Hungarian Church Press, 1968 (20. évfolyam, 2. szám)

1968-06-01 / 2. szám

- 84 -(07788)

HOP Vol XX Special Number

1968 No 2

c) The (lurches Ministry Concerning Marriage As the; Struggle Against Divorce

The Church can take up the fight against the high rate of divorces, in a legitimate manner appropriate to her, by obeying the will of God to preserve the institution of marriage« There are three ways of doing this servicei l) by preaching and instructicn. It is the ministry of Christian teaching. 2) While performing this service, the Church meets the actual, problems of marriages. The effort to help the married partners to find the right solutions to their problems is the pastoral ministry of the Church, And, 3), the Church performs an important service by setting up the example of marriage, in the concrete marriages of the church members. Even those beyond the reach of the prophetic ministry and pastoral service, have the opportunity to come to know the will of God by seeing the example of the married li^rg£ Christians* This is the paradigmatic service of the Church. Let us see theseyof the Church's ministry.

The Church's teaching ministry entails the obligation to present the Biblical- teaching about marriage to the congregation*. In the debate cf Jesus with the Pharisees about marriage the main difference lies in the fact that the Pharisees make their approaoh from the side of divorce, while the positive emphasis of Jesus is on marriage as the work of God„ As a result of their approach, the problem of the Pharisees boils down to a legal question, while, in the teaching 'cf Jesus, the substance of marriage appears for faith in the light cf revelation. The teaching cf Jesus stresses two basic points. Pirst, marriage is and will remain in God's hand0 The expression "fron the beginning of creation" refers to this fact. What has been from the beginning cf creation has not changed with the passage of time. The second point is that woman is such a gift cf God to man that it behoves mar. to sever all his other ties for her sake in order to cleave to her. Pram these two premises Jesus,in a sovereign fashion, maliés this inference; "Y/hat Gcd hath Joined together,let no man put asunder". While the Pharisees, falsifying the Law, say that man "must" (Hungarian translation), in certain circumstances, give a writing of divorcement to his wife, Jesus refers to the original form of the Mosaic legislation; Moses "suffered" men to put aeway their wives. Because of the "hardness of their hearts". Hence the writing cf divorcement is in fact a bill of indictment against man, in the sight of God0 The writing cf divorcement is directed, as it seems, against sin, but, in fact, it becomes the source of new sin for it makes the divorced wife an adulterous person, and who gives the writing of divorcement coirmits adult eiy when he enters into a new union« Poligamy - both as simultaneous and as consecutive *» is adultery,

This message of the Church's teaching ministry is proclaimed in a world in which there are many divorces and the divorce rate is rising, Y/hat has the Church to do? She musst intensify her efforts to prevent divorces and to offer her healing ministry to those suffering because of their broken mar-