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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, August21 , 1979
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clearly was a form of fraud. When discovered (in nearly all cases) im.�e
diately after marriage, it simply meant God, knowing of this "fraud," had
actually not bound the marriage--and what followed therefore was actually
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f
an annulment, not a divorce. However this did not apply in cases of marriage
by unconverted people. God never bound them anyway--they were bound by man's
law, and any divorce and/or remarriage would be according to man's civil
law. But the Church would not apply this annulment if the couple had con
tinued living together for a period of time. There could be other types of
fraud--such as a marriage enforced at the point of a gun.
The second cause for divorce, affirmed by the Church through Christ's
Apostle in 1974, was based on I Corinthians 7.
This matter of D&R was the biggest, most troublesome problem in the
Church. One day my son Garner Ted came to me saying it did not appear to be
a problem in the early church at all--according to the Book of Acts and
Paul's Epistles. He asked why? Dr. Hoeh then added something to the pro
blem, and we discovered this teaching in I Corinthians 7. We had been very
familiar with I Corinthians 7 before, but had not recognized this D&R teach
ing in it.
Paul there speaks (verses 8-9) to the unmarried and widows. In verses
10-11 he speaks to the married. Beginning verse 12 he speaks to ''the rest."
If a converted man has a wife who is an unbeliever, causing trouble and dis
rupting the marriage because of the man's religion (NOT ICE IT CAREFULLY), if
she is pleased to live with him, he must not divorce her--he has NO GROUNDS
for divorce and remarriage.
Likewise the woman in God's Church, if she has an unbelieving husband,
and he is willing to live with her despite her religion, she shall not leave
him.
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off the marriage
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I conceive of this occurring in at least two ways: 1) the believing
Church member has been newly converted and the mate refuses to live with him
or her because of the religion. 2)
Both had been in the Church, but one
falls away, turns bitter against the church, refuses to live as husband or
wife with the still loyal member.
In this case the embittered one,
leaving the church, has become an unbeliever.
Now Paul gives an important REASON for the corwerted mate CONTINUING
in the marriage IF the unbelieving one is willing. Notice verse 14:
"For
the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife
is sanctified by the husband: else were your children unclean; but now they
are holy."
"Sanctified" does NOT mean made sanctimonious or holy.
means "set apart" or put in a separate category.
"Sanctified"
To thoroughly understand this we need to go clear back to Adam and
Eve. When God drove them out of the Garden of Eden and with sword-flaming