The Covenant of Marriage

by Mark Johnson

Published 19 May 2020
The world is attempting to redefine Marriage in accord with every-shifting cultural views. In the Christian community there is confusion about God's plan, or whether or not one exists. In sharp contrast, God has had a specific plan for Marriage from the beginning, a plan founded on the reality which defines a Covenant relationship-the sharing and merger of identity and nature, termed a "one-flesh" elationship in the Scriptures.





Building on the understanding of Covenant developed in Volume One of this series, Volume Two contrasts the outcome of our culture's approach to love, intimacy, and Marriage with God's plan.

God has a detailed plan to build the best Marriages, ones which fulfill the deepest desires of our hearts. This plan instructs us on how to treat each other so as to build the strongest hearts toward each other, but there is far more. God has built mechanisms within us, as well as drives and desires, which His plan coordinates into an effective approach to produce mutual growth and transformation in the context of a safe, supportive relationship. God's plan is designed to develop people capable of loving for a lifetime across through all the challenges of family life.

What is a Covenant?

by Mark Johnson

Published 14 January 2020
The world is attempting to redefine Marriage and a relationship with God in accord with ever-shifting cultural views. In sharp contrast, God has had a specific plan for these two relationships in place from the beginning. Both are termed Covenant Relationships. There is little current teaching in the Christian community about the structure, function, and purposes-or even the definition-of these relationships.





Volume One of this three book series begins in by introducing the defining characteristic of Covenant relationships, drawn from the scholarly research of H. Clay Trumbull (The Blood Covenant, 1885)-the exchange and merger of identities and natures. This underlying reality is termed a "one-flesh" relationship in Marriage, and is described as a "new birth" producing a "new creation" in a New Covenant relationship with God. The implications of this underlying reality define the opportunities inherent in these relationships, as well as the duties, obligations, and responsibilities we must fulfill to properly build these relationships. God's detailed and specific plan, which flows logically from the reality of these relationships, produces growing love over a lifetime, as well as the growth and transformation required in individuals to build both relationships to their potential.