse was having a miserable life with their spouse in this world it would be a torture to have them again in the afterlife... that would be a kind of hell...

but if the two spouses became one soul and one flesh in this world then the relationship could continue in the afterlife in a different - of course - manner.

and this is the meaning of marriage in the Orthodox Church. to become one soul and one flesh. personally i don't think that it happens to every couple, but it is more specific to the couples that have Christ as their guide.

[HandmaidenOfGod]

My understanding always was that we are not "taken and given in marriage" in heaven--meaning that we are not going to be up there dating and marrying each other once we're there

Thank goodness! Dating is hard enough on earth -- nevermind in heaven! ^_^