I am Pastor Chris Ojigbani, the founder and senior pastor of Covenant Singles and Married Ministries. I don’t run a church, as our work is limited to liberating Christian marriages through teaching and correcting wrong doctrines. From my experience doing the job full-time for the past 20 years, I would love to correct the erroneous practice of subjecting women to a pregnancy test on their wedding day, a practice that is unfortunately prevalent in many Nigerian churches.
Unknown to many church leaders, this practice perpetuates unbearable pain and misery in the lives of Nigerian Christians. For a more precise understanding, I have divided this letter into sections: why it’s stupid to subject brides to pregnancy tests, scriptural proof that the practice is incorrect, the pains and misery it causes Nigerian Christians, and the solution.
Why It’s Stupid To Subject Brides to Pregnancy Tests On Their Wedding Day
Many churches subject their female members to pregnancy tests on their wedding day because they think that such tests help retain purity amongst young people. But below are some reasons it’s stupid to subject women to such tests.
A pregnancy test doesn’t help retain purity as it doesn’t determine if one has fornicated or not. We must understand that a pregnancy test is not a test for fornication. Such a test can only dictate a pregnancy and not fornication. A person may fornicate just before a pregnancy test without the test dictating it. Also, a lady can become pregnant without fornicating through IVF treatment. So, if a pregnancy test doesn’t dictate fornication and one can become pregnant without fornicating, why subject women to a pregnancy test on their wedding day? Is such a test not stupid?
Even if a pregnancy test can dictate fornication, why subject a lady getting married to such a test? Since a wedding is a valid means of stopping fornication, according to the Bible (1 Corinthians 7:9), is it not better to encourage fornicators to marry? When they marry, they can legally sleep with each other. Did you know the Bible stipulates that if two singles fornicate, they should marry? Yes, of course! But before showing you the scriptures, I would love to correct a misunderstanding of a Bible verse that makes many leaders subject their female members to pregnancy tests on the wedding day.
The Scripture Nigerian Pastors Misunderstand to Subject Brides To Pregnancy Tests
Many leaders subject their female members to pregnancy tests on their wedding day because they misunderstand Hebrews 13:4, which says that marriage is honourable and that God will punish those who defile the marriage bed. The leaders misinterpret the verse to mean that singles who fornicate before their wedding have defiled their marriage bed.
However, the verse has nothing to do with singles. First, marriage is a relationship between a man and his wife, and singles are not married yet. Second, the marriage bed in the verse is a metaphor for marriage vows, and singles don’t have any marriage vows.
Since singles are unmarried and have no marriage vows they can defile, the verse doesn’t concern them. What does the scripture mean? It means that a man’s relationship with his wife is honourable and that God will punish anyone who breaks the marriage vows.
It’s hilarious that Nigerian church leaders advise married people whose spouses break their marriage vows to remain faithful in marriage but prevent singles who don’t have any marriage vows they can break from getting married. In other words, they encourage married people whose spouses are unfaithful to stay steadfast in marriage and stop singles who fornicate from getting married. Advising unfaithful married people and their spouses to remain in marriage is good, but why prevent singles who fornicate from getting married?
Scriptural References of What God Wants To Happen To Singles Caught Fornicating
Exodus 22:16-17 NKJV clearly states that when a man fornicates with an unmarried woman, he must pay her bride price and marry her. The same assertion can be seen in Deuteronomy 22:28-29. So, God wants fornicators to marry. Why, then, are you stopping singles from getting married by subjecting them to pregnancy tests?
Remarkably, the scriptures above don’t support fornication. Instead, they discourage it to a great extent. When your members practise the scriptures, all fornicators will marry and start sleeping legally. That will also mean that all singles will be virgins as any of them that fornicates will marry. Having proved that subjecting women to pregnancy tests on their wedding day is an incorrect doctrine, let’s look at some evil the practice causes.
The Pains And Misery Caused By Pators Subjecting Brides To Pregnancy Tests
Church leaders subjecting their female members to a pregnancy test on their wedding day has many devastating effects on Christians, including late marriage and divorce. However, I will limit my discussion to how it leads to childlessness and large-scale abortions in Christianity.
Many Christian brides commit abortion just before their wedding to ensure they pass the pregnancy test. Unfortunately, some of them who are unable to become pregnant after aborting their pregnancies remain childless. The most annoying part is that most of the people who commit the abortions have done their traditional weddings, meaning that God
already sees them as married people. But because they want to have a church wedding, they abort their pregnancies. The story of Yetunde is a pathetic one.
The Story Of Yetunde
Yetunde (not her real name) was a committed Christian who worshipped in a church in Lagos, Nigeria, before her wedding. She was 38 when a man she liked proposed to marry her, and they agreed to have both a traditional wedding and a church wedding. After their traditional wedding in 2001, Yetunde moved into her husband’s house, and they started a six-month marriage course in her church.
Before the end of the marriage course, she was sad to realise she was pregnant. Although pregnancy is a good thing, especially for a newly married person like her, she was angry because she would be tested for pregnancy on the wedding day. So, she decided to abort the pregnancy. Her husband objected to it and reported it to his mum.
His mum sent for Yetunde and told her it was wrong for a newly married lady to abort a pregnancy. She advised Yetunde to forget about the church wedding instead of aborting the pregnancy. Yetunbde refused, explaining that she had yearned for a church wedding for many years.
Also, Yetunde’s mum didn’t support her. She advised Yetunde that since her church would not object to wedding them after having the child, she should wed after her delivery. Yetunde ignored all the counsel, saying she would conceive again immediately after the wedding. She terminated the pregnancy, and on her church wedding day, she passed the pregnancy test and had a successful wedding.
Unfortunately, Yetunde didn’t take in after her wedding. She tried so many things to get pregnant, but it didn’t work. In 2022, at age 59, twenty-one years after her traditional wedding, her husband divorced her and married another woman. She is so sad that she doesn’t have a child and doesn’t have a husband. She blames the church for her predicament, believing that if not for the pregnancy test the church subjected her to, she would have had at least a child and a husband. Presently, she has stopped worshipping in any church.
Many ladies in Yetunde’s shoes abort their pregnancies because their church subjects them to a pregnancy test on their wedding day. Unfortunately, some of the ladies find it challenging to conceive again after aborting their pregnancies. Did you know that the majority of those who commit abortions are Christians? Yes, members of other religions don’t commit abortions as much as Christians. For example, when a lady who practises traditional religion in a Nigerian village becomes pregnant, the man responsible for her pregnancy marries her at once.
The Solution
If you really want to help maintain purity amongst singles in your church, the first step is to abstain from sexual sins yourself. Individuals learn more by emulating their models. So, if you abstain from sexual sins as a pastor, your followers will emulate you and stop fornicating.
Further, teach unmarried people in your church to imbibe the instructions in Exodus 22:16-17 NKJV and Deuteronomy 22:28-29, which state that singles who fornicate should marry. Such teaching will encourage some fornicators in your church to marry quickly and make men avoid fornication, knowing they must marry any lady they sleep with.
Did you know that most ladies you subject to a pregnancy test are already married, as their bride price has been paid? Did you also know the Virgin Mary was pregnant before her wedding feast after Joseph paid her bride price (Matthew 1:18)? If the Virgin Mary was pregnant before her wedding feast and eventually gave birth to Jesus, why do you subject
people to a pregnancy test before wedding them?
Any practice or gospel that brings misery and pain to Christians cannot be of God. Instead of putting people into bondage, the gospel of Christ liberates people from bondage. So, I encourage you to stop the practice of subjecting women to a pregnancy test on their wedding day. Apart from the pain and misery it causes them, it’s against God’s will. From the scriptures we looked at, you must have seen that God wants fornicators to marry and legally sleep together. The truth is that any teaching or practice that prevents people from getting married is of the devil (1 Timothy 4:1-3). Marriage is a good thing! Therefore, allow people to marry, even if they fornicate.
Your servant in the Lord,
Pastor Chris Ojigbani
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Chris Ojigbani is the President, Covenant Singles and Married Ministries. He can be reached via email HERE.
The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.
