“It is shocking anyone would actively seek it or that churches would teach it is preferable,” he continued. “It isn’t ideal or normative. ‘God settles the solitary in a home’ (Ps. 68:6), b/c ‘it is not good for the man to be alone’ (Gen. 2:18).”
Many responded, as Piper did, by pointing out that Jesus and Paul were single. Others quoted 1 Corinthians 7, where Paul said, “I wish that all of you were as I am. But each of you has your own gift from God; one has this gift, another has that. Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I do. But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry.”
Yet others expressed that they long to be married but have been unable to find a spouse.
“Dude’s going to be disappointed in and for eternity,” Dr. Danielle Treweek replied to Conn, alluding to the biblical teaching that there is no marriage in the afterlife. Matthew 22 recounts how certain religious leaders attempted to trap Jesus with a question about marriage in heaven. Jesus told them, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.”
Treweek is the author of “The Meaning of Singleness: Retrieving an Eschatological Vision for the Contemporary Church.” On July 5, she joined “The Stetzer ChurchLeaders Podcast,” where she discussed the church’s view of singleness and marriage throughout history. She shared, “We seem to have an absence of a robust theology of singleness in a way that the early church particularly would have been very surprised at, I think.”
Treweek was clear that she is pro-marriage, but also said that the modern church needs “to have a bit of a reckoning with the way that we have idolized and idealized marriage and family.” She said that “[marriage and singleness] are meant to hang next to each other so that when you look at them together, you can see the beauty in the detail of one in contrast to the other. If you turn the light off on one, if you shroud one of them over, then actually the other one gets diminished.”
On Monday, Muzar posted a video responding to Walsh, calling the backlash she had received from his followers “abhorrent.” The comments responding to her previous video included people calling her names, telling her she deserved to die, and saying she should be sexually assaulted.
“These people were really, really, really riled up about my choices on a Saturday,” said Muzar, who explained that the content she is creating is for people who are “feeling anxious” because they haven’t yet met their life partner or started families. She makes her videos for “people who are taking their time creating the lives that they want for themselves.”
“There’s a 40% to 50% divorce rate in the U.S.,” Muzar continued, “and I believe that figuring out who you are first and foremost and meeting your partner at that point is going to decrease that divorce rate. And if you’re lucky enough to have the family and friends and support that I do, none of us are going to die alone.”
Muzar also shared that her shakshuka turned out great.
