Would This Marriage Be Valid?

[foreverafter]

Am I wrong for finding the idea of this being true to be hilarious?

I was just requoting Joseph Fielding Smith who said that.

"Many...fail to realize the seriousness of a violation or to understand that punishment must inevitably follow. There are many who receive them (covenants) who utterly fail to heed them.... they think the Lord has a short memory... that he will break his promises & the punishment will not be inflicted. In this manner, many deceive themselves." Joseph Fielding Smith, CHMR 1:322-23

Edited June 3, 2009 by foreverafter

[Robert_Mason]

I was just requoting a G.A. who said that. Those are not my words.

Oh, I know. I've just now got thoughts of God being constantly forgetful and all.

[Vort]

Time is not repentance & does not take away from the seriousness of the sin. [...] Most people think God as a short memory.

There's only one thing that makes marriage valid - worthiness. Worthiness to even get married plus worthiness during the marriage.

A red-letter day, indeed! While I disagree with almost everything foreverafter wrote in the part I replaced with an ellipsis (as indeed I disagree with much of what she writes in general), her first sentence and the last three sentences in her post quoted above have my total agreement. In this narrow issue, foreverafter has hit the nail on the head, and I happily add my voice to hers.

(Okay, I might quibble with the last sentence. Even if people marry unworthily, if they make themselves worthy afterward, they are clean before God and their marriage perfectly valid. But let's not interrupt this momentous occasion with trivial corrections.)

[HEthePrimate]

Time is not repentance & does not take away from the seriousness of the sin. True repentance & the degree of remorse & suffering for the sin would be the same the day after the sin as 100 years after the sin. Most people who commit adultery or any form of abuse, never repent they just push it out of their minds for the rest of their life & become past feeling & thus destroy their chance to ever repent, while they go on telling themselves they are righteous so they can sleep at night.

It's true that time is not repentance, and that many people don't repent. However, I must say that true repentance is not about the degree of remorse and suffering--it's about change. Granted that it is proper to feel remorse for hurting another person, but with repentance, a person should not beat themselves up about it forever. And that remorse should help the person change his/her ways and start behaving better, make amends, etc. But if we are expected to pay the price for our own sins, then what was the Atonement all about? Did Jesus suffer and die for nothing?

Even many people who remarry after divorce live in an adulterous remarriage for the rest of their life, though they never think it's adulterous, (for the Prophets say a justified divorce is very rare), the ceremony or time does not equal repentance. They think that God has forgotten they weren't justified to divorce & remarry or that time & a new family makes everything ok now & they're forgiven & the marriage is valid. Most people think God as a short memory.

There's only one thing that makes marriage valid - worthiness. Worthiness to even get married plus worthiness during the marriage.

You seem too hard on people, harder than God is. You say that most people who divorce and get remarried are living in adulterous marriages. That seems a bit harsh to me.

You also say that only worthiness makes a marriage valid. Well, in that case, none of us are legitimately married, because nobody is worthy, other than God (Romans 3:10).

I'm not trying to justify sin or unfaithfulness. I'm just saying that if a couple sinned before they got married, then they got married, and were decent people after that and faithful to each other, chances are they won't get excommunicated--and probably they shouldn't be. IMO, those years of being good to each other count for something, too, my friend.

HEP

[pam]

Even many people who remarry after divorce live in an adulterous remarriage for the rest of their life, though they never think it's adulterous, (for the Prophets say a justified divorce is very rare), the ceremony or time does not equal repentance. They think that God has forgotten they weren't justified to divorce & remarry or that time & a new family makes everything ok now & they're forgiven & the marriage is valid. Most people think God as a short memory.

Man I soooo disagree with this. If someone has legally and yes lawfully (according to the laws of the land) have divorced and remarried legally and lawfully, they are not being adulterous. It that were true there would be multitudes of people in the Church who according to your definition are living adulterous lives. Never for one moment do I believe this.