What God’s Word Teaches About Divorce and Remarriage, by Missionary MA Daoud
GOD’s House is established on TRUTH, LAWS and JUDGMENTS which are part of the nature and character of God. God made it very clear in Exodus 34:7 that He will forgive on the CONDITION that the guilty REPENT AND FORSAKE his sin and transgression. Sin will be severely judged both in the sinner and in the professing Christian; for there is NO RESPECT OF PERSONS in God.
A CHURCH WITHOUT DISCIPLINE is not running on the commands and patterns in GOD’s Word. God Himself established and enforced Judgments and Laws in the Bible, and all offenders were punished both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament! Furthermore, God ordained rulers and governments in the world.
From the beginning of the church in the wilderness, Achan was singled out and stoned for his sin. Eli and his sons were judged and killed and even the place they worshipped God, was destroyed because of the sins of the house of Eli.
In the New Testament, Ananias and Saphira were judged and killed because they lied about money. Later, Paul clearly taught and commanded that all who obey not the Gospel, and walk not according to the Gospel, should be put out of the membership of the church…they should be expelled and separated from those that are following Christ. Paul even turned one man over to the devil to destroy his flesh because he had committed a horrible sin and still called himself a member of the church. Paul also taught that warning should be done publicly that others may fear and take heed to themselves.
God’s House is a house of PRAYER – a HOLY PLACE to meet with God and worship God in the beauty of Holiness, Purity and utmost devotion and consecration. ONLY with such standards can we have the PRESENCE of GOD manifest.
John the Baptist heralded the teachings of the New Testament, and refused to accept those who did not comply with true REPENTANCE, that did not bring forth fruits to repentance. He never eased up on sin nor compromised to please people for the sake of numbers or personalities.
Jesus preached clear and straight…He sought QUALITY not Quantity…and taught that the WAY WAS NARROW and the gate STRAIGHT, and only FEW shall find it. When the crowds left Jesus, Jesus turned to His disciples and asked them if they also wanted to go. He did not try to hold them if they thought His teaching was too hard!
Throughout the Bible, both Old and New Testaments, God clearly declares that discipline must be enforced. In the Old Testament those that refused or failed to punish sin were JUDGED BY GOD…even Samuel because he preferred his sons above God… God cut off the priesthood from Samuel’s family, and give Israel a KING instead of the priesthood. King Saul refused to execute Judgment on AGAG and the BEST of the flocks…and God left Saul and sent an evil spirit to torment him all the rest of his days, and cut off the kingdom from Saul’s family.
When Eli refused to punish his sons that were committing sin with the women that came to the church Eli was pastoring. God killed Eli and his two sons and DESTROYED THE CHURCH in Shiloh and it was never raised up again! (If you want God to destroy your church then be a coward and let sin go on, knowing it is there!) Just preaching against that sin is NOT ENOUGH…. you have to STOP IT! …PUT IT OUT! And God will help you and bless you for doing it!
Paul made a man BLIND for resisting God’s Word.
Today, the majority of preachers will not discipline sin going on in their churches because they are afraid they will lose some of their good tithe-payers if they expose their sins or put them off the deacon-board or Sunday School officer. They use all kinds of human reasoning to not tackle the sins before them, for fear of results… either from the church itself, or from the denominational leaders, etc.
Now we want to bring your attention to what GOD’S WORD teaches about this subject.
In I Corinthians 5 Paul tells of a man in the church that committed fornication with his father’s wife. Paul told the church to deliver such a one unto satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. verse 6 “Your glorying is not good. KNOW YE NOT that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? vs.7 PURGE OUT therefore the old leaven…verse 9 “I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators: Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of this world. verse 11 But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a BROTHER be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolator, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such a one no not to eat.. verse 13 THEREFORE PUT AWAY FROM AMONG YOURSELVES THAT WICKED person.”
(2 Thessalonians 3:6.) “Now we COMMAND you, brethren, in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every BROTHER that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us. verse 14 “And if any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man, and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed. 15 yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.”
2 John 9-11 “Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God….vs.10 If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him NOT into your house, neither bid him God speed: vs.11 For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds.”
—THE LAW of MARRIAGE—
Since GOD is going to put people in HELL… I can certainly put people out of the CHURCH that will not WALK according to the pure WORD OF GOD by which we are ALL GOING TO BE JUDGED in the final judgment!
THE SPIRIT of the NEW TESTAMENT: To those who try to shelter on what took place in the Old Testament as David had several wives – and so did Jacob… we have to remember that the Old Testament law was a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ… The Old Testament gave us light gradually. But the NEW TESTAMENT has taught us that God did wink on those things, but NOW COMMANDETH ALL MEN EVERY WHERE to REPENT. (Acts 17:30, Hebrews 1:1.)
In the Old Testament, ADULTERY was punished only if caught in the act. But, TODAY, GOD deals with your heart…if a man LOOKS on a woman and desires her, he has committed adultery already with her in his heart and will be judged and thrown into ETERNAL HELL if he does not repent and turn from those desires!
Whatever excuse you want to hide behind, it will not stand in the Great WHITE THRONE JUDGMENT and you will wish you never tried to be smart and take the risk of getting by, when you find yourself in hell!
Paul made it very clear when he said, We are bound by the law of marriage until death do us part. The law of MARRIAGE was instituted by GOD, from the Garden of Eden, that does the miracle to make two to be ONE. And NO COURT or CHURCH LAW can amend that LAW!
GOD will NOT ACCOMMODATE any man or woman to feed their lust of the flesh to allow him or her to REMARRY… GOD only put two together — no more — and they become ONE…they become ADULTERERS IF THEY TRY TO JOIN THEMSELVES TO ANOTHER.
Marriage is NOT A NECESSITY — God has made man and woman so that they can live without sex. We do not expect “an old maid” who never got a chance to marry to have sex from time to time because she is lonesome or “has” to have sex. God says that if she does, she becomes an adulteress and if she ever did get a chance to marry, she could be put away immediately as soon as her husband discovered she was not a virgin. That is why Joseph thought of putting away Mary when he saw she was with child.
—GOD IS FAIR IN HIS LAWS—
If a person erred in leaving a husband or wife, the believer should carry his cross and pray and give chance for the erring partner to REPENT and be willing. DON’T close any hope on that person. Would you like for GOD to treat you this way? If you erred and sinned would you want God to damn you without giving you a chance or hope to repent and return?… That is exactly the same thing – by re-marrying – NO DIFFERENCE – even if the offending party goes and marries another. In many instances, they repent and return and are reconciled. Can that be POLLUTED? — it would be in Old Testament laws, but even in the Old Testament God said: RETURN UNTO ME, for I am MARRIED TO THE BACKSLIDER. Whatever the case may be in the light of the New Testament, God has forgiveness and RESTORATION. We must always leave a door of hope and restoration, the same as God does for our soul, so we must always leave a willingness to forgive and restore!
—GOD OF ANOTHER CHANCE—
I heard a preacher divorced his wife and married another, and then wrote a book titled “The God of Another Chance” I have never even seen that book, and I don’t need to, as I can tell from his title that he based his book on the idea that it is OKAY for him to remarry because God forgives and gives another chance. But REMEMBER, Though it is true that God forgives and gives another chance, it is only IF that person REPENTS and FORSAKES and CASTS FROM HIM HIS TRANSGRESSIONS… (Ezek. 18:30-33.) But not before he repents and stops his sinning! If you stole a car, when you repent you have to take back the car to the person you stole it from. So it is, also, if you stole someone’s wife or husband you must AMEND YOUR WAYS. Restore the woman to her husband! And THEN and ONLY THEN does God forgive… but not before by any means!
The woman at the well met Jesus — fine! She believed and perceived that He was a prophet. But Jesus told her to go bring “your husband.” She said she did not have any. Then Jesus told her: You have had five of them ..and the ONE YOU HAVE NOW IS STILL NOT YOURS. I don’t care what happened to that first one that was yours, but the fifth one and this sixth one are NOT YOURS.
But according to the majority of modern-day preachers and churches, they say just stay with the LAST ONE but JESUS SAID this last one cannot be yours, you stole him from someone else! Or he could have been single but he could not be her husband, she still had the first one! NO FORGIVENESS without forsaking your sin! PERIOD!! FORSAKE the ACTUAL SIN you are asking forgiveness for time does not change God’s LAW nor GOD’s mind. The one you have is NOT YOUR HUSBAND. Period!
—MAKE YOURSELF BELIEVE—
Those that are divorced and re-married and say “they believe God forgave them” My answer is that “they make themselves believe” because God does not go against His Word. They just did what THEY WANTED TO DO and they got a lying spirit that makes them believe that God approved it. But they will wake up one day in horror of ETERNAL JUDGMENT because they yielded to their lusts.
Anything questionable in the Word is never safe – it is never safe to be brazen and go against any clear statement in the Bible. There are more clear verses that tell us that DIVORCE IS WRONG and remarriage is wrong, regardless of how some people interpret these controversial verses. I would not gamble with my eternal soul any more than I would see how close I could drive on the edge of a precipice! God can give you keeping grace for the few short years left of our lives, and we can certainly crucify our lust and subdue our flesh and live in peace of mind and heart and be on the safe side. And God will reward us if we make ourselves eunuchs for the Kingdom of God.
—A WARNING TO PASTORS—
If you have a divorced and remarried man or woman in your congregation.. YOU CANNOT CALL HIM A BROTHER nor say to him “GOD BLESS YOU” or bid him Godspeed. The Bible says that if you do, YOU are PARTAKER of his SIN! 2 John 10,11
1. Because YOU gave him NO WARNING… you gave him FALSE HOPE that he can be in fellowship in the church with SIN IN HIS LIFE!
2. Once you accept him as a member in the church, YOU ARE GUILTY BEFORE GOD because you are refusing to obey GOD’s commands to put out any who walk disorderly. (Romans 16:16-20.)
In the future, somewhere along the line, some of the young people in your church when they get married, they may face problems. They will remember that you permitted so and so that were divorced and remarried in your church. You gave them the Lord’s Supper, you called him a brother. He took active part in the church, in the choir, in the young people’s meetings, on street meetings, etc., and was regarded as a CHRISTIAN and as a BELIEVER. So they will think it is alright for them to divorce, thinking they will still make heaven as well as remain in good standing in the church. They will pay tithes and be active in the church even if their first and real companion don’t see how a JUST and HONEST GOD can bless you while you are living in SIN!
The only SAFE THING to do for you and your church is to PUT HIM OUT, till he repents and straightens out his messed up life! Then the young folks will fear to do the same sin of divorce and remarriage! Be not partaker of his sin nor condone and okay his condition but put him under strong condemnation so he will repent. He will never repent nor amend his ways as long as you ACCEPT HIM IN THE CHURCH. He may be your best giver, but God said even in the Old Testament: Don’t bring the price of a dog, nor the hire of a whore into the house of God! (Deuteronomy 23:18.)
GOD does not want nor need money from ADULTERERS. SOME receive ALIMONY from their first husband to support their children while they are living with another man. DON’T GIVE OFFERINGS nor PAY TITHES from any money given you while living in sin!
—WILL GOD FORGIVE ADULTERY Committed by DIVORCE and REMARRIAGE?—
The Word of God does not leave us blind on this subject, for Jesus clearly taught that “Whosoever putteth away his wife COMMITTETH ADULTERY, and whosoever MARRIETH her that is put away COMMITTETH ADULTERY.” (Luke 16:18).
The Bible does not contradict itself! Where it may seem there is a contradiction, it is because someone is trying to make God’s Word agree with their sin to permit them to do what they please. If you will read the whole chapter were the verse in discussion is found – if you will read all the verses before and maybe several chapters after it, and find out what God was talking about when that verse was quoted – you will understand why the verse said what it did. And it will be in complete harmony with all the rest of the verses in the Bible on that same subject.
God certainly will forgive the sin of adultery. BUT GOD’S FORGIVENESS is conditional on our repentance and willingly forsaking our sin! If you will carefully notice – it says “COMMITTETH” – not committed. Adultery is a continual action. To divorce your wife and go live with another woman or marry her… it is not a one time act that can be forgiven and forgotten… but as long as you remain with that second woman, you are COMMITTING ADULTERY… And a one time forgiving of one act will NOT CLEAR YOUR CONTINUAL SIN! When GOD SAVES, He expects you to quit sinning..get out of the devil’s camp, and start living like Jesus tells us to live. So it is with SALVATION… It is not enough to believe once, and then forever claim you are saved. But Jesus said, “He that BELIEVETH shall be saved.” “Be thou faithful UNTO DEATH and thou shalt be saved!” “He that LOVETH ME, keepeth MY WORDS and he that loveth Me not, keepeth not My Words.” It is not enough to OBEY the LORD one time about one thing and not obey GOD anymore! You are servant to whomsoever you yield yourself SERVANTS TO OBEY Romans 6:16. We have to continually believe that GOD only asks of us that which is BEST and GOOD for US. And when we believe that with all our heart, it is not hard to DO WHAT HE SAYS is right for us!
Jesus said, “SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of ME.” You will never understand the Bible while you live in sin. The Holy Spirit will only give you LIGHT when you are willing to obey that light!
The errors that have come into American churches in the last several years are because of the liberty preachers have taken to defy God’s LAWS and twist the pure INSPIRED Scriptures… adding and taking away as they wanted it to read.
MARRIAGE was instituted by God before God gave the LAW to Moses for him to TEACH the people of Israel. It is GOD that joins a man and a woman together in marriage, and not the court. All the court does is a written witness that two people have agreed to join in Holy Matrimony that is instituted by God for the spreading of the human race on earth. Jesus gave a clear command: “What GOD hath put together, let no man put asunder!” Under no circumstance!
Girls need to open their eyes and make sure they are willing for THAT man they are going to marry that they want him to be BOSS over them the rest of their lives! For GOD has put the MAN as the HEAD OF THE WIFE… and Christ the head of the man!
If you get out of that order, you will have trouble! Neither will God help you break God’s LAW! But He will bless you both if you stay in your place of submission and humility!
MOSES PERMITTED them to put away their wives. When the men told Jesus that MOSES permitted them to put away their wives, Jesus answered them clearly that what MOSES had permitted was NOT OF GOD, neither did Jesus condone or approve it. Jesus replied: “FROM THE BEGINNING it was not so..” When God instituted marriage, it was for as long as a man should live… for every generation. God does not change His laws nor His standards for any one or any generation. The law of RIGHTEOUSNESS of God and what pertains to the sanctity of marriage will stand forever. And all offenders will receive a just punishment! There is not a thread of a reference of any alteration to God’s demands either in the Old or New Testaments. In fact, when Abimelech took Sarah from Abraham and thought he was going to have a beautiful new wife, God appeared to him in the night and told Abimelech to take Sarah back to Abraham. And if he did not, he and ALL HIS were as good as dead men! “But I did it in the innocence and integrity of my heart!” (Can’t I keep her because he told me she was his sister?) Abimelech must have pleaded. But GOD INSISTED that if he did not get Sarah BACK TO ABRAHAM her husband, that ABIMELECH and ALL HIS would be dead men! God did not put up with any excuses! WRONG is WRONG and has to be made right no matter how it happened! Or you will suffer God’s wrath!
WHY did MOSES come up with this permitting putting away? They were in the wilderness. Moses was their judge and leader. Moses knew the Law of God and His Righteousness, but he also knew the people and what happened to them when they hardened their hearts and rebelled against God’s laws. GOD swore that they would never enter into His rest and they would all die in the wilderness, except Caleb and Joshua. Families were fighting and nearly killing each other. And Moses just said: they already have hardened hearts.. God is already ready to destroy them. They will not be saved anyway. Let them separate, they are going to hell anyway. I will just give them a social solution to keep them from killing each other. (Hebrews 3:7-15) “…Today if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: ..vs.12 Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. verse 13 But exhort one another daily, while it is called Today; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of SIN. For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end; While it is said, TODAY if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation..” God was grieve with them, and they died in the wilderness.
Moses never intended that today people would think MOSES was allowing anyone to ignore and trample on GOD’S HOLY LAW of marriage. Read Malachi 2:13-16. God HATES putting away. Therefore take heed to your spirit that ye deal not treacherously with the wife of thy youth..
We are given a clear warning of what GOD will do to anyone living now in the end of the world, who do and act like the people of Israel behaved in the wilderness. Read it in I Corinthians 10:1-14. This is the Law of God and it is perpetual in both Testaments. Paul wrote it by the guidance of the Holy Spirit, warning New Testament believers that it will happen to them the same if they do the same sins that Israel committed. Moses’ permitting them to put away their wives did not receive the approval of Jesus. Neither did it annul God’s law nor change His mind. Never did God tell Moses to go ahead and let them put asunder what I have put together, and take another chance at it, and try to make the second marriage succeed.
Jesus made a special trip to the well of Sychar to tell the woman that wanted eternal life, that she needed the LIVING WATER Jesus told her about but He would not give it to her until she LEFT the man that was “NOT HER’S” and stopped that divorcing and remarrying she was doing. If you are divorced and remarried and then was saved you cannot KEEP THIS SECOND COMPANION. Like Jesus told the woman at the well, the one you have now is not yours – you cannot keep him.
When Zacchaeus got saved, he settled all his problems. He dispersed right then all his goods, and gave everybody he had stolen from. He gave them whatever he had stolen. And Jesus said, This day is SALVATION COME to this house. SALVATION IS OFFERED on condition we REPENT, FORSAKE ALL SIN, RETURN stolen goods and PEOPLE! Then Salvation comes… but not until these things are done! Some people go to the altar and weep and cry and pray, they remorse, feel sorry for their sins, wish they had never done them… but they are not ready to get rid of the serpent in their bosom. Herod did many things that John told him to do. He heard John preach gladly all but one thing, “It is not lawful to have your brother Philip’s wife.”
NOTE: Among the largest Pentecostal movements, who have the largest number of believers than any other, 80 years ago, they never allowed divorcees in the ministry, nor accepted remarriage as Christians. But in the last 60 years standards have been let down, the world has gotten into the church and divorce and remarriage is now even in the pulpits. But GOD NEVER CHANGES. PUTTING AWAY YOUR WIFE OR HUSBAND IS PERMITTED ONLY in rare cases, BUT NO REMARRIAGE is ever permitted according to JESUS’ teaching “Whosoever putteth away his wife and marrieth another, committeth adultery.” (Mark 10:11,12.) Whosoever marry a divorced man or woman, is committing adultery every day they live with that divorced person.
When Jesus was explaining to the disciples how men could not divorce their wives, Jesus told them what was not possible with man, was possible with God! Then Jesus explained to them about the eunuchs. To understand the Spirit of the New Testament… we can see from the teaching of Jesus, and of Paul also, that really man was not created only for sex, and sex is not a MUST for Christians. Because we see that Jesus permitted a man to leave his wife for the Kingdom of God and he will stay clean for the sake of preaching to those that have never heard the Gospel. (Mark 10:28-31.) (Notice that no other wife would be provided if he left one even for the sake of preaching the Gospel!) But everything else that he left for the Gospel’s sake would be multiplied to him a hundred fold.
Then the case of the eunuchs — it shows that if a person got involved in a bad marriage, and the wife left him, he does not have to get married again. God has enough grace to keep him unblameable and spotless if he willingly chooses to stay pure.
This same law helps the “unmarried women” who never got a chance to marry. We cannot tell her: “Poor soul, you are so lonely go ahead and have sex when you can. The results would be eternal fire and brimstone in hell! Since this is true for the “unmarried woman”, why should you think it CRUEL when we say: “You had your chance in marriage and failed… so you have to carry a cross now”
We get many letters saying: “My daughter is divorced and she is very lonesome.” And because she is very lonesome, they would like for us to tell them it is OKAY for her to re-marry. But being lonesome does not give her a reason to re-marry. Let me say something right here, if some woman did not get a chance to marry, and she is reaching 40 years or more, she certainly is lonesome, and may like a chance to get married. Do we tell her she can go ahead and commit fornication from time to time? Does it justify her before God because she is LONESOME?
When Jesus answered the men that said it was hard to get married with the condition of “til death do us part” Jesus said there were eunuchs who were born eunuchs, and there were men that men made them eunuchs (those were men taken into palaces to care for the women, for the kings had a lot of women to serve in the palace. So they did an operation on the men they brought into the palace, so they could not molest the women.) and there were eunuchs that made themselves eunuchs for the Kingdom of God. This makes it clear that we can abstain from sex by the Grace of God in order to preserve our spiritual life and purity of life that GOD requires if we want’ to go to heaven. The evidence that God requires unmarried men and women to abstain from sex and live pure and holy if they ever enter heaven is the punishment that will be JUDGED with eternal hell fire and brimstone for sexual sins. So if some of you get involved in marriage problems and cannot make a go of it because the other party decided to follow the world and the devil, this does not give you an excuse to divorce and re-marry. Provision is made for SEPARATION; for the sake of keeping our eternal life, we can CRUCIFY the flesh and the lusts thereof, and choose to follow Jesus.
Paul said not to accept YOUNG widows (whose husbands were dead) for the church to support them, for they will marry again if they get a chance. Paul taught that we should put away from us any “BROTHER” that was a fornicator, or covetous, or an adulterer. (I Cor. 5:11-13.) Someone will ask: “What about letting the wheat and the tares grow together until the Judgment lest you pull up the wheat with the tares?” When we KNOW a brother is living in sin, we must give him warning from God’s word. If we don’t, he will die in his sins, but God will require his blood at our hands. (Ezekiel 33:7-13.) Read this whole passage from the Bible if a righteous man leaves his righteousness and commits iniquity, ALL his righteous will never be remembered, but for his iniquity he shall die for it. If we don’t give him warning, his blood will be on our hands. But sometimes his sins cannot be seen immediately. We have to leave the tares grow until the harvest when God’s angels pluck them out and cast them into the Lake of Fire. Matt.13.
—HOW TO HAVE A NEW TESTAMENT CHURCH—
1. Deterioration of TRUTH starts when a preacher or church or individual LOWERS BIBLE JUDGMENT on sin, and begins to compromise and make it easy on sin.
2. God’s House is established on GOD’S LAWS and JUDGMENTS ON SIN. He made it clear when He told Moses that He will forgive, but in NO WISE will He justify the sinner. SIN must be judged both in the sinner and in the professing Christian.
When we refuse to allow divorced and re-married people in our fellowship, in our churches, in our membership, then we keep troubling their conscience to awake unto repentance. But if they feel comfortable and welcome as they are in church, they feel we are approving their lives and we become GUILTY BEFORE GOD and partakers of their sins. And they will never repent or turn from their sins and be saved. (Ezekiel 33:8-19. 2 John 9-11.)
We either BELIEVE AND OBEY the Bible and PRACTICE IT – or we declare openly we are FAKE Christians because a real Christian is obedient to all God’s laws, commandments, precepts, and judgments. “If ye LOVE ME, KEEP MY COMMANDMENTS.” (John 14:15.)
—ARGUMENTS: WE DID IT IN SIN—
Present argument: That she did it in sin… now she met Jesus and wants to keep the LAST ONE. Jesus said: “HE IS NOT YOUR HUSBAND…” Yours is the first one that GOD has put together and that no man can put asunder. This argument that the majority of preachers accept to condone remarriage is FALSE and cannot stand before reason.
Marriage was instituted by God, until death do you part, whether in sin or in holiness. The first marriage is your legal wife or husband, whether you married while you were sinners or saved.
When you get saved, it does not cancel your first marriage. You may wish you had a “saved husband or wife.” Life would be easier, but no such arrangement is made in the whole Bible. If you can’t live with them because of brutality, the Bible permits separation, but NO remarriage to someone else! You can only be reconciled to your own first husband or wife you separated from. Then WHY, when sin comes in, we suddenly want to ANNUL the first marriage, and forget it so that you can get God to join you with someone else. THAT DOESN’T WORK that way. Malachi 2:14 says you may have made her run, “YET IS SHE THY COMPANION and the WIFE OF THY COVENANT.” Vs. 15. “Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.” (She may have grown old and not as beautiful and strong as she was when she was a girl, but that gives you all the more reason to love her and care for her and be faithful to her, like you want Jesus to help you when you get old!)
Now God doesn’t have divorce, and He doesn’t put together two men to one woman, neither two women to one man but one man to one woman. And they both become one flesh and what GOD hath put together, let no man put asunder. It is an ETERNAL LAW of GOD, forever established from the beginning of the world with Adam and Eve and will be perpetual to the end of the world. Anyone who breaks it, GOD WILL BREAK THEM with eternal judgment in HELL. (Revelation 21:8. I Corinthians 6:9.)
Paul referred to this truth when he said “a man is bound by the law as long as his wife liveth but when she dies, he is freed from that law to marry another.”
—The Permissiveness of Divorce and Remarriage HISTORY—
Divorce and remarriage among Christians whether nominal Christians or true Christians that are saved and born again has not been going on long. Several years ago, divorce was hardly known – only isolated cases were heard of. It was a great evil abhorred by all the Christian community. But as the days go by, divorce becomes accepted and respected and approved by modern society as a private matter, and is backed by government courts who issue a legal divorce and permit remarriage.
Today, we even hear many preachers are divorced and remarried. The government is giving us some alarming records of divorces – in some large cities, divorces have reached and broken two out of three marriages. Our nation is going downhill because they approve such defiance to God’s LAW of marriage! This is only in the WESTERN world who call themselves CHRISTIAN NATIONS, CIVILIZED! But thank God, that He still has some who do not believe in this evil. In the Middle East they were able to stop divorce and remarriage. In the Middle East churches, it is impossible to get a divorce under any circumstances… If you happen to want a divorce, you will have to go to the court who will demand that you DENY Christ and accept Muhammad. Then they will grant you a divorce and will remarry you to a MUSLIM. But the Christian churches will not divorce nor remarry any one. If a person goes to the Moslem court and denies Christ, then he is a heretic and put out of the Christian church. And if he dies, the church will never bury him. All the churches of all the denominations do their own marriages, and they don’t have to go to Moslem (government) court, as they do in Europe or in the States. But the churches do the whole work and register them in the Church book and issue a legal marriage certificate. The Moslems have their own courts and marriage laws… and freedom of divorce and remarriage but they cannot marry any Christian, unless that Christian denies Christ and becomes a Muslim. That is such a serious offence, few would ever dare to sell their eternal life, to go to hell. *Also, those that commit suicide are not buried from the church, and no Christian preacher will perform any service for them.
In the Middle East, when the Islamic religion swept North Africa in the fifth and sixth centuries and took Libya and Egypt, Iraq, Syria and Saudi Arabia, they made the Moslem religion the state religion. And their religion teaches them that Christians are blasphemers, because they believe in the Trinity. So for a Christian to marry a Moslem, he has to deny Christ – and even unsaved Christians find it difficult to deny Christ. So, the Middle East has a situation that no Moslem court will marry or register any marriage without becoming a Moslem. And NO CHRISTIAN CHURCH will issue a divorce to anyone on any grounds whatsoever — except PUTTING AWAY for the cause of FORNICATION.
—FORNICATION: WHAT IS IT and WHEN IS IT COMMITTED?—
Up to this day, this truth is well understood in the Middle East, Greece, Syrian Christians living in Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Palestine. These countries have upheld God’s Word that women should be virgins up to the day of their marriage. Then, on the day of their marriage, there must be proof that they are virgins, and if they are not, they can be PUT AWAY right then the same night. We read in the Bible about the token of Virginity. When Joseph saw Mary was with child, he thought of “PUTTING MARY AWAY PRIVATELY.” Because he was a just man, he did not want to make her a public example, but thought to do it privately. Then the angel of the Lord appeared to him and told him that Mary was not a fornicator, but that the Holy Ghost had come upon her and she was still a virgin that would give birth to the Son of God.
Fornication is sex before marriage, but ADULTERY is unfaithfulness AFTER MARRIAGE. And Jesus never gave excuse for anyone to divorce for adultery, only FORNICATION in night of marriage not after you have lived with her for a week. So fornication is not always a reason accepted with God. If you married her KNOWING she was not a virgin, you cannot put her away or divorce her if she does not please you or if you want somebody else down the way!
—WHO IS TO BLAME for the Present Situation in the CHURCHES in America—
No. 1 – The compromising PREACHERS.
No. 2 – The political system that has been practiced in the churches of the congregation having a VOTE and telling the preacher what they want preached, and how they want the church run, instead of getting the MIND OF CHRIST on HOW HE WANTS the Church to run, and WHAT they need to hear from the Word of God. Paul did not ask the congregation how they wanted to run their churches, nor who they wanted to preach to them. Paul dealt with the problems in each church and sent men that were “LIKE-MINDED” and not men that were just “SEEKING their OWN” and how they could prosper and take care of their families!!! Paul sent men that were not greedy of filthy lucre. So the democratic spirit and the voice of the majority are ruling the Churches, instead of GOD’S HOLY SPIRIT and GOD’S ETERNAL WORD. This you can see clearly in the annual denominational conferences -including the Full Gospel and Pentecostal movements. The opinion of the MAJORITY rules, whether it is Scriptural or not. But GOD’S WORD is given to us as the FINAL AUTHORITY and the only true GUIDELINE to follow. When we stray from that, the devil has hold of the steering wheel.
In Madagascar we raised up a church with thousands of converts and a Bible School, trained our own converts who followed our instructions in the Bible, and now have hundreds of churches scattered all over the island. We practice strict discipline, like we preach in this magazine. We are ready to face God in the Judgment that we preached the WHOLE counsel of God and made every member stand to it, putting out of the church and forbidding them to come back any that wanted to live contrary to the Scriptures. We do not want anyone to contaminate our Godly people or tempt them to live ungodly. We want to OBEY GOD’S Word and HAVE HIS PRESENCE in every service! If any of our Readers, be they preachers or individuals who are involved in the problem of divorce and remarriage, and do not like this type of preaching because they think that because we are under GRACE, they can still make it into heaven with the sin of adultery and fornication not repented of, and not forsaken, I advise you to do this: Find some old-time Holiness literature that was preached around there 40 or 50 years ago and find out how they understood the Bible and preached against this sin of adultery in those days. Or would you rather wait to find out the TRUTH when you stand before the Great White Throne Judgment when people of all classes and nations will be there to hear their doom: “DEPART from Me, ye doers of iniquity.” They had sin in their lives, but they made themselves believe it was not sin and that Grace’ will cover your sins without FORSAKING and making restitution, returning what you stole be it money, wife or husband of someone else.
GOD is certainly LOVE but the LOVE of God does not trample over the JUSTICE of God. The Great LOVE of GOD that gave JESUS to die in our place, is the SAME LOVE that made HELL for all those that will not OBEY JESUS. (John 3:36) He that BELIEVETH in Jesus shall not perish. But if you don’t believe in Christ enough to obey Him, you will PERISH. The wrath of God abideth on him.
The same loving God that is willing to forgive you of every sin you ever committed is still the same God that made hell and is enlarging hell to make room for all the sinners that are filling our land. The Bible tells us clearly that the BOOKS WILL BE OPENED from Genesis to Revelation and we will be judged by what GOD has written in those books and not by what men interpreted or permitted! BLIND leaders of the blind and the ones they lead into error will all be judged by what is written in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation and there will be no blaming nor excuses on that day saying someone mislead you or someone told you it was okay to remarry while you had a living wife or husband. God PUTS ONLY TWO together not two to one or one to three!
This is an age that is falling away from the TRUTH, when men are heaping to themselves false preachers of so-called revivals that let people claim salvation without true repentance that makes you turn from all your sinful life they just say ADD JESUS onto what you are, no holiness, no separation from the world nor love of the pleasures of this world which GOD clearly says are enemies of Him.
God called us unto HOLINESS, and without HOLINESS NO MAN shall see God… True repentance will lead you to a life that will continually strive to be conformed to the image of the Son of God and that your heart and life will be without blemish before HIM at the appearing of the Son of God. You need to read these verses in Hebrews 12:14-16. Also read the first 3 chapters of Revelation and see the conditions required of the churches if they were to be saved! They must overcome their sins to be able to sit with CHRIST in His FATHER’S Kingdom. God chased sin out of heaven one time and I am SURE He is not preparing to let sin of any kind back into heaven!
Some say: “well, I prayed about it, and God told me I could remarry.” That was a lying spirit. “But I felt good about it, and I feel good when I go to church.” When you try to make yourself believe breaking any of God’s commands is okay, it will bring a lying spirit to you either directly or thru a preacher that condones divorce and remmarriage.
JUDGMENT MUST begin at the House of God, and if it begins with us, what will be the END of those who obey not God? It will be more terrible and “If the RIGHTEOUS scarcely be saved means that there will be very few in number… because Jesus said, The way is narrow and the gate is STRAIGHT and only FEW there be that FIND IT! MANY are called, but few are chosen. Not everyone that SAITH Lord, Lord will enter into heaven, but they that DO the will of GOD.
The BOOKS will be opened, and any sin, that is NOT judged now and completely forsaken NOW, will be JUDGED at the Great White Throne of God and there will be no mercy nor escape then!
A Message to the pastors who have compromised and permitted divorced and re-married people to feel comfortable in your churches, repent and follow God’s Word and have revival and God’s blessings and be saved at the end. First thing you need to do is CLEAN HOUSE of ALL that are involved in divorce and remarriage. No compromise, no other solution, they are Achans in your camp and they must be put out unless they separate themselves from their sins. Call for a one week FASTING and PRAYER for ALL the Church. Not a prayer meeting when you sing and preach a little and just a few minutes praying. I mean a call to a Solemn Assembly. Read Joel several times, get down to business with God, dig sin out of your life and out of ALL your members. Have a NEW start, build on Righteousness and Holiness. Any liberal man or woman in the church must accept to be conformed to the WORD of GOD. They must be willing to dig sin out and start on the Highway of Holiness. People must wash their faces from ALL make-up and immodest, tight , short dresses and transparent blouses. No open backs or low necklines and no men’s attire on women. No jewelry nor costly array according to 1 Timothy 2:9-10 and 1 Peter 3:3. And certainly get rid of all TVs from your homes. You cannot serve two masters. You cannot serve God and be entertained by the compromising worldly crowds that do not preach righteousness but promote worldliness and carnality and are abominable examples of believers. There is only ONE REMEDY, get rid of it. David said: “I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: ….” When you have the courage to get rid of the thing that brings you temptation and evil thoughts, the REDEEMER will come to ZION and to them that turn from their sins. You say, “But I am a Pastor of a large Full Gospel Pentecostal church, and they permit divorce and remarried people in the church.” YOU will have to make up your mind either to follow GOD or man. Live by the Bible or the rules of your organization and your district superintendent. You can NOT be dictated to by any organization that changes GOD’s Word to accommodate sinners!
Some preachers will say: “I have this discipline and will stay in my organization.” I’ve never seen it done yet. They may try it, but they will run into difficulty sooner or later. They will be asked to leave the church. This is what I have seen the last 45 years I have been preaching. Jesus said: You cannot put NEW WINE in OLD BOTTLES, they won’t hold it, it will break. The district and the organization and the worldly elders and deacons will vote you out. They will run you off, so better get ready for it. If you WANT GOD and REAL REVIVAL of Holiness and Righteousness …YOU MUST BUILD on a good foundation.. Joshua had to clean house to get God to give him the victory. Joshua 7 and 8.
—HISTORY of REVIVALS in the BIBLE and outside the Bible.—
If you study carefully the history of revivals, you will find that GENUINE REVIVALS never lasted more than 50 to 70 years but when revival dies, God has to start a new one, and the NEW one becomes a new movement and ends up into an organization and they grow in number and a mixed multitude are joined to them and they become highly organized , so much so, that they organize the Holy Spirit out of their midst and follow the wisdom of men and dead teaching of liberal men. Then the vote of the majority rules the organization and NOT the pure simple Word of GOD that will take us all to heaven!
If you are 30 years old, you have already seen it happen in your organization or movement. It is not the same as it was before they have grown in number, but NOT in QUALITY of consecration or SPIRITUALITY. Many of our young people are telling us they have never seen MIRACLES OR THE Spirit of God bringing real conviction of sin in the services! And some of these are young PREACHERS trying to tell the people about something they know nothing about. Let me give you some examples. I have studied books written of the early Methodist Revivals, books by Thomas Cook, George Whitfield, and John Wesley but they read far different than what the Methodist practice today! I don’t believe that the present day Methodist will understand those books written by those men in the heat of the revival what happened? So is the same today with other organizations. What the EARLY PENTECOSTALS taught and preached and lived is different than what is being taught and practiced today. WHAT HAPPENED??? It has changed and been made liberal but the organization is growing daily in number and financial power. The early Pentecostals were mostly all poor but now they all are rich and have good homes and fine cars but they don’t PRAY as the early ones did for their daily needs. They all have savings and bank accounts, they don’t feel they need God anymore nor even fear God anymore. Otherwise the world would be different if they had influence with God!
In the early days of REVIVAL in the Pentecostal movement if a woman came to church with make-up on, the Saints would gather around her and lead her to the altar and pray her thru to salvation. But today you see the Pastor’s wife with make-up and blue on her eyes, looking more like a bar-tender or a Hollywood star! WHAT HAPPENED?? Ask yourself what happened?
So Revival does not last, we have to separate ourselves from among those that have chosen the BROAD WAY if we want to make heaven our home and have REVIVAL here. That is what the early ones in every movement did, they had to come out of the formal dead churches and get sanctified and GOD MET THEM. But they did not put NEW WINE in OLD BOTTLES. JESUS SAID IT WONT WORK. You might think it will, but you are wrong, it will not. What makes you think it will is perhaps the bread and butter you are getting from this dead church and you might be deprived of some sinner’s big giving under the cloak of a “believer” when he is living in sin, but you sooth his conscience by taking his money! WOE TO YOUR POOR SOUL! (Jeremiah 6:13-21.)
—What will happen if adulterers in the Churches REPENTED?—
I am sure many of you will wonder what will happen if the adulterers in the Churches repent according to the TRUTH in the Bible ??? Well, that will be the beginning of REVIVAL and salvation of many who have made themselves believe and put their soul to sleep on a false hope, false assurance that will make them scream in hell for all eternity but it will be too late. Such repentance and restoration was required and enforced by JESUS. When Zacchaeus repented and made restitution to those he had robbed, Jesus said TODAY is SALVATION COME TO THIS HOUSE” The very day he made restitution, Salvation was affirmed unto him. Of course it meant he lost his wealth and became an ordinary working man in one day but RICH UNTO GOD, an heir of eternal life! Nehemiah sure did a harsh, strong housecleaning and did not spare for their crying. He slapped some of the leaders and pulled off their beards and told them to get rid of those women and their children. It was approved of God and saved the nation from going back into idolatry.
Who told you that the way of the TRANSGRESSOR IS EASY? It is certainly hard but it is better to get the hardship of full repentance here than to end up in ETERNAL HELL where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched.
John the Baptist told King Herod, a sinner.. “It is not lawful for you to have your brother Philip’s wife.” You will end up in hell whether you did that sin before you heard me preach or after. It is contrary to God’s Eternal Law. I would not want to live and risk my eternal life for any man or woman or children or whatever it may be. I would rather be a poor beggar like Lazarus and end up being taken to heaven by angels, than to have someone else’s husband or wife in my bosom for a short life here and end up in eternal HELL.
To the NATURAL man it is hard, but to GOD who gave a great price for our salvation, His ONLY BEGOTTEN SON, He gives Grace to OVERCOME! If we ignore HIS right over our lives and refuse to obey HIS RIGHTEOUS and HOLY LAWS and commandments and do the thing that GOD HATES, we will suffer the consequences! (Malachi 2:13-16.) “For the LORD, the GOD of Israel, saith that HE HATETH putting away; for one covereth violence with his garment, saith the Lord of hosts: therefore take heed to your spirit that ye deal not treacherously.” So when we break this commandment then we must JUSTLY SUFFER the consequences. (Romans 6: 2-3) “The WAGES of SIN is death.” But if you turn to GOD and stop sinning, then “The GIFT OF GOD is ETERNAL LIFE through Jesus Christ our LORD”. For Jesus to be your LORD you have to OBEY HIM!
This article was printed by the International Bible Association and appeared in the April/May 2010 issue of Miracles & Mission Digest.
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