# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_October 1855_S289
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Lehre und Wehre.

Volume I. October 1855. No. 10.

On Matters of Marriage.
(Submitted by Pastor O. Fürbringer.)

First Question: Is marriage to a person divorced on account of adultery contrary to the divine commandment, or not?

1. From Matthew 5:32; 19:9 it follows that the Most High Lawgiver wills no divorce between husband and wife, except it be for adultery. This is not contradicted by the fact that St. Paul says, in 1 Corinthians 7:15, that if the unbelieving party departs from the other, believing party on account of the latter's Christian confession, then the brother or sister is not held captive or bound in such cases. For when a married person is maliciously abandoned by his or her spouse, so that a return cannot be obtained, then the other party is, in fact, no longer present for that person, and fundamentally the same dissolution occurs as with death, which severs all bonds; cf. Romans 7:2-3. The guilty party has divorced himself; in the case of adultery it is the innocent party to whom this belongs — that is the difference; whether he is bound to remain unmarried for the whole of his life is discussed below. When spouses part from one another out of incompatibility, whether or not the civil authority grants the divorce, they nevertheless remain, before the divine tribunal, husband and wife and may never marry again; it is better, however, that they be reconciled, 1 Corinthians 7:11. Even if the one party carries his malice so far that the other is placed by him in danger of body and life, the endangered party may indeed seek the protection of the law against this, and may also secure his safety by just self-defense, but he may not pursue an actual divorce. If, however, the former succeeds in bringing it about, or if he has hardened himself in his murderous intent, then it is indeed the same as in 1 Corinthians 7:15; for whatever amounts to malicious desertion is naturally included here as well. All other cases either give no ground for a divorce — being null causes contrary to God's Word — or are of such a nature that they rather effect a nullity of the marriage itself.

2. From Matthew 5:32; 19:9 it follows incontrovertibly, by way of the converse —