Marriage and Divorce
Marriage, as defined by God, is a covenant relationship between one male and one female. "And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder" (Matthew 19:4-6). "Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman. Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband" (1 Corinthians 7:1-2). Furthermore, for Christians, marriage should be between a Christian male and a Christian female.
Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you. And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. (2 Corinthians 6:14-18)
Coming together as one flesh is manifested when a husband and his wife come together sexually. "Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge" (Hebrews 13:4).
God designed us to enjoy sex. He united our sensitive spirits to delicately intricate, wondrously strong, feeling bodies to give us great heights of blessing and joy in sexual union. There is nothing we can do with one another through our bodies that is so holy and perfectly fulfilling as marital sexual union. God meant it for refreshment, fulfillment, recreation, realignment, release, sharing, procreation, healing, lessons in loving, practice in sensitivities, development in the art of laying down our lives for another, completion, entrance into the kingdom of being corporate, gratitude, longing, hope, endurance, fun, laughter, ... , embrace, and so on through endless catalogues of blessing. It is perhaps God's best physical gift to mankind.253
Sex in a marriage is to be desired and enjoyed frequently, creatively and with few restrictions which we will list here.
- Sex in a marriage is exclusively between a husband and his wife and includes cunnilingus and consensual masturbation. They unite spiritually, mentally, and physically without admittance to any third parties (real or imagined).
- Sexual intercourse should not open a door to darkness: stay away from practices that invite in evil spirits like idolatry, lust, fornication, adultery, pornography, and sodomy (sexual perversion—lasciviousness). For a Christian, sexual perversion includes practices like fellatio, anilingus, fetishism, voyeurism, exhibitionism, sodomy, sadism, masochism, incest, homosexuality, bisexuality, bestiality, etc.
- Sexual intercourse between a husband and his wife should not impede procreation in any way in order to fulfill the first commandment to mankind: "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth" (Genesis 1:28). After all, "children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward" (Psalm 127:3) and besides, "ye are not your own ... For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's" (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).
- Reasons for a husband and his wife not having sex are few: during menstruation (Leviticus 20:18), during fasting and prayer (1 Corinthians 7:5), during sickness (albeit, not the popular "I have a headache"). "Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence: and likewise also the wife unto the husband. The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband: and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife. Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency. But I speak this by permission, and not of commandment" (1 Corinthians 7:3-6).
Satan's War Against Marriage
Some countries and some states in the U.S. are changing the definition of marriage; they are changing the truth of God into a lie. "Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools ... Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen" (Romans 1:22, 25). This is not at all unexpected; scriptures have warned us for centuries of the turning away of man from God.
This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. (2 Timothy 3:1-5)
The Biblical definition of marriage is clear and without any ambiguity. It leaves no room for those that accept a spirit of sodomy and engage in homosexuality, lesbianism, bisexuality, bestiality, cross-dressing, transgender or other forms of uncleanness as described in the scriptures below:
Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient ... Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. (Romans 1:24-28, 31-32)
Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: For which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience: In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them. (Colossians 3:5-7)
Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine; According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust. (1 Timothy 1:9-11)
Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination. Neither shalt thou lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith: neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie down thereto: it is confusion. Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you: And the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants. Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations; neither any of your own nation, nor any stranger that sojourneth among you: (For all these abominations have the men of the land done, which were before you, and the land is defiled;) That the land spue not you out also, when ye defile it, as it spued out the nations that were before you. (Leviticus 18:22-28)
If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them. (Leviticus 20:13)
And if a man lie with a beast, he shall surely be put to death: and ye shall slay the beast. And if a woman approach unto any beast, and lie down thereto, thou shalt kill the woman, and the beast: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them. (Leviticus 20:15-16)
The Lord also has clear lines drawn on cross-dressing and those that take on the affectations of the opposite sex (transgender): "The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the LORD thy God" (Deuteronomy 22:5). "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God" (1 Corinthians 6:9-10). Please note that males with a spirit of sodomy that prostituted themselves to other males were called sodomites or dogs in the Old Testament. "There shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite of the sons of Israel. Thou shalt not bring the hire of a whore, or the price of a dog, into the house of the LORD thy God for any vow: for even both these are abomination unto the LORD thy God" (Deuteronomy 23:17-18). "And he brake down the houses of the sodomites, that were by the house of the LORD, where the women wove hangings for the grove" (2 Kings 23:7; see also 1 Kings 14:24; 1 Kings 15:12; 1 Kings 22:46). Just as the Lord visited destruction on the city of Sodom for their abominations; so too, will he bring destruction on all those who engage or support this so-called "alternative lifestyle." Said in the vernacular of the American culture: "What part of 'abomination' do you not understand?" Homosexuality is sin; the Word of God is clear on this point; however, "Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil" (Ecclesiastes 8:11).
And there came two angels to Sodom at even; and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom: and Lot seeing them rose up to meet them; and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground; But before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter: And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them. And Lot went out at the door unto them, and shut the door after him, And said, I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly ... For we will destroy this place, because the cry of them is waxen great before the face of the LORD; and the LORD hath sent us to destroy it ... Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven; And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground. (Genesis 19:1, 4-7, 13, 24-25)
And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly; And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;) The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished: But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, selfwilled, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities. (2 Peter 2:6-10)
Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. (Galatians 6:7-8)
Of course, any Christians that are not actively seeking deliverance from a spirit of sodomy are also subject to God's wrath (see "Understanding Deliverance"): "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are" (1 Corinthians 3:16-17). "Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's" (1 Corinthians 6:18-20).
The gay community parades upon the ground of Christianity as though anyone ought to see that their sickness is normal. (This is based on the Hitlerian maxim that a big enough lie will be accepted as truth.) Whoever doesn't agree to that lie is of course judgmental and filled with hate. Never mind that a homosexual can understand and agree that a man can view liars, cheaters, thieves, and murderers as wrong without hating them—in their eyes one cannot view a homosexual as wrong without being hateful and judgmental! They try to discredit any [Christian] who disagrees with them ... We regard [the gay community] as an enemy of Christ no matter what it thinks of itself in its delusion. We make no apology to them. We have no help for anyone (other than rebuke) who wants to maintain, contrary to the Word of God, that homosexuality has any right to exist ... There is no middle ground. Kindness and liberality happen by the grace of Christ for all sinners, not by relaxing one of the least of his commandments. We do not help the sick by refusing to call them sick for fear of being called judgmental. Be unashamed of the moral rectitude of the Gospel of Christ ... Homosexuality is not an irreversible trap ... All Christendom needs to join in prayer for the deliverance of every homosexual and lesbian [from a spirit of sodomy].254
The gay community's celebration of a "Day of Silence" will not change God principles: "for I am the LORD, I change not" (Malachi 3:6); "for whosoever shall commit any of these abominations, even the souls that commit them shall be cut off from among their people" (Leviticus 18:29). Religious tolerance in this area of ungodliness flies in the face of the Word of God: "And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them" (Ephesians 5:11).
Understanding Divorce
Any discussion on divorce must start with a statement about God's view on divorce: "for the LORD, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away" (Malachi 2:16). Notwithstanding, scripture gives two valid reasons for divorce. The first states that "Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery" (Matthew 19:9). And the second states that "if the unbelieving depart, let him depart. A brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases: but God hath called us to peace" (1 Corinthians 7:15). The first reason is fornication: sexual intercourse outside of a marriage covenant: sexual infidelity. When one spouse willfully (and repeatedly) engages in fornication, the other spouse has grounds for divorce. The other reason only applies to Christians: if the unbelieving (non-Christian) spouse divorces the believing spouse (Christian), then the Christian is no longer bound to the unbeliever. The unbeliever either has always been an unbeliever or became an unbeliever through the deceitfulness of sin (see "Calvinism: Perseverance of the Elect").
Deliver me, O LORD, from the evil man: preserve me from the violent man; Which imagine mischiefs in their heart; continually are they gathered together for war. They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent; adders' poison is under their lips. Selah. Keep me, O LORD, from the hands of the wicked; preserve me from the violent man; who have purposed to overthrow my goings. The proud have hid a snare for me, and cords; they have spread a net by the wayside; they have set gins for me. Selah. (Psalm 140:1-5)
Christian women, especially, reading this are probably already concerned: what about an abusive spouse? The Word provides for this caveat—let her depart; that is, get physically separated from her husband for her safety. "And unto the married I command, yet not I, but the Lord, Let not the wife depart from her husband: But and if she depart, let her remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband: and let not the husband put away his wife" (1 Corinthians 7:10-11). The abuse by itself, however, is not necessarily grounds for divorce. "And if a woman shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she committeth adultery" (Mark 10:12); because "The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth; but if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord" (1 Corinthians 7:39). In her separation, she should continue to seek the Lord and intercede on behalf of her husband. Remember, hate evil (Psalm 97:10) not the person: "for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places" (Ephesians 6:12). If her husband, through prayer and deliverance, is freed from the sins, strong holds, and evil spirits that pushed him to abuse her; then and only then, should she be reconciled to her husband. Otherwise, upon his death, she is then free to marry a Christian man.
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