Marriage and Theonomy

1) Marriage is for both believers and unbelievers.

2) Marriage is not a sacrament, although marriage does provide a spiritual illustration.

3) In Scripture, particularly in the Old Testament, the civil magistrate is given jurisdiction for policing marriage including criminal prosecution of adultery.

4) The general equity of the OT civil law on marriage is at least that the civil magistrate has authority and duty to regulate marriage.

5) Jesus himself makes a distinction between moral principles around marriage and civil law rules. For example, Jesus explains that the moral principles around divorce are more strict than the OT civil law.

6) We Christians have to obey both the moral rules and the civil law rules (unless doing the latter comes into conflict with the former). So, even if we live in an "easy divorce" location, we should not treat marriage lightly.

7) If you're a copy-and-paste theonomist who thinks the only legitimate civil laws are those of the Torah, keep in mind that you are going to have a very different set of laws. There was, for example, no prohibition on bigamy by men.

8) Assuming you're not a copy-and-paste theonomist, then we are not stuck with the OT civil law found in the Torah.

9) In that case, the civil law (whether American or Texan or Mexican or whatever place one finds oneself) matters. Since the general equity of the OT civil law on marriage is that the civil magistrate has a duty to police it, then it follows that the civil law of one's current residence matters.