Casey

AMEN. There are two biblical reasons for divorce: fornication, and in the case of an unbeliever refusing to remain married to a believer. Fornication in the text (Matthew 5:32) was the Greek word porneuo. This word includes fornication and adultery (which, by definition is a form of fornication being any sexual act outside of marriage); but it has to do with a corrupt appetite for sexual perverseness. It has the idea of sexual acts being idolatrous. In other words: a perverse sexual addiction that one does not want to relinquish. With that said, Jesus nor Paul promoted, much less commanded divorce in either of these situations. Many people are capable of grace enough to forgive their spouse for fornication/adultery, and to work through that sin and repair their marriage and relationships. Obviously, in the case of a person with sexual addictions not willing to repent, divorce is likely the only option; and in the case of an unbeliever, the believer is not to put their spouse away. It is fully up to the unbelieving spouse. I would agree that any man who is divorced under either of these two allowances and remarried; or is released from marriage due to a spouse's death and remarried is fully qualified (at least by biblical marriage standards) to be a pastor.

Biblically, if you renounce (give up, relinquish, abandon, walk away from) your salvation, you were not saved to begin with. Biblical sorrow, which is humility and contriteness of heart and spirit leads to a repentance not to be repented of. True belief, faith that is living will never allow you to "un-believe." If you preached from a pulpit for 50 years, then wake up one morning and say, "God is not real, none of this is true, and I am not a Christian," you are not de-converting, you are simply revealing what you've always been: a fraud. The Apostle John said, "...they were not of us," not, "...they used to be of us." There is no such thing as a used-to-be Christian, only a non-Christian. You're one or the other and nothing in between. This is one of those dangers that comes with easy prayerism, easy believism, and the 1-2-3-pray-after-me evangelism. Salvation is a heart issue. It is a conversion from old to new. We can mimic conversion to an extent and for only so long; but true conversion is God's handiwork. It is evident, and it is eternal.