Historical stance of the church

Soul Harvest Ministries of Minnesota

Soul Harvest : Problems in the Church today : Divorce : Historical stance of the church

The Attitudes Of The Early Church

All peoples in the Roman Empire, regardless of their religious affiliation, had the right to divorce their spouses. Marriage was considered a private contract which, like all other contracts, might be dissolved. Divorce was easily attained and, because the state placed heavy financial burdens upon single people, remarriage was encouraged.
One of the earliest writings (and a book regarded by many in the early church as almost on a par with the NT writings), The Shepherd of Hermas (c. 140), deals with whether a husband sins if he continues to live with an adulterous wife. Hermas gives no option: he must divorce her. At the same time, "for the sake of her repentance," a second marriage was forbidden. Should an erring wife repent, her spouse must take her back in wedlock. Remarriage, other than to the repentant former wife, was regarded as adultery (Book 2, Comm. 4:4–8).

In his A Plea for the Christians (c. 177), Athenagoras showed that the typical resistance to remarriage was based on the church's understanding of Jesus' teaching on the matter. "Second marriage is only a specious adultery," he declared. "'For whosoever puts away his wife,' says He [meaning Jesus], 'and marries another, commits adultery." Indeed, the marriage bond for many of the Ante-Nicene Fathers was so indissoluble that it continued beyond the grave. A virtually eternal relationship was established between the spouses, living or dead.

Clement of Alexandria In a brief comment in his late second century The Stromata, or Miscellanies, at the end of Book 2, he writes "Now that Scripture counsels marriage, and permits no release from the union, is expressly contained in the law, "Thou shall not put away your wife, except for the cause of fornication; and it regards as fornication, the marriage of those separated while the other is alive.

Tertullian (c. 200), like his contemporaries, held that the marital bond is indissoluble. In his Treatises on Marriage and Remarriage, he strongly objected to a woman's remarrying even after her husband's death, because then she would have "one husband in the flesh and another in the spirit. This would be adultery-joint knowledge of one woman by two men. "In regard to divorce, he claimed that the new law of Christ had abrogated the OT law permitting divorce; that same new law thereby outlawed remarriage. Tertullian did, however, accept remarriage if the dissolution of the first (either by death or divorce) had occurred prior to one's conversion (for in Christ, one becomes a new creation).
Origen, in his Commentary on Matthew, did not seem as strict as his contemporaries. He noted that Christ rejected "the opinion that a wife was to be put away for every cause" (1.14.16), but he did not seem to rule out divorce completely. Indeed, he admitted that some church leaders "have permitted a (divorced) woman to marry, even when her husband was living," and he confessed that such permission was "not altogether without reason," being undoubtedly a lesser of evils (1.14.23).

The Council of Elvira (c. 300) vigorously opposed remarriage. Women who divorced their husbands, regardless of grounds, were to be excommunicated. If an "innocent" wife (who divorced an adulterous husband) were to remarry, she was to be denied the sacraments until her first husband's death, after which she might find readmission to the church. Because, however, her crime was not as serious as that of a "guilty" party, if she were to die before her first husband, she might receive the sacrament of extreme unction.

The Council of Arles (314) was more lenient. It dealt with the young Christian whose wife became an adulteress. Its counsel was similar to that of Elvira, that he should refrain from marrying a second time as long as the adulterous wife lived. No mention was made, however, of excommunication should he remarry.

John Wesley, the father of Methodism, demonstrated a break with the Reformers and a decided preference for the Anglican teaching out of which he came. He treated divorce and remarriage in the context of polygamy: "All polygamy is clearly forbidden in these words, wherein our Lord expressly declares, that for any woman who has a husband alive, to marry again is adultery." The same held true for a man. The only ground was adultery, in which case there was no Scripture forbidding the innocent party from remarrying.

John Knox, the founder of Scottish Presbyterianism, was very much like his mentor, John Calvin, in his stance on divorce. In his First Book of Discipline (1560), he noted that marriage, once lawfully contracted, could not be terminated unless adultery had occurred. Like Calvin, he deplored the failure of civil authorities to execute adulterers. The church was to excommunicate such people and set the innocent party free to marry again. Upon the repentance of the guilty party, however, forgiveness was to be granted and, "if they cannot remain continent, ... we cannot forbid them to use the remedy ordained by God (i.e. marriage)." Knox realized that such a position was far from perfect but, with his colleagues, he offered it "as the best counsel God giveth unto us in so cloubtsome a case.

William Tyndale One of the early English reformers, and a martyr to his faith (d. 1536), was William Tyndale. His thought shows considerable Lutheran influence. Like the founder of the Reformation, he believed that marriage is ordained by God for purposes of love, companionship, and procreation, and to serve as a bastion against illicit sexual activity. It could not, however, be considered a sacrament in the proper sense of the word, for it did not carry with it a promise. Should it be considered such because it is a similitude of the union between Christ and his church, then all other NT similitudes would have to be considered sacraments.
Much of Tyndale's consideration of divorce and remarriage was motivated by and applied to the divorce of King Henry VIII from Catherine of Aragon and his subsequent marriage to Anne Boleyn. While not disallowing divorce when it accorded with scriptural grounds, Tyndale decided that the King's marriage to Catherine had been in full agreement with the Bible; he could find no good reason why the church should grant Henry a dissolution. For Tyndale, divorce was possible only because of adultery. Because the Mosaic Law stipulated the death of the adulterer, the innocent party was not under bondage to the original marriage. Desertion was also a just cause in Tyndale's opinion, because he saw it as invariably tied to adultery.

Charles Spurgeon
Marriage is for life, and cannot be loosed, except by the one great crime which severs it’s bond…a women divorced for any cause but adultery, and marrying again, is committing adultery before God…persons once married are in the sight of God, married for life, with the one exception of proven fornication.

John Calvin
Like Luther, Calvin held a high view of marriage, seeing it as "a good and holy ordinance from God." It was not, however, a sacrament any more than farming, building, or barbering, which were also ordinances, "for it is required that a sacrament be not only a work of God but an outward ceremony appointed by God to confirm a pron-dse. Even children can discern that there is no such thing in marriage." He scorned the Roman Catholic basis for sacramentalizing marriage by translating "mystery" in Eph 5:32 as "sacrament," concluding that Catholics were either deceived by the meaning of the Latin word or else ignorant of the Greek language. At the same time, he insisted that marriage was instituted by God as a perpetual law in force until the end of the world. Any rupture of that law has its origin in the depravity of humanity.
For believers, marriage is an indissoluble bond, and spouses connected by marriage no longer have the freedom to change their mind and go off elsewhere. If they find it impossible to live with each other, they are bound nonetheless and may not take a new spouse. On the other hand, if an unbeliever wishes to divorce a spouse on account of religion, the believer is no longer under marital obligation. In such a case, "the unbelieving party makes a divorce with God rather than with her partner."
Like Luther, Calvin saw adultery as the one cause for divorce in Jesus' teachings. As far as he was concerned, the OT penalty for adultery should be enforced, making divorce unnecessary, but "the wicked forbearance of magistrates makes it necessary for husbands to put away unchaste wives, because adulterers are not punished." Divorce under such circumstances gives the innocent party freedom to remarry, for Jesus' condemnation of remarriage as adultery applied undoubtedly only to "lawful and frivolous divorces."

Summary
The views of church leaders and scholars have been guided by their interpretation of the biblical teachings on marriage and divorce. Not all have interpreted these passages in like manner. Indeed, some have come virtually to opposite conclusions. Because they were writing largely for men, most of their remarks and illustrations concern women at fault. Generally, however, either directly or by allusion, they agree that what applies to one sex applies equally to the other.

The Ante-Nicene Fathers generally permitted divorce on the ground of adultery. Some even required it. At the same time, remarriage was usually forbidden. Not only did it cut off any chance of marital reconciliation, but many in the church regarded marriage as an indissoluble bond which continued unbroken until the death of one spouse. Thus (prior to such an occurrence), remarriage was an adulterous act and the offender was liable to excommunication. There was not, however, unanimity. Some, like Origen, allowed remarriage after a divorce on the ground of adultery. Others (e.g., the Council of Arles), while deploring remarriage, did not require excommunication as a penalty. The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers were stricter in their interpretations of Jesus' sayings. No matter what a spouse had done, remarriage following divorce was out of the question.

Augustine's position became the foundation of the Roman Catholic view of marriage as a sacrament. When contracted between two communicants, marriage is indissoluble. Where only one is a believer, spiritual adultery is involved and a divorce may be permitted (along with remarriage, under certain conditions). This position was challenged during the Renaissance by some of the humanists (e.g., More and Erasmus), but it was reaffirmed during the Counter-Reformation by the Council of Trent as official dogma. Numerous impediments to marriage were noted, however, whereby marriages might be annulled.

The Protestant Reformation brought a fresh examination of the biblical teachings. The Continental Reformers, while holding a high view of marriage, eschewed its sacramental nature. They permitted remarriage by an innocent party after a divorce because of adultery or desertion.

The Anglicans generally held positions close to those of Roman Catholicism. While scandalized by the notion of marriage as a sacrament, they nonetheless tended to regard remarriage after divorce as adultery (although there were those who diverged from that opinion).

The dissenting denominations tended to follow the views of the Reformers. Some, like Milton, were very flexible as to cause, but most followed the Westminster divines in pronounced restraint.

Assembly of God
"... divorce is treachery (deceitful unfaithfulness) against your companion ... Jesus forbade divorce as contrary to God's will and word ... Paul forbade a Christian couple getting a divorce ... Jesus permitted a Christian to initiate a divorce when fornication was involved ... Jesus in His basic teaching forbade the remarriage of divorced persons ... [Church] membership is open to all born-again believers ... The offices of elder and deacon are not open to those who are remarried ... We positively disapprove of Christians getting divorces for any cause except fornication and adultery." -- "Assemblies of God beliefs: Divorce and Remarriage."