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We owe it to teach people the truth no matter how difficult. We cant water down God’s word because the culture doesnt like it. I suspect a lot of the adulterous divorce and remarriage happens because those who are supposed to be shepherding the flock don’t tell them the word of God on the issue. Then divorce and remarriage becomes the norm. The example reinforces other divorces and remarriages. Now, we have a number of leaders who have been adulterously divorced and remarried, too. So they feel guilty preaching against it.
Ricky Grimsley [03/16/2016 9:22 AM]
I agree. I was called a judgmental jerk on this forum for suggesting that todd bentley should not be restored since he was in an adulterous marriage imo.
Amanda Walker [03/16/2016 9:57 AM]
I think when someone in ministry divorces, they should take some time off to heal and be restored. If we truly believe that our sin is forgiven as far as the east is from the west, anyone’s sin, no matter what should be forgiven. I still believe strongly, that rehabilitation after divorce is key. Prevention of divorce is difficult but not impossible. Ministers do not utilize counseling service enough and are often used too late.
Timothy Nail [03/16/2016 10:07 AM]
Traditionally In the church divorce is the one crime against God where the victim and villain are treated exactly the same. I went through this horrible experience where my life was gutted. I did not even date until she remarried and would have never filled for divorce no more than I would have committed suicide. I lived in Florida and had no way to stop the divorce. I would have taken her back even in her state of adultery but she wanted nothing to do with me or ministry. Five years later I married a lady who had never been married and we now have 3 children. I did not cheat but was cheated on and just this week was denied a place to speak even though I am pastor of the leading church in my area and serve as the head of the District. Yes we need to have this conversation and we need to make sure we hold tight to the Biblical principle but we also need to recognize that in most cases there is a victim and a villain when it comes to divorce and make certain we do not apply the same penalty to both.
Stan Wayne [03/16/2016 10:08 AM]
I agree it is a good subject but needs to be broken up into subjects sections or it is too huge.
For example : if a person was married years before conversion and divorced years before conversion – say, married at 18 divorced at 20, remarried at 23 born again at 25. He now has kids.
What is the applicable scripture?
Timothy Nail [03/16/2016 10:09 AM]
Old things have passed away and all things have become new.
Carl Murphy [03/16/2016 10:12 AM]
I think the innocent party rule in the AG is basically a cop out. I do not believe there are that many innocent spouses out there. One party may not have become alcoholic or engage in sex outside marriage but usually there is a reason people self medicate, a reason why the term drive them to drink etc is used. As Solomon said better to dwell in the corner of a roof top than in a wide house with a brawling woman, not to say the show could not be on the other foot. I believe what happened is simply politics with the divorce issue,?someone’s son or daughter got divorced and Daddy or mama had plans for them to follow them into the pulpit they used their influence to change the rules. Divorce is divorce, either accept all who have repented of their part in it or none. This is my opinion, I have never held anything other than Christian Workers Papers in the AG and left the denomination long before the divorce issue was raised, so I don’t have a dog in the fight. But I have friends that felt they were not treated equally because a former spouse would not accept the blame. Now I ask you, whose wife will she be in the resurrection
Stan Wayne [03/16/2016 10:12 AM]
That is what I think.
Now – let’s add the concept of backsliding – we are Arminians.
This similar person starts out saved but backslides at 21 and comes back to the lord at 25.
What then?
Carl Murphy [03/16/2016 10:13 AM]
Sorry Stan but divorce is unpardonable in the AG without a friend in high places
Stan Wayne [03/16/2016 10:16 AM]
I know – they let you back in now though – George Wood has changed everything
Carl Murphy [03/16/2016 10:17 AM]
The whole of the AG has changed, that is why I choose not to be a part of it.
Robert Cox [03/16/2016 10:18 AM]
You sure you want to open this can of worms? I have a personal story about remarriage and the AG. They tried to take our church when I got remarried even tho I wasn’t saved when I was divorced.
Brody Pope [03/16/2016 10:20 AM]
Just gotta keep it biblical. Divorce is a sin without just cause. And Jesus said that fornication and adultery are the only grounds.
Brian Roden [03/16/2016 10:22 AM]
Brody Pope, your last statment seems self-contradictory. First you say there is no just cause, then you state the valid grounds given by Christ. Please clarify.
Robert Cox [03/16/2016 10:28 AM]
I was living in sin! Lol
When I came to the Lord, He forgave me sin. All of it.
Ricky Grimsley [03/16/2016 11:02 AM]
If you leave your spouse (unless they cheated)and marry someone else, thats adultery. If you were already saved and knew better, how can you ask God to forgive you for what you did on purpose and are continuing to do. That doesnt sound like repentance.
Robert Cox [03/16/2016 11:10 AM]
You sound like you’d be good AG material
First off, there was infidelity in the marriage. Secondly, neither of us were saved. Thirdly, what God has forgiven man can’t condemn. But take the high road. You’re in a lot of Pharisitical company.
Ricky Grimsley [03/16/2016 11:34 AM]
I wasnt being hypocritical? I said “if you were saved and knew better”. Obviously god saves and justifies people when they first come to him. But ministers that know better….they are guilty. My position is extreme for everyone i personally know, but they dont have any biblical argument. I have a minister friend that stayed with his wife and wooed her back from another minister she had planned to leave her husband for and marry. He suffered a great deal and so has she but i believe they stopped a situation that would have led people to hell.
TJ Tipton [03/16/2016 11:46 AM]
God divorced Israel, divorce is the problem not the remarriage. I being a divorced minister and remarried never looked back. If you want to take an unscriptural and cultural view of divorce that’s fine but there are cases where divorce and remarriage is alright inspite of what AG says. What do you expect from a denomination that doesn’t support the five fold.
Ricky Grimsley [03/16/2016 11:51 AM]
I havent heard anyone on here that said that there are no grounds for divorce and remarriage. Those circumstances are pretty narrow though.
John Conger [03/16/2016 1:33 PM]
So are you saying remarriage is never considered adultery??
TJ Tipton [03/16/2016 1:36 PM]
Jesus said it wasn’t if the spouse was unfaithful
TJ Tipton [03/16/2016 1:37 PM]
Paul said if the unbeliever left
John Conger [03/16/2016 1:40 PM]
Don’t e all agree that if the spouse was unfaithful remarriage is acceptable. The question is other scenarios
MARY ELLEN NISSLEY
I was raised in the conservative Mennonite church. Their view of the old testament law is that since Christ fulfilled the law, we don’t go by the OT anymore! We go by the New instead!
Problem is, this interpretive rule, if applied consistently, turns an OT abomination into a NT command.
You see, if you apply the idea that everything Christ said about divorce and remarriage is a new law, supplanting the old, then you will tell some couples to divorce their current partners, and go back to their former ones.
Which Deut 24:1-4 says is an abomination before God.
Jesus said he did not come to destroy the Law. Not one jot or one tittle will in any wise pass away, until heaven and earth pass away.
Those parts of the Law which were ceremonial, such as sacrifices, are fulfilled. They are not done away.
But fulfilling the law doesn’t do away with God’s standard of holy living. What was once an abomination is still an abomination.
Because God’s nature–his holiness– doesn’t change.
SEPTEMBER 15, 2018
JAY
Matthew was written to the first christians who were hebrews/Jews. Matt 5 & Matt 19 is not dealing with a certified marriage under gentile laws but an espousal custom of jewish marriage. This is why in Matt 1 Joseph thought to put mary away. The applicable jewish law gave him that right before the sexual union on wedding night. Saving for the cause of fornication in Matthews gospel is only NT book using this wording in the greek. In Mark Jesus said a woman could put her husband away but if she remarried she was living in adultery. The gospel of Matthew gives us the genealogy of Christ and Christ uses the kingdom of heaven teaching when the other gospels use The kingdom of God. Jesus plainly says whosoever divorces his wife and marries another practices adultery and if anyone marries her that is put away practices adultery. In 1 Cor 7:10 / If the wife depart from her husband let her remain unmarried and in Rom 7 / 1 Cor The wife is bound by God’s marital law to her husband. So if there was a innocent party seeing she is still bound to him and what God has joined together let no man put asunder. She and him are bound to death. The greek wording is fastened tightly and not easily broken. Any preacher or church leader who has voted over the years to allow such heresy and apostasy will stand before God one day and that preacher thankfully wont be me.
DERRY BOETTCHER
The vast majority will never hear any preaching against remarriage, regardless of what Jesus says because divorce has become so prevalent in the evangelical church and that is not what divorced people want to hear. Seems it is no longer the pastor’s job to preach the word but to preach a more widely acceptable paraphrase formulation so that the pews and offering plates stay as full as possible. My problem is, that there is no one in the church to protect my 26 year old son (single, never been married) from all the beautiful young divorced mothers who recognize that the church is a good place to find a new father for their kids, regardless of all the problems they carry in from previous relationships.
BRO DARRELL
People please OBEY Jesus Christ
Jesus issued a COMMAND to ALL MARRIED PERSONS whether saved or usaved.
1 Corinthians 7:10
Let not the wife depart from the husband, but if she departs let her remain UNMARRIED or BE RECONCILED to her husband and LET NOT the husband put away his wife.
How do you REPENT
Husbands UNDO your putting away, undo your divorce and be reconciled to your wife
Wives UNDO leaving your husbands and reconciled as Jesus commanded or REMAIN UNMARRIED
Anyone who rejects Jesus and His command against remarriage will perish in hell for adultery.
It’s UNLAWFUL in the eyes of God to remarry for any reason whatsoever.
The ONLY REMARRIAGE recorded in the bible was CONDEMNED BY GOD as SIN
Now this SIN is accepted as ok and normal in the west.
Holywood style marriages and multiple divorces destin souls for hell
Preacher PREACH this TRUTH
ROBERT DONNELLY JR.
I am from north alabama and free holiness churches are pretty popular here. Free holiness churches are trinatarian pentecostals. From my understanding their doctrine is as follows . They believe you are not saved until you speak in toungues. Also once you have received the Holy Ghost ( speaking in toungues) if you ever backslide they will never take you back. They say you are on your way to hell if you backslide and can not come back to God. I believe they base this on Hebrews 10:26-29.
I am a church of god minister. We sometimes receive people who the free holiness church has rejected. We
believe you are saved by faith. We do also believe in speaking in toungues but we dont teach that it is required for salvation. We do believe you can come back to God if you backslide which is why people who used to be free holiness come to us because we tell them there is still hope.
SEPTEMBER 23, 2019
ROBERT DONNELLY JR.
Here is a link to their statement of faith. Now the free holiness churches of north Alabama have pretty extreme beliefs but the other church who call themselves free holiness in other parts of the us may or may not be the same.
https://www.freeholiness.net/?page_id=907
FEBRUARY 29, 2020
Ok please let me answer all the question i seen. Wayne A. Channer and Charles page.
I know this man in this picture i know trenton free holiness church.
I am free holiness,
Free holiness means,
Free from sin,
We believe in living free from sin. Yes we make mistake we believe and FYI @Robert Donnelly we don’t kick no one out if they sin nor shun them. We justs believe in a one time salvation . We don’t up hold sin at all,
Why we believe in one time salvation?
Jesus died once on the cross for our sins..
not 1 million times,
Sin is a willing act .
If I know im going to slap you in the face and do it its sin,
If im stretching and didnt mean to smack you in the face = no sin.
We don’t reject no one FYI again. just no sense in them making an effort of trying to receive the Holy if they have giving up.
FEBRUARY 14, 2022
ALSO
I grew up in the Free Holiness church and was a part if this church the first 40 years of my life. I am now 48. My only sin? Divorcing a man that was abusive to me.
You are correct that the “free” in “Free Holiness” was placed there to mean “Free from sin”.
However, the sad part of this religion is painting a picture of God only as the Old Testament God, the judge and executioner, that He is just waiting on you to mess up to kick you into hell.
The one time salvation belief comes from the misinterpretation of Hebrews 6:4-6. This is where you have the belief that God won’t have anything further to do with you if you sin. Because “there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin.”
The Free Holiness church has a loose definition of what is considered sin. You guys believe if you accidentally do it, it’s not a sin. There are sins of commission, that you do on purpose. And there are sins of omission, like letting someone believe a lie by not telling them different. I have seen this by Holiness folks numerous times, believing if you don’t say the lie but you let them believe the lie, then it’s not sin.
1 John 5:17 tells us ALL unrighteousness is sin. What I see a lot in the Free Holiness movement is a lot of you refer to those accidental sins as “faults”. Here is my question…is a fault righteous? Usually it’s not. Therefore it’s sin.
Now having established that, Jesus died for our sins, past, present and future. We are now God’s children if you have come to Him per Romans 10:9 (doesn’t mention speaking in tongues there).
Yes the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in tongues is real but it’s NOT salvation. Please read your Bible.
So… My only sin was filing for divorce. The Free Holiness church wouldn’t have anything to do with me because “they can’t uphold sin”. I now attend a Church of God because I didn’t get the support I really needed during my marriage to a man that nearly killed me.
God goes with us a lot further than man ever will. Matthew 28:20 states this.
Robert L. Jared
FEBRUARY 29, 2020
ROBERT L. JARED
Ultra conservative in the Holiess movement, their church government is made up of an association, loosely held together, tend to be trinitarian, pentecostal, and congregationaly independent.