second chance

274 Pages·2009·10.88 MB·English

SECOND
CHANCE

Other books by Ray Sutton

Who Owns The Family?
God or the State?, 1986

That ~u May Prosper:
Dominion By Covenant, 1987

SECOND
CHANCE

Biblical Blueprints for
Divorce and Remarriage

Ray R. Sutton

Dominion Press
Ft. Worth, Texas

Copyright c 1988 by Ray Sutton

All rights reserved. Written permission must be secured from the
publisher to use or reproduce any part of this book, except for
brief quotations in critical reviews or articles.

Published by Dominion Press
7112 Burns Street, Ft. Worth, Texas 76118

Typesetting by Thobum Press, Tyler, Texas

Printed in the United States ofAmerica

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from the
New King James Version of the Bible, copyrighted 1984 by
Thomas Nelson, Inc., Nashville, Tennessee.

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 87-073502

ISBN 0-930462-49-1

Dedicated To My Father-In-Law
and Mother-In-Law

John and Evelyn Schaerdel

Whose Unselfishness Has Made
My Ministry Possible

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Editor's Introduction .....•......................... ix

Part I: BLUEPRINTS
Author's Introduction
3

Principles ofDivorce: Covenant Lawsuit
1. Marriages Are Made in Heaven
17
2. Burying the Living Dead..................•...33
3. Playing with Fire Burns Out a Marriage
46
4. Covenantal Execution Protects the Innocent
64
5. Living Happily Ever After .............•......85

Principles ofRemarriage: Covenant Adoption

6. New Covenant, New Spouse
102
7. The Period ofCovenantal Transition
115
8. Binding Two or Strangling One
128
9. Fools Rush in without Counsel
142
10. Everyone Needs to Be Adopted
155
Conclusion
167

Part II: RECONSTRUCTION
11. What the Family Should Do
173
12. What the Church Should Do
191
13. What the State Should Do
208
Bibliography
225
Scripture Index
227
Subject Index
233
What Are Biblical Blueprints? .........•............ 239

vii

EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION
by Gary North

Whoever lies with a beast shall surely be put to death (Exodus
22:19).

There is a school ofBiblical interpretation that says that unless
an Old Testament law is repeated in the New Testament as legally
binding, it is no longer legally binding. Such a doctrine is not ex-
plicitly taught in the New Testament; it is a generally unstated
presupposition that commentators bring with them when they
begin to study the Bible. They assume what they ought first to
prove. 1
There is no mention in the New Testament of bestiality. This
raises a significant problem of interpretation for those who argue
that the Old Testament law system was annulled by Christ. On
what basis is the civil government to prosecute bestiality? Natural
law? But nature is hardly a guide in sexual matters, for it is under
God's curse (Genesis 3:17-18). Animals do all sorts of things sex-
ually that the Old Testament regards as an abomination. The
Marquis de Sade, from whom we get the term sadism, was a great
defender of natural law theory that is based self-consciously on
nature, for nature is filled with murder and destruction. But if
natural law theory is an unreliable foundation, then the question
remains: What is the civil government to do about bestiality (or
any other crime)? On what moral or legal basis?
Is bestiality legal ground for divorce in the New Testament

1. Gary North, 75 Bible Questions ~ur Instructors Pray ~u WOn't Ask (Ft. Worth,
Texas: Dominion Press, [1984] 1987), Part II.

ix

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Second Chance

era, even though it is not mentioned in the New Testament? How
can we be sure, if we do not operate under the assumption that
God's Old Testament standards are still binding in the New Testa-
ment, unless specifically annulled through historical fulfillment?
Does the innocent victim of a marriage partner who practices
bestiality have the legal right before God to separate permanently
from the sexually deviant spouse? Can the victim lawfully sue for
divorce in the civil courts? Should a civil government declare as
already divorced any couple when either partner has committed
bestiality? Homosexuality? If so, on what basis? Ifnot, how is the
innocent party to be protected?
If the innocent party can lawfully receive a formal declaration
of divorce from Church and State, what about remarriage? Is an
innocent victim of a perverse marriage partner forever con-
demned to celibacy? If so, on what New Testament basis? If not,
on what New Testament basis?

Under the Rug
These problems are indicative of a whole series of questions
regarding divorce and remarriage. These problems cannot safely
be swept under the institutional rug, either by Church or State.
Yet this is exactly what is going on today. The rugs are visibly
lumpy, so frequently have these questions been swept under
them. People and congregations continue to trip over this lumpy
ecclesiastical rug.
The civil government's rug is just as lumpy. The State has
adopted no-fault divorce, thereby threatening the very foundation
of Western civilization. The catastrophic rise in the number of
divorces today is a national scandal. The Church has not officially
adopted this no-fault view, but in effect it has adopted it, for it
defers to the judicial decisions of the civil government. There are
exceptions, ofcourse. A church in the state ofOklahoma formally
excommunicated an adulterous woman whose sin was well known
in the community. She sued the church in civil court. This consti-
tuted a direct threat on the integrity of the church.
A homosexual Presbyterian pastor was arrested by a police

Editor's Introduction
xi

officer for soliciting in a public lavatory. When cleared of this
charge by a civil jury because of a legal technicality made during
his arrest, the man's presbytery threatened to try him in the
church's courts. He then threatened the presbytery with civil ac-
tion, and the presbytery fearfully dropped the case.2 He remained
an ordained pastor. Not full-time, however. He was a full-time
public school teacher.
A married Presbyterian pastor in the same denomination ad-
mitted adultery with the wife ofanother church member. His pun-
ishment? He was transferred to another presbytery. "Keep him
away from our wives," was the first presbytery's guiding principle.
The receiving presbytery had no guiding principle. He later vol-
untarily resigned the ministry, showing far greater wisdom than
either of the presbyteries. (I subsequently bought a part of his ex-
cellent library through a used book catalogue.)
Little or nothing is done by the churches to solve the divorce
and adultery plagues, year after year, decade after decade. God
will not be mocked. TheJim Bakker scandal rocked the American
evangelical community in 1987, and it cost rival television minis-
tries hundreds of millions of dollars in forfeited donations. Time
bombs keep ticking. There is the AIDS time bomb, the herpes time
bomb, and the Church-courts-without-any-sense-of-direction-or-
perceived-authority time bomb. These time bombs are all begin-
ning to explode at once. And as they go off, one by one, many
innocent victims will see their lives devastated. Who will step in
and offer them solace, guidance, and hope ifthe churches remain
silent?
Yet they do remain nearly silent. At best, they whisper. And
what they whisper comforts very few.

A Theocentric, Covenantal Universe
When Christians face difficult social or theological problems,
they should discipline themselves to look to the Bible for answers.

2. He should have been excommunicated for having threatened the Presby-
tery with civil action- a case of obvious contumacy.

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Second Chance

They must begin their search with these questions:

What is the character of God?
How does He relate to the creation?
How does He deal with man?
How is man supposed deal wit~ other men?

We must start with God and God's legal relationships with man-
kind. Only then can we safely begin to look for Biblical solutions
to the social problems of any era. Man is made in God's image.
God's covenantal relationships with men, both redeemed and
fallen, provide us with models of how we are to deal with each
other, both redeemed and fallen.
Throughout the Bible, God's people are described collectively
as God's bride. The marriage covenant becomes the model of the
God-Church covenant. Ezekiel 16 is a classic passage in this re-
gard; so is Ephesians 5:22-33. Ifmarriage is the model, then what
about divorce?
God divorced Israel when Israel revolted by crucifying Christ.
This was the last straw. Israel had committed spiritual adultery
repeatedly, from the golden calfforward. God soon remarried; He
gained a new bride, the Church. Jesus Christ is the bridegroom of
the Church, not of Israel. The legal basis of this marriage was a
prior divorce. If God had not lawfully cast off Israel, the Church
could not legitimately be called God's bride. God is not a
bigamist. Divorce and remarriage: without both of these cove-
nantal actions on God's part, there could be neither Church nor
salvation in New Testament times.
If this is how God has dealt with mankind, then how are we to
deal with each other? If God established the Church on the basis
ofcovenantal divorce and remarriage, are we to use this as our ex-
ample? If not, why not?

The Covenant
To understand the basis of divorce and remarriage in both the
Old and New Testaments, we must first understand the covenant.
Pastor Ray Sutton, after many years of marriage counseling,

Editor's Introduction
xiii

stumbled across the long-neglected Biblical covenant model. His
book, That 10u May Prosper, is the classic formulation of this five-
point model, the first developed expression of it.s It serves as the
structure of this book, as well as most of the others in the Biblical
Blueprints Series. The covenant model provides specific answers to
five inescapable and crucial personal and institutional questions:

Who's in charge here?
To whom do I report?
What are the rules?
What do I get if I obey (disobey)?
Does this outfit have a future?

Marriage is governed by the Biblical answers to these five
questions. It is one of God's three ordained covenantal monopo-
lies: Church, State, and Family. Thus, to discuss the legal basis of
divorce and remarriage without first understanding that the
Bible's answers are governed by the five-point Biblical covenant
model is to embark on a fog-shrouded journey without a flash-
light. However complete the map (the Bible), it will not lead you
to your desired destination. Without a flashlight, you can't read it
at night, nor can you see the path in front of you.

Covenantal Death and Adoption
The Blueprints section of Second Chance is divided into two
parts, each ofwhich is based on a fundamental Biblical principle.
The first principle, covenantal death, governs covenantal divorce.
The second principle, covenantal adoption, governs marriage and
remarriage. Because Bible commentators have failed to see that
these two Biblical principles-death and adoption-apply specifi-
cally to divorce and remarriage, their commentaries have not pro-
vided adequate guidance to Christian pastors and marriage coun-
selors. Sutton's application of these two principles is nothing
short of a theological breakthrough, a minor breakthrough com-

3. Ray R. Sutton, That l'Ou May Prosper: Dominion By Covenant (Tyler, Texas:
Institute for Christian Economics, 1987).

xiv
Second Chance

pared with That lVu May Prosper, but a major one in terms ofprac-
tical Christianity.
When besieged pastors recognize the magnitude of what Sut-
ton has accomplished, they will feel as though an enormous bur-
den has rolled from their shoulders. Their own doubts regarding
practical advice to confused and desperate victims of evil mar-
riage partners will begin to disappear. They will have a set of cri-
teria for dealing with divorced people in their churches. Church
members will at last find practical ways of coping with and over-
coming legitimate guilt, or escaping from illegitimate guilt. The
covenant is practical.
The various crises of the late twentieth century are being
borne disproportionately by the family. The family is incapable of
dealing with these crises autonomously. No single institution is
capable. Families have turned increasingly to the civil govern-
ment as the primary source of relief, but this parasitic agency has
been stretched too thin economically and too thick bureau-
cratically to deliver the hoped-for relief. If the churches fail to
offer Bible-based guidance to families in this era ofcrisis, then the
ministry of the gospel will be set back, perhaps by several genera-
tions. The Church does not operate to its full cultural capacity in
concentration camps or in hospices for the terminally ill.
The churches seem incapable ofrestoring broken marriages or
replacing broken marriages with guilt-free working ones. Why
not? Because churches have ignored the ethical and legal require-
ments ofthe Biblical covenants: Church, State, and Family. Until
they once again begin to pay attention to the terms and sanctions
of each of these covenants, they will continue to suffer setback
after setback. To the extent that the Church ignores the covenant
model, covenant-breaking society thinks it can safely ignore the
Church. Then comes God's temporal judgments. AIDS is not the
beginning of these judgments, but it may end them simply by
removing the potential rebels from this world, as well as large
segments of God's remnant.
If people had honored the terms of the marriage covenant,
would AIDS now be a threat? More to the point, ifpeople will re-

Editor's Introduction
xv

new their commitment to covenantal marriage, will AIDS cease
to be a threat? How soon?

Other Viewpoints

Second Chance discusses other traditional Christian views of
divorce and remarriage. No doubt there will be many Christian
people who will send Sutton outraged letters telling him that he is
terribly liberal or terribly rigorous in his covenantal view of mar-
riage. What the letters will not contain, I predict, is a systematic,
Bible-based refutation ofhis five-point covenant model and its ap-
plication to the marriage covenant. Sutton may be told about this
or that book on the topic, which he probably already has read and
may have reviewed in print. It will be a book written before the
publication of That lOu May Prosper, and which takes no note ofthe
Biblical covenant model. Such books are really not to the point; it
will be the books written in response to Second Chance that alone
will be relevant to the covenantal issues that Sutton raises.
To those who complain because Sutton's approach is too rigor-
ous, or "heartless and uncaring," I ask: How does your view avoid
destroying the institution of marriage? How does your view differ
from humanism's no-fault divorce system? To those who complain
that Sutton's approach abandons the "no divorce/no remarriage"
view, I ask: Does your church place under public censure each
and every member who seeks and receives a divorce from the civil
authorities, no matter what the reasons for the divorce? Does your
church automatically excommunicate each and every divorced
member who remarries, as well as each and every member who
remarries a divorced person? If not, then why waste time writing
to Sutton? Write instead to your pastor, your presbytery or synod,
and your church's general assembly, and complain formally that
they have deviated from the Biblical position. Work hard to get
your church's view of divorce and remarriage straightened out,
since you have placed yourself under its authority. Your church is
your primary problem in this regard, not Second Chance.
If you are the pastor in a "lax" church, and you hold the "no
divorce/no remarriage" position, then your immediate responsi-