You're 80 years old and don't want to mess with your childrens' inheritance.
Or you want to marry a spouse coming into the country recently.
Or you are Christians in a country hostile to Christianity and don't want to put yourself on the state's radar.
Several situations like these bring about this question:
Can I get married in the eyes of God without the government knowing about it?
Most pastors won't do this, with good reason.
Avoiding a state registered marriage to benefit you financially, or to get around legal barriers (immigration, etc.), is deceitful and wrong. I wouldn't conduct a marriage for that reason. I suspect that's what many are trying to do.
A friend suggests that it should be easy and inexpensive to have a lawyer draw up papers to keep inheritances with the children, instead of going to the spouse. If they just want to use the church as an easy way to justify moving in together, without becoming one legally, that degrades the institution of marriage.
But there are some reasons to leave the state out of a Christian marriage. The main one is persecution. In the movie Braveheart, Mel Gibson's character marries incognito, so the king doesn't claim "first rights" on the bride. That's legit. Maybe also, two Christians in an officially Muslim country today would face punishment and persecution if they registered with the government. They come up on the state's radar as a problem to "investigate."
I might marry a couple without the state knowing about it, in these situations. Probably not in our country at this point, though.
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