Expert: Joe Norman - 1/7/2012

Question
Hi Joe,
I have read many of your answers on MDR. I want to know if you disagree with any of the teachings of Robert Waters? If so will you tell me what teaching you have a problem with? You can find Robert Waters teachings by a google search. I believe your teachings are close. But it seems to me Robert fills in the blanks were you miss them. In Christ, Dale

Answer
Hi Dale,

I am quite familiar with Robert Waters. We had become friends over time and I have read a whole lot from him and others who agree with him. I still visit his website - totalhealth.biz - once in a while and read new posts and re-read many things he has there on MDR. I even refer some people that I answer here to his website. I agree mostly with him and there was a year or so that I was in complete agreement with him. We exchanged emails and even participated in his Focus On Truth yahoo group discussions on MDR and many other topics.

While participating in debates on MDR at his yahoo group, I came to see weaknesses in his teaching on "apoluo" not meaning divorce. Although I do think in most cases that word is not used to refer to full divorce but rather just sending away without the bill of divorce, I do not see anything to PROVE brother Waters' belief that when Jesus spoke on MDR in Mathew, He was speaking of Jewish men sending away wives and not giving them the bill of divorce to free them so they can marry a new man. Brother Waters firmly believes this is the case but nothing in scripture indicates it and nothing in historic records shows evidence of this happening regularly.

I debated a man on the topic of "apoluo" and he was able to prove to me that apoluo was sometimes used in reference to a full divorce. The combination of being shown it was used to refer to full divorce and a more careful study of Mathew 5 and Matthew 19 caused me to abandon the teaching of brother Waters on that word apoluo.

Yes my teachings are close to being the same as brother Waters because we are still in full agreement on most everything but that one word and what Jesus was saying. I am fully convinced Jesus was merely correcting Pharisee error because the majority taught a Jewish man can divorce his wife for any reason. Moses provided a specific reason and I believe Jesus was reinforcing that reason. Bottom line, Jesus' words were Old Covenant - the only exception being God's original intent - one man joined to one woman for life. That carries on in every covenant. Christians should always have that as their goal - marry one person and be joined for life as one flesh. The reality of the fact sin is in the world and it takes BOTH in the marriage maintaining the goal to remain one flesh for life means sometimes even when one in the marriage is doing everything they can to reach that goal of one flesh for life, the other person might no longer wish to have that goal or even remain Christian.

Paul's words in I Corinthians 7 are the most complete instruction on MDR for Christians and this is where our focus should be when we study and teach on MDR.

You believe Robert fills in the blanks where I miss them - I disagree. I don't see blanks in what I teach or believe on MDR. BUT, if there are blanks I miss, it is my opinion it's better to leave them blank than to fill them with a flawed answer. Not every aspect of any topic is completely covered by God's Word but we have been given enough to guide us even when something may not be specifically covered. Also, no one truly knows all the answers to anything. We are all constantly learning and improving. My mind has even been changed about things I used to believe when I was young. But real solid evidence is always required to persuade me to change my belief about something. I don't change with the wind.

My study on divorce and remarriage has been extremely in depth and has been very very thorough. I began seeing problems with what's traditionally taught back when I was in junior high school. But I didn't really study the topic very deep until about 8 years ago. In the past 8 years I have read hundreds of articles on MDR from many different sides. I have read several books. I have been involved in debates. I have studied many many things I found on websites and brother Waters' totalhealth website has more material on MDR than I have seen anywhere else online. I've read almost everything on his site more than once and carefully analyzed debates that brother Waters had with some very sharp opponents. I greatly admire and respect brother Waters. I will always thank him for the time he spent studying with me and discussing MDR with me and I thank him for having such a wonderful website with loads of resources to study.

May God bless you Dale and bless brother Waters too. I do believe his teachings regarding "apoluo" are incorrect at least mostly incorrect but I do agree with him on most everything else.

In Christian love, Joe Norman