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The link below is to a page called: “FORBIDDEN MARRIAGE LAWS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM.” The list of forbidden marriages was drawn up by the Church of England in 1560 and remained unchanged until the 20th century.
http://www.genetic-genealogy.co.uk/Toc115570145.html
There is a long list for the male and a long list for the female of persons considered “kin” that one may not marry. Bible students of the day certainly had the capacity to know that Paul put “forbidding to marry” into the category of “doctrines of devils” (1 Tim. 4:1-3). But when these laws were made do you suppose anyone was charged with “forbidding to marry”? While the list of unlawful marriages is long NO ONE was being told they could not have a marriage AT ALL. The list only excluded persons who were kin (incest). The list in no way went against, or even disrespected, Paul’s teaching to let everyone have a spouse or a marriage so they could avoid fornication (1 Cor. 7:1, 2).
God’s marriage law from the beginning that involves two persons of opposite sex, and who are of age, is not necessarily violated by the government issuing a list of forbidden marriages. When reading the list (linked above) note that marriage with someone of the SAME sex is not forbidden nor said to be okay; it was just taken for granted and such was not tolerated nor even considered, since such marriage would be a clear and blatant violation of the word of God.
Now, when someone tells a person who has divorced and has no marriage that they cannot ever marry—that they must remain celibate the rest of their life, they are doing that which constitutes “forbidding to marry,” which Paul condemned as sinful. When a preacher preaches this truth and the sinner replies with “you forbid to marry when you tell homosexuals they cannot marry,” it obviously is an invalid argument. A homosexual can have a marriage with a person of the OPPOSITE sex.
The most often used argument to defend the practice of imposing celibacy on those who are divorced is that “Jesus said so.” Well, He DIDN’T, and those who say he DID better open their minds and start applying good hermeneutics in their study. Otherwise, after it is too late they will learn that they have charged Jesus falsely by asserting that he taught something contrary to the Law, which he had first promised that He would not do (Matt. 5:17-19), and which has Moses teaching a law that God did not want and Paul contradicting Jesus. The result of their misguided efforts is that they are teaching and promoting a doctrine that is actually as bad, or worse, than the doctrine that Jesus set out to change—the evil practice of “putting away.”
The idea that a person can be “Put Away But Not Divorced” is the key to understanding what Jesus really taught. For an in depth study of this important subject, see my 280 page book: www.Put-Away-But-Not-Divorced.com
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