I am writing on this subject with some reluctance.
The standard Fundamentalist teaching used to be that there could never be legitimate remarriage after divorce until the spouse you divorced had died. I grew up in Fundamentalism when this view was just beginning to be challenged and I remember that the challengers were considered "liberals."
In those days we had the comfort of a high contrast, black and white, straightforward, easy to understand truth. Marriage is forever. Divorce is wrong. Remarriage after divorce compounds the wrong, removes the disincentives and starts us down the slippery slope toward debauchery. The train wreck of modern immorality in America might tempt people to think the old view was correct. Surely someone opened pandora's box and released waves of immorality in America that people in the 1950's would have blushed to imagine.
In my view the exponential growth in divorce over the past fifty years is the RESULT of ungodliness and immorality, not the CAUSE of them.
Back in the old days we could hold our simplistic views on divorce and remarriage with few qualms - after all - hardly anybody we knew was divorced. But in modern times almost every family and every church is touched by divorce. Now, more than ever, we need to know, "What is the Bible Truth about divorce and remarriage?" What do the Scriptures say?
Reluctant or not, I will begin to unpack this in the days ahead.
The standard Fundamentalist teaching used to be that there could never be legitimate remarriage after divorce until the spouse you divorced had died. I grew up in Fundamentalism when this view was just beginning to be challenged and I remember that the challengers were considered "liberals."
In those days we had the comfort of a high contrast, black and white, straightforward, easy to understand truth. Marriage is forever. Divorce is wrong. Remarriage after divorce compounds the wrong, removes the disincentives and starts us down the slippery slope toward debauchery. The train wreck of modern immorality in America might tempt people to think the old view was correct. Surely someone opened pandora's box and released waves of immorality in America that people in the 1950's would have blushed to imagine.
In my view the exponential growth in divorce over the past fifty years is the RESULT of ungodliness and immorality, not the CAUSE of them.
Back in the old days we could hold our simplistic views on divorce and remarriage with few qualms - after all - hardly anybody we knew was divorced. But in modern times almost every family and every church is touched by divorce. Now, more than ever, we need to know, "What is the Bible Truth about divorce and remarriage?" What do the Scriptures say?
Reluctant or not, I will begin to unpack this in the days ahead.
Thank you David Denny for walking though this subject here. I just printed out the entire seven days so that I could sit down with my Bible and work through this subject again. I have shared this with a couple of people who have asked questions but have not heard what they think yet. I have long appreciated your careful study of the Word of God. I'm sure I will have questions and comments. Thanks so much!
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