A new analysis from the Institute for Family Studies revealed that “we’ve been witnessing an increase in marital stability since the end of the 1970s,” when divorce became much more common. As it turns out, marriages so far this decade show the most stability out of any other decade in modern history except for the 1950s, according to data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation. The study results are here.

Divorce is down because people are fed up with postmodern relativism and hungry for something with transcendent meaning. Christianity teaches that marriage is a mystery illustrative of the union between Christ and his church – “For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.” (Eph 5:31-21). Marriage is not just a blessing for Christians, but for everyone. It is part of God’s “common grace” upon humanity – i.e. the rain falls upon the just and unjust (Matt 5:45).

People are finally coming to the realization of the destructive consequences and the “fools gold” they were sold in the “sexual liberation” of the 60s and 70s. They are increasingly awakening to the fact that they were sold fatal “snake oil” which was brilliantly marketed as a panacea, but in fact was a supreme deceptive scam akin to the one offered in Eden so long ago. The culture foolishly drunk the kool-aid in the 1970s and paid a catastrophic price. The Biblical concept of marriage (monogamous relationship with one partner of tbe opposite sex for life) brings transcendent meaning and fulfillment that one-night stands can never offer. It is available to everyone as part of the divine natural law (Rom 2:14-15) that is hardwired into creation for human flourishing (Gen 2:24). There is a moral fiber built into creation and going against its grain inhibits human flourishing (see this post).

The good news is that Christianity offers a free antidote to the poison that the culture drank from its disastrous foray into “sexual liberation” which ironically did not offer “liberation” . . . but in fact turned out to be a deadly web of deceit that fatally entraps. That antidote is “living water” with roots in transcendent reality, meaning that it is objective and eternal. “Living water” is a metaphor in the Bible that represents life through Jesus Christ. Key verses include John 4:14, where Jesus says that whoever drinks of the water that He gives will never thirst again, and John 7:38, which states that rivers of living water will flow from within those who believe in Him.

Marriage is a blessing for everyone. And Christ freely offers that living water to anyone who comes to him and asks for it.