This Satuday Conference Call

Stand Up Ministries is having their 4th conference call this coming Saturday-February 9th. My apologies since I kept on forgetting to post this when we had our previous calls. Stand Up Minsitries is currently conducting live chat conference calls with over 150 lines to access over the phone every other Saturday which has been a blessing to those who have attended. This is not a line where we simply argue. The intent is also not to be a replacement for true Biblical fellowship. This is simply an extension of the 1st conference we had in November of 2007 and enables those of us across the country to keep in touch. At the past conference we had men and women from all over the US attend and even from England.

The time zones for your area are as follows:
6:00 pm - eastern 5:00 pm - central 4:00 pm -

mountain 3:00 pm - pacific (605) 475-4333

Access code: 339865#

(please hit the pound key after entering the code)

This Saturday's topic is "Divorce and Re-marriage." There are seven historically significant interpretations of the exception clause is Matthew 19:9, and there is no small amount of disagreement among reputable Bible scholars as to which one of these seven is correct. Five of the seven views affirm a no-divorce understanding of the text, and six affirm a no-remarriage view. Only one permits both divorce and re-marriage.

Typically most Christians see marriage after a divorce as an option and see that there are exceptions based on Matthew chapter 5 and 19. I differ on this topic completely. I am posting below a paper written by John Piper who also holds this view. His paper is not as detailed as I would like but it gives an overview of his position on this. I believe this position is the most accurate and true to Christ' intent in the Bible. John Macarthur(my favorite Bible expositor) holds the common view and I think he couldn't be more wrong on this issue.

One basic rule of hermeneutics is if we find a passage in which in itself is capable of two interpretations, one of which harmonizes with the rest of the Scriptures while the other does not, we are duty bound to accept the former. This is a recognized principle of interpretation that the more obscure passages are to be interpreted in the light of clearer passages and not vice versa. Prayerfully I ask you to leave your presuppositions to the side and take a Berean look at the opposing views with a non-biased view.

Good book on the seven different views is "Marriage and Ministry in the New Temple" by Abel Isaksson.

Here is the Piper article. Here is Macarthur's site and his link here.