By: Jonathan Harris
I just got finished listening to the audiobook version of Real Marriage by Mark and Peggy Driscoll. Overall, I think there are some good things to be gleaned, but I would not recommend this book, especially to singles. It’s much too sexually explicit, and resorts to some rather sketchy handling of Song of Solomon to support certain sexual acts.
Part 1: Marriage was good and helpful I think, especially its description of a married couple as “best friends” and what that looks like. The one caveat I have is that Mark Driscoll seems to think that God told him to marry his wife when they were both living in sin. Huh? There’s a small amount of mystical “God told me,” stuff that doesn’t seem to comport well with Scripture. Part 2: Sex, was not very helpful, and I think it missed the point of what sex is actually created for. The chapter on porn was good, and there were, intertwined, many good principles, but weeding through the weeds to find the flowers can be a waste of time. Part 3: The Last Day, was ok. It was practical, but very “self-helpy.”
I’ve left the real Biblical critiques to Tim Challies and John MacArthur, I can’t say it any better than them, so please check out their blogs if you have questions about this work.