I was reading some of the other posts about divorce and it made me wonder about the "official" WT teaching on this matter. Even after re-reading the portion on divorce in the elders manual, I was still confused. Maybe an elder who served on a committee regarding this issue might know.
When a JW couple get an "unscriptural" divorce and later either one of them has sex with someone else, is it considered just fornication or is it considered adultery? What if they have sex with each other? If they arent "free to marry" does the WT teach that theyre still married before Jehovah? Just curious.
In most cases, a marriage has to be viewed as "honorable" in both the eyes of their God, Jehovah, and in the eyes of Society (by legallizing a marriage, except in those nations where JW's cannot get legally married, in which case they agree to a "faithfulness" document for the elders and the congregation).
So if you're divorced (without scriptural grounds) and neither mate has yet copulated with someone else then they couldn't even have sex with each other according to JW law, much less with anyone else. They would view you as still married (technically, in God's eyes) and thus committing adultery.
(Maybe sex "with each other" before re-marriage is viewed as fornication, not adultery.... whatever...)
That is seriously twisted... paying so much attention to rules and regulations and forgetting about love.
*** Rbi8 Matthew 15:1-6 *** 15 Then there came to Jesus from Jerusalem Pharisees and scribes, saying: 2 "Why is it your disciples overstep the tradition of the men of former times? For example, they do not wash their hands when about to eat a meal."
3 In reply he said to them: "Why is it YOU also overstep the commandment of God because of YOUR tradition? 4 For example, God said, 'Honor your father and your mother'; and, 'Let him that reviles father or mother end up in death.' 5 But YOU say, 'Whoever says to his father or mother: "Whatever I have by which you might get benefit from me is a gift dedicated to God," 6 he must not honor his father at all.' And so YOU have made the word of God invalid because of YOUR tradition.
