Gateway Podcast: Episode 96

You can listen to or watch Gateway Podcast Episode 96 here.

(NOTE: Timestamps are for video version only.) 

Lightning Round:

• I know you all have discussed/recommended a number of nonfiction books but I'd love to hear what each of your favorite fiction books are- stories that point you towards Christ by feeding your imagination (3:45)
  
• How do we approach people who think their loved ones become angels? We want to be compassionate since they are grieving, but we also want to hold doctrinal truth. (8:25)
  
• In the sermon (from a few weeks ago), Josh mentioned that "the result of pride is always division." Was that intended to be all encompassing? I can see how our pride in ourselves can lead to division, however we can take pride in many things outside of ourselves as well. (9:35)
  
• First, I really appreciate you being clear that divorce may be permissible but not necessary. But I want to make sure I’m clear in what you said (and not just what I heard). Did you say “pornea” can be “anything that destroys the relational intimacy between a husband and a wife”? Does that mean there are numerous scenarios that divorce would be permissible, but not necessary, if the spouse is unrepentant? Secret gambling addiction that loses everything? Incarceration? Emotional abuse? Numerous examples could be thought of, correct? All things that would be unfaithfulness and breaking the relational intimacy of the marriage if the spouse remains unrepentant would be permissible grounds for divorce? (11:50)
  
• You mentioned 1 Corinthians 7 giving an exception where an unbelieving spouse separates and doesn’t want to return to the marriage (v.15). However, that verse doesn’t seem to say anything about allowing divorce, just that the believer should “let them leave” because we “are called to peace”. It doesn’t appear that the believer is ever permitted to initiate the divorce. Then in regards to remarriage, in v 10-11 of the same chapter, a divorced spouse should remain unmarried or be reconciled to their spouse with no exceptions given. And later in v.39 he makes it clear that the marriage is bound until death (no exceptions). It doesn’t really seem like there is an exception here that gives the believer permission to initiate divorce or to remarry? (17:00)
  
• I’m also struggling with the fact that Matthew’s gospel is the only occasion that the “exception clause” is uttered.  The other gospel accounts do not include such a line, which seems like a pretty big deal to exclude. Paul doesn’t include any exception clause either in 1 Corinthians 7 or Romans 7. Why does Matthew include it where the other writers exclude such a huge piece of information? (23:50)
  
• What about the marital vows? Even if there is an exception clause that permits divorce in extreme unfaithfulness which breaks the relational intimacy, don’t one’s marital vows matter as well? If one vows to God and to one another “for better or for worse, til death do us part”, are we not bound for life? I have never heard someone saying their vows in the wedding ceremony and include an exception clause: “for better or for worse, except on the ground of pornea, til death do us part”. So where divorce may have been permissible, it may no longer be based on what you vowed to God and to your spouse? Ironically, the next section in Matthew 5 is about keeping your oaths. (27:20)
  
• Also on remarriage, aren’t we making a pretty big assumption that remarriage is permitted if there was a “permitted divorce”? In all of the scriptures referring to remarriage, they were all pretty clear that marrying a divorced person while their ex is still living is adultery. That a spouse is only free from their vow when their spouse dies (and even then it’s preferred to remain single). Wouldn’t we expect to see the same exception clause given in those scenarios if it was allowed? Mark 10:11-12 would have to read something like “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her, [except on the grounds of a permitted divorce]. And if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery, [except on the grounds a permitted divorce]”. (29:35)
  
• I’m also having a hard time wrapping my mind around two remarriage “situational” scenarios. The first couple was married after each had an unbiblical divorce in their past, but both have now repented. My head agrees with you in that they should not get divorced again. But what if the same scenario happened, but this time the couple was in a same-sex marriage? Wouldn’t we say that they should separate/divorce because that marriage wasn’t really a marriage to begin with (you can’t redefine marriage)? So, in both scenarios you have an “unbiblical remarriage”, both trying to walk into a marriage by redefining what a God-honoring marriage is. But the one couple we would say you can stay married because you’ve repented but the other shouldn’t? Is homosexuality a worse sin than the other? (37:30)

Final/Pastoral Thoughts (41:35)