Rev. Bekkering introduced this topic by using the texts II Corinthians 6:14-18, and I Peter 3:1-4. He reminded us that dating is used for young people to get to know each other. They should treat each other with love and respect in the Lord. Young people must not be selfish when dating, but should follow the Biblical principles of love, doing everything honorable to the Lord. God alone knows who our future husband or wife will be.
When young people go steady, the opportunity for meeting other young people is often lost. We must be pleasing to God with our end goal as finding a marriage partner.
Prayer is the most important thing to use in helping us make our decisions. We must pray all the time, and not make hasty decisions, but as they come to us, approach God in prayer.
We decided that dating a non-christian was unacceptable. When dating someone from outside the church, we should be aware of his or her beliefs, and be very careful of their ideas.
The question was brought up, is the parent’s consent necessary to a marriage? We decided that it depended on the Oasis for their denial to the marriage, and the couple’s reason for wanting the marriage. If the parents have a Biblical reason for denying consent, the couple should seriously reconsider their decision or whether they have reason to believe God has put them together.
Parents should have guidelines for their children to use, and also to get to know their children’s dates before they make their judgment.
Today there is much peer pressure concerning dating. A girl should not be required to go out with any Christian guy who asks her. If a person hasn’t a date but would like one, they should try to make friends first, without getting serious. Most of all, we must always be compassionate for the girl who is never asked, and the guy who is consistently turned down.
“It is so often exactly in a way that we would never choose, that we meet the Lord and taste that He is good. And then we can say with the Psalmist of Psalms 119:71, ‘It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn Thy statutes.”’ Rev. Herman Hoeksema