The Baptist Examiner Forum: pt. 1

April 1, 1978 (This is Elder Oscar's first forum reply)    Question:

        What about a man who divorces his wife to marry another and is later saved, should he be allowed to be a member of a church?  Should he be required to leave his second wife (by whom he has children) and go back to his first wife?

    Answer:
        The easy divorce laws of our land have made divorce popular, and have gone a long way in wreaking havoc with the marriage institution. The general rule is that which is popular with man is hated of God, and so it is with the easy divorces which show despite to the laws of God governing marriage, divorce and remarriage.
    God rebuked Israel for their flaunting of the marriage alliances, saying, "For I hate divorce, says the Lord, the God of Israel"  (Malachi 2:16 - American Translation) The action of the man in question suing out a divorce so as to marry another is to add sin to sin, and it marks up the instability of the marriage contract wherein one or both parties are unsaved.  Any marriage where one or both parties are unsaved is on shaky ground, and especially so in this era of easy divorces.  Yet, we need to remember when a man is saved "The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin" (I John 1:7), and that includes the awful sin of adultery. The divorce and remarriage in question is one of sin, and when Christ died, he atoned for all the sins of his people,  including the sins of an ill gotten divorce and the resulting marriage. Adultery is a definite and specific act.  It is not a progressive state. The bible condemns adultery in clear and uncertain terms, but it says nothing about "living in adultery."
    In that God has forgiven the man his sins, the church ought to accept him via New Testament. Baptism as a member. To divorce his second wife and go back to his first wife, assuming she would have him back, which is highly unlikely would be to make matters worse.  The first divorce was wrong. God forgave the man for this wrong. A second divorce would be wrong, and two wrongs never make a right.
    Instead of the church taking a holier-than-thou attitude toward the man, let them receive him, and encourage him in his new life, for he will meet with a host self-righteous Pharisees who will try and attach again the stigma to him which the blood of Christ has washed away.