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The first thing that you have to realize when the issue of marriage comes up is that marriage is a covenant. It is a binding agreement between two parties. I also believe that when we look to the Torah for answers we must look to it in the eyes of the Holy Spirit. Gal 3:24, when properly rendered from the original Greek reads, “So as the Law, a trainer of us has become Messiah” Yahshua the word became the living Torah. He did not come to do away with the Torah but to magnify (Mat 5:17) to make larger, to show the true intent. With this in mind, what did Yahshua say that the true intent of marriage was?

Mark 10:8-9 “The two shall become one flesh, they are no longer two but one. What Yahweh has joined together let no man put apart.”

This was a great mystery about Yahshua and his bride to be, that was only revealed in the New Covenant. (Eph 5:32-33).

Mark 10:11-12 Whosoever shall put away his wife (divorce) and marries another, commits adultery against her, and if a woman shall divorce her husband and be married to another she commits adultery.

According to the clear word of scripture, divorce and remarriage is not allowed in the Congregations of YHWH and is adultery. Those who do so after being baptized and joining the covenant of Yahweh should be separated from the body of believers until time that repentance is made and the adulterous marriage annulled. This is very clear from scripture.

Yahweh hates divorce (Mal 2:13-16). It is not his intention. Now, let us look at what Moses wrote about it in Deut 24. Yahshua through the magnification of Torah showed that even Deut 24 was only put in Torah due to the hardness of their hearts, but from the BEGINNING it was not so! Deut 24 is not condoning divorce but giving guidelines to a practice (that was against the will of Yahweh) that was already being performed. This scripture would not include adultery, as adultery was punishable by stoning to death, not giving a bill of divorce. But the focus in Deut 24 is warning the woman not to leave her husband even if he puts her away, for she is being warned that if she leaves and remarries, she can never go back to her rightful 1^st husband. It was a shadow of Hebrews 6. That once we enter the marriage covenant agreement with Yahshua if we turn away to another we can never go back to Him.

Heb 6:4-6 For it is impossible for those once having been enlightened, and having tasted of the heavenly gift, and becoming sharers of the Holy Spirit, and tasting the good Word of Yahweh, and the works of power of a coming age, and having fallen away, it is impossible for them again to renew to repentance, crucifying again for themselves the Son of Yahweh, and putting Him to open shame.

This alone should tell us how serious a matter it is when a spouse leaves their lawful partner and marries another. There is nothing in scripture, Old or New Testament that would indicate that a man or woman can divorce their spouse and marry another.

Reading 1st Cor 7 carefully you will see Paul never once even mentions divorce and remarriage. He speaks to widows (having a dead husband), he speaks to married (either stay together or stay separate in some cases, such as abuse or adultery, you should separate, but NO divorce) and he speaks to virgins. He says that it is better to stay a virgin and single, but if they are already engaged and they marry it is not a sin. Also if a virgin was engaged and had the engagement annulled, it is not a sin for the virgin to marry after that (1st Cor 7:27-28) Remember Vs 25 to 38 is solely to virgins, non-married.

This was the clause used in Mat 19:9 “except it be for fornication”. It does not say “adultery” which is sexual sin within marriage; it says fornication which would have been sexual sin during the betrothal period. Mathew was written to the Jews and in ancient times in Israel you had to sign a legal binding agreement with the father of a girl whom a man wished to marry. The male would then go away for a time (usually a year) and prepare a home for his new bride. The only way to break this agreement was with a legal divorce and it could only happen if fornication was involved.

Look at the case of Joseph and Mary for reference. Joseph was not married to Mary but was called her husband and he had to legally divorce her to break the engagement (Mat 1:18-19). You do not see this clause in Mark or Luke who were written to gentile areas, and in the gentile culture it was not the custom to have a binding contract during the betrothal period, so it was not necessary to add the fornication clause during engagement. Some wrongly use the example of Yahweh divorcing Israel to rationalize that divorce is ok, but again they are missing the point that Yahweh was betrothed to Israel and the official marriage did not take place. The signing of the betrothal contract happened on Mount Sinai in Ex 24, but because of Israel’s fornications during the betrothal period it was nullified by Yahweh.

Then in 1st Cor 7:39 Paul is real clear “The wife is bound to her husband for as long as her husband lives.” Rom 7:1-3 states this again very clearly. Paul was not contradicting Yahshua, but affirming what Yahshua also said. One man, one woman till death is the clear word of scripture.

1st Cor 5:12 “For what have I to do to judge them that are outside? Do you not judge them that are within the congregation?”

Clearly, even though all divorce and remarriage is sin and must be repented of upon conversion, we are not to judge the sins of brethren that were done before conversion outside of the body of believers. It is in this regard that there is No scriptural precedent to force divorced people to separate from a second marriage before they can be baptized into the family of Yahweh.

1st Cor 7:20 Let every man (person) abide in the same position wherein he was called.

Clearly we can take this to mean that if a couple when entering the New Covenant is already on a second marriage then they do not have to separate from that spouse.

Also, in this same regard, if a divorced single person became baptized and had a living spouse they would not be eligible to remarry another brother or sister until the living spouse died, regardless of the fact that spouse is not converted.

Rom 7:2-3 “The wife is bound to her husband by law for as long as her husband lives; but if her husband dies she is set free from the law of her husband. So then if her husband is living she will be called an adulteress if she becomes another man’s wife. But if her husband dies she is free from the law not to be called an adulteress if she becomes another man’s wife.

It also goes without saying that if a widow remarries she can only remarry someone already in the faith (1st Cor 7:39).

Divorce and remarriage was never the will of our Heavenly Father, but in a sinful imperfect world sometimes when we come out of the world we have laws in conflict. One such law is that it is sin to work on the Sabbath, yet a priest can work and he is guiltless. A minister probably works harder on Sabbath than any other day in speaking, etc. In these cases of laws in conflict the greater law of love always prevails. This is the case in divorce and remarriage.

Acts 17:30 In times past Yahweh winked at our ignorance’s, but now commands men everywhere to repent.

We can see that Yahweh requires greater accountability to us after we make covenant relationship and know something to be wrong. Covenants are very serious and if one made a covenant promise to a second spouse before baptism, not knowing that this was adultery, no where does scripture indicate that the newly converted person must leave this spouse and go back to the former one. Just the opposite, as we read in Deut 24, that if a woman has chosen to leave her first husband and remarries she can never go back to the first one again.

So important are covenant promises; that Yahweh in scripture still held the people accountable to the covenant promise they made, even when it was against his will. Look at Joshua as a perfect example. Yahweh told Joshua not to make a covenant with the people of the land and Joshua not only did so against the will of Yahweh with the Gibeonites, but he was even tricked into the covenant promise, and still had to abide by it afterward (Jos 9). Such was also the case with Jacob (Israel). He tricked Isaac into giving him the blessing of the firstborn that according to scripture belonged to Esau and Yahweh still honored that, and after he realized he was tricked by Jacob, Isaac could not rescind on the covenant promise that he made (Gen 27).

Jephthah is also a good example of having to keep a covenant promise even if it is against the will of Yahweh. Yahweh never condoned human sacrifice but Jephthah rashly promised to sacrifice whoever first came out his front door when returning from battle and it happened to be his only daughter and he had to keep his covenant word.

Although against the will of Yahweh and done in ignorance, people that have entered covenant marriage relationships with a second spouse before conversion, still are allowed to keep that agreement unless they were already baptized and knew it was sin and married the person anyway in total rebellion. This sort of agreement is not honored by our heavenly Father and the parties must separate immediately and repent. The key word here is that the relationship is “allowed” not “condoned”. Yahweh did not condone the adulterous relationship of David and Bathsheba, but he allowed it even after the murder of Uriah.

Some will wrongly come up with the argument, well if that is the case, then would two homosexual males also be able to repent upon baptism and stay together married in the congregation? This is not a proper comparison as a homosexual marriage in itself has never been lawful by Yahweh, where a multiple marriage, although warned against, was allowed. You cannot compare a second marriage that was allowed in Torah (although not the will of Yahweh) to be compared to an abominable union such as two men together which was never allowed or condoned, but always said to be abominable. Some will also use the example of a prostitute and say when a prostitute repents and is converted can she continue in prostitution? But again prostitution was never allowed in scripture where multiple marriages was allowed, but not condoned. This is a law in conflict and the greater law of covenants takes precedent in this case.

This was also the case in the Torah. If someone sinned through ignorance (before conversion) then the priest would make a sin offering for that person (Num 15:22-28) but if someone sinned in rebellion after knowing clearly what he was doing was wrong then that person is to be cut off from among his people.

Num 15:30 But the soul who does anything rebelliously (literally with a high hand in defiance), whether home born or alien, (Israelite or Gentile does not matter) the same blasphemes Yahweh, and that person shall be cut off from the midst of his people.

Num 15:31 Because he has despised the word of Yahweh, and has broken his commandment, that soul shall be utterly cut off, his iniquity shall be on him.

This verse clearly shows there is a difference to someone who divorced and remarried before knowing the word of Yahweh and entering covenant relationship with him and someone who divorced and remarried after conversion. Someone who is baptized and remarries another person while still having a living spouse, after being shown from scripture that clearly Yahshua said this is adultery is held to a higher standard and must be separated from the congregation until the adultery is repented of.

I will also say that even with a piece of paper from a judge saying one is divorced that still does not take away a husbands responsibility according to scripture to make sure that the wife of his youth that has been put away is cared for. This is the least one can do after repentance and having knowledge of the truth that she is still his wife.

Mal 2:14-15 “Yet you say on what cause? Because Yahweh has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously; and she is your companion and your COVENANT wife! And has he not made ONE? Then guard your spirit, and do not deal treacherously with the wife of your youth.”

Although clearly not the will of our Heavenly Father, he did allow for a man to have more than one wife, providing that he could care for them, and a man that has married more than one woman has the responsibility to care for each wife he married, whether a court or judge gave him a divorce paper or not.

Scripture does show that Yahweh judge’s believers that have had their mind open to his truth different than a non-believer who knows no better. Take as an example a believer being married to a non believer. We know from 1st Cor 7:39 this would be a sin, yet if someone married before conversion, and then was married to a non believer through conversion, Paul in that situation tells the spouse to stay with their unbelieving spouse and not to leave (1st Cor 7:13-14). His reasoning is, how do you know if you will not convert the other person, but a believer marrying a non-believer could use the same argument. So here we see a perfect example of the non believing marriage being sanctified by Paul if it happened before conversion, but if someone was already a believer then it would have been condemned.

Some have strongly urged for unconverted divorced and remarried couples to separate from their spouses to join the New Covenant, but yet there just is not one scripture to back up that this was the practice in the first century, just the opposite. In 1st Tim 3 Paul tells the qualifications of an Elder or Overseer in the congregation and clearly states in verse 2 “that he must be the husband of one wife”. Now if all believers had to leave their second marriage upon conversion why would Paul even mention this, as no one would have had a second wife, it would be a mute point.

Also, when you read Paul’s epistles you will see that sexual problems were one of the major sins of the congregations at that time. Here it is, Paul is writing Holy letters to the brethren for encouragement and he is talking about a man having sexual relations with his father’s wife (1st Cor 5:1). Also he repeatedly talks to brethren about not going in to prostitutes and fleeing fornication (1st Cor 6:15-20, Eph 5). In a time where such sexual sins were abounding do you really think that no one was divorced and remarried?

Hardly, as a matter of fact this is why even the Jewish nation who was much stricter against sexual impurity, than the gentiles who even had prostitutes in their temple worship, had asked Yahshua about divorce and remarriage (Math 19:3-9). So with this the case and not even one scriptural reference that even remotely hints that the Apostles and elders were not allowing baptism to someone who had previously been married, we cannot make our righteousness above Yahweh’s and enact laws that are not based on scripture. On the day of Pentecost over 3,000 souls were baptized and again not one word being said about any one of them having to leave a second spouse in order to be baptized

At the same rate we must enact laws to the body of believers once converted and we strongly condemn any type of divorce and remarriage to baptized believers as being unscriptural and it is clearly adultery in which no adulterer will inherit the kingdom. We also according to scripture will disfellowship any member who willingly goes out and divorces his/her spouse and remarries against the clear word of scripture. Also, we neither condemn those who have divorced and sinned before conversion, while in the world, and have repented of those sins, neither do we hold against them or issue any type of unwarranted guilt for a sin that was already repented of and had covered by the blood of Yahshua.