On the 10th of December 1936, Edward VIII, King of the United Kingdom abdicated from the throne. The reason - his relationship and intention to marry Wallis Simpson, an American divorcee was deemed morally unacceptable by his subjects. Less than a 100 years ago, the British people were unwilling to accept a monarch who in their eyes was an adulterer.
Tag: Remarriage
Remarriage is Adultery Part 3: Pauline Privilege?
In this first article on this series we considered the Texts in Matt 5 and Matt 19 which are widely considered to justify divorce on grounds of adultery. In this article we will consider another widely accepted grounds for divorce - abandonment. This clause is often called the Pauline Privilege as it is derived from the Apostle Paul's teaching in his letter to the Corinthian church. According to this view, the Bible allows a second category of divorce. When a man or a woman willfully deserts their spouse the church is to accept that the marriage has ended and the innocent party should be free to remarry.
Remarriage is Adultery Part 2: Self Denial
This is not merely a theoretical matter that we can take a live and let live approach on. The apostle Paul in 1 Cor 6:9, says – “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators (pornoi), nor idolaters, nor adulterers (moichoi), nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,“.This is also emphasized in Gal 5:19-21. If we are to believe the Biblical witness that those who remarry after a divorce are living in adultery, then the Biblical warning against such is truly serious. It is not merely a thing indifferent nor is it something that merely has consequences as far as this age goes. Rather, the Bible teaches us that there are eternal consequences for those who willingly refuse to repent of the sin of adultery. Divorce and remarriage have become so widely accepted in Evangelicalism that to speak against it and to call those who are living in adultery to repentance is akin to being branded a cultist. The strange thing is that these views on divorce and remarriage are not an innovation but were simply the view that was held by most of the Church, faithful and apostate for centuries. The church fathers are quite unanimous in their condemnation of divorce and remarriage.
Remarriage is Adultery Part 1: Except for Fornication or Adultery?
In our world today divorce is a rampant problem that affects a significant proportion of households. In the West there are rather few households where one doesn't know at least one relative who has been divorced or remarried. Statistics show that this proportion is not that different in Evangelical Christians and a general observation would show that divorce and remarriage are not uncommon and widely accepted in Evangelical circles, regardless of whether or not the proportion reflects that of the world around us. This widespread acceptance of divorce and remarriage is a significant departure from Biblical truth and centuries of Church witness. Since the Reformation, the Western Church adopted Humanistic views of sexuality that have become so ingrained in Western thought that it is impossible for many to even conceive of a life without sex and hence a theology that supports remarriage after divorce is a necessity for what is considered a "healthy" life.
Tertullian, Montanism and the Sufficiency of Scripture
Tertullian is an interesting figure in the history of the early Church. He laid the groundwork for several Christian doctrines that are heartily affirmed by the Christians including the primacy of Scriptural authority, perspicuity of Scripture and the principle of Scripture interpreting itself. He wrote several works defending Biblical theology against the various gnostic and heretical movements that were popular in his days. He is the first writer to use the phrase Trinitas (Trinity) to refer to the Godhead. Some of his doctrinal positions were recovered in the Protestant Reformation like the priesthood of all believers and a rejection of icons in worship. Regardless, Tertullian is not officially considered a saint by any of the mainstream apostate denominations like Roman Catholicism or Eastern Orthodoxy despite their tendency to claim the early church fathers for themselves. Nor, are his works widely read among Protestants. Tertullian is often relegated to the status of a secondary or subordinate among the church fathers.
Human Experience and the Sufficiency of Scripture
I've been watching a Great Courses series on the History of Christianity by Dr. Luke Timothy Johnson, a New Testament scholar, historian and distinguished professor at Emory University. He was formerly a Benedictine monk and Priest in the Romanist religion. While he is still strongly in the Romanist faith by profession, he is certainly a theological liberal (even while he rejects the term) and thus disagrees with several of their central dogmas. He supports homosexual unions, ordination of female clergy and opposes mandated clerical celibacy. I was curious to know the justification of his liberal views, so I read his essay defending his views on homosexual unions.
Deo Vicit Mundum 