I found some information on this, but can't find it again.... can anyone help?

thanks

Hi Squeak, Malachi 2:16 God hates divorce, 1corinthians 7:10-11 You must remain married if you do seperate you are to remain single or remarry your spouse. 1corth 7:27 stay married. matt 5:32 if you divorce and remarry you commit adultry along with you will force your spouse into adultry if they remarry. Smiaj

Squeak,

May I suggest this link to help you find things you need in the Bible online. http://bible.gospelcom.net/

I use it quite a bit if I am somewhat aware of what the verse says. Hope this helps.

Blessings to you.

S&C

Squeak,

I think it's important to understand the cultural context of the time at which these passages were written.

This is my understanding of it, which may not be completely correct as I am not a scholar.

Divorce was something a man did to his W. A woman could not divorce her husband, nor did she have any say in it if he decided to divorce her. A wife was almost like a slave, like a posession. However, a husband had responsiblity to take care of his wife.

Now, the old testament....
So, to say that "God hates divorce", you have to relate that to what divorce was in that day and time. In short, one my say that "God hates the act of a man abandoning his wife who completely depends on him." - which is what divorce always meant in that time and place. Men were allowed to have more than one wife at the same time, so "remarriage" didn't mean anything different than "more marriage", except that the wife that a man divorced was in a very bad situation. Women were not allowed to own property in their own right. If they inherited property, their husband had to take posession of it or they would not recieve it. See the story of Ruth for an example of this. So, an unmarried woman had no choice but to return to her parents or take shelter with a brother - or marry "somebody".

In the New Testament times, things were a little different. I think women were allowed to own property, do business in their own name etc., but still only a man could initiate a divorce and there was nothing a woman could do about it. It was a one-sided deal and the woman was almost always forced into begging unless she was able to remarry.

Children always belonged to the father, and a divorced wife was sent out alone and empty-handed.

So, the Bible condemns this thing - and modern societies give much protection to women so that divorce is a very different thing today than it was in either old-testament or new testament times.

Just my two bits for perspective.

-AD

<small>[ June 18, 2003, 08:56 PM: Message edited by: AD ]</small>

This can be a super-hot-button for most people. I would suggest that you go to the link steadfast and committed suggested and do a search on every passage in the Bible on it and come to your own conculsion, with much prayer.

My own personal beliefs are this:

* God hates divorce. God also hates sin. But that doesn't necessarily mean divorce = sin. If you remember right, God divorced Israel because of her adultry (Jeremiah 3:8). God can't sin so it's the adultery that is the sin.

* The only Biblical way a person can re-marry after a divorce without it being adultery is if your spouse committed adultery (Matthew 5:32).

* Divorce is a horrible thing that tears two people apart who once married, are meant to stay together (Mark 10:9). It should be avoided at all costs.

Again, I think you should do your own Bible study on the topic and weigh everything, with prayer.

Aloha,
Ms.O

<small>[ June 18, 2003, 09:11 PM: Message edited by: Ms.O ]</small>

God does hate divorce----as we all know here, it is so harmful,destructive,damaging and the pain is unbearable to so many (spouses, kids, parents, friends etc). I believe that God urges us in many scriptures to persevere and be committed, to work things out at all cost. Stay married. Don't just divorce a spouse for little reason.

BUT---I do not believe he intends for us to die trying to keep things together. It says in 1 Corinthians 7:12-16 that we are free if an unbelieving spouse wants to leave. Matt 5:31-32 commands us to not divorce or we will be adulterers with an exeption that a spouse can divorce an unfaithful spouse. (Matt 19:3-9) Unfortunately, you cannot make a spouse be faithful or make a spouse stay if they want to leave.

I stayed in an unhappy, alcoholic marriage for 34 years. My H did not act married and did his own thing continually. I truly felt that I had no biblical grounds to leave or divorce him. I stayed.....and did a major Plan A for 20 something years. Some things got better. As a matter of fact, I worked myself sick always trying to change our problems. Then when my WS committed adultery, I felt the door swing wide open for me but it was not a quick easy decision to make. I still tried for 1 1/2 years to reconcile our marital woes.

He would not do anything to make things better for us so the rest is history.

Read HIS NEEDS HER NEEDS and GIVE AND TAKE. Let God make changes in you and present to your H the needs you have and the fact that you want to meet his needs and see what happens. Don't give up on your M without making a huge effort to start the process of working things out.

TW

oooops....double post. Sorry!

<small>[ June 18, 2003, 09:12 PM: Message edited by: Ms.O ]</small>

My 2 cents worth. The Bible does say God hates divorce but he also tells us to flee from evil. Living with an abusive person is living with an evil person. Abuse takes on many forms. Yes, a lot of things are wrong or sinful but God forgives and he knows our heart. I don't believe God would want anyone to stay in a relationship that is harmful to the point of ruining a persons mind, body and spirit. But that's just my opinion.

If we all cared as much about what God thought about who we were going to marry as we worry about it being ok to divorce, there probably wouldn't be as many divorces.
Free

thanks to each of you for your replies. I appreciate it.

I have bookmarked the site S&C gave, what a great site!

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Originally posted by Free:
<strong>If we all cared as much about what God thought about who we were going to marry as we worry about it being ok to divorce, there probably wouldn't be as many divorces.</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Amen to that! When I readn the scripture that says "What God has joined together, let no man put assunder" I always have to wonder how many of the marriages that happen were "put together" by God!

However, I do believe that even if He didn't put it together, once married, the commitment should be there.

You are right that God doesn't want us to be in a marriage...or any situation, that is harmful. I don't think that means it's okay to divorce; I think that means that each person needs to submit to Him and allow Him to change it into a marriage or situation that thrives. Allow Him to change you and the situation instead of opting out.

Aloha,
Ms.O

This theme seems to be spreading on many threads recently...

...check out....
What the early Church said about conditions for divorce and...
FA: I found my bible...

<img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="images/icons/smile.gif" />

Jim/NSR