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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, May 23, 1980
Page 4
In Luke 16:18 Jesus gives NO grounds for divorce and remarriage in
the case of a marriage bound by God.
It is therefore plain that the passages in Matthew 5 and 19 are
speaking of marriage NOT bound by God.
The passage in I Corinthians 7:12-16 is speaking of a converted
person whose mate is hostile to the converted person's religion--a
special and different circumstance.
The passage in Deuteronomy 24 apparently is speaking of the same
case cited by the Pharisees in Matthew 19--where a man divorced his wife
"for every cause." But even then the man apparently divorced his wife
immediately after the wedding night--not five or ten years later.
In Deuteronomy 22, if a man on the wedding night found the woman NOT
A VIRGIN, and his accusation was true, the woman was stoned to death.
But this was under Israel's national statutes as a national government.
From the beginning, until Israel became a nation with its national
statutory laws, there was no stoning to death, nor was there in Jesus'
teaching for the Church.
BUT, even in this case the man acted on the discovery of premarital
fornication IMMEDIATELY, not months or years afterward.
Jesus did not intend that a man who knew his wife had been guilty
of fornication could ACCEPT HER, live with her, and then much later when
he became displeased with her, divorce her on what had happened prior to
marriage.
Divorce for fornication is not really divorce, but ANNULMENT, and
must be acted upon immediately--not after he has accepted her and lived
with her.
To sum up. Marriage and the family relationship is the physical
type picturing the GOD Family relationship, and the marriage of Spirit
born and immortal former humans to Christ.
In the Bible a marital engagement carries the same status morally
as the marriage.
Those of us who have and are led by the Holy Spirit of God are
BEGOTTEN children of God. We are already, now, children of God (I John
3:1-2). We are "engaged," not yet married, to Christ. To us sin is
spiritual fornication--prior to the marriage. But Christ, the affianced
Bridegroom, knows our hearts--Ile does know of our spiritual fornication.
But if we (I John 1) confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness.
In other words, an innocent human bridegroom may marry a woman not
a virgin NOT KNOWING her sin--but God does know. In the spiritual case
of which human marriage is the type, Christ the Bridegroom DOES KNOW, and
WILL NOT marry unless we confess and repent, and by His shed blood and
the power of the Holy Spirit,we are CLEANSED of that sin BEFORE THE
MARRIAGE.