Divorce Forgotten?

Sherrie,

From the Catholic POV, the original marriage was not sacramental, and so it was only valid civilly, but not in the eyes of God. Therefore, assuming her second marriage was sacramental, it would be her first marriage. So, when she is baptised, and her sins forgiven, yes, all sins committed previously are wiped away.

God bless,

Grant

 

Christ paid for ALL sins. Any Christian who repents of their sins will be forgiven. You can tell your "friend" that.


(I'm just teasing about implying it is about you Sherrie )

God Bless!

 

Jeremiah 31:34 -- "...for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more."

Hebrews 8:12 -- "For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more."

Hebrews 10:17 -- "And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more."

That is my case. Married, divorced, remarried, saved, in that order.
If God can forgive and "remember no more" then why can't man?
Some people never let the former alcoholic put their bottle down, they never let a divorced person let go of the first spouse, or the drug addict put down his needle, and on and on.

I get so sick of hearing that phrase "two living wives".

[ April 26, 2003, 09:36 AM: Message edited by: wizofoz ]

 

Someone dear to me was married, divorced, married to #2, separated and then exposed to a preacher who laid enough scripture on her that she was haunted with guilt and fear of condemnation by God and moved back in with her #2 abusive husband. She wanted to " be right with God". I told her if she was going to honor marriage in the first place, she should go back to her first husband (according to the bible). That would have made things even worse, as the first husband is remarried and has 3 more children, and she would have had to deal with his now present wife. (And it surely couldn't be scriptural to disrupt THAT family and using scripture as the basis).

After that futile move, she wisely left the second husband and lives with her 2 children from #1.

Sometimes the application of bible verses do not suffice. Those that came to mind in this situation were those that pertain to committing adultery after divorce. In such a situation, it would appear that it would have been adultery to even have gotten saved and married another saved person. (With an ex still living).

Also there are cases of a saved couple getting divorced and remarrying others.
That would qualify as a sacramental marriage I would think. Are they the ones
who are living in sin then and not those unsaved couples who have been divorced ?

My thought is that any sin can be forgiven...we surely can't say that sins of the saved will not be forgiven . In the case I was confronted with, it was my advice for her to leave #2 rather than lead someone into depression/possible suicide and expose two small children to him. My adivice wasfor her to look after the physical and let God handle the spiritual.

These are questions...not sarcasm.

Thanks

 

You can be sick of it all you want; doesn't change the situation at all.

Your sin has been forgiven; the consequences of that sin still remain. You still have to live with it.

The best analogy I've ever heard is a young lady who gets pregnant out of wedlock, and then gets saved.

The pregnancy is still there; the consequences of her sin are still there. Just because God forgives and forgets doesn't make the baby magically disappear, or the young lady (and the father) any less responsible for dealing with the consequences of that sin. If anything, because of their individual responsibility to God, they are MORE responsible for dealing with it.

I'm not advocating that people move back in with abusive spouses; I'm coming more from the point of view of those that believe scripture doesn't apply to them in certain cases because their sin occurred before they were saved.

 

Maybe I should hope my ex will die so I can get out of this "sin".

Show me "one living wife" in the Bible, please.

"Husband of one wife" doesn't count.

I'm a husband; I have one wife. If I had two, I would be a bigamist.

Where is the sin here? Getting married before being saved? Getting divorced before being saved?
Getting remarried before getting saved? Or staying with your current spouse after you're saved?

 

A woman who has children out of wedlock would not be married to the daddy's of those children. Not even in God's sight. If she repented of that sin and came to Christ then she has a right to marry. Her past sexual sins are covered under the blood and God will remember them no longer.

A widow woman could marry a divorced man as long as the divorce met Biblical criteria.

My present wife was a widow and I was divorced but my divorce was caused by my first wife's continuous unfaithfullness.

 

Hey, y'all wanted an answer; I gave one. If y'all want to quibble about it, well, that's a different circumstance.

A prostitute gets saved, but still has an STD; is this an example of sin being forgiven and forgotten? YES.

A homosexual gets saved, but still has AIDS; is this an example of sin being forgiven and forgotten? YES.

Y'all are NOT talking about sin being forgiven and forgotten; you're asking for clarification about the ramifications and consequences of sin that has been forgiven and forgotten.

Don't forsake your current situation because you find out that God didn't like what you were doing before you were forgiven. But don't use "forgiven and forgotten" as an excuse to say "well, my situation is different because that happened BEFORE I got saved."

 

The same as the smoker who repents, but still has cancer.

"The LORD hath chastened me sore: but he hath not given me over unto death."

I do love that verse.

 

You didn't give me an answer. Where is "one living wife" in the Bible?

What does that have to do with someone who's divorced?

As I recall, the OP was this: "If a person was married....but not saved....and they get divorced....and remarries someone else....Then that person gets saved....because of forgiveness of sins....is that divorce wiped forgotten?"

She was asking about the being forgiven and forgotten.

Everything that happened before I was saved was forgiven and forgotten. How much clearer can it be?

 

The same as the smoker who repents, but still has cancer.

Or the glutton who started a diet but is still fat ?
Or the Baptist who repels secular music but still taps his foot unwittingly?

 

I love seeing that.

 

Wasn't the question I was talking about; I was referring to the original question asked. The quibbling started when you didn't like the way I answered, and came up with "where is 'one living wife' in the Bible?"

Principle's the same, now isn't it?

Yup, if you consider music a sin--unless you're merely referencing the continuing war with the flesh that we all must wage.

 

Sure, the consequences remain. In this situation it means the consequence of having an ex-wife. Does that have to be held over someone's head forever?
Do you constantly remind a former alcoholic that they used to be a drunk? And how does that stop him from serving God?
Should we look upon a divorced and remarried person with scorn?
Maybe I should walk the streets and cry "Unclean! Unclean!" and wear a big red "D" on my shirt so I can suffer the consequences of my sins.

 

Look, Wiz, you can be offended all you want.

The principle's the same: I'm not going to let someone who was a homosexual before they were saved, and has AIDS, work in a situation in the church where their disease might affect others. We'll take all necessary precautions, and allow them to work as much as possible throughout the entire church, but we can't allow them to work in situations where their disease might endanger others. Is that holding their prior sin over their head? Making them walk around shouting "unclean, unclean"? No, and you know it.

Am I going to allow the young lady who had pre-marital sex lecture other young ladies about remaining pure for marraige? Not until we get it straight about how she's presenting that material, now are we? Is that holding it over her head? No, it's protecting her! How many people are going to look at her child and say, "How can she tell us how to live a godly like?" It has to be presented by her that this was not the way God wanted it, but that God has blessed her, and saved her, and now she's telling others why they should not walk the way she did.

Do we hold being divorced before they were saved over their heads? No; we just don't allow them to work in situations where it becomes a stumbling block or hindrance to others.

If you were divorced and remarried before you were saved, and you come to a church where I were the pastor, and you indicated that you wanted to be a deacon or an associate pastor, we'd sit down and we'd go through every single verse we could find regarding your situation; we'd reason out the scripture together.

This I know for sure: Ultimately, it's not what I think, or what anyone else thinks; as Paul states in Romans 14, let every man be persuaded in his own mind.

 

Jesus' blood cleanses Christians from sins...not from marriages. The problem is that you are viewing only the divorce as sin and not the subsequent and continuous adultery that it causes in the case of remarriage. Without a Scriptural divorce, the previous marriage is still binding. Paul says "Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be loosed." (1 Cor 7:27) The previous wife is the one the man is bound to if his divorce was not Scriptural, right? So then, doesn't that mean he should not seek to be loosed from the previous wife (who is actually the current wife) to be with the new "wife" (who is no "wife" at all, and) who he is living in adultery with?

That's the WORST analogy I've ever heard! Getting pregnant out of wedlock is a one-time sin; unScriptural divorce and remarriage is a continuous sin: the man is still bound to his previous wife and is committing adultery by sleeping with the so-called "wife" that he's now with. Now, if you said "The best analogy I've ever heard is a young lady who gets pregnant out of wedlock, and then gets saved and keeps sleeping with the guy that got her pregnant without marrying him" that would be a good analogy, but it would also prove the point that repentance is in order.

[ April 27, 2003, 09:29 PM: Message edited by: SolaScriptura in 2003 ]

 

And what situations might that be?

Go back to the OP. That's the situation. Where would you start?

 

So I've been committing adultery for the past 15 years?

Tell me, what is a Scriptural divorce?