Martinus: Livets Bog, vol. 4, sect. 1208

1208. But where is this divine fulfilment of marriage today? Does it exist at all among terrestrial human beings? Yes, it does exist, but it has long since ceased being a lifelong phenomenon. It is present, as already mentioned, only during the first period of marriage, when it constitutes the so-called "honeymoon". During the rest of the beings' married life, through the many years leading up to the days of maturity and old age, it no longer occurs. Here its independent, mental force has more or less gone out of the beings' married life and must be replaced by the well-known moral and judicial laws of marriage. These laws are thus set up as a kind of buttress to sustain the purely outer appearance or material remains of the "divine marriage" after its marital, mental supporting force has ceased to function at the end of the "honeymoon", and it has thereby become lifeless and now exists as a mere formality.
But something that is lifeless cannot be brought to life by material measures. And a marriage that has lost its mental supporting force cannot in the long run be replaced by a "marriage certificate", even though a "marriage certificate" is obviously unavoidable in modern society to maintain all marital bonds after the "honeymoon" is over, as a contributory guarantee binding the beings to their marital responsibility and their purely material obligations with respect to the other party in the marriage and any offspring they may have.