Divorce and Remarriage: the real issue.

Or, a 4th option is to believe Matt 5:32. This is a very complicated issue to be sure. I am thankful to God every day that it is not an issue for me because by His grace, I have been married 29 years yesterday.

Speaking of being stoned for adultry is the way Israel dealt with the situation. We live in a country where cruel and unusual punishment is against the law, and am very glad to be here and not there. So, since we are here, use the Bible to deal with the situation as it applies today. Stoning is a non issue.

Between Matt 5:32, and Christ's forgivness, all individual situations can be handled in a loving and Christ like way.

 

I'm not exactly sure what you're saying, but if it's what I think you're saying, I agree.

 

OK

The real, real issue. The real, real hypothetical (it actually happens).

She wants a divorce. Man doesn't want a divorce - not scriptural. She wants to give him the scriptural reason. She cheats. He catches his wife with another man. Instead of divorce (he is concerned about the scriptural consequences) he shoots kills & her and lets him go crippled.

He goes to jail for a plea bargain on manslaughter - is he divorced? Would he face the consequence of divorce?

What say ye?

 

He gets out of jail, remarries, and is welcomed back into the church with open arms. He's completely forgiven. After all, what he did was murder and maim. He didn't go so far as to divorce anyone.

Edit: Note for the humor imparied -- this is a joke. As with many jokes, there's an element of truth in it. As I've said elsewhere, I applied to several Baptist mission groups. I was rejected from all but one simply because there's a checkbox on the application that says [x] divorced. There are no checkboxes on any of these applications for [ ] murdered someone, [ ] former satan worshipper, [ ] <insert egregious sin here>. Apparently they're not concerned about these things, only divorce.

 

I don't know if you'll laugh with me, but I'm afraid I got a really good laugh out of that one. That's not what the verse means at all. Look at the Greek (or just about any good translation other than KJV, which is an excellent translation, but often misunderstood). It means avoid all evil, wherever and however it appears. Not "avoid appearing evil". If it meant the latter, Jesus would have been a #1 offender (remember how He was accused of being a wine-bibber and spending so much time with sinners?)

 

No, of course not. He's living a lie, and he's eventually going to reap what he has sown. If he TRULY repented, etc., and it was evident that his entire life had changed, then maybe I would want him as a pastor. I don't know.

But if a pastor was faithful to his wife but even had a tendency to lie, I wouldn't want him as a pastor, either. Or if a pastor had a tendency to water down scriptures to avoid offending anyone, I wouldn't want him as a pastor, either. If a pastor was flawless in his family life but taught unsound doctrine, I wouldn't want him as a pastor, either. I'm very picky about pastors.

Back to divorce. I believe my 2 divorces are biblical. However, I think that even an unbiblical divorce is forgivable if the person repents. That's the issue for me. Obviously, the pastor to which you refer doesn't seem to think he's done anything wrong - which is a self-deception I can't fathom.

 

You definitely sound orthodox on this!

 

However, for those that don't read the pages of a thread - this one is for you. Brother npetreley should be given his entire quote as well as the satirical short version above.

 

It's easy with all this quoting and requoting to lost the original question which is why I brought it up again a couple times. The query was for scriptural support of the position that remarriage after putting away an adulterous wife was forbidden. It was never remarriage after a frivilous divorce.

My issues are as follows:

A.) You are still excluding/ignoring earlier quoted scripture, from the lips of Jesus Christ Himself, allowing for divorce in the case of an adulterous woman? Matt: 19:9 "And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery." Although, you did selectively quote Matthew 19:10, without any context.

B.) You have yet to provide ANY scriptural reference to state that remarriage after putting away an adulterous wife is not allowed, other than the mentioned Matt 19:10 verse, out of context.

In my opinion, your position doesn't hold water as you've not made a proper scriptural defense. I think you've made a statement as to the "church membership" and in an attempt to not have to compromise your statement (which is really of no personal concern to me), you're clutching.

My concern though, was that there may have been scripture expressly forbidding remarriage after putting away a wife for the only allowable reason for divorce as detailed above, and apparantly there is not. End of concerns for me. Run it around all you like, but in the words of Jesus, he gives that out, and nowhere else does he say you shouldn't remarry.

You said "People will justify divorce, and adulterous remarriages, because they want that in their lives, no matter what the Scriptures say." and Jesus said "All men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is given." I think that is very telling, and shows the wisdom on the scriptures. I accept that you can not receive this, as it wasn't given to you (or Harold Camping.)

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For reference, here is the whole context of the verses quoted above from Matthey 19:

"9 And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery.
10 His disciples say unto him, If the case of the man be so with his wife, it is not good to marry.
11 But he said unto them, All men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is given."

 

I agree. I don't know of any scripture that says "you may remarry if....<condition>." However, the clear statement that you commit adultery by remarrying if you put away your wife for any other reason than fornication IMPLIES that you do not commit adultery if you remarry after putting away your wife for reason of fornication. That seems so obvious to me that it doesn't require further explanation.

But I will add for the umpteenth time that if someone divorces for the wrong reason and remarries (and by doing so commits adultery), and then repents of what they did, we are obliged to forgive them, even though they cannot undo the damage at that point. If God promises to forgive those who confess their sins, then I don't see how we can refuse to do so.