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As to the question on marriage & divorce: The answer seems as honest to me as was the answer from Jesus when asked about it concerning adultery. "Moses aloud it for the hardness of heart, but in the beginning it was not so." If it was not so from the beginning of creation, than it cannot be justified, not even for adultery. For me Jesus answer is an easy position to defend and defended best if we let Jesus words stand on their own. There are only two ways to compare questions on earth: How was it before the fall of man when He created us? And how was it when God destroyed man with the flood at the height of his sinfulness. They're opposing opposites that reveal the truth as to where we should be, as opposed as to where we are heading. Having said that, I believe God is an interactive God with his creation and seeing as we are a fallen creation and not able of perfection, in that the best we can do, will fall short of His Glory, he allows the divorce law to exist that was established by Moses as Jesus acknowledged it. Yet He showed His contention with our decision where He accused Israel of violating their own law when he told them, "You have gone out and played the harlot with other Gods and then return to me, but in your own law you say you’re unclean, yet I take you back." (paraphrased) So in saying that, he even invalidated their law, while still allowing them to use it. I also believe that position coincides with the New Testament position that "what we bind on earth shall be bound in Heaven". Also other Old Testament situations confirm this, in that God never wanted a Temple built but wanted to dwell in the tents with his people, but once they set their hearts upon it, binding it on earth, God bound it in Heaven, so that even Jesus defended the Temple with a whip. This is something that was carried over from the Old to the New Testament, in that the process of; binding it on earth to become the way it will be in heaven. Began with Moses, but was not defined as it is in the New Testament. I believe that as God sees it, it is necessary so a fallen man can interact with a perfect God. That is, in the sense as to how God chooses to interact with his creation. He can validate or invalidate, any law we create! He also makes us live with our own laws we create, whether they be good or bad laws. He also has authority over the laws He gave us. The Same God God who Commanded us "Thou Shalt not Kill", ordered the death of many nations and peoples in the Old Testament. I believe God meets us at our own level to bring us continually into His wisdom and understanding. Many of our Church customs and practices are of mans creation, not Gods, though I do believe God adopts them as His working platform so to speak. So that He can bring us into a fuller understanding of who He is. Just as He adopted the Temple in the Old Testament So even though I could reason it on earth that if I were in love with a divorced woman and that a wounded heart is as incapacitating as a hardened heart. Unless God moves my guide post of what is right for me or I am willing to go by a lesser law of man, "binding it on earth so that it is bound in Heaven". I'll just say "in the beginning it was not so!" We each have to decide on our own which law we will abide by, all of mans laws are temporal by nature... But be prepared to be bound by it ... in Heaven! -By John Thomas
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© Copyright. 2003 - By John Thomas Publishing Co. John Thomas Publishing Co. Content Copyright © 2003 John Thomas Publishing.
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