RAD is Bad, part 1

This is series of articles designed to help professing Christians to turn from their wicked ways and get back to following New Testament ethics.  Compromise is increasing in the church.  Popular opinion among churchgoers is often in stark contrast to the very words of Jesus on many issues.  Christians need to know the word of God and get back to using it as a reference book when they are faced with important decisions.

RAD is my acronym for remarriage after divorce.  Last week in my article concerning divorce I said: 

If the preacher says these things and “until death due you part” or anything like this and if you say “I do”, but you don’t really believe it, then you are a liar.

I also mentioned last week that I was going to talk about another reason why there are so many divorces.  When we have a society where it is normal even within the church to have people getting divorced and to have RADs, then people aren’t ashamed of it anymore.  It’s like as if people don’t really get married anymore.  If things don’t work out, you can always marry somebody else.  So what’s the point in getting married then?  If you go along with what seems to be the mainstream, you may as well just be living with someone instead of getting married.  In fact, it would actually be better because, as I showed above, it is dishonest to say “I do” when you don’t really believe what you are agreeing to.  And if you get divorced, then you are breaking your promise.  If you have a RAD then you are breaking your promise even more.  (Don’t get me wrong, cohabitation is definitely sin.)  But if people believe what the Bible says about RAD and if it were taboo to disobey it as it should, then they will be less likely to marry the wrong person and much less likely to get a divorce. 

But don’t listen to my arguments--read what God says in the Bible:

Matthew 5:32, Matthew 19:9, Mark 10:12, Luke 16:18, Romans 7:2-3 and I Corinthians 7:10-11, 39.

These passages can summarized as follows:

1. RAD is sin.  It is the moral equivalent of adultery.

2. There is only one exception given in the Bible.  A divorced man can remarry without sinning only if the reason for the divorce was his wife’s fornication (i.e. it must be a sin of a sexual nature--the NIV incorrectly translates that word as “marital unfaithfulness”). 

That is mostly all you need to know.  But there are a few loose ends that, Lord willing, I will tie up in the coming weeks about this issue.  These include some minor and common sense clarifications, a defense against claims that there are additional exceptions, ways that the Scriptures concerning RAD might be used legalistically, and finally my own testimony concerning RAD.

Click here to read the article in this sub-series.