How can there be adultery after divorce ends a marriage?
Question:
You said on your website:
"When one partner in a marriage commits adultery, the innocent party has the option to divorce the unrepentant adulterer and may marry someone else if he or she so chooses. The adulterer remains bound by the terms of his marriage covenant. Anyone marriage enters into will be adulterous so long as his original spouse is alive."
How can "the adulterer" be bound to a marriage covenant that has been dissolved, both legally and in the eyes of God? Once the marriage is dissolved there is no possibility of adultery of one against the other because they are no longer married. Adultery is the act of sex while married. If you are divorced you are not married and can no longer commit adultery. You can fornicate but not be guilty of adultery. I have been raised since birth in the church and have always thought this teaching was a perversion of the truth. It is sad that one cannot understand the grace and mercy of God the Father and see that forgiveness (assuming repentance) is completely washing away of sins (as if they never happened). If a spouse has been divorced by their mate and the mate remarries there is no way to reconcile with them lest they too commit adultery because the mate who filed for divorce is now married. The "guilty" one as everyone likes to call them (and add to the biblical teachings because this term is never used), is no longer married, the laws of adultery cannot apply.
Okay, just had to get that off my chest.
Answer:
"Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced from her husband commits adultery" (Luke 16:18).
Notice that Jesus said adultery occurs after the divorce takes place. It occurs because the divorced person marries another person. The phrase "commits adultery" translates the Greek word moicheuei. In Greek, this word is in the present active indicative case. This case is used for actions that are occurring at the present time and that are either ongoing (continuous action) or undefined (we don't know how long it is going on).
Therefore the contention that adultery cannot take place after divorce ends marriage is false. The idea that ongoing adultery can be repented of without stopping the action is also false because repentance means turning away from sin. Can a person be forgiven of adultery? Absolutely! Does that forgiveness mean he can continue in actions that Jesus said are adulterous? Absolutely not!
