Who is Amenable to God’s Laws?<\/a><\/p>\nWhen Betty and her new husband desired to become Christians, the advice they received was accurate based on the information they presented. As far as Betty knew, her marriage ended because of reasons other than fornication. That means her current marriage, as far as everyone knows — including Betty, is that the marriage is adulterous. “Do you have faith? Have it to yourself before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves. But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does not eat from faith; for whatever is not from faith is sin<\/em>” (Romans 14:22-23).<\/p>\nBetty chose to remain in a marriage that she believed to be adulterous. She loved her husband more than being obedient to God. “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple<\/em>” (Luke 14:26).<\/p>\nYour conclusion is false. You don’t encourage a person to be baptized without repentance of past or ongoing sin (Acts 2:38). The alcoholic must be told that he must give up getting drunk before he can become a Christian. The homosexual must be told that he must give up his sexual sin before he can become a Christian. Those living in fornication must be told that they must end the fornication before they can become Christians. Giving someone a false hope of salvation while they remain in their sin is not doing the person any good. The verse you used to claim that we should not be concerned about what a person did in the past is only true once a person becomes a Christian and a person can only become a Christian when his sins of the past have ended. “Therefore\u00a0if anyone is in Christ<\/strong>, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come<\/em>” (II Corinthians 5:17).<\/p>\nThat all who were involved did not understand all the facts does not matter. In fact, if this was a secret affair that no one knew about, then that would include you as well. You could not determine that advice was given based on a lack of information because this information was supposedly not available to anyone. People acted on the basis of the facts as they knew them and based on the known facts, Betty violated God’s laws and refused to repent of that violation.<\/p>\n\t
Question:<\/h2>\n
I never once told you this was hypothetical you just assumed that even after I told you I could provide you with more facts about this you wouldn’t take advantage of that. Assuming without facts is what got this in a mess to start with. This happened to my family and, yes, I know all the facts about it. You keep saying that my aunt Betty violated God’s law. That’s false, she did no such thing. You can try and spin this all you want, but the facts are just that facts.<\/p>\n\t
Answer:<\/h2>\n
As I mentioned in my first note, the core of your argument was that the real reason for the divorce was\u00a0secret<\/em>. No one knew that Betty’s first husband divorced because of his adultery. Now you claim that you and others, including Betty, did know the reason. You can’t have it both ways.<\/p>\nIf Betty knew that her divorce was due to her husband’s adultery, then she had the right to remarry and the elders, knowing these same facts, would not have objected to her being baptized while married to her second husband.<\/p>\n\t
Question:<\/h2>\n
No, I never said Betty knew about the affair. No one knew about it until the ex-husband came to visit. He got to talking to some and found out what went on at church several months ago. He broke down and spoke to one of the family members about it. That’s the first time anyone knew anything about it. I’ll agree it was a big mess. But don’t think I’m lying or making this up because I’m not!<\/p>\n\t
Answer:<\/h2>\n
Then why are you upset with people in the church? They made an accurate decision based on the information they were told. You too asked me to make a judgment without presenting all the information as well.<\/p>\n
As I stated originally, at the time your aunt asked about baptism, as far as she and everyone else knew, she was improperly married. Yet her marriage was more important to her than living righteously and being a Christian.<\/p>\n
I’m not going to try to deal with a question that keeps changing because the facts are being doled out in pieces.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: Many years ago a couple got married and after a short time the husband had a “secret affair” and for obvious reasons did not tell her about it. He just said their marriage was a mistake and he didn’t love her and divorced her. Some years later Betty married another man, Tom, and they…<\/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,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[66,167],"class_list":["post-45237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-adultery","tag-divorce"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":19069,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/my-husband-cheated-and-i-cheated-i-lived-with-a-man-for-years-before-the-divorce-was-final-we-eventually-married-but-did-i-have-the-right-to-marry-again\/","url_meta":{"origin":45237,"position":0},"title":"My husband cheated and I cheated. I lived with a man for years before the divorce was final. We eventually married, but did I have the right to marry again?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 6, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: As I read through some of your posts on adultery, one comes strongly out to me. I will explain my situation: I married a man. I didn't talk to God or parents before it and we were kids, even as adults we were kids. Then we had a kid.\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":32710,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/am-i-forgiven-after-being-divorced-for-adultery\/","url_meta":{"origin":45237,"position":1},"title":"Am I forgiven after being divorced for adultery?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 28, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I always thought my husband had cheated on me while we were married but could not prove it. We didn't have a great marriage. He always treated me like he was ashamed of me. He had a good job and made comments all the time about my lack of\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":66797,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/a-sad-and-complex-situation\/","url_meta":{"origin":45237,"position":2},"title":"A sad and complex situation","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 28, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: This is sad and complicated. Katie married Joe, and neither were previously married. It is unknown if they were believers.\u00a0Katie and Joe divorced. The reason is unknown, but it is rumored to be because Joe didn't want kids. Katie had a child with Ken before her divorce from Joe\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":23910,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-married-a-man-who-was-divorced-because-of-his-adultery-is-our-marriage-ok\/","url_meta":{"origin":45237,"position":3},"title":"I married a man who was divorced because of his adultery. Is our marriage ok?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 30, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What do you do if you are a Christian, have a second marriage, and realize only too late that it was not the will of God?\u00a0 My spouse was a called man of God, but he committed adultery in his first marriage.\u00a0He is no longer preaching, and I am\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":27237,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-can-i-convince-my-girlfriends-parents-that-my-past-doesnt-matter-and-that-i-can-marry-her\/","url_meta":{"origin":45237,"position":4},"title":"How can I convince my girlfriend’s parents that my past doesn’t matter and that I can marry her?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 15, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I hope I can get an answer to a question which is troubling me for many months now. I married a non-believer, but we didn't live together as such since her parents didn't approve of it. We only got married legally but not in church or received the blessing\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":32277,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-a-woman-remarry-if-she-divorced-her-husband-because-of-his-adultery-but-didnt-move-out-immediately\/","url_meta":{"origin":45237,"position":5},"title":"Can a woman remarry if she divorced her husband because of his adultery, but didn’t move out immediately?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 25, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I know a young woman who was repeatedly cheated on by her spouse. Yet, she forgave him after the first couple of times for the sake of the family. Later in the marriage, she suspected he was still cheating on her and had sex with a young woman with\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\/45237","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=45237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45237\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}