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Transcript 224B — Can There Be Remarriage After Divorce?
HC: Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum.
CALLER: Mr. Camping, I'm kind of confused about something. First let me say, my wife is "liberated" now, and she's left me, taking my son from me. And she's going with other men, etc., and is seeking a divorce. I heard some pastors on the air talking about divorce, saying that it's not a sin in certain cases, and under certain circumstances, for a woman to leave a husband and remarry, and that she would not be living in sin and that it would not be sin for the husband, as in my case, to remarry.
HC: So now you're confused.
CALLER: In my heart I've always felt that there's no such thing as divorce.
HC: Now you see, here is the problem. And you are speaking for all kinds of people who are troubled by this, because we're living in the age of divorce. And because divorce has become so commonplace, has become such a grievous sin all over the world, the church itself tries to accommodate itself to it. It tries to look for the best possible answer that they can find in the Bible, in order to make it more palatable in some way for those who have become involved in this kind of activity.
And therefore, you can go to ten different pastors, and you can get all kinds of different answers. And there are many very reputable denominations that say under certain circumstances, if you've been divorced, you can remarry. But frankly, when I read the Bible, and let the Bible be its own authority, and try to divorce myself from the culture in which we live, the problem that is so insistent, and just let the Bible be the answer, then I find that there's nothing in the Bible that says that a man can remarry and do it in God's will, as long as his present wife is still living.
The Bible says that what God has joined together, let not man put asunder. The Bible says in I Corinthians 7:10 that if you're separated from your husband, you are to remain single, or else be reconciled to him. The Bible says that whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery. And there's nothing else in the Bible that ameliorates this, or modifies this. This is where it stands.
And so we have to decide: shall I go to this pastor or that pastor, or that denomination and find out what they say, and be obedient to what they say? A lot of people do this. This is their privilege. Or am I going to study the applicable passages in the Bible and ask God for the grace to be absolutely obedient, just open to what the Bible says, regardless of how this is going to leave me?
CALLER: I will. Thank you.
HC: Thank you for sharing your question. May God give much wisdom. Good night.
CALLER: Good night.