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Matthew 5:32 "But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery."

To help in understanding this verse: this means that if a person fornicates while married, their spouse can divorce them.

This is a real, real good document to start with, and it has Scripture proof texts you can click on:

http://www.reformed.org/documents/wcf_with_proofs/

If I dream things up in my mind, if I "hear voices telling me things", if I get "feelings" about what's right, etc., none of that is factual or true unless it's also proved when one proves it according to God's revealed Law Word, the Bible.

If I "interpret" meanings that are not in Scripture into my reading of Scripture, I'm going off the straight and narrow path.

The early Americans that first came here to avoid persecution in Europe, the Pilgrims, are well worth studying.

The Bible states in many places that we are not to tolerate gross habitual sin in the midst of our congregations.

That is why there used to be Church discipline, that now is practiced only by a relatively small remnant of Churches.

The reason is clear:

Galatians 5:9 "A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump."

leaven representing sin; if a congregation allows gross habitual sin, the whole thing becomes a pit of sin. The Methodist Church I attended as a boy had a lesbian choir director and a wealthy married congregant who were caught together one day. Nothing was done. The Methodist Church is completely apostate. They're now just an arm of globalism, and any sins you commit will be perfectly fine with them. If you like you can say you're sorry, but hey, man, it's cool. We be groovy, man.

In a good Reformed Church, it's the most amazing thing, where they get their doctrine from on Church discipline. I mean, really, what a novel idea. It comes from the Bible ! Wow ! Who'da thunk it ! Actually using the Bible to be the rule and guide in faith and life. Instead of just listen'n to some pop tart on TV who's tellin' us God wants us to prosper ! And smile ! Wee hee !

Then there's the big fear that the Church will micromanage your life if they have Church discipline, which is not true at all if the discipline is Scriptural. In fact, good Reformed Churches are much more respectful of the family than Churches who skip Church discipline.

Finally, we get to arminian Churches like the Methodists who make up their own sins, like drinking alcohol and smoking tobacco at all. How many times have I heard "she's a good Christian, doesn't drink or smoke at all" - which, of course, is completely unbiblical. So we can be lesbian and commit adultery and fornicate, as long as we don't have a glass of wine.

I wonder sometimes just how crazy and unbiblical things have to be for everyone to actually recognize a false teaching. I guess there's no limit to what people will fall for if they just keep "evolving" their understanding of Scripture.

Judgemental. Yes ! The Bible tells the Christian that they must discern what other people are about. Are they evil, do they do evil things ? Tell them to repent. Deny them the Lord's table if they still refuse. If they still refuse, separate from them, get them out of your congregation. Once I can discern people's actions and words, that tells me when I'm with them whether I need to be prepared as I would be with an unbeliever - what can I expect from them, what precautions do I need to take. Sometimes this can be VERY important and affect long-time friendships, but it must be done if we put Christ over our earthly former buddies who are gone to the dogs.

Sorry for the rant !

Matthew 5:32 “But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery.”

To help in understanding this verse: this means that if a person fornicates while married, their spouse can divorce them.

My take:

To help in understanding this verse: this means that if a person fornicates while married, and their spouse divorces them, the divorcing spouse has not caused her to commit adultery, because they’ve already committed adultery.

To use a silly analogy: Whoever pokes a hole in their boat, except when the boat already has a hole in it, causes their boat to sink. In the latter case, it was going to sink whether they poke a hole in it or not.

Poking hole in boat = divorce
Sinking equals commit adultery.

My take is that the comment about adultery is not saying that is when you can divorce your wife. Rather, it is saying that when you divorce your wife, you are making her an adulterer, unless, of course, she has already committed adultery, in which case she is already an adulterer whether you divorce her or not.

I wonder sometimes just how crazy and unbiblical things have to be for everyone to actually recognize a false teaching. I guess there’s no limit to what people will fall for if they just keep “evolving” their understanding of Scripture.

Usually my position “evolves” when I study the issue.

Two examples:
1. I was a pre-tribulationist because when I first became a Christian I attended an AG church, and that is what they taught. Also, I was brought to Christ through a Hal Lindsey book.

I was fascinated with bible prophesy so I studied it and bought books on it, etc. There were a lot of things that didn’t make sense but I figured that as I studied more and more, the questions would be answered. But they weren’t. In fact, what happened was they became more problematic. And then I broadened my studies to other theories. Short story is that I came to the mid-trib idea and it answered every single one of those questions. Needless to say, I’d prefer the “don’t worry. When it gets bad you’ll be whisked away” theory, but I study and let the chips fall where they may.

The other example is the eternal suffering in hell thingee. Same thing happened.

The Bible states in many places that we are not to tolerate gross habitual sin in the midst of our congregations.

That is why there used to be Church discipline, that now is practiced only by a relatively small remnant of Churches. ———————————————————
I think there is some truth to that. However, my church actually did do just that and it caused my sister to leave them because she thought they were being harsh. The music director was openly homosexual and they kept reprimanding him but he kept returning to the lifestyle. They finally fired him.

I think this is an interesting concept regarding me, personally, as well. My hobby is playing music. I’m a bass player in a few bands, each a different genre. I live in a dry county in the bible belt and go to a Baptist church that considers drinking a sin. Yet I have a full bar at home and play in bars in the local wet counties.

I have no problem with that because I strongly disagree with my church. But it goes deeper than that. Our Sunday school class a few weeks ago focused on alcohol. I was biting my tongue in class because I seem to know more about scripture on this subject than any member of that church, including the pastor. There is this dogmatic belief that causes them to read a scripture that talks about gluttony and drunkenness and then the fat members use that scripture to prove that any drinking is evil.

And yes, they actually brought up that the “wine” Jesus made from water was really grape juice. That’s where I lost it, removed my teeth from my tongue and tried to explain to the class that the people “in bible times” were real people with real lives in a real world, and yes, they drank WINE at weddings and that the bible even drove the point home when the wine steward commented on it being the “best wine” which most people serve first.

Yes, they still bought into the “it was grape juiece” nonsense.

And the same thing happens on other subjects to the point where I’m wondering if there is enough difference in their teachings and mine that maybe we should change churches. We don’t because the people there really are like children in their beliefs and that is a very good thing. But it can have its challenges. I do learn from them and I hope they learn from me. Those are, after all, the only two reasons for going to church. We certainly don’t need it to worship God. We can do that all day, every day, wherever we are.