No, your eyes aren’t playing tricks on you. Adam Shulman does look shockingly like William Shakespeare. The resemblance is uncanny. And it gets even stranger when you learn that Shulman is married to Anne Hathaway—and Shakespeare’s wife was also named Anne Hathaway. It feels scripted: the symmetry, the coincidence, the eerie overlap of names and faces. Like Hollywood and history accidentally shook hands. So of course the internet runs wild with that kind of thing. It feeds perfectly into our cultural obsession with past lives, cosmic partners, soulmates reunited, and twin flames reconnecting across centuries. People start connecting dots that don’t exist. And honestly, I get the appeal. Because beneath the humor and the memes is a deeper belief many of us were raised on: that somewhere out there is our “missing half”—the perfect person we were destined to find. Christians aren’t immune. We’ve simply Christianized the vocabulary: “I’m waiting on the one God has for me…” “I’m looking for my other half…” Over time, we’ve come to expect love to feel predestined—like the universe (a poor substitute for God) clicked everything into place. We start to imagine ourselves as incomplete until someone arrives to make us whole. But here’s the surprise:The concept of a “missing half” doesn’t appear in the Bible—anywhere. Its actual origin is pagan.It comes straight out of Greek mythology, specifically Plato’s Symposium. In that myth, the first human souls were conjoined spherical beings—two heads, four arms, four legs. Powerful, proud and presumptuous enough to challenge the gods. So Zeus punished them by slicing them in half with a lightning bolt.And from that moment on, according to the myth, humans wander the earth feeling incomplete—longing and searching desperately for that one specific missing half that would make them whole again. It’s poetic. It’s romantic. But it’s not biblical. Think about the weight of that worldview:You’re born broken.You’re born unfinished.You’re born incomplete Your wholeness depends entirely on another human being. Not God.Not grace.Not redemption in the Lord Jesus Christ.But on locating your ‘other half.’ That is the foundational lie of the soulmate mindset. If you believe it, every breakup becomes more than a disappointment; it feels like a failure of destiny. This old myth is shaping modern dating more than anything the Word of God actually says about relationships. And that’s the problem. Former New Age leaders—Doreen Virtue, Jen Nizza, and Jac Marino Chen—are sounding the alarm. They spent years promoting this stuff. Now they openly call it what it is: a doctrine of demons. Their words—not mine. Why such strong language? Because they have seen the deception from the inside. These lies pull your attention away from God and redirect it toward astrology, numerology, signs from the universe, and fantasies about past lives dressed up as spirituality. And the real-life outcomes are devastating. People enter relationships expecting their “soulmates” and instead find chaos, manipulation, emotional turmoil, even physical abuse and ruined marriages. Testimonies like the ones below flood comment sections: “My divorced mother chased after a man she thought was her soul mate… It led to sin.” Or the brutal one-liner: “That’s not your twin flame. That’s a dumpster fire.” And here’s the pattern that shows up again and again in these stories: the “runner–chaser” dynamic. A structure where one person—the so-called runner—feels entitled to be distant or even abusive because the connection is supposedly destined. Meanwhile, the chaser becomes obsessed, desperate, and unable to leave because they believe this person is their only path to wholeness. And when the relationship becomes unbearable, the ideology doesn’t correct the abuse—it spiritualizes it. Pain gets rebranded as “karmic cleansing,” a repayment for past-life debts. It’s heartbreaking.It’s deceptive.This is why Scripture is essential to dismantling the core lies. The Bible never teaches reincarnation.The Bible never teaches cosmic soulmates or missing halves. It destroys the myth in one verse:Hebrews 9:27 — “It is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment.” Scripture tells us the truth. Colossians 2:10 declares: You are complete in Christ. Your wholeness comes from Him—not a romantic partner. And when you stand on that truth, everything about dating changes. Wholeness in Christ eliminates desperation. If you are already whole, you are not looking for someone to fix you. You are looking for a co-laborer in the kingdom—someone who is running after Christ with you, aligned in faith, mission, and purpose. The pressure for a partner disappears. On one side is the pagan fairytale version of love: a mystical spark, a destined collision, a mirror to your soul. On the other side is the biblical reality: a covenant—sacrificial, deliberate, and committed. Ephesians 5:25 sets the standard: “Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her.” Biblical love is not the product of a past-life bond or destiny, but a present-day vow that requires daily choice and persistent faithfulness. This is the difference between the two models. The covenant is reliable; the destiny narrative is fragile. So as a Christian, you must stop trying to manifest a partner through cosmic energy. Stop looking for signs from the universe. Stop framing your love life through myths that lead to confusion, harm, and heartbreak. Instead, open the Word of God and submit your desires to the Lord. Scripture honors marriage. Proverbs says, “He who finds a wife finds a good thing.” Marriage is a gift. But it is a gift—not an identity. Your identity is secured in Christ alone. Marriage expresses completeness; it does not create it. You look for alignment of faith—for someone grounded in the Lord. That’s when you know you’re moving toward becoming equally yoked. Thanks for reading The Equally Yoked! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit equallyyoked.substack.com
