Written by ♪♪ Edward_the_Confessor ♪♪ , Jacobs_Trouble, LeahsGrace, Scannerman777, and a few others:
Praise God, the Word gets around!
It is also interesting to notice how that the rules that pertain to the "putting away" of a man are significantly different. I realize that this is sensitive ground so I will not delve into the details at this point. Many of our well intentioned and godly sisters are so steeped in worldly culture established by feminist familiars that they don't even know themselves just what it is influencing them. The wife will often bristle at the slightest indication that the man she marries is her lord. More on this later.
We now live in a New Dispensation - Glory to God! That we can celebrate the Grace of God, His tender mercies and loving kindnesses is not at all to be ignored by any. Clearly we must strive to keep His love, this agapaeos, in our hearts at all times (not that this is always easy) or we risk becoming Pharisiacal, whited sepulchures, full of dead works; that is to say, in modern terminology, LEGALISTIC. The "flip-side" and essential counterpart of legalism is licentiousness. These two spirits create a spiritual dynamic, a field governed by the law of sin and death wherein one keeps the other continually fed. How to get out of this trap??!! This is precisely the principle the apostle Paul is addressing in Romans chapter 7.
I'm inna preachin' mood. Praise God!! lol
I want to state here that Christ did not die in vain. We do well to avoid putting the cart before the horse. Mosiac law will not set us free anymore than obedience to civil law will make us more godly. It is the actual love of God and the hope of glory that makes one godly. This is that which "establishes" the law, not adherance to the law. I know that many of those who have established the law by His grace have also resorted to the law to justify the doctrine of Perpetual Adultery and an entire multitude of heresies by reason of self-righteous indignation. The temptation to recite 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 is often upon those who desire to admonish us concerning who will not enter the Kingdom of God yet they would also seem to forget the verse that immediately follows:
11 And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
And such were some of you . . How delicately this has been put ! And no wonder. Paul was indeed addressing a legalistic spirit in the church, as was usually the case. How are we washed? How are we sanctified? How are we Justified? By our works?? By our adherance to the law?? By how many spouses we remain married to??
Alas, the words "legalism", "rapture", "remarriage", and in truth, "divorce". . simply do not exist in any authentic New Testament scriptural texts. Therefore these words are ever subject to personal and secular interpretation. Consequently these terms tend to open great doors for much of the controversy witnessed here and all those snares manifesting in these debates. We can ignore the canonical basis of the received text in that blind belief that our salvation rests in the hands of mortals if we so wish. (I saw a comic strip about this recently on APO. It made me think of how BOTH sides on this debate were using their pastor as the scape goat.) Or, we can study the ACTUAL Greek and Hebrew canon ourselves to determine precisely just what is being stated.
There is yet a better way. For those of you who have not heard, His name is Jesus Christ. He makes ink on paper look like a dead and rotting carcass.
Dear brothers and sisters, your pastor is not going to be standing beside you on judgement day to tell God that it was his fault for your misinterpreting any of the scriptures. You alone, are responsible to the truth.
Although the words "legalism", "rapture", "remarriage", "rebirth", "redivorce", "trinity", "monotheism", etc. are not used in our English scriptural texts there are many who agree that the concepts touching such issues are.
It is essential when approaching such non-scriptural terminology that all parties concerned agree on the actual definition of the term and to define the said term scripturally. Otherwise it is open season on wild cards... The game has no rules. Although I recognize and also love the diligence to interpret scripture with scripture, I might also easily argue that in order to accomplish this most noble and dedicated exploit one might require the subject of the term debated to be scriptural. Otherwise how do we really know what it is that we are debating? Our modern terminology is subject to little more than a dictionary written by men who are more often than not, secular and worldly.
Now concerning the law pertaining to natural marriage, because there are many who say that we are bound by the law; (for as many times as Paul tried to make it clear to us that we, ourselves, put ourselves under this law in returning to the law and appealing to the law, ie./ The wife betrothed to a husband in the Lord:
1 Corinthians 7:37- 40) let us return to the scripture:
Deuteronomy 22
28 If a man find a damsel that is a virgin, which is not betrothed, and lay hold on her, and lie with her, and they be found; 29 Then the man that lay with her shall give unto the damsel's father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife; because he hath humbled her, he may not put her away all his days.
Sounds like a shotgun wedding. Joking aside, this law still applies today. Do all abide by it? Of course not. Yet it would seem that this is precisely the same sort of natural marriage, so prevalent in our modern day culture, existing under the misnomer of "Commonlaw Marriage", that we scarcely consider such relationships to be real marriage. BUT the LAW DOES. According to the scripture she is to be the wife of the man she willingly engaged. Period. He can't put her away all the days of his life and he owes daddy a big debt.
Now are we, who are washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God, going to tell a newborn man to go hunt down the fathers of all the virgins that he took in his ungodly past and pay each of these fathers fifty shekels of silver? Remember now, these women are also supposed to be the wives of this man so we have in effect endorsed polygyny for this man as well. I am not saying polygyny is ungodly. I am just trying to point out what the consequences of establishing this law are. Furthermore, what if these indiscriminate ladies have no desire to be his wife, or, have already "remarried"?? Well, I guess they will just roast in hell seeing as how there is no salvation for them. Why?
Because the legalists (Pharisees) say that they are permanently living in sin, a state of Perpetual Adultery. They are not living with their first husband who according to the LAW, humbled them. They are hopeless because the LAW is saying that these can't be put away for as long as the man who humbled them lives. They are perpetual adultresses!!!
Oh but we say there is hope because they can repent. Can they?? They cannot repent if we hold them in bondage to the law that says that they are the wives of the man who humbled them. Oh, but we say that doesn't matter anymore... It is who they are married to now that counts. HYPOCRITES! Remarriage is not permitted in your law! Oh well then we will tell them to leave their "lawful" husbands and repent of their ways. They can divorce them but they can't remarry. Sure. Let's break up these homes by telling them that there is no way they can repent until they leave the "lawful" husbands they are with because their natural marriages are ungodly. Let's tell them all to return to the men that have humbled them or to remain celibate. I suppose we may as well do the same thing with the fellas too.
Not one jot... no, not one tittle of the law shall pass.. remember???
How far are we going to take this, ladies???
How far are we prepared to go, my brothers???
And to the married.. God knows if any of you married as virgins or otherwise. You don't fool God. If any of you embrace this very false doctrine when you, yourselves, never married as virgins but failed to comply with the Mosiac Law in honoring the marriage of the said humbled, God will expose you for your hypocrisy. You can't have it both ways. Jesus Christ died on a cross to deliver you all from the bondage of the flesh. Do you not know that Mosiac law applies to the non-believer? Do you not know that the schoolmaster is not for the believer? Do you not know that the Great Teacher is even by far greater than the schoolmaster? How perfect is the wisdom of God's Grace! Tell me brother, how were you justified? Tell me sister, how were you sanctified? What makes your marriage so special?????
.. and such were some of you. "
.. and such were some of you."
HOW POSITIVELY GRACIOUS ARE THESE WORDS!!! If I ever make it to heaven I should like to sob in Paul's bosom, tears of joy, for his tactful utterance of these tender words. I don't even want to talk to anyone else (but one) who would think that they do not belong to this category of repentant sinners. Nope, they are too perfect for me. BUT.. "SUCH WERE SOME OF YOU". So go ahead and tell me that not one jot, no not one tittle of the law shall pass, while you do your utmost to honor the law with your flesh. Jesus is watching.
AGAIN. WHAT CONSTITUTES MARRIAGE???
Because if any of you are prepared to state that natural, fleshly marriage, outside of Baptism in the Holy Ghost, is binding by the law and therefore no person born of the water and the spirit can ever hope to be made free from that law of sin and death which condems us all, then I may as well agree with you and call it anathema. You would condem your selves.
DISCUSSIONS