The following "Question" was asked by a member of the congregation at Grace Community Church in Panorama City, California, and "Answered" by their pastor, John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed from the tape, GC 70-5, titled "Bible Questions and Answers."  A copy of the tape can be obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412 or by dialing toll free 1-800-55-GRACE.  Copyright John MacArthur Jr., All Rights Reserved.

Question

"In the case of a Christian friend who is about to marry a nonbeliever, would you suggest attendance at the wedding ceremony as their friend?"

Answer

I wouldn't go--that's my own feeling.  That brings up an interesting point if, I can digress for a minute just to illustrate.  When I first came to Grace Church there was a very prominent person in the church who was a teacher, very involved in the church--an elder.  He had a daughter who was going to marry an unbeliever, and the board said (this was the first two weeks that I was here and this was a key guy, gave a lot of money to the church.  You know a very important person),

Elders: "Well, will you do the wedding?" 

John: "I can't marry a believer to an unbeliever." 

Elders: "Well, maybe we will win him." 

(You know they really weren't sure--some of them, because they hadn't really gotten into that area, that's a long time ago.)

John: "Well, let's look at the Scripture." 

(So we went through the Scripture one night)

Elders: "Well, there is no way we can marry them--no way.  So what we should do is to get someone else to marry them and to let them use the chapel so we could sort of mediate the thing." 

John: "Well, let me ask you a question.  Would this be a marriage that honors Christ?" 

Elders: "No." 

John: "Is this facility for the honor of Christ?" 

(I remember one of the elders said: "You can't have that wedding here--no way.")

Elders: "Can we go?" 

John: "If this does not honor Christ to the point where we won't do it, and we can't have it here--can we go?"

And my own feeling at that time was, "I can't."  I can't lend my support to that, but that is my own heart.