" "The church is not an organization, it is an organism. The true church of Jesus Christ is composed of every individual who accepts Jesus Christ as his own personal Savior, who takes the gift of salvation, who receives the eternal life that God has for those who will trust Jesus as Savior." If you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior, you are betrothed to Him, and by that are bound by a contract that cannot be loosed. Moreover, just as one who is engaged looks forward to the day of their wedding, so do the children of Christ look forward to the day in which we will be joined with Christ our Bridegroom. .
The next step of the wedding was the presentation. When both the young man and the young woman were old enough to become married, the son would tell his father that he was ready to fulfill the contract of betrothal that they had. The father would then send his servants, also called "friends of the bridegroom" to the house of the bride. The servants would then require the father of the bride to sign the contract to fulfill the covenant that was already made. After the contract was signed, there would be a procession from the bride's house to the bridegroom's house. The ceremony that would come after this procession is what is referred to as the "presentation." The father of the bride would take his daughter's hand and place it in the hand of the bridegroom's father to signify the carrying out of the agreement. The father of the bridegroom would then place the bride's hand in the hand of the bridegroom's to signify his fulfilling of the contract. "In Scripture, the betrothal is sometimes referred to as the marriage. This second step, the presentation, is also referred to as the marriage. Scripture does not distinguish between the betrothal and the presentation; it simply speaks of both of them as the marriage. You have to read the context to see which step in view.
