What Does The Bible Say About Divorce? Series

Have you heard the one about Adam and his “spare rib”? As you know, in the beginning God made Adam and put him in paradise. Adam was allowed to enjoy all the many wonders of the Garden of Eden and was given the job of naming all the animals. But after he had named them-rather a long task – there was something missing. He wanted some company, someone he could talk to and impress. God understood the situation perfectly “I can see that you're lonely,” he said to Adam. “Let me make a woman for you.” “What's a woman?" asked Adam. "A woman will love and adore you. She'll cook perfect meals and always ways look nice. She'll laugh at all your jokes and she'll never complain.” “That’s wonderful!” said Adam with enthusiasm, “But-she sounds very expensive. What will she cost me?” “Ah,” replied God, “a woman like that will cost you an arm and a leg.” Adam considered this carefully for a moment, then turned back to his Maker. “What will I get for one rib?”

Had God designed marriage with a free-agent clause in it… Had He designed it to be a series of one-year contracts renewable by mutual agreement where both husband and wife, then you could hit the escape clause. That’s just the kind of thing Paul Rampell, an attorney in Palm Beach is proposing. Rampell wants the institution of marriage to adapt to increasing difficulties of staying married for a lifetime. His reasoning goes like this… we don’t buy homes for a lifetime, why should we sign a contract for marriage for lifetime? This Palm Beach attorney proposes marriage leases. A marriage lease would allow two people to commit themselves to marriage for a period of years – five years or ten years – and the lease could be renewed for as many times as the couple wants. But the lease could end the marriage if it goes bad and avoid a messy divorce.

My wife has been married to at least five different men since we were wed – and each one of the five has been me.

Three Questions Before Tying the Knot

1. Do You Have the Maturity for the Responsibility of Marriage?

2. Have You Gone through the Best Premarital Counseling Available?

3. Do You Two Have the Skills for Conflict Resolution?

1. Three Facts on Marriage

Most of us recognize these words by memory: “I, ___, take thee, ___, to be my wedded husband/wife, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do us part, according to God’s holy ordinance; and thereto I pledge thee my life to you.”

1.1 The US Divorce Rate is Nearly Twice What It Was in 1960

While the high point for the divorce rate was the early 1980s, the average couple marrying for the first time now has a forty to fifty percent probability of divorce or separation. Indeed, today about 45 percent of all marriages end in separation or divorce. Because of this tremendous increase in divorce, we have an entire generation of people who have developed negative views. Many young adults have developed a perception that marriage is miserable and it kills your freedom. Perhaps the thinking is this: if 50% of marriages end in divorce, then surely the other 50% are miserable. More surprising to me was this: studies demonstrate that two-thirds of those unhappy marriages out there will become happy within five years if people stay married and do not get divorced. Indeed, a University of Chicago sociologist said, “the benefits of divorce have been oversold.”

1.2 Cohabitation is Crazy Popular among Young Adults

In 1970, 89 percent of all births were to married parents, but today only 60 percent are. Nearly half of all people live together before marriage. One-quarter of all unmarried women between the ages of 35 and 39 are currently living with a partner, and by their late thirties, over 60 percent will have done so. As USA Today put it, “cohabitation has emerged as a precursor and a competitor to marriage.” They embody the stereotype of a younger generation that sees nothing wrong with “hooking up” or cohabiting before marriage. Skeptical about the possibility of lifelong love, they readily list the downsides to marriage. A few admit that they would like to marry — for friendship, to ward off loneliness, and for support —but even they see marriage as constricting, depriving them of freedom and the ability to focus on their careers. Yet, studies by the National Center for Health Statistics suggests important findings for living together: Cohabiting makes divorce more likely after eventual marriage. Indeed, study upon study shows that cohabitation weakens marriage.