Divorce: A Case Study

Trying to resolve our holiness emphasis with the pressing social issues of the times has been a regular occurrence for us in the Church of God. Even with the culture shifting around us, we look for ways to live a holy life in a manner faithful to Scripture. This has not always been easy, or successful.

Today, one of the hot issues facing us is LGBTQ+ inclusion, but over our 143-year history many other controversial topics have had our attention as well. At the beginning of the twentieth century, one of the matters threatening to divide our movement was around divorce and remarriage. Apart from some rare exceptions (i.e. notably the views of Joseph C. Fisher, an early partner of D. S. Warner), we have agreed that divorce is not part of God’s design, and therefore should only be exercised in the direst circumstances and within biblical bounds. The more challenging question concerned whether and when someone could remarry if they were divorced.

The Gospel Trumpet weekly publication of June 13, 1901 records for us how this debate worked itself out at that time, and therefore provides a vivid example of how the Church of God handled a highly contentious social issue in its first few decades. It is also possible to examine how those views evolved over time, and to discover some valuable insights for handling the tough issues of our day. This is the first of two back-to-back articles where I explore this topic.