Peculiarone said:
What do you think about this? Especially if they have kids.
My friend has been celibate for over 7 years with his kids. He is a single parent and a man of God. But he is divorced. His wife turned to substance abuse years ago from the first year in their 10 year marriage. Now she has been gone for almost a decade.
So what do you think about marrying the divorced as well as what the Bible thinks of it?
With all due respect, it doesn't really matter what anyone thinks about this, or what the Church thinks about it...what really matters is what the Bible says about it, because we don't get to heaven by following the Church, but by following our Lord.
The Bible is quite clear that for a divorced person to remarry means that they (and their new spouse) are committing adultery.
fluffy_rainbowWhat is sad, is that many Christians assume that people who remarry will not find fulfillment in their marriage because God will not bless an adulterous union. I do not see it that way. If a couple marries after one or both spouses has been divorced and the divorce was not on Scriptural grounds (ie, adultery) they can always ask forgiveness.
How can a person ask forgiveness for this when they would be doing something that the BIble says is wrong? The Bible is clear that forgiveness requires the person being repentant. Repentance means to agree with God that what you're doing is wrong, and to stop doing it. Forgiveness comes with repentance, not without it. Will God really forgive when we know something's wrong but go into it saying 'oh well, it's ok really because I'll just ask forgiveness'??? That would make a mockery of God and what it cost Him to send His Son for us...
Also, back to the OP...when the man you're talking about made his vows to his first wife he entered into a covenant with her, and vowed to be faithful to her and love her etc, until death parts them. And these vows not conditional vows such as 'I'll love you as long as you love me, be faithful to me and never leave me.' They were made unconditionally, and do not depend on what the other person does. When we vow to love our spouse, we vow it despite what they do, not because they make it easy for us to do this...
If one spouse leaves, the other is still accountable before God to fulfill the vows that they made - one person forsaking their vows does not mean that the other one can also forsake theirs. They're not released from their vows because the other person left, because they vowed before God to be faithful until death parts them. And they're accountable to God to follow Him and keep the vows they made regardless of the circumstance.
I know this may come across as a really strong opinion, but my concern is that people are misled by their pastors, and that EVERYONE is responsible for following the Lord and doing what His Word says. We are responsible for searching the scriptures for ourselves to find out if what we're being taught is the truth, and if it's not then we need to have the guts to take a stand and not just fit in with everyone else.
Obviously I can't influence anyone's decision and I don't want to either, because I want people to follow the Lord. But I'm just begging you all to look at what the Bible says and do it, regardless of personal feeling on the matter. That's one reason why we have God's Word, so that when we're emotional and messed up and struggling, we have our instructions clearly written in black and white and therefore know it's the truth. We are then able to follow it because we can discount our own emotions in order to follow what God's written in His Book, knowing that He will sustain us and keep us, and give us the strength to do what is required of us.
Blessings in Him...
