REMARRIAGE IS NOT PERMITTED IN THE NEW TESTAMENT/COVENANT!

Remarriage (divorcing and marrying another man while the first husband is still alive) was permitted in the Old Testament. However, the Lord Jesus Christ brought in the new covenant/testament and gave us better instruction concerning the way God wants people to live as individuals, communities and peoples. Christians are under grace, not under the law. The Scriptures had to be fulfilled concerning the new covenant that God said he shall make with his people: "The time is coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with Israel and Judah" (Je. 31:31 [NEB]). Of course, this new covenant and change of the way how people were to live for God should have had an effect on the laws and customs of nations, which it did!

Notwithstanding, the apostasy has come about and perversion of the principles of the new covenant have been manifested in our decaying societies. Today in the USA, legalized adultery has come about and the nation's negligence of sexual morality is just about equivalent to that of tolerating murder. We have suffered pseudo-philosophy from Machiavellian ethics to erring protestant or popish and anti-Christian, so-called morality. Nevertheless, Christians must strive to obey God even when government antagonizes against their good works.

Let's take a look at the old testament law:

Deuteronomy 24:1 When a man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favour in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness in her: then let him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house. 2 And when she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another man’s wife. 3 And if the latter husband hate her, and write her a bill of divorcement, and giveth it in her hand, and sendeth her out of his house; or if the latter husband die, which took her to be his wife; 4 Her former husband, which sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after that she is defiled; for that is abomination before the LORD: and thou shalt not cause the land to sin, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.

Discerning between satisfaction and dissatisfaction: Note in verse 24:1 the woman spoken of who has an uncleanness (ervah) is not a dowry bride, who were accepted by the husband as not defiled, which Christians should be like. The late centuries have brought in tolerances of evil that destroy family values and building blocks. Dowry-bride law was a part of establishing chastity among the women of Israel. Strict punishment (the death penalty) enforced it. Dt. 22:21 says “so shalt thou put evil away from among you.” Israel was commanded and expected to establish communities of clean women. An alleged defiled woman that did not have proof of her innocence could not pass the test!

Also, according to these verses, these alleged unclean or dissatisfactory women could “remarry”, but divorce and remarriage was not permitted in the new covenant.

Let's look at the explanation concerning the divorce law and its reproof by the Lord Jesus Christ:

Mark 10:2 And the Pharisees came to him, and asked him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife? tempting him. 3 And he answered and said unto them, What did Moses command you? 4 And they said, Moses suffered to write a bill of divorcement, and to put her away. 5 And Jesus answered and said unto them, For the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept.

Adam and Eve did not have any problem with uncleanness. Marriage was designed a unity that should not be broken. Divorce was not intended:

Mark 10:6 But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female. 7 For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; 8 And they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh. 9 What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.

Adam and Eve experienced a new dimension of their physical usefulness through having sex. Adam's intellect was opened due to the experiment: “And Adam knew Eve his wife ...” (Gn. 4:1). Their union was honorable and undefiled (He. 13:4): “Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.” No one should break up a marital unity that is ordained of God. (However, note there were refusals of marriage and inheritance due to miscegenation in Ezra 10.)

Notwithstanding, fornication (Mt. 19:9) gave reason to separate or divorce from the once unity. Every married man has a responsibility to keep his wife under every circumstance, except one: if his wife is unchaste, that is, if his wife has partaken in a sexual act with someone else--this is fornication. Then, and only then, is the husband lawfully (according to the Bible) to put away his wife, and to give her a bill of divorcement. Logically, if a woman, has committed a sin of fornication with someone, a bill of divorcement does not induce her to become unchaste--she has already committed the act which defiled her.

And I say unto you, 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.

If a man puts away his wife for any reason other than fornication, he causes her to commit adultery (Mt. 5:32). Fundamentally, from a synoptical viewpoint, there are two distinct acts, the one subsequent to the other, which constitute adultery. The first act is a sin of “putting away” because the Scripture says the husband “shall cleave to his wife” (Gn. 2:24); and also, that no one should separate what God has yoked together (Mk. 10:9)--”one flesh” (Gn. 2:24). The second sinful act, “marry another”, is subsequent to the first. It also contradicts I Cor. 7:10, 11. The Lord Jesus explained that going beyond divorce so as to “marry another” constitutes adultery:

Mark 10:10 And in the house his disciples asked him again of the same matter. 11 And he saith unto them, Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her. 12 And if a woman shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she committeth adultery.

So, clearly, remarriage is adultery and against the teaching of the Lord.

Now, let's consider a chaste re-union in comparison with the matter of the defiled relationship of Dt. 24.4: If a woman is married to a man and she divorces him, of course they would be separated but hypothetically she could join back with him as long as she remains chaste. However, that re-uniting would be a “restoration” of the marriage; it would not be “remarrying” as in the sense of adultery, which is erringly permitted and occurs in the modern, heretical congregations.

However, on the other hand, if the woman divorces her husband and remarries to another man, she becomes an adulteress. She would be a defiled woman even to her second man whether he recognizes it or not. Then, after becoming a remarried woman and no longer chaste, and not being satisfied with her consequent man, if she leaves him also and re-unites with her first man it would be an abomination.

If she became defiled by her second man and rejected him, she certainly could not become undefiled by leaving him. Her unchastity would be a physical and spiritual disgrace that she would have to live with for the rest of her life. It would be impossible for her to restore her marriage with her first man. Even though she may go through a legal proceeding for marriage or not to be re-united with him, it would be in vain and would constitute an abomination.

Women must bear in mind to remain chaste and not get involved in affairs, becoming defiled. If a woman lives in an unhappy marriage and her husband leaves her, she should live single and keep her dignity. Perhaps in the future her husband and she may decide to live together again, which would be acceptable.

How perverts cause our land to sin!

Moses' First Dispensation of the Law

Annulment

Abomination of defilement
(Beware: Foul language!)

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