1. Free to Change
2. Freedom and Responsibility
3. My Kind of People
4. "Come Out And Be Separate"
5. Private Intepretation
6. A "Monkey-Wrench" Scripture
7. The Truth That Frees
8. Literary Devices
9. Fear of God
10. A Love Story
11. The Three Trees In Eden
12. Imputed Righteousness
13. Different Essentials For Different People
14. God's Sons In All Ages
15. Looking To Lust
16. Divorce Her!
17. "While Her Husband Is Alive"
18. "They Won't Let Me Preach!"
19. God's Perplexing Prophets
20. Religous Titles
21. Who Sinned?
22. "I'll Join Your Church"
23. The Church As The Route To Heaven
24. One Hundred Years Old
25. Can Our Churches Unite?
26. Can The Cause Of Sickness Be The Cure?
27. When Life Begins
28. Abortion: Law Or Principle?
29. Human Chattel
30. The Hope of Israel
31. The Great Temptation of Jesus
32. The Rich Man And Lazarus
33. My Hermeneutic
34. Is Immersion Proved By Example?
35. Who Gets The Credit?
36. Hook's Points
37. Heresy
38. I Am A Debtor

Other Books at Freedom's Ring

Throughout history it has been difficult for a single woman to live independently. This has been true especially when she has had to provide for her children. She has found it to be expedient, if not necessary, to marry so as to have a husband to provide for her.

When a husband was displeased with his wife and caused a separation without giving her a divorce, it was a special form of cruelty, for she would not be free to marry another man. Because of her husband's hardness of heart, she would be driven into an impoverished and outcast state.

The Pharisees tested Jesus with questions about marriage and divorce (Matt. 19:3-9). Jesus assured them that God intended marriage ties to be permanent; yet Moses had commanded that a certificate of divorce be given by the man who put his wife away. The reason: "For your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so."

Because it was unmerciful to send a wife away to be denied the support of a husband, Moses had said, "Divorce her!" Being divorced, she would be free to remarry. This merciful course alleviated the hardheartedness and pain of being rejected and driven out (See Deut. 14:1-4).

Generally, it has been thought that Jesus disapproved of this Mosaic provision as though it were Moses' own innovative idea. But this was a feature of the Law of Moses that Jesus was explaining, and he was not annulling it. If Jesus had not granted that same protection for the rejected wife, he would have been subjecting her again to the husband of callous heart and action.

When we contend that the divorced wife cannot remarry, we are laying the same cruel burden on the woman.

When we declare that her only appropriate course of action is to remain single or return to her husband, we fail to recognize that Moses would not permit her to return to her first husband after being divorced and remarried. Divorcing her second husband and returning to the first one was not an acceptable solution.

Paul grants to all the unmarried women (which includes maidens, widows, and divorced persons) the privilege of marriage. The woman who left her husband to be more devoted to Christ was obliged to either remain under that celibate vow or return to her husband (1 Cor. 7:1-12). He did not impose a celibate life on her.

An accurate translation of verses 27 and 28 further bears this out: "Are you bound in marriage? Do not seek a dissolution. Has your marriage been dissolved? Do not seek a wife. If, however, you do marry, there is nothing wrong with it; and if a virgin marries, she has done no wrong" (NEB. Compare KJV, ASV, NASV. "Loose" means to unbind, release).

So, divorce her instead of just separating, and let her remarry instead of suffering rejection and destitution.