Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: irani@brahms.udel.edu (Jennifer Irani) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: divorce and remarriage Message-ID: Date: 28 Oct 90 08:50:03 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: University of Delaware Lines: 26 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu I have a question regarding divorce and remarriage in the Bible. I have to lead a bible study on it and discovered a few things while preparing that I could use some help on. According to the old testament and Jesus' teaching in the New Testament, it seems as though it is acceptable to get a divorce as long as there is not a remarriage, otherwise the sin of adultery is being committed. I understand why it would be adultery. What I do not understand is, if I am reading it right, then why do so many churches allow a person to remarry and actually assist/perform the second marriage? Wouldn't the church then also be sinning by not only allowing the person to sin but also causing them to stumble? Or is this a case where society has accepted the idea of a second marriage and therefore the church has also? I hope we are not compromising the law. Jennifer Irani irani@brahms.udel.edu university of delaware [I don't know of any church that considers divorce truly acceptable. Those that allow it do so on the understanding that the alternative is even worse, so the best we can do is choose among several bad alternatives. The concept is that Christ did not intent to create an absolute law here, but to point out clearly what God's intention was. Thus the Church must both witness to the true nature of marriage, resisting any concept that it is intended to be temporary, and also deal with the situations of individuals in a loving manner that avoid turning gospel into law. --clh]