Divorce And Also Remarriage In The Early Church

By Dean Taylor

After the death of the apostles, Christianity continued to grow and flourish, even though it was beset by poverty and persecution. When we read the writings of the early Church, we enter a world that is in some ways very different than ours. Persecution and ridicule helped to keep the Church free of converts who would come merely to seek worldly advantage. Closeness to the apostles was strength. Some churches could even speak of the times when the apostles actually sat in their midst and explained the ways of Christ.

Language was also an advantage. Their faith was one that was “handed down,” more than one that was determined merely by studying ancient languages and trying to guess the root meanings of words. I find it kind of funny when I read of some university professor today, claiming that the ancient Greek plainly—and—emphatically says something, and then find out that the very people who lived in ancient Greece said just the opposite. With this advantage, the early Church often cuts through many of our longstanding facades and institutional excuses.

On the other hand, the early church was in many ways very much like we are today. A casual read through the book of Corinthians reveals that the early Christians certainly were not immune to the problems of worldliness, compromise, and sin. The early Christians clashed with their culture—and that clash came with many hard situations that forced the Church to seek the face of God.

And just as we are today, they were just regular men and women. Their words are not Gospel, authoritative, or inspired. In their day, as much as in ours, the words, life, and calling of Jesus stand without comparison or exceptions. Regardless of the changing times and opinions of men, the Word of God stands forever.

That said, the closeness to the apostles, the natural understanding of ancient languages and cultures, the purification of persecution—not to mention the sheer antiquity of their age, makes the early Church an invaluable commentary, to say the very least.

Divorce—and also—Remarriage

A few pointers in early Christian theology will help in understanding the ancient view of divorce and remarriage.

First, the early Church saw marriage as a lifelong, unbreakable bond until the death of one of the partners. You can’t miss this point and understand their view. Modern discussions about divorce and remarriage never seem to grasp this point.

The modern Christian frequently cries out, “Can’t my sin be forgiven?” The answer is, “Of course, Jesus can forgive your sin.” However, the modern mind misses an important point. The problem preventing the person from considering a second marriage is not the “sin” per se. Yes, the sin must be dealt with and repented of. However, as the early Church saw it, the actual barrier preventing the new marriage is not the “sin,” but rather the fact that the person is still married in the eyes of God.

To enter into another marriage would have been serial polygamy to the early Church. Jesus said, “Whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery.” Today we ask, “Why does Jesus call the remarriage ‘adultery’ if the woman is legally divorced?” The early Church answered that it was called “adultery” simply because the woman was still married in the eyes of God—regardless of what divorce procedure she went through.

Second, the issues of divorce and remarriage are looked at as two separate entities. The title of this article is a bit clumsy to stress this very point. In our modern understanding, justification for a divorce also grants justification for remarriage—the early Church would disagree. As the Apostle Paul said, “But and if she depart [divorce], let her remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband” (1 Cor. 7:11). As we will read, the early Church did at times allow for separation. However, this understanding would harmonize with Paul’s teaching that the separated person was expected to “remain unmarried.”

When the early Church is considered as a whole, a conspicuous unity is seen considering the subject of divorce and remarriage. Heth and Wenhem, in their book Jesus and Divorce, say, “To list those who hold that remarriage after divorce is contrary to the gospel teaching is to call a roll of the best-known early Christian theologians…In all, twenty-five individual writers and two early councils forbid remarriage after divorce”(p. 38).

Hermas

Heth and Wenhem tell us that the earliest Christian teaching on divorce is found in The Shepherd of Hermas. Many of the early Christians quote from this work. In this book, Hermas is seen as a man questioning his heavenly guardian about what a man should do if he learns that his wife is guilty of adultery and persists in it.

I say to him, “Sir, permit me to ask thee a few more questions.” “Say on,” saith he. “Sir,” say I, “if a man who has a wife that is faithful in the Lord detect her in adultery, doth the husband sin in living with her?” “So long as he is ignorant,” saith he, “he sinneth not; but if the husband know of her sin, and the wife repent not, but continue in her fornication, and her husband live with her, he makes himself responsible for her sin and an accomplice in her adultery.” “What then, Sir,” say I, “shall the husband do, if the wife continue in this case?” “Let him divorce her,” saith he, “and let the husband abide alone: but if after divorcing his wife he shall marry another, he likewise committeth adultery.” “If then, Sir,” say I, “after the wife is divorced, she repent and desire to return to her own husband, shall she not be received?” “Certainly,” saith he, “if the husband receiveth her not, he sinneth and bringeth great sin upon himself; … For this cause ye were enjoined to remain single, whether husband or wife; for in such cases repentance is possible.

Here it should be noted that Hermas allowed for separation because of adultery, but like the apostle Paul, required that the man remain single in hopes of his wife’s future repentance. He even quoted Paul in 1 Cor. 7:11 as support.

Justin Martyr

Justin Martyr was an early convert to Christianity around the year A.D. 130. Patristic scholars suggest that Justin is quoting from some kind of ancient catechism. Whatever the case, Justin has some pretty strong words against remarriage. Commenting on the need for Christian chastity, Justin teaches on the different uses of the words “adultery,” as used by Jesus. Justin mentions Jesus’ “Sermon on the Mount” warnings, as well as His teaching from Matt. 19 concerning the “eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven”. After discussing the problem of lust, Justin brings up Jesus’ words on remarriage saying:

“And, Whosoever shall marry her that is from another husband, commits adultery. And, There are some who have been made eunuchs of men, and some who were born eunuchs, and some who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’s sake; but all cannot receive this saying.

“So that all who, by human law, are twice married, are in the eye of our Master sinners, and those who look upon a woman to lust after her.”

Look at those words “twice married” that I highlighted. They are from the Greek words, διγαμίας ποιούμενοι, which literally translate “double marriage,” or rather—bigamy. These are some challenging views for our modern times. Notice that he said that even though “by human law” the divorce was accepted, in the eyes of God it was sin.

Athenagoras

In A.D. 177, Athenagoras from Athens wrote, “A plea for the Christians.” In this writing he says that a Christian:

“Should either remain as he was born, or be content with one marriage; for a second marriage is only a fair-seeming adultery. ‘For whosoever puts away his wife,’ says He, ‘and marries another, commits adultery’; not permitting a man to send her away whose virginity he has brought to an end, nor to marry again.”

In this statement, Athenagoras states that he recognizes that his culture is allowing remarriage so he called it “fair-seeming adultery.” Others have translated this statement as, “for a second marriage is only auspicious.”

Clement of Alexandria

Clement of Alexandria, teaching some kind of a catechism class around A.D. 194, speaks out strongly on marriage saying:

Now that the Scripture counsels marriage, and allows no release from the union, is expressly contained in the law, ‘Thou shalt not put away thy wife, except for the cause of fornication;’ and it regards as fornication, the marriage of those separated while the other is alive. … ‘He that taketh a woman that has been put away,’ it is said, ‘committeth adultery; and if one puts away his wife, he makes her an adulteress,’ that is, compels her to commit adultery. And not only is he who puts her away guilty of this, but he who takes her, by giving to the woman the opportunity of sinning; for did he not take her, she would return to her husband. (Stromata, 2:24).

When debating against several heretical groups that were renouncing marriage altogether by quoting Jesus’ words on becoming eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven, found in Matt. 19:9, Clement defends the passage. He says that the passage is obviously teaching about what a man should do if his wife leaves him because of fornication.

“Not all can receive this saying. There are some eunuchs who were born so, and some who were made eunuchs by men, and some who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven; let him receive it who can receive it,” they do not realize the context. After his word about divorce some asked him whether, if that is the position in relation to woman, it is better not to marry; and it was then that the Lord said: “Not all can receive this saying, but those to whom it is granted.” What the questioners wanted to know was whether, when a man’s wife has been condemned for fornication, it is allowable for him to marry another (Stromata, Bk. 3, Ch. 6)

Origen

Origen, another philosopher-turn-Christian, speaking sharply against remarriage said:

Just as a woman is an adulteress, even though she seems to be married to a man, while a former husband yet lives, so also the man who seems to marry who has been divorced does not marry her, but, according to the declaration of our Savior, he commits adultery with her (Commentaries on Matthew 14).

Even after the age of Constantine and his legalizing of Christianity in A.D. 312, the doctrine remained strong. Stephen Wilcox, in his article, “The Authoritative Teachings of the Early Church on Marriage, Divorce and Remarriage,” offers an impressive summary of the teachings of the early Church, and outlines the writers which spoke explicitly on that point. His summary goes beyond the Constantine era. However, I think the consistency and force of the later writers bears witness to the uniformity of this doctrine. Ironically, most of these later writers are venerated, even by modern Reformed theologians today. Quoting Stephen Wilcox:

Summary of Early Church Doctrine on Marriage, Divorce and Remarriage 90 A.D. – 419 A.D.

If a spouse persists in adulterous behavior and there is no other alternative, the marriage relationship can be terminated by the innocent party (Hermes, Clement, Jerome, Augustine).

Spouses that are divorced for any reason must remain celibate and single as long as both spouses live. Remarriage is expressly prohibited (Hermes, Justin Martyr, Clement, Origen, Basil, Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine).

To indulge in lust with the mind is to be guilty of adultery of the heart (Justin Martyr).

Whoever marries a divorced person commits adultery (Hermes, Justin Martyr, Clement, Origen, Basil, Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine).

Whoever contracts a second marriage, whether a Christian or not, while a former spouse lives is sinning against God (Justin Martyr, Ambrose).

God does not, and the Church must not, take into account human law when it is in violation of God’s law (Justin Martyr, Origen, Ambrose).

God judges motives and intentions, private thought life and actions (Justin Martyr).

The marriage covenant between a man and a woman is permanent, as long as both husband and wife are alive (Clement, Origen, Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine).

It is a serious offence against God to take another person’s spouse (Basil).

The Church must charge all persons who are in possession of another living person’s former husband or wife with adultery (Basil).

Marriage and affection with a remarried spouse while a former spouse lives is the sin of adultery (Hermes, Justin Martyr, Clement, Origen, Basil, Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine).

It is a serious mistake to believe that it is simply one’s right to divorce a spouse and take another. Even though human law may permit such a thing, God strictly forbids it, and cannot, and will not honor it (Clement, Origen, Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine).

Anyone who follows human customs and laws regarding marriage, divorce and remarriage, instead of God’s divine instructions should stand in fearful awe of God Himself (Clement, Ambrose).

All lawmakers, in and out of the Church are warned, to their peril, to hear and obey the Word of the Lord in regard to His commands on marriage and divorce (Ambrose).

Christians are to stop making excuses and trying to find justification for divorce and remarriage. There are no valid reasons acceptable to God (Jerome, Augustine).

A marriage is for life. No matter what a spouse turns out to be, or how they may act, what they do or don’t do, or the sins they commit, the covenant remains fully in effect. A remarriage while a former spouse lives is not marriage at all, but sinful adultery. God does not divide the one flesh relationship except by physical death (Hermes, Clement, Origen, Basil, Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine).

Marriage is a lifelong covenant that will never be invalidated by God while both parties live (Hermes, Justin Martyr, Clement, Origen, Basil, Ambrose, Augustine).

It never has been lawful, it is not now lawful, and it never will be lawful to divorce and remarry. To say and do otherwise is to worship and adopt the adulterous superstitions of a different God than the one to which we have to do (Augustine).

How often we hear the cries and pining supplications for a return to early Christianity! How often we beat our chest and ask God “how long” before we will see revival in His Church like the days of old! How frequent do we amuse ourselves with complaints about “liberal influences” within the Church as we fashion ourselves the brandish of conservative crusaders! Are our conservative Christians today holding onto biblical truths, or just shifting a few paces behind the world? I remember hearing an old man once say, “I used to be in the middle of the road—but the road moved.”

Brethren, the road on which marriage, divorce, and remarriage has traveled has moved considerably throughout the ages. We can raise our head and dismiss the early Christians as fanatics, ascetics, or heretics; but when we find ourselves chipping away at the very foundations on which we stand, we might just find ourselves shouting from a crumbling facade… “If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” (Ps. 11:3)

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Remembering David Wilkerson

By: Robert Crosby

David was up late as usual at midnight watching the “Late Show” when he first asked the question: “What would happen, Lord, if I sold the TV set and spent that time—praying?” After David Wilkerson prayed that prayer in 1958, the world would soon find out.

“What would happen, Lord, if I … ?”

After his television was actually sold, Wilkerson began to devote his midnight to 2 a.m. hours to prayer. One night while trying to pray, he found himself unusually drawn to an issue of Life magazine sitting on his desk. At first he suspected his interest in reading to be merely a human diversion pulling him away from the discipline of prayer. Nonetheless he couldn’t get away from it and finally asked, “God is there something you want me to see?”

Caught By The Eyes

The trailblazing pastor-turned-street-evangelist and founder of Teen Challenge died tragically on Wednesday, April 27, at age 79 in a car accident in Texas. He leaves his wife, Gwen, who survived the accident, and several family members, but he also leaves a church in Times Square and a drug recovery ministry (Teen Challenge) that has resulted in lives changed around the world. His story was first told in the bestselling 1963 book The Cross and the Switchblade.

What Wilkerson saw in that issue of Life was destined to change his own life and that of so many others. He read the report of a gang on trial in New York. He recalls the story:

… my attention was caught by the eyes of one of the figures in the drawing. A boy. One of seven boys on trial for murder. The artist had caught such a look of bewilderment and hatred and despair in his features that I opened the magazine wide again to get a closer look. And as I did, I began to cry.

“What’s the matter with me!” I said aloud, impatiently brushing away a tear. I looked at the picture more carefully. The boys were teen-agers. They were members of a gang called the Dragons. Beneath their picture was the story of how they had gone into Highbridge Park in New York and brutally attacked and killed a fifteen-year-old polio victim named Michael Farmer. The seven boys stabbed Michael in the back seven times with their knives, then beat him over the head with garrison belts. They went away wiping blood through their hair, saying, “We messed him good.”

The story revolted me. It turned my stomach. In our little mountain town such things seemed mercifully unbelievable.

That’s why I was dumbfounded by a thought that sprang suddenly into my head—full-blown, as though it had come into me from somewhere else: Go to New York City and help those boys.

The internal summons Wilkerson felt in that prayer time soon led the skinny 35-year-old Pennsylvania pastor from the mountains of Philipsburg to the streets of New York, from tending a local church to advocating for gang members and drug addicts in a courthouse. His ministry caught fire throughout the New York area and around the world. In the 1960s and ’70s it took form as a Christian addiction recovery program called Teen Challenge, a network of social and evangelistic training and work centers.

The Jesus Factor

The success rate of the Teen Challenge program and its proven approach to Christian discipleship emerged amidst Wilkerson’s evangelical and Pentecostal worldview and theology. Its effect has been repeatedly researched and documented, and its results proven to be quite astounding. It is, in fact, unparalleled as a recovery program in its efficacy.

In a 1975 survey by the National Institute of Drug Abuse, Teen Challenge was shown as having an 86 percent or higher success rate of recovery from drug addiction among its participants. When Teen Challenge became a political talking point in 2001, as President George W. Bush launched his Faith-Based Initiative, some questioned Teen Challenge’s use of the number (for example, it doesn’t count the 30 percent or so who start the program but do not finish). But even so, the remarkably low recidivism rate provided more credibility to the program, and the research ultimately isolated the most distinctive aspect of the program as “Jesus” or “God”; thus, it came to be known as the “Jesus Factor.”

Teen Challenge has grown to become the oldest, largest, and most successful drug recovery program of its kind, with over 170 centers in the United States and 250 worldwide. A vital part of the program has been prayer for conversion and often the baptism in the Holy Spirit (emphasis on this experience subsequent to conversion is the chief characteristic of Pentecostalism).

Wilkerson’s journey spawned his bestselling book, The Cross and the Switchblade, with 15 million copies now sold worldwide in 30 languages and a 1970 film starring Pat Boone, which a reported 50 million people have seen. Christianity Today included the book in its 2006 list of “The Top 50 Books That Have Shaped Evangelicals.”

A Lasting Impact

But just how has Wilkerson, a Pentecostal pastor from a small town, actually “shaped evangelicals” and the world? In the church in which he served during his early years as a pastor (the Assemblies of God), in the Pentecostal movement, and in the evangelical movement, Wilkerson’s life, message, and passion have revived the importance of:

Spirit-Filled Service To Humanity.

Wilkerson reminded us that “Spirit-empowerment” is about serving hopeless people boldly and compassionately, not about merely seeking a self-gratifying emotional religious experience. Long before “social action” or “compassionate ministry” were buzz words or en vogue in the church, Wilkerson was engaging in it not out of efforts to be “relevant” but out of a pure sense of divine call. Today’s renewed emphasis on compassionate ministry among Pentecostals and evangelicals owes much to his example.

A Renewed Reverence For God.

Holiness may seem to be an antiquated term by our standards, but not by God’s. That’s what Wilkerson would say, over and again. Followers of Christ are still called to be holy as God is holy (1 Pet. 1:16). Teen Challenge helped us see the connection between biblical holiness and personal wholeness. Healing took on new significance through this Pentecostal leader—the healing of mind and soul. Wilkerson has been known for his uncompromising preaching style and call to holiness for decades. While some have felt his preaching to be often prophetic in its emotional honesty and biblical ethic, others have branded him instead as irrelevant, behind the times, or old fashioned. While Wilkerson consistently preached hard against sin, that is arguably because he saw firsthand the toll sin could take on a life. Countless faces of helpless lives and the cries of hardened addicts perhaps kindled an anger of sorts within the late preacher’s soul, anger toward sin and the enemy of our souls that sounded as a poignant cry within his preaching.

Acknowledging The Signs Of The Times.

Wilkerson consistently saw and believed that the judgment of God is inevitable and that Christians should be concerned, repentant, and prayerful. When dubbed a prophet by others, Wilkerson would often quote Amos, “I’m not a prophet, neither the son of a prophet.” His writings, however, would beg to differ. In 1974, he published a small book filled with earth-shaking predictions and unapologetically titled The Vision. This book swept the charismatic and Pentecostal world with great interest in his descriptions of an ever-increasing darkness that would soon fill the culture. Many were challenged by the apocalyptic images, while many others thought it too much “gloom and doom.” While reflecting on his life today, I gave this older book a fresh read. As I did so, it soon became clear that much of what he predicted at that time has in fact already come true (some even in the last two years), including:

There is a worldwide economic confusion just ahead. … It is not really a depression I see coming—but a recession of such magnitude that it will affect the lifestyle of nearly every wage earner in America and around the world. … A false economic boom will precede the recession—but it will be shortlived. … We are going to witness the bankruptcies of some of this nation’s major and most popular corporations. … The auto industry is going to be hurt badly. … The world’s greatest economists will be at a loss to explain the confusion.

As with most impassioned souls and preachers, there is a need to divide between divine insight and personal opinion, between wheat and chaff. Never, however, have Wilkerson’s forecasts seemed to me to be either insincere or in any way self-serving. On the contrary, they have consistently come across more as warnings than as efforts at sensationalism. And, honestly, what concerns me at this point is not what Wilkerson predicted in his writings, but more so the predictions he made that have not yet come true. (For instance, The Vision predicts an unprecedentedly large earthquake in the United States that would be preceded by “another earthquake, possibly in Japan.”) While some in the evangelical movement may take issue with these types of writings, Pentecostalism has carried a history of holding strongly to the inerrancy of the Bible as “THE Word of God” while also praying for and responding to “a word from God” for the moment, as long as it does not contradict Scripture. Wilkerson brought warnings and the hope of Christ not only to drug addicts, but also to the church. He implored us to read “the signs of the times.”

Back To The Pastorate

In 1986, by all signs Wilkerson was ready for retirement. But, while walking down 42nd Street in New York City, once again during his midnight hour of prayer, he said that he felt God calling him back to the city to plant a church there. He found the fresh sense of call irresistible. By October of the next year he made his second move to New York, this time into a rented auditorium. The preacher whom some said was “old school” or “behind the times” actually planted a church in Times Square itself! Within two years, Times Square Church purchased the historic Mark Hellinger Theater, and now counts some 8,000 regular worshippers.

Until his untimely death this week, Wilkerson’s focus in more recent years has been investing in the lives of pastors and their families with the goal of “renewing their passion for Christ,” challenging them to ask, as he did, “What would happen, Lord, if I … ?”

Robert Crosby is Professor of Practical Theology in the College of Christian Ministries and Religion at Southeastern University in Lakeland, Florida, an Assemblies of God school. He has also written several books, including More Than A Savior: When Jesus Calls You Friend (Multnomah) and Conversation Starters (Focus on the Family).