Marriage.

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Bro. Glen:
> Respectfully, Bro. Litteral, adultery and fornication are
two different things.  

Me:
I like the way you put that sir and envy your humility! 
That makes it all the harder to do what I must do.

Adultery is very specifically the act of sex by a husband
or wife with someone that is not their spouse.  Fornication
(pornia? in the Greek) is a much broader term and means not
only adultery, "normal" sex by a married person with
someone other than their spouse but ALSO covers a multitude
of other sexual sins (homosexuality, beastiality...) and in
it's truest meaning is ANY illicit or immoral sexual act. 
The Scripture in Duet. is in reference to a woman that
"lies" about her virginity.  You didn't die for having sex
while not married but if the husband found that he had
gotten "spoiled" goods "unknowingly," he could get his
money back.  Notice that the woman is not to be put to
death.  If the woman has been "spoiled" and the husband is
aware of this when he "buys" her, he cannot use this to
annul the marriage and get his money back.  I cover
fornication and adultery below.

Bro. Glen:
You can't plug adultery into Matthew 5:32.  It says
fornication.

Me:
You can plug in not only adultery but beastiality, sex with
inanimate 
objects; anything else that would fall under the heading of
"deviate" sexual behavior.  Fornication covers more
activities than adultery and not fewer.

Bro. Glen:
> The believer is not under bondage to stay married to the 
unbeliever.  The scripture gives that person no right to
marry again,  though.

Me:
When you are free of the spouse you are FREE.  Let me make
a couple of points from the Old Testament.  If someone
committed 
adultery, they held a rock concert in their honor and the
"offended" person was FREE.  If the person had sex with an
animal they had a rock concert for the person and the
spouse was FREED.  You see, Jesus is speaking of fulfilling
the Law in that when someone commits fornication, as
described above, the New Testament Christian is FREED since
these crimes are still tentamount to the death of the one
who commits these sins.  The believer that is married to
the unbeliever is coupled with a "dead" person but Paul
said we are called to peace and that the new converts
spouse is "sanctified" or "set aside" for the sake of the
believer.  This does NOT mean that this unbeliever is saved
however since Paul goes on to say that God may use the
witness of the believer to SAVE the unbeliever.

The major difference is FORGIVENESS.  If someone cheats on
their spouse or in the broader sense, fornicates, and then
truly repents they must be forgiven: it NEVER happened.  As
God forgives our sins we MUST forgive those that repent,
even of those offenses that require "death."

It is Jesus who has said that if anyone divorced anyone
"save" or 
EXCEPT for the cause of fornication (ANY sexual immorality)
they were still married in God's eyes.  Paul broadened this
to include the unbelieveing spouses of new converts who
choose not to stay with their mates since God doesn't
sanctify the "bonding" of the living to the dead.  Paul
says however, that since we are called to peace that if the
unbeliever will stay, for the spouse to try all the harder
to let their LIFE witness to the "corpse."  Paul also says
that if a couple cannot live together that they are still
married and if either is to have a mate it is to be their
OWN.

Timothy Litteral
472 Grant St.
Marion Ohio 43302
trlitteral@usa.net
http://members.tripod.com/~trlitteral