Well, we're not God, thankfully. We have the option of second chances when we've screwed up. And thankfully, God doesn't hold our past mistakes against us, no matter what the exact failture was.
In other words, THE HECK WITH WHAT JESUS SAID in Matthew.
That's fine Holo -
like I said, preach humanism all you want, but marriage is God's
institution; HIS creation, and it's HIS rules we go by, not our own.
You want to create a disposable world where we make promises that
we can violate & go back on our words. Great.
& yes, I"m afraid that marriage IS a contract. We make a promise by
it.
we don't just make our own rules & create our own religion despite the
Bible. Guess what, people don't change God's rules any, they merely
violate them when they're rejected.
But it's not a contract. And a marriage may very well be a failure from the very beginning.
What is the grace covenant? A Covenant is a promise - marriage is for
life. Two become one flesh & create their own family unit.
It is a BINDING relationship just like being God's child is binding.
The issue becomes if a person is actually God's child - or they're
deluded into thinking they are when actually they aren't.
This is shown in
Mat. 7
17"So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit.
18"A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit.
19"Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
20"So then, you will know them by their fruits.
21"Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.
22"Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?'
23"And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.'
The Two Foundations
24"Therefore
everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock.
(those who LIVE BY & ACT ON WHAT THEY'RE TAUGHT IN GOD'S WORD
ARE WISE in obedience).
Peter said this:
just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you,
16 as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand,
which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.
** So anyone is free to ignore & deny God's teachings -
but it will be to their own destruction. (possibly eternal).
The woman I mentioned, does she HAVE to go back to her violent and psychopathic husband and find happiness with him? Is that God's "scope"?
Anyway, how exactly do we apply these principles to real life? Because there are people, including christians, who have been married two or three times (and more). Should they get divorced from their current spouse? What about those who've married someone who were divorced earlier? Are they living in sin? Will God not bless their relationship?
I think it's time to mention here that this discussion is now way off topic
& it needs to get back to the subject.
But every pastor I know says that violence/abuse is biblical grounds for
divorce due to the threat alone. I agree.
& if someone is doing that, they're most likely not Christian anyways which I think gives the spouse an "out".
If a spouse leaves (separates) and doesn't formally divorce, they can most likely count on the other to divorce them eventually & be free of it.
But there are many Christian professionals who have written books &
studies on marriage & when remarriage is not biblically lawful.
I'm talking about arbitrary fighting & being unhappy due to personal conflicts that people are divorcing.
How do you get this to work in practice?
And how can you take this specific teaching from Jesus to the jews and apply it to us, but not all the other things he taught?
Again we get back to "this is only to the Jews"... divorce & remarriage
affect EVERYONE, not just Jews. If you marry, you take on God's
instruction becuz
marriage is a universal institution.
If it didn't pertain to you, God would say you aren't married in the NT
and be done with marriage.
The act of sex alone makes you ONE with another person - where does
that only apply to Jews?
:o It pertains to all human beings who engage in
the sex act.
Are we now going to manipulate the bible to say "oh, murder was only
given to the Jews to obey - I can hate & murder anyone becuz
I'm a gentile"
=)~
Yes, and thankfully, when I have failed, God gives me a second chance.
Sin is sin - it has repercussions & consequences.
One of them is that you go on to live in adultery to remarry
outside lawful dissolution of your previous covenant.
Just becuz King David repented of adultery, doesn't mean he went
on to go find another man's wife to take for his own.
All you seem to be advocating here is that 'yes
, I know it's adultery
if I remarry, I'll just remarry then 'repent' later on becuz I get a
2nd chance'.
Is that repentance? No it's not.
Sadly most people think remarriage is the answer that will bring
happiness too - in most cases, stats show the 2nd marriage doesn't
work either & it's harder with more baggage & emotional scars
& children from the first marriage.
You're assumption is that remarriage solves the problem - when it
often only moving from one set of problems to a new set of problems
& issues with the next.
Trading issues to cope with.
Either way, it doesn't matter what the outcome is, what matters is if we
obeyed God.
Too often people think if something good happens from sin, that it
must not be sin.
We're MUCH too focused on SELF & our will to pursue what makes
us feel good. In God's kingdom, this is wrong thinking & having a
wrong spirit.
2 Tim. 2
3 You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
4 No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier.
5 And also if anyone competes in athletics, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules.
Are we more interested in ourselves, or pleasing God & doing
His service? This life isn't about us & our comfortability - contrary
to many people who drink the koolaid of postmodern thought.
Revelation 3:15-17
15 “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot.
16 So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.
17 Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked—
18 I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.
19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten.
Therefore be zealous and repent.
I attended a church that would not
