• Biblical Families is not a dating website. It is a forum to discuss issues relating to marriage and the Bible, and to offer guidance and support, not to find a wife. Click here for more information.

Divorce: Are all unions ordained by God in the first place?

We are instructed not to separate what He has joined together. We are not told it is impossible for us to separate it. Rather, the fact that we are told not to shows that we can separate it - and therefore need to be told not to.
Which also means that, once separated, although the separation may not have been His will, it is still real.

It is interesting to me that marrying a divorced woman is still considered adultery, as if the marriage still existed. It is as if a woman getting a divorce does nothing.
 
I agree with you that she can remarry, but what's interesting to me is that your statement from you does not raise issue with those who believe she can not remarry. It's water under the bridge.

Why are some biblically different views entertained and some are not?
I answered according to my understanding at that time.
Today I wouldn’t consider divorce.
 
It is interesting to me that marrying a divorced woman is still considered adultery, as if the marriage still existed. It is as if a woman getting a divorce does nothing.
I cannot take a legalistic stance on a woman not being able to remarry after being divorced in our present society. It abandons too many women who were raised in bad theology.
 
Are all unions ordained by God ? Of course not!

BE NOT UNEAQUALLY YOKED WITH UNBELIEVERS !

Joshua's league with the Gibeonites was not ordained but rather warned against!

once the agreement was made God required them to honor it yet when there deception was discovered they "paid a price" accordingly.

Entering into a bad or even a wrong marriage is not grounds for divorce in itself.
 
Are all unions ordained by God ? Of course not!

BE NOT UNEAQUALLY YOKED WITH UNBELIEVERS !

Joshua's league with the Gibeonites was not ordained but rather warned against!

once the agreement was made God required them to honor it yet when there deception was discovered they "paid a price" accordingly.

Entering into a bad or even a wrong marriage is not grounds for divorce in itself.
Exactly!
 
Just piggybacking off what you said @Jim an Apostle , and fully recognizing that I am not privy to all the pertinent facts in the matter, Ezra’s separation of spouses and families would seem to be an approved example of divorcing because of unbelief. I can see where the argument could be made that it was an ethnic cleansing of the ranks rather than a spiritual cleansing (though it could have been both).

I personally have a difficult time with this example and think that this may have been what Christ was alluding to when he says to “let no man put asunder”. If correct, (also factoring in what I believe about binding and loosing). The primary participants in the covenant have the exclusive ability to bind and/or loose but no other man has the right or authority to say jack about the situation (possibly excluding fathers as they may/should be part of the original covenant in patriarchy, at least as a pledge receiver or as a grantor creating a trust)
 
I answered according to my understanding at that time.
Today I wouldn’t consider divorce.

We all make decisions based on the understanding we have at the time. There is a lot I would redo about my life if I had the chance to do it over.

But that reflex more on the sovereignty of God to allow me to make mistakes and then him correct me. That's the free will I have. It's in the accepting or not accepting the guidance.
 
Psalm 37:23 (KJV)
The steps of a [good] man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way.

Question for each individual.
Does He order my steps into sin, failure, mistakes and damage to others?
Maybe I’m not listening for my orders?

Or maybe I don’t qualify as His definition of good?
 
I cannot take a legalistic stance on a woman not being able to remarry after being divorced in our present society. It abandons too many women who were raised in bad theology.

I understand your position and also that many other share it. I was not trying to re-open that can of worms.

I was only commenting on FollowingHim's comments that divorce was a done deal, and pointing out that may not be wholly true if one can still be guilty of adultery.
 
It is interesting to me that marrying a divorced woman is still considered adultery, as if the marriage still existed. It is as if a woman getting a divorce does nothing.
That's where the meanings of words become important in trying to unravel the whole thing. It may be that this particular passage is discussing "putting-away" / "separation", not full divorce (with paperwork). If so, then Jesus was saying that marrying a woman who has been separated from her husband but not truly divorced is adultery. That makes complete sense - but introduces other things to consider too. It's a complex issue.
 
Psalm 37:23 (KJV)
The steps of a [good] man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way.

Question for each individual.
Does He order my steps into sin, failure, mistakes and damage to others?

He most decidedly does not order my steps in those ways, but He did design us with enough wiggle room to direct some of our own dancing-with-the-devil in those regards. We are His creatures, and He could have designed us to be much closer to His Full Image, but that apparently wasn't His choice.

We are learning lessons, and we learn them more quickly when we surrender to His Will.

His Love is all-encompassing, so we have nothing to fear from surrendering to it.
 
Psalm 37:23 (KJV)
The steps of a [good] man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way.

Question for each individual.
Does He order my steps into sin, failure, mistakes and damage to others?
Maybe I’m not listening for my orders?

Or maybe I don’t qualify as His definition of good?

NIV Psalm 37:23 The LORD makes firm the steps of the one who delights in him;

When someone is following God whatever things they do they look to God to make sure they are going the right way. Their steps are firm. Doesn't mean that they always make the right choice, they stumble and find solid ground as they hold to Christ for guidance. Does God order steps into sin? No. But He allows it to reveal things to us and to others. The other side of it that is not really considered, in the case of the another person is, where are they in their journey? Maybe He is guiding them and using you to bring them closer to Him? So, your sin may have been preordained to effect some else's journey closer to Him? Judas Iscariot comes to mind.
 
Preordained sin?
I can’t even.
 
So you think that what Judas did was not known and allowed by God?
That’s not an description of preordination that I have ever heard.
 
That’s not an description of preordination that I have ever heard.

preordination
/priːɔːdɪˈneɪʃ(ə)n/

noun

1. the action of determining an outcome or course of action in advance:

I don't see the problem. Help me out.
 
So maybe we could agree that all things are of and through God, so God is Sovereign, but, while He created us with full knowledge that we would be sinners, He doesn't direct our sin. It might just be semantics, as in, is it the case that God caused everything to happen just because He knew full well that it would happen?
 
Insider knowledge of what the person will do does not mean that his actions are pre-ordained.

If you are pre-ordained by Yah to do something, you are nothing more than a robot and have no choice, no free will, in the matter.
 
I can accept @Keith Martin 's view, and I understand what @steve is implying, however if God created sinners and they sin, and He knows that sinners sin, and accepts it and use it for His purposes, isn't the idea of preordination a given? God's purpose is to remove sin. If God acted on His character of sinlessness then we would have been wiped out long ago, but because of Mercy and Grace He tolerates our sin, for a time, and uses it to move creation to where He wants it to be. Therefore, everything we do is preordained, because He has an outcome He is working towards.
 
Back
Top