Sexual intercourse of a married man or woman with someone other than his or her own wife or husband is the sin of adultery. And this would include divorced people who re-marry against God’s will. Key is that the remarriage is in fact wrong and is done against God’s will. There are exceptions. God is Judge.

Adultery is a mortal sin against the virtue of chastity. It is a violation of the marriage vow. In the Old Testament the penalty was death (Gn.38: 24) (Lev. 21:9) or being pilloried. (Jer. 13:26) (Ez. 16:38) Committing adultery is to forsake God and swear by gods that are not. (Jer. 5: 7) The New Testament not only condemns adultery (Mt. 5:27-29; Mk. 10:19), but in the New Testament Christ placed even adulterous desires on the same level of sin as adultery itself.

One who commits adultery is a transgressor of the law. (James 2:11) God must be placed first in one’s life. One who divorces and remarries places God second in his or her second marriage in many instances but not in all instances.

Great is the number of you men of God who are denying the scriptures concerning this kind of sin and who are misleading the people of God. This is not to be any longer. Not without God’s rebuke. If you wish to be with God in this last hour of the last days, if you wish to be with His renewal and restoration, then allow God to burn into your hearts Mark 10: 11-12 and Luke 16:18 that you speak right about divorce and remarriage. May you come to do so that you and many are rescued from burning in hell for this kind of sin of adultery.

The time of men of God comfortably ignoring the truth of God and compromising with teachings of the devil concerning adultery is over.

The truth is that Jesus gave marriage back its original unity and indissolubility.

In Matt 19:3-9 when Jesus refers to ‘lewd conduct” as a separate case He is likely referring to incest among believers who, prior to their conversion, had married within the prohibited degree of blood relationship. This same position can be seen taken as well in Acts 15:20: “from illicit sexual union”It also could be that sexual infidelity breaks that bond, making remarriage permissible under certain circumstances. In any case, Jesus repudiated the norm contained in Dt. 24, which allows a husband to dismiss his wife with a written decree of divorce for the purpose of remarriage.

The Matthew 19:9 clause of exception and that of Matt. 5:32 cannot easily be argued against the absolute prohibition of divorce repeated in Mark 10: 11-12 and Luke 16:18. Whatever may have been the situation prevailing among the early Christians for whom Matthew wrote, the more stringent understanding of Jesus’ words prevailed throughout the Church for the longest time. Still, God alone is Judge.

Yet, in these times, divorce and remarriage has become commonplace and widely accepted. God is not first.

Yes, there are exceptions. Some marriages ending in divorce were not real marriages from the beginning. Each situation is different. There can be an annulment of a marriage and a remarriage which is true to God. There are unhealthy situations concerning certain marriages. There are situations which are complicated by abuse and other circumstances which are wrong.

So, what about those people who are not lying to themselves and God and who feel free in conscience of any obligations toward a first marriage and do intend to remarry and maintain a Christian commitment and who have no annulment?

There is the “internal forum solution”. It addresses itself to this situation. It is the forum of conscience; it is private, personal, and not public. However, one can see right away that excess use of this solution would and does damage the good order of the Church and the integrity of the Church’s witness. Yet, on the other hand, it is understandable that certain people actually have convictions of this nature and intend to act on them. Some Christians judge their marriage before God as ” obviously invalid”, and they indeed act on this evaluation.

How should one perceive these people? There are those of them who are genuine. And there are those of them who lie to themselves and to God for the sake of their present desires. One must perceive these people as loved by God. One must seek out those of them who need help and help them. Sometimes there are no clear-cut guidelines or norms. Be honest with your actions in the light of God. Do not play God. Love them.

Keep this in mind however: Beliefs and actions are often not right with many professing Christ concerning the matter of divorce and remarriage. And the abuses are great. God must become primary in every Christians home. And there must be an end to all the confusion and to the many sins of adultery.

Your brother in Christ, Eddie