by Standerinfamilycourt
For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way. Then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming; that is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false, in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness.
– 2 Thessalonians 2:7-12
This may be the least politically-correct blog I’ll ever write. I almost skipped the cyber-story depicted above because I assumed it was another tedious gay wedding tale, coming in the midst of a week when SIFC was wrestling a lot of personal alligators and feeling a bit (well..) peevish. Then, on the commute to the day job, on CHRISTIAN radio no less, this story was called out as having the evangelical dee-jay in literal tears because this father-of-the-bride was showing “the love of Christ” in his “blended family” to the stepdad who had “just as much to do with who his daughter became” as he (nolo contendre on that last point), and so both men walked her down the aisle. Both men indeed have much to do with this shared daughter, not to mention sundry replacement spouses, and themselves all being on the wrong bus to the eternally-wrong destination, and having not the slightest clue of it. Likely not their fault, since fewer than 5% of U.S. evangelical pastors will dare call out remarriage adultery and tell the truth about the eternal consequences of continuing to live in that state until death without forsaking it. We can no longer even read authoritatively about it in (altered) contemporary bibles or bible commentaries, thanks to a grand switcheroo on the manuscripts from which they are negligently translated.
And this little gem was also getting the adulation last week for the sterling display of love, respect and “maturity” of a husband yielding his “ex” over to the arms of an apparently cohabiting successor. Quite a few “friends of friends” were wishing for this super-guy’s phone number. Apparently SIFC was the only person in all of Facebookland wondering why in the world this man wasn’t instead binding satan and praying Hosea thornbushes in their path! If his love was so undying and his esteem for her so polished, how could he applaud her stroll toward the hell-flames with one of satan’s demons? Since this friend (of mine) had twenty minutes before walked out of church behind me, and had already been burned, divorced and left with two fatherless daughters as a consequence of our pastor not declining to perform a wedding over her and another woman’s husband, I called out the fact that this article was glorifying adultery and that her daughters deserved better. I was slapped silly by her other “friends” for my judgmental lack of couth and insensitivity in accusing anyone of committing an “unpardonable sin” (let’s come back to that in a bit). Nevertheless, the Lord was present, and helped me get a link into her hands to Casey Whitaker’s “Have You Not Read?”
I’ll bet many of us nauseously remember this bit making the viral rounds in the last year or two, because it still keeps turning up every now and then like a bad social media penny!
It’s interesting that The Ruth Institute, the Catholic-based rare pro-family advocacy organization dedicated to exposure and full repeal of unilateral divorce laws in the 50-states, recently published an excellent piece on the brand of norm-enforced political correctness shoved off on the stepchildren of those “blended” unions who must stuff down God-given feelings of being violated and betrayed by their own parents.
In our culture, and even in our CHURCH culture, the highest good is the “feel good”, as though this life on earth was all there is. Prominent evangelical leaders who are media titans call this out as “functional atheism” on Friday (living as though we believe God doesn’t exist), then perform weddings on Saturday joining already-married ineligible adulterers to one another without the slightest regard for three souls including their own! Everyone must “move on” because that’s “emotional maturity”. After all, those who say “divorce” is “the unpardonable sin” are legalists who don’t respect a brother or sister’s entitlement to the Matthean Exception, or barring that, to the Pauline Privilege. Isn’t a man-made legal construct actually morally neutral and dependent on whether its goal is repentance or rebellion against God’s law? Isn’t the real sin disobedience of Christ’s crystal-clear commandment in Luke 16:18 ?
And is this sin unpardonable? Let’s examine that!
Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy [every evil, abusive, injurious speaking, or indignity against sacred things] will be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the [Holy] Spirit will not be forgiven. Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit [by attributing the miracles done by Me to Satan] will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come. – Matt. 12:31-32 (AMP)
Remarriage apologists love to point to this pronouncement of Jesus to insist, with condescending glare, that those who remain in a perpetual state of rebellion against the 1st, 7th and 10th Commandments (against self-worshipping idolatry, adultery and covetousness, respectively), will not go to hell, notwithstanding (KJV*):
“Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
[And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.]” – 1 Cor. 6:9-11
Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. – Gal. 5:19-21
(*No, you didn’t imagine it, your NIV, NASB, etc. omits “adultery” from this list.)
But the fearful [of men], and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death. – Rev. 21:8
Marriage revisionists are absolutely right, Jesus clearly did say, “every sin and blasphemy [every evil, abusive, injurious speaking, or indignity against sacred things] will be forgiven people, ” but there are two important provisos involved: (1) the sin and blasphemy must be TERMINATED, and (2) the sinner must not run out of time before doing so! Indeed, the opportunity that remains to go and sin no more, as well as Paul’s words, (1 Cor. 6:11) ….”and such were some of you”, conclusively proves that civilly marrying somebody else’s spouse, and taking them on a journey toward hell with you, is not the unpardonable sin. However, like every other pardonable sin, the determination of whether an adulterous pair ultimately arrives there depends on which direction they are walking when the trumpet sounds, or when the sand empties from the personal hour glass at the end of the days of our lives.
The Thursday after this event brought the reality check, when our nation saw the wicked underbelly of all of this “unselfish emotional maturity” that ignores Christ’s marriage commandment and refuses to call adultery what Jesus called adultery. We watched a blind, enraged President of the United States declare that this was the 15th time since taking office that he had to comment on a mass shooting, but neglected to mention the recurring circumstance that a son of divorce was involved, as he instead crusaded for stiffening gun controls. SIFC would urge that a more disciplined root cause analysis be applied before drawing such conclusions in isolation.
Lord, raise up parents and shepherds who model their “gestures” from the eternal perspective, and who value souls over feelings and sensibilities. Such parents would set the example for their own children by standing for their violated marriage instead of insisting on being with another, and would exit those civil arrangements that Jesus repeatedly called adulterous, so that their soul-jeopardizing example isn’t followed by succeeding generations!
“There is no neutral ground in the universe; every square inch, every split second, is claimed by God and counter-claimed by Satan”
(C. S. Lewis)
7 Times Around the Jericho Wall | Let’s Repeal No-Fault Divorce!
www. standerinfamilycourt.com