REMARRIAGE

[oihebom]

Forgive me for this comment, but the more I read the bible, the more I realise that marriage is for life.

I think that the allowance in the later day laodecian church for remarriage and divorce is encouraging divorce and break down of families.

The bible clearly states that "..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."

So you can only divorce if your spouse commits fornication, i.e if before marriage you found that she was defiled or if during marriage she cheated on her husband.

But then the bible says that whoever MARRIES the putaway spouse COMMITS ADULTERY.

According to Romans 7 : Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to [her] husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of [her] husband.So then if, while [her] husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.

I Corinthians 7 :But to the rest speak I, not the Lord: If any brother hath a wife that believeth not, and she be pleased to dwell with him, let him not put her away


Now I am not an authority on this topic but I think that these are safe guards against divorce and remarriage.

Agreeing to divorce and remarriage encourages bitterness, unforgiveness and my goodness can you imagine someone else making love to your covenant partner. God forbid

Please this is only an opinion and not a final statement on this matter.

Regards,

Oscar

 

[mamaneenie]

That is a very strong statement to be made. You are entitled to your opinion however.

What do you think of situations where domestic violence, rape and child abuse occurs.

 

[ceres]

How old are you, and are you married?

 

[oihebom]

Yes I am married, thanks, been married for 2 yrs and 5 months by the grace of God

 

[ceres]

okay, that's helpful, I agree marriage is for life, but did you have a point? I think we all know that...

 

[Lotuspetal_uk]

What do you think of situations where domestic violence, rape and child abuse occurs.

I agree. I've been looking into this a lot recently as I felt that what the Bible was saying was not as 'black and white' as we are taught to believe in terms of divorce and that perhaps we need to dig deeper into what was going on at the time when Christ taught what He did.

On the one hand we see that in an ideal situation, G-d would want us to remain as life long partners in a marriage, and that every effort should be made by the church and the couple to resolve nominal problems. This was what G-d intended for us in the beginning using Adam and Eve as example.

But I'm discovering that with the increase in sin it was necessary for Moses to take into account of all circumstances which can arise in a marriage. What Moses subsequently gave took into account of the fact that a spouse has a responsibility to take care of the other spouse and repeated failure to do so nullifies the marriage contract to protect the victim in the marriage. At the time of Christ, a rabbinical teaching arose which distorted this ruling to where a woman could be divorced for any reason. Jesus was addressing this false teaching that was around at the time when the Pharisees questioned Him about divorce (Matt 19:1-12). This is purely to paraphrase what I have been reading thus far.

I'm currently ploughing through a book on divorce and remarriage in www.instone-brewer.com. Alas they have copy-protected the site to where I can't quote what they have written.

But it certainly has made me question the general view that a spouse has to remain in a continuously abusive marriage.

G-d bless

 

[charligirl]

http://www.youth.co.za/papers/divorce.htm interesting debate