“My brother in Christ, I wish to thank God for your life. I have been reading your article for a long time and decided to contact you for my own problem too; I was married for for fifteen years without having any child. The condition threathned my marriage to the extent that my husband wanted to bring in another woman but God assisted me to overcome such. We almost separated but the good hands of God fought for me…I had an attack in my dream that led to a serious problem which snowballed into lost of my monthly menses. For over seven years, I did not see my menses and I was so sick. The truth of the matter is that after I contacted you and ordered some bottles of your oil, my menses came out and became regular since then. I became pregnant last year and had my baby four weeks ago. I am most greatful to God for the gift of a baby boy…To God be the glory.” Mrs. Uwandu W. Email [email protected]
“The only way I can thank God is to tell you that I have submitted myself to God in totality, to worship him in spirit and in truth. My story you know is a very long one. I was doing very well as a business man but trusted in the powers of native doctors, they also assisted my business too but in 2004 after my marriage, a year later everything around me changed and I started borrowing to eat. I sold all my properties to bounce back, but the more properties I sold, the worst my case became. All the witch doctors that assisted me in the past were unable to assist me again. Each of them took my money and left me without hope; my wife started misbehaving with men in my presence. In fact, I died the moment I saw unimaginable things around me initiated by my wife. Well, I continued until nothing was left for me to sale; it was then that my wife came back one day with your column and implored me to read, when I read your article, I contacted you immediately and you gave me instruction to order some bottles of your oil and to pray with it. I did as you instructed me through the help of my wife. She did the prayer with me and I noticed remarkable changes in her. Finally she started praying and changed completely for good. I continued with the prayer you gave to me until 22 days were completed. I’m pleased and delighted to inform you that my life has changed and my business restored. Some people confessed to me including her man friend as being responsible for my failure, but I have forgiven them all. We are now enjoying the blessings of God around us courtesy of your good works. God bless you sir…” (Names and contact withheld as demanded).
For your information, every form of unchastity is included in the term “fornication” therefore the term porneia refers to all forms of illicit sex, all that relates to sexual sin. It is evident from our research here that the words of Christ in Matt.5:32 and 19:9 rightly applies to the married and we need also to keep in mind that the meaning of fornication in Hebrew is zanah and porneia in Greek includes incest, sodomy, harlotry, perversion, and all sexual sin both before and after marriage.
I wish to conclude here that it is not only on the ground of either fornication or adultery that divorce can be granted, there are offences that can be classified as spiritual fornication or adultery. Such offences that make marriages very intolerable that there can be no restoration of affection, that where the tie of affection has been absolutely destroyed the real vinculum has been ruptured, and that, therefore, such offences may rightly be put in the same category as conjugal infidelity in the strict sense of the word.
It is very clear that fornication and adultery are against the will of God. Yes, both are sin against God and man. Now, it is true that all Christian denominations use the Bible as their basis for guiding denominational polity; divergent beliefs on the divorce remarriage questions have thrived through history. In the first place the existence of numerous denominations points out that scriptural interpretation on various issues, from modes of baptism to what denotes worldliness, differs widely. This however has generated so many questions on many Biblical issues.
However, allusions have been made in the foregoing sections concerning remarriage. You can recall that no declarative statement is given to us about this. The New Testament does lay down fundamental principles upon which we can build. The implication of the grammar in Matthew 5:32 and 19:9 is that the innocent partner {husband or wife} should remarry without sin. There is no doubt that churches have divided opinion concerning the issue of remarrying for instance, the Roman Catholic Church holds that the exception clause sanctions separation but does not permit remarriage. This theology is in principle but not in practice, because we are all witnessing to the fact that the Roman Catholic theology ignores some basic Biblical truth hence the rate of divorce and remarriage in Roman Catholic Church is on the high side.
They permit separation but do not permit remarriage. What a great error! But it is very difficult to exclude “Permission to remarry” from the said clause. Even Christ permits remarriage in his statements in Matt.5:32 and 19:9. Therefore excluding remarriage is the choice of some earthly shepherds who want to be holier than God.
A woman who is put away because she had committed fornication, then she would have already fallen away from God. She broke fellowship with God the moment that is done. But if a man divorces his wife who hath not committed “fornication”, then it is he [the husband} who is guilty of adultery by causing her to commit apostasy, along with anyone who marries her. Ofcourse, apostasy is only one of three possible definitions of adultery.
Have you ever heard that expression used in reference to a divorced person who has remarried someone other than his or her mate? Did you know that one reason many people believe that God can’t forgive them is because they have been told repeatedly that they are leaving in adultery, living in sin? Yes there are many born again, spirit filled Christians, those who love God with all their hearts who earnestly believe because they are divorced and remarried that every time they had sex, they have to ask God to forgive them for committing adultery. This is due to some false teachings of some earthly shepherds. It is false because they cannot simply substantiate the Original language of the Bible text on which the teaching is supposedly based. I am not being vulgar but I am aware that some of these earthly shepherds have refused to research as well as reading authentic books, as a result they are carried away. However, if people are denied of books especially the right books they suffer from academic starvation, malnutrition and atrophy.
It is obvious that man is man. Sex in a remarriage has authomatically been classified as adultery, but the bible does not say remarriage is a sin. The Bible did not say that a divorced woman who later remarries is living in adultery because she is enjoying good sex. In 1 Cor.7:1-2, Paul says, “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.”