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benelchi -> RE: Remarriage After Divorce - One Stop Thread (7/10/2008 1:34:51 AM)
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ORIGINAL: JesKlu quote:
ORIGINAL: benelchi quote:
ORIGINAL: SealedEternal quote:
ORIGINAL: benelchi The the call for OT believers to remain separate, is the same as the call for NT believers to remain separate, isn't it? No they are quite different as I explained. The Old Covenant people had a law specifically forbidding them to marry anyone who wasn't a descendent of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So, you are saying that any OT marriage that wasn't to a genetic decendent of Abraham, Issaac, and Jacob should have been terminated in divorce? Marriages like those of Rahab, and Ruth? Hello. I know I haven't really been on this topic, but I will just put my take on it. I do not believe in divorce. The only Biblical grounds for divorce would be adultery or desertion.(Matthew 5:31-32, Matthew 19:9, 1 Corinthians 7:15-16) But, we are specifically commanded in Scripture, that if we divorce our spouse, we either have to remain single for the rest of our lives or be reconciled to our spouse (Romans 7:2-3, 1 Corinthians 7:10-11). This is my take on this topic. My take is similar; however, in some circumstances I believe the above situations do allow for remarriage. For instance, when an adulterous spouse abandons the marriage and remarries, I don't believe reconciliation of the original marriage is ever again a possibility (duet. 24:1-4), and at that point remarriage would be an option for the abandoned innocent spouse. I know that there are those, like John Piper, who disagree, and I can respect that, but I am very troubled by those here on this forum who advocate divorce for anyone remarried and tell those who are remarried that they will go to Hell unless they divorce. quote:
About marriages like Rehab and Ruth. When God commanded the Israelites to not marry gentiles, but to only marry Jewish people, the reason why is that so they would not turn to other gods and worship them. Ruth converted from paganism to the One, True, Living God, so technically, by faith, she is now a spiritual descendant of Abraham. Romans 4:9-12 9Is this blessing then only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? We say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness. 10How then was it counted to him? Was it before or after he had been circumcised? It was not after, but before he was circumcised. 11 He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised, so that righteousness would be counted to them as well, 12and to make him the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised. (ESV) So, Ruth, in the eyes of God, is no longer a gentile. She is now Jewish by faith. So it then became lawful for Boaz to marry Ruth. For us Christians today, we are commanded to not be unequally yoked to unbelievers. Meaing, a Christian is not to willingly marry an unbeliever. But if you are caught up in that situation, the Christian is not to divorce the unbeliever. This is exactly the point I was trying to make. Both in the OT and the NT God's people were commanded to marry only those who were true followers of God. It was never about genetics in the OT, and it is still just as wrong for a believer in Christ today to marry an unbeliever as it was for descendants of Abraham to marry those who served other gods. quote:
One very good, fine example of this would be St Augustine's mother, St Monica. She was married to Patricius, a pagan. She was submissive to her husband, preaching the Lord Jesus Christ by her actions. "If they are not won by the Word, that they may be won without the word by the conduct of their wives." St Monica did just that. Her works showed where her faith was, and toward the end of Patricius's earthly life, he converted to Christianity. I believe this example set by St Monica is beautiful. Her example should be one of every Christian wife to an unbelieving husband. Your sister in Chrsit Jesus, Jessica This is exactly how it should work, but I do think it is important to remember, as we are reminded in 1 Co. 7, that we have no power to hold an unbeliever in a marriage they don't want to be a part of. St. Monica's testimony is that she did not leave, but we must remember that there would have been nothing she could have done if Patricius had left her. An unbelieving spouse has the freedom to reject the love of the most upright and blameless spouse, and no one can ever be absolutely assured that there actions will result in the conversion of their spouse; if acting in an upright and blameless manor always brought conversion then everyone would become a Christian because Christ's actions have always been blameless. If people can reject Christ without cause or justification, then certainly they can and do reject imperfect spouses. I think the key here is to remember that the a Christian should never abandon an unbelieving spouse (even when they don't convert), but stopping a unbelieving spouse from leaving is beyond anyone's control.
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