A disturbed Christian couple has sent to me a copy of a magazine called IMAGE (September-October, 1994), asking a review of an article by a talented gospel preacher, a marriage counselor. He affirms that no divorced person, regardless of marital misconduct of whatever sort, sins when he marries again. Since those dying with the sin of adultery on their souls cannot go to heaven (1 Corinthians 6:9-10), should we believe this modern uninspired counselor? He is a comfort to many remarried divorcees, but is it a comfort that lasts into eternity?

The counselor holds that Paul in 1 Corinthians 7:27-28 gives a "complete statement" about divorce and remarriage. The counselor interprets Paul to say "If you are married, do not divorce. If you are divorced, you will not sin if you marry." With our modern counselor’s idea "that every person be allowed to have a marriage," how many marriages one has does not matter. If Elizabeth Taylor had asked him to perform the ceremony for her eighth wedding, he would have done so.

But, in the passage cited by our modern counselor, Paul was not discussing the rightness or the wrongness of multiple marriages. He was saying that, in view of "the present distress" (v. 26), and the time "being short" (v. 29), the wisdom of a divorce or of getting married was questionable.

Paul was not discussing dishonorable marriages, nor if divorcees may remarry. The counselor has misused Paul’s words with the result that, unintentionally, he has misrepresented Paul. He has wrested Scripture (2 Peter 3:16).

The counselor, writing in IMAGE, makes an excellent statement, but fails to profit by it: "If we lay aside efforts to interpret or make" the Scriptures "fit a particular theory and just let them say exactly what they say, the text itself makes it clear." Amen!

No New Testament text says, "If you are divorced, you will not sin if you marry," as our modern counselor teaches. But the text says, "Whoever divorces his wife, except for fornication, and marries another, commits adultery" (Matthew 19:9).

No New Testament text says "how important it is that every person be allowed to have a marriage," as our modern counselor teaches. But the text says "whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery" (Matthew 5:32b).

However, our modern counselor, instead of letting the text speak for itself, he, on his own, without any help from Paul or Jesus or from any Greek scholar, takes the "sex act" out of Jesus’ word "adultery."

His modern definition of adultery is that it is a "betrayal against the first mate." Yes, a rascal has betrayed his first mate, but the adultery against her (Mark 10:11) did not begin until after his second marriage. The betrayal describes what preceded the adultery, the thoughts of his mind, but "betrayal" is not the meaning of the word "adultery." The rascal’s adultery is against the first mate, but his adultery is with the second mate.

Many English translations of Matthew 5:32a are not only false to the Greek (aorist passive infinitive), but also lay a false accusation against the innocent first mate: "whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery" (KJV); "maketh her an adulteress" (ASV); "makes her commit adultery" (NASV); "causes her to commit adultery" (NIV, NRSV). Shameful translations! Jesus said that the man divorcing an innocent wife makes her moicheuthenai (Matthew 5:32a), "to have been adulterized," an archaic word but which is the literal translation of Jesus’ word. An accurate translation would be: "to have been debauched."

The man’s first mate has not committed adultery, but she has been left as though she had done so--her virginity is gone forever. She has been victimized, used, and exposed to public view. It is the rascal and his second mate who have committed the adultery. The adultery is not retroactive, but, according to Jesus, it is after the second marriage (Matthew 19:9).

Our modern counselor has done precisely what he warned against:

His particular theory is that marriage is for everybody with no exceptions. He affirms that "Paul gave a blanket approval of marriage for every man and every woman." On the other hand, Paul affirmed that if a married woman "marries another man while her husband is living, she will be called an adulteress" (Romans 7:3).

The alleged blanket from Paul covering marriage rights "for every man and every woman" does not cover a married woman separated from her husband, for she must "remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband" (1 Corinthians 7:11).

Also, Jesus did not grant marriage rights "for every man and every woman," for he said: "Whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery" (Matthew 5:32b).

Also, Jesus failed to teach marriage rights for everybody, for he taught that, after a divorce, with no fornication involved, neither party has a right to remarry. As regards the man, "whoever divorces his wife, except for fornication, and marries another, commits adultery" (Matthew 19:9). As regards the woman, "if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery" (Mark 10:12). Jesus’ words are the opposite of those spoken by our modern counselor.

According to our modern counselor, no man needs under any circumstances to make himself a eunuch "for the sake of the heavenly kingdom" (Matthew 19:12). Willful celibacy has no part in our modern counselor’s book of directives. The front page of IMAGE carries the admonition, "Be conformed to the image of his Son" (Romans 8:29). Sadly, our modern counselor is conformed to the image of sociologists who have no rules about divorce and remarriage. He means well. In his desire to make all people happy he has unknowingly perverted the word of God.

Our modern counselor writes, "If you are married, do not divorce." Generally speaking, his advice is biblical, for Jesus said, "What, therefore, God hath joined together, let not man put asunder" (Matthew 19:6). But are there situations when it is sinful to stay married? Herod Antipas and Herodias are a sad example.

Herod Antipas (tetrarch of Galilee and Perea, 4 B.C.-A.D. 29) was married to the daughter of King Aretas of Arabia. Herod Philip (tetrarch of northeast Palestine, 4. B.C.-A.D. 34), a half-brother of Herod Anntipas, had married Herodias, the daughter of Aristobulus.

Herod Antipas fell in love with Herodias and proposed marriage. She agreed to divorce her husband if Herod would "divorce the daughter of Aretas" (ANTIQ. 18, 5, 1), which was done. So, said Josephus,

That Herodias in God’s eyes was still Philip’s wife our modern counselor would say is a "human theory" emanating from the Council of Trent in the sixteenth century. Our modern advisor words it this way:

However, one has to say that the Council members respected Jesus’ words that the couple whom "God has joined together, let not man put asunder" (Matthew 19:6). God hates divorce (Malachi 2:16). The marriage vows are "until death doth part." But the same respect shown by the Council for the permanency of marriage, one man with one woman for life, is not evident in our modern counselor. He holds that couples may let man put them "asunder" for whatever reason, and that they may seek new partners over and over again. That is the thrust of his question, "Does a divorced person sin when he marries again?" His emphasis is not on the permanency of marriage, as taught by Jesus and the Council of Trent, but on "how vitally important it is that every person be allowed to have a marriage."

Herodias, though legally divorced by Roman law, and newly married to Herod Antipas, thus was still in God’s eyes Philip’s wife, and so she is described after her marriage to Herod Antipas by Matthew (14:3), Mark (6:17), and Luke (3:19).

If our modern counselor had been called to the palace he would have congratulated the newly married couple, saying,

However, an old fashioned counselor, a man "sent from God," a man "filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb," John the immerser (Matthew 3:1; John 1:6; Luke 1:15), was well known by Herod and Herodias. Herod regarded John as "an upright and a holy man" (Mark 6:20), and Herod "continued to listen to John gladly" (Mark 6:20).

But Herod "was afraid of John" (Mark 6:20). Instead of John’s congratulating the newly married couple, "John had been saying to Herod, ‘It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife’" (Mark 6:18). Such counseling infuriated Herodias and "she wanted to kill" John (Mark 6:19), and she finally got the bloody job done. John lost his life because he taught that, in some situations, divorces are necessary, and homes must be broken up.

If our modern counselor had been present, he would have told the king and the queen that they should not divorce. He would have received the smiles of Herodias, and perhaps a palace dinner, and the reluctant approval of a woman-dominated man.