What if my husband becomes a non-believer?
Question:
Hello Brother Jeffrey,
I hope all has been well. The situation I face now is this:
My husband and I are currently separated for several reasons (him mostly not wanting the marriage at the time). My husband was a baptized Christian in the church when we married. He was raised in the church. We got married, and then he decided he no longer believed in the church or God.
He is now getting tattoos that symbolize "As above, so below", grim reapers, etc. He wears black clothes and listens to heavy metal. He told me that it's a strong maybe that he would become an un-theistic Satanist. (I forgot the term). He said a Satanist who doesn't believe in anything, from what he says, not one who worships satan.
We are working on our marriage and we are trying to see if we should reconcile by next year. Or however long it'll take for us to sort out the other issues we have.
My question is: Would God want me to reconcile with my husband knowing that he is like this? I fear for my children. I don't want to imagine what a Satanist who "doesn't believe in anything" does. There's a lot of imagery that he has with t-shirts and stuff that symbolizes that stuff. I just don't know what to do. I've been praying. I know I probably need to fast. Do you believe God will want me to stay in this marriage?
Thank you.
Answer:
A person who doesn't believe in anything is called an atheist.
What the Bible says about non-believing spouses:
"But to the rest I say, not the Lord, that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he must not divorce her. And a woman who has an unbelieving husband, and he consents to live with her, she must not send her husband away. For the unbelieving husband is sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified through her believing husband; for otherwise your children are unclean, but now they are holy. Yet if the unbelieving one leaves, let him leave; the brother or the sister is not under bondage in such cases, but God has called us to peace. For how do you know, O wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, O husband, whether you will save your wife?" (I Corinthians 7:12-16).
"In the same way, you wives, be submissive to your own husbands so that even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives, as they observe your chaste and respectful behavior" (I Peter 3:1-2).
Question:
Answer:
It is true that no action on your part or God's part will guarantee that someone will repent of their sins and become a believer. God has given everyone free will and that means the choice is left to the individual.
