Divorce and Christian Service Part 11

Conclusion Before Admonition – Divorce and Christian Service

Divorce and Christian Service: Therefore, the teaching I’ve received over the years that one qualification (attribute, characteristic) is more important than the others is heresy. However, the IFB churches I’ve been involved with over the years are wrong. They raise divorce to lofty heights of disqualification without even studying God’s Word. The IFB considers divorce the sin with equal importance to ignoring the Holy Spirit as He calls for salvation. However, simultaneously snubbing their own shortfalls.

Dear Pastor, deacon, or church leader, you can’t rightly divide God’s Word and continue your heretical teaching. You must divorce yourself from the higher position from which you teach. If a man not divorced can meet the qualifications so can the man who is divorced. If you can gloriously praise the Lord for a man who has forsaken a heinous sin, turned to God, and proclaimed God’s call in his life while supporting his call to the pulpit and not do the same for a divorced man – SHAME ON YOU AND YOUR MINISTRY.

To the Pharisaic IFB church member or leader, this is for you; the phrase “husband of one wife,” your hang-up and once upon a time mine as well. This is almost embarrassing because you know the phrase is referring to a “one-woman man.” I have ONE wife and she is the only woman I’m interested in, period. I do not have two wives because I’m divorced! Whether you agree or not, it is the truth. Study to shew THYSELF approved!

It is possible that you have no desire to study the issue and be a champion for God and the call on the lives of valuable men. Thus, spending time on the other qualifications is futile as you disregard your discrepancies in the other areas. You have arrived since you are among the league of the non-divorced. But bear this in mind, all the qualifications are in the present tense. You don’t have to be an expert of homiletics to understand the correct way to approach 1 Timothy and Titus. By the way, the issues of “putting away” and “divorce” are not synonymous. Study to shew THYSELF approved! Along with Malachi 2:14-16, study Jeremiah 3:8

Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the LORD hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the

wife of thy covenant. And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let

none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth. 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.”

‐‐ Malachi 2:14‐16

In the passage above, the Bible says that God “hateth putting away.” In verse 14, the prophet says that when a man puts his wife away, he is dealing “treacherouslywith her.

So, what is the difference between divorcing one’s wife and simply putting her away? It seems that too many preachers use these terms interchangeably so that many Christians have developed their beliefs about divorce based upon scriptures that do not deal with divorce at all but only with the putting away.

Simply stated, a man puts his wife away when he dismisses her from his household, or, to put it a little more plainly, when he tosses her out the door, into the street, on her keister. He kicks her out. But kicking your wife out of the house is NOT a divorce!

The problem is, that too many Baptists have never studied their Bibles thoroughly enough to determine the difference between an actual divorce and putting away, as a result, they misinterpret a passage such as “whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery” (Matthew 19:9) to mean that anyone who marries a woman who has been properly

divorced by her husband commits adultery – but such simply is NOT the case. The Bible is PLAIN in Deuteronomy 24:2 that if properly divorced, a woman is FREE to “go and be another man’s wife.” (DeVries, 2008)

The last post on this topic will be an admonition

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