I just finished reading The Divorce Dilemma by John MacArthur, it is an incredibly good book, and fully explains when divorce and remarriage are allowed. I would also recommend reading this book with What he must be if he wants to marry my daughter by Voddie Bauchem, Bauchem's book is about what the requirements the Bible sets out for a husband, as I said in a previous post I think it's a must read. So anyway what this post is about.

One thing I found very interesting is that the Pharisees views on divorce were much the same to what our society believes today. By the more liberal camp it was considered grounds for divorce even if your wife so much as burned the bread, or similar trivial things. So long as she was given a certificate of divorce it was ok in that societies eyes. The Pharisees had taken an allowance by Moses, turned it into a command (if a wife commits adultery you must divorce her) and completely twisted what was said to allow them to divorce even for ridiculous things. This view is so very similar to our society today. People seek divorces when they get bored with each other, find out they are not "compatible", or such silly things. There is also a complete misunderstanding of what love really means, thus creating even more divorces.

MacArthur states that except for adultery (can fit multiple things) divorce is not allowed, this is not just his belief it is what the Bible says. Now I figure some of you are going to say what about extreme violence, alcoholism or similar things. He says that no, this does not count, Christ clearly states that the ONLY reason for divorce is adultery. (Matthew 5) He also comments it is NOT a command to divorce if adultery occurred, it is allowed. God still abhors divorce, but in the case of adultery it is allowed. MacArthur also comments that divorce is only a measure of last resort, if the spouse repents we are called forgive them. But if they are unrepentant we are ALLOWED to divorce them.

I would also like to just throw out there that when you think about how many times a day we sin against God, how can we hold someones sins against us? Now granted we are, supposed to at least, repent of our sins, and God did divorce Israel for a time but He did take them back. I'm not saying its wrong to divorce for adultery, because clearly it is permissible, but I think we have to think about our actions before we take such a drastic measure.

I hope that this is clear, and maybe at least sparks comments if not debate, I like people saying things :D
Daniel