Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!wuarchive!bcm!dimacs.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: dhosek@sif.claremont.edu (Hosek, Donald A.) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: divorce and remarriage Message-ID: Date: 9 Nov 90 05:33:02 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Quixote Lines: 63 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article , liu@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Peter T Liu) writes... >The Bible allows divorce only on the grounds where one mate >commits 'porneia' -- a Greek word encompassing fornication and >adultery. The following Scriptures I hope will help you see that >not allowing divorce is a law that Jehovah, not Jesus Christ or >any apostle, Jehovah set forth. [Much deleted] >Thus summing up what was said, Jehovah does not allow divorce except >on the grounds of one mate commiting fornication or adultery, and >any religion which allows its members to divorce for any other reason >except porneia is not the true religion leading to eternal life. >Therefore to any religion which calls itself 'Christian' yet allows >divorce is producing a bad fruit and is thus not the true Christianity. >There are a lot of other pointers as to which religion is true Christianity >but allowing divorce except on the grounds of porneia is a good >pointer. I've been watching this thread and it's amazing how legalistic people have been about this issue. Wonderful debates about fornication vs. adultery and so forth and why the stricture on divorce appears differently in one gospel than it does in some other and so forth. ((They like to put heavy burdens on others while they will not lift a finger to help...)) What is the basis of the law? All of it, what appears in the Pentateuch and in the Gospels and the Letters of Paul and in the rights of Kings (cf 1S) etc.? What is the basis of the prophets? ((The greatest commandment is this: you must love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul. The second most important commandment is like it: you must love your neighbor as yourself.)) So what really matters in ending a bad marriage? The stricture on divorce comes out of these two laws. Can you really believe that God wants us to stay in an unhealthy and loveless marriage? You must love your neighbor as yourself. Marriage is permanent because the love of the two people involved is symbolic of their love for God. A loveless marriage is not much of a symbol, is it? Think about this, please. We aren't called upon to come up with strict legalistic definitions of this and that, we're called upon to love. We're called upon to forgive. We're called upon not to judge. Sometimes we all fall into the trap of wanting to have concrete rules that we _must_ follow and everyone else _must_ follow and not wanting to look beyond that. Be careful, *that* is the wide path that leads to destruction. It's too easy to sit down and cite chapter and verse and say that's the end of the question and forget that their are people involved, people who live and laugh and love. We can't afford to do that. When you look at any commandment in the Bible, it's not enough to look at what it says, but at why it says it. Everything hangs on those two commandments Jesus gave in answer to the Pharisees. Ask yourself how it relates to that, and then think about how it relates to your life. There's a reason the first quotation I gave above follows close on the heels of the second in Matthew's gospel. -dh