Chapter 10—Grounds for Divorce
Adultery the Only Reason for Divorce—A woman may be
legally divorced from her husband by the laws of the land and yet
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not divorced in the sight of God and according to the higher law. There
is only one sin, which is adultery, which can place the husband or wife
in a position where they can be free from the marriage vow in the sight
of God. Although the laws of the land may grant a divorce, yet they
are husband and wife still in the Bible light, according to the laws of
God.
I saw that Sister Jones, as yet, has no right to marry another man;
but if she, or any other woman, should obtain a divorce legally on the
ground that her husband was guilty of adultery, then she is free to be
married to whom she chooses.—
The Adventist Home, 344
.
Among the Jews a man was permitted to put away his wife for the
most trivial offenses, and the woman was then at liberty to marry again.
This practice led to great wretchedness and sin. In the Sermon on the
Mount Jesus declared plainly that there could be no dissolution of the
marriage tie except for unfaithfulness to the marriage vow. “Everyone,”
He said, “that putteth away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication,
maketh her an adulteress: and whosoever shall marry her when she is
put away committeth adultery” (
Matthew 5:32
, R.V.).
When the Pharisees afterward questioned Him concerning the
lawfulness of divorce, Jesus pointed His hearers back to the marriage
institution as ordained at creation. “Because of the hardness of your
hearts,” He said, Moses “suffered you to put away your wives: but from
the beginning it was not so” (
Matthew 19:8
). He referred them to the
blessed days of Eden, when God pronounced all things “very good.”
Then marriage and the Sabbath had their origin, twin institutions for
the glory of God in the benefit of humanity. Then, as the Creator joined
the hands of the holy pair in wedlock, saying, A man shall “leave his
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father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall
be one” (
Genesis 2:24
), He enunciated the law of marriage for all the
children of Adam to the close of time. That which the Eternal Father
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