Reconsidering Marriage, Divorce, and Remarriage

As stated previously, as I go through my ordination process I’m doing more study on several doctrinal areas and how some of those relate to current issues. One of those areas is what I believe the Bible says about marriage, divorce, and remarriage. I consider this topic as of the utmost importance, since it is so foundational to society as well as the fact that issues surrounding marriage make up the bulk of pastoral counseling and cases of church discipline. I’ve reassessed my position through much research, prayer, and contemplation and actually modified my position in two meaningful ways regarding divorce and remarriage. First, I no longer believe that someone who commits adultery and then is divorced by their spouse for the infidelity is forever prohibited from remarriage in the future. Second, I no longer hold that a Christian whose spouse divorces them is immediately and automatically eligible to remarry. The reasons I modified my positions on these issues are contained in the document below.

As I reconsidered these topics, I wrote up a summary of my position for my own clarity of thought. Rather than copy it here and try to get the formatting to cooperate, I’ll just link to it: Marriage, Divorce, and Remarriage: A Brief Outline of the Bible’s Teachings. This document was meant to be an outline of my thoughts and some notes, and it’s certainly not a polished product…but I think it will help me to remember how and why I’ve come to these conclusions.