Thank you for taking my question. If there had been Jewish men on the day of Pentecost who had previously given their original wives a Bill of Divorcement and were now married to other women, would they have to put away the new wives before they were baptized?<\/p>\n
Thank you.<\/p>\n\t
Repentance is required in order to be saved (Acts 2:38). To be baptized without repentance is no more effective than being baptized without having faith.<\/p>\n
Implied in your question is a belief that remarriage was allowed under the Law of Moses for any reason. That was the question the Pharisees asked of Jesus. “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?<\/em>“(Matthew 19:3). Jesus’ response was that it was the wrong question because it focused on ending marriages instead of making a lifelong commitment work (Matthew 19:4-6). People then and today put far too much emphasis on divorce than on fulfilling God’s expectations. When asked why Moses commanded divorce, Jesus replied that Moses only allowed divorces. Jesus then went on to say that remarriage is only allowed if a divorce was due to the fornication of the person’s spouse (Matthew 19:9). In stating this, Jesus clarified what was meant by “When a man takes a wife and marries her, and it happens that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some uncleanness in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house, …<\/em>” (Deuteronomy 24:1-4). “Some uncleanness” is not referring to anything that makes a person unclean. The uncleanness, according to Jesus, was only sexual uncleanness (i.e. fornication).<\/p>\n Therefore, Jews who divorced for other reasons and then remarried were in adultery under the Old Law. They would continue to be in a state of adultery under the New Law. Just as a thief cannot continue stealing after he becomes a Christian, an adulterer must leave his adultery before being baptized.<\/p>\n\t Thank you, sir, for your reply.<\/p>\n If I may ask a couple of follow-up questions. If I understand you correctly, every Jew living under the Old Law where there was a divorce and where fornication was not involved was living in an adulterous marriage and therefore unsaved if they remained in that state. Doesn’t the word “suffer” in Mark 10:4 mean in Greek “to allow, permit, let, liberty.”<\/p>\n Please help me understand. Thank you.<\/p>\n\t “They said, “Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away.” But Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment”<\/em> ” (Mark 10:4-5).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The Pharisees, who were trying to trap Jesus in an error, claimed that Deuteronomy 24:1-4 was permission to divorce for just about any reason. Jesus’ response was that their understanding of the law was flawed. Deuteronomy 24:1-4 was only given because the Jews were too stubborn in their desire to sin. Jesus explained that marriage was to be for life (Mark 10:6-9). He then explained that divorce and remarriage leads to a state of adultery (Mark 10:11-12)<\/p>\n In Matthew’s account of the same discussion, Jesus also explained that the “some uncleanness” in Deuteronomy 24:1 was referring to sexual uncleanness (i.e. fornication) (Matthew 19:9). Only in this case was a person allowed to divorce his spouse and marry again without it becoming adultery.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: Thank you for taking my question. If there had been Jewish men on the day of Pentecost who had previously given their original wives a Bill of Divorcement and were now married to other women, would they have to put away the new wives before they were baptized? Thank you. Answer: Repentance is required…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[52,167],"class_list":["post-38902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-baptism","tag-divorce"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7461,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/must-a-couple-previously-married-separate-after-they-are-baptized\/","url_meta":{"origin":38902,"position":0},"title":"Must a couple, previously married, separate after they are baptized?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 18, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: If a couple consists of two divorced individuals, and they are converted to Christ and are baptized, do they need to separate? Answer: This question leaves out too much to answer well. For example, you did not mention whether the individuals had a right to remarry. The Bible speaks\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":20304,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/isnt-divorce-a-sin-so-how-can-a-preacher-insist-that-two-people-who-had-divorced-and-remarried-to-get-divorced-before-they-can-be-baptized\/","url_meta":{"origin":38902,"position":1},"title":"Isn’t divorce a sin? So how can a preacher insist that two people, who had divorced and remarried, to get divorced before they can be baptized?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 24, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: This one is about marriage and divorce: Everyone is confused about this.\u00a0The problem is a few people have been baptized and before they were baptized they had been divorced and remarried again.\u00a0I have heard preachers telling them to get divorced. I personally do not see how that would be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":19001,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/if-a-person-is-in-an-unscriptural-marriage-must-the-person-divorce-before-becoming-a-christian\/","url_meta":{"origin":38902,"position":2},"title":"If a person is in an unscriptural marriage, must the person divorce before becoming a Christian?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 9, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Do you agree it is scriptural if a non-Christian who was previously married but got divorced for unscriptural reasons and was re-married and wants to become a Christian has to get divorced before they can be baptized? Answer: Can a person become a Christian while remaining in their former\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":22032,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-can-a-person-living-in-an-adulterous-marriage-still-be-in-sin-after-baptism\/","url_meta":{"origin":38902,"position":3},"title":"How can a person living in an adulterous marriage still be in sin after baptism?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 19, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I don't understand how a non-believer, who divorced their spouse for reasons other than fornication and remarries, if they are born again, are living in sin. I thought when you are baptized all of your sins were forgiven according to Acts 2:38. Are only certain sins forgivable? Can you\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":35451,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-does-a-person-have-to-leave-his-second-marriage-to-become-a-christian\/","url_meta":{"origin":38902,"position":4},"title":"Why does a person have to leave his second marriage to become a Christian?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 22, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have a question about the question and answer article:\u00a0Do I have to divorce my husband in order to be baptized? I am a member of a church of Christ, and we are currently struggling with our study on this subject. As I'm sure you are familiar with, this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":60795,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-i-get-baptized-while-being-in-a-relationship\/","url_meta":{"origin":38902,"position":5},"title":"Can I get baptized while being in a relationship?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 11, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I'm a 21-year-old male. My Father is a pastor. I'm in a relationship with my sister-in-law. Now I wanted to take baptism, but I have concerns. Do we need to break our relationship in order to get baptized? She is a very good girl, and I preached the gospel\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38902\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Question:<\/h2>\n
Answer:<\/h2>\n