"Singles live in a time when their church leaders and friends have told them that their state of singleness should be considered a 'gift' from the Lord, a special time to devote themselves to spiritual work. Bumper sticker flattery is routinely used to justify prolonging the single years. Perhaps it's time to ask whether singleness in general -- specifically protracted singleness (apart from 'celibate service') -- has much historical or biblical legitimacy." So begins an article by Debbie Maken entitled "Rethinking the Gift of Singleness: Is Singleness Really a Gift?"

We were privileged to have Mrs. Maken as our guest on "Calling for Truth" earlier this week. She is a fine, Christian woman who is committed to the Scriptures and the Lord Jesus Christ. She is issuing a call that many young men and women, and indeed many others in the evangelical world, need to hear. So much of what she says strikes a needed and corrective chord in the church today and I resonate with her message in so many ways. However, I must point out that in all honesty, I cannot agree with all she says, and thus my little multi-part article on the issue is posted here. Let me say again how much I appreciate her message and willingness to be on our program. I appreciate her zeal and willingness to take a tough stand for Christ. Because of such, we hope to have her on the program again. At the same time, in light of the fact that we allowed her to present her view practically uncontested, I must offer this response with the hope that further dialogue will be fostered.

By way of summary in regard to her key point, and we will add to this summation in subsequent installments, Mrs. Maken asserts that marriage is a mandate and notes in historical church practice, "It was not only the duty to marry that was held sacrosanct, but also the proper and timely execution thereof. With I Corinthians 7 intact in their Bibles, Christians used to believe that extended singleness had no biblical warrant. The Westminster Confession, for example, lists the 'undue delay of marriage' as sin (Q. 139). Even Scripture five times hearkens to the phrase ‘wife/bridegroom of your youth,' not your middle ages, youth being the only season that allows one to enjoy the full bundle of rights and privileges of marriage, and to accomplish its generational purposes."

Further, Mrs. Maken writes, "The ease of flattery and our alliance with pop culture has produced a language of holy doublespeak where adult singleness is thought of as acceptable, even biblical. Instead of placing this modern phenomenon of protracted singleness under Scripture for scrutiny, we have done the exact opposite -- we have made Scripture the handmaiden to the phenomenon. I Corinthians 7, anyone? Instead of viewing Scripture as a whole and acknowledging that out of the thousands of characters, only a handful were single, we like to take parts out of context and argue that it gives us cover."