This is the transcript of Restitutio episode 590: 1 Corinthians in Context 8 - Marriage, Divorce, and Remarriage with Sean Finnegan

This transcript was auto-generated and only approximates the contents of this episode.

Audio file

591 1 Corinthians 8.mp3

Transcript

00:00
Hey.

00:01
I'm Sean.

00:02
And you are listening to restitutio, a podcast that seeks to recover authentic Christianity and live it out today.

00:11
The.

00:11
Romans looked at families and marriage very differently than most of us do today.

00:16
In this session, we'll cover arranged.

00:19
The double standard for adultery and the new Roman women who were breaking all the rules.

00:26
This will put us in a good place to read Chapter 7 of First Corinthians and see how Christian marriage, divorce, and remarriage differed from how the world lived.

00:35
We'll see that not only was Christian marriage incredibly honoring to wives, it also provided a better foundation on which to build intimacy and mutuality.

00:45
Here now is Episode 591, part eight of our first Corinthians class marriage, divorce and remarriage.

01:01
Let's begin with one Corinthians Chapter 7.

01:05
We read now concerning the matters about which you wrote.

01:09
It is good for a man not to touch.

01:11
Woman but because of cases of sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife.

01:18
And each woman her own husband.

01:20
So this opening phrase here, now concerning.

01:25
Is kind of like a formula we encounter a few times in one Corinthians that tips us off.

01:31
That whatever is going to come right after that is what the Corinthians had written Paul about.

01:37
And so we had read in one Corinthians 1617 where it talked about.

01:45
Fortunatus and Achaicus these three guys they had come with a letter to Paul and had visited.

01:52
And that letter had information the Corinthians wanted to give Paul. He was now responding to.

01:58
So this marks a change in the Epistle he had been dealing with, probably reports from.

02:04
About different stuff that her people had seen.

02:08
And now he's starting to address their questions.

02:12
OK.

02:12
So we find this phrase now concerning Peri. They in the Greek twice in Chapter 7 we find it in Chapter 8, verse 1, chapter 12, verse one.

02:21
And chapter 16 verse one, although that one's somewhat debated.

02:25
What did they write him?

02:27
They said it is good for a man not to touch a woman.

02:31
And Paul responds to that statement and it's not clear if is it a statement or a question or what exact how exactly to translate the word woman.

02:40
Could translate it wife.

02:42
The word touch is likely just like a way of speaking about having sexual relations with somebody.

02:50
Another translation of this could be is it good for a husband not to have sex with his wife? OK.

02:57
That's another possible translation.

03:00
It's.

03:00
More than just a touch, OK?

03:03
And and I think we're justified in seeing it that way because of his.

03:07
His response is well because of sexual immorality. Each man should have his own wife, and each woman or her own husband.

03:14
So that's his response, which I think gives us a pretty good clue. This is not a handshake.

03:18
Now when it comes to the idea of no sex within a marriage, we have some things to think about within the Roman Empire, mostly among the philosophers.

03:30
So, for example, the cynic philosophers and, of course Diogenes is the founder of the cynics, was famously somebody who lived in Corinth.

03:40
Before Paul got.

03:41
But he's still very famous and his his followers are there, and cynics believed in sex, but they didn't believe in marriage.

03:51
And they didn't believe in having children.

03:53
So cynic would say I don't want to get married.

03:56
I don't want kids.

03:58
I just want to have a good time. Like, that's, that's the cynic mindset. OK. The Stoic would say.

04:06
I believe in marriage.

04:07
I believe in.

04:08
I believe that marriage is.

04:08
I believe that kids are good and that we it's a good part of society.

04:13
But you shouldn't really have sex unless you're.

04:17
Unless you're trying to have a kid, that's a stoic.

04:20
A non Christian Greek philosophy.

04:23
It enters Christianity later, but that's another story for another day, Massonius Rufus.

04:29
Who is writing or lecturing about the same time Paul is writing to the Corinthians?

04:34
A couple years right after that, he says the following.

04:38
Men who are neither licentious nor wicked must consider only those sexual acts which occur in marriage and which are carried out for the creation of children to be.

04:48
Since these acts are also lawful.

04:51
But they must consider acts that chase after mere pleasure, even if they occur in marriage as wrong.

04:58
So that's an attitude that we find among the philosophers, Plato and Aristotle, kind of look down on bodily pleasures like eating and drinking and sex or, you know, sometimes they even talk about, like wearing a soft robe.

05:13
They're like, you know, you're really kind of a wuss. You know, you need to wear, like, coarse clothing.

05:17
Know.

05:18
That's this idea of asceticism. Training yourself is from the Greek word aschisis. It means training.

05:25
Supposed to train yourself through hardship.

05:27
And the cynics were into.

05:28
The Stoics were into it, and maybe not the Epicureans so much. But Epicurious himself was into this idea.

05:35
Training. And so this was something that also infiltrated some of the doctors.

05:41
So for example, the most famous doctors called Hippocrates. You heard of the Hippocratic Oath, where you do? No.

05:47
There's a couple centuries before Christ, and then you have Galen, which is a couple centuries after Christ, and they both agreed that too much sex for men is bad because it reduces.

05:57
Vitality. And they had their theories which have now all been disproved about why.

06:03
You know, they thought the body worked a certain way with these humors and fluids, and everything has to be in balance. You know, they had a theory about how too much sex was actually weakening.

06:14
So there were some of these streams of thoughts in the ancient world.

06:18
And guess what? In Corinth you have some of these upper class Christians who have been educated, maybe had a little bit of a philosophical bent.

06:25
Paul, I talked a lot about the wisdom of this age in philosophies. We had talked about this previously.

06:32
So you know, maybe there are some in the church that were like, you know what, we shouldn't be having sex at all.

06:38
And so they write to Paul.

06:40
What do you think, Paul?

06:42
You usually have sex.

06:44
Should.

06:44
You know, like, hey, it's a legitimate question.

06:47
You know, it kind of sounds funny, but why not ask it?

06:50
And what Paul says is now concerning the matters about what you wrote. It is good for a man not to touch a woman, but because of cases of sexual immorality.

06:59
Each man should have his own wife, and each woman her own husband.

07:02
The husband should give to his wife what is due her and likewise the wife to her husband.

07:09
So Paul clearly endorses sex within marriage.

07:13
There's no mention of procreation here.

07:16
He doesn't say well, you should have sex, but like, only if there's a good chance you would have a child. As a result, there's nothing like that.

07:25
So let's pause for a bit and talk about Roman family matters before we move on and talk more about Christian marriage.

07:33
Roman family matters. I want to go through 4 main points with you. The powder, familias, marriage, adultery and the new Roman women.

07:43
So first up, the powder familias.

07:46
Is a Latin.

07:48
It means father of the family.

07:50
This you can see that right?

07:51
The Potter familias had patria potestus.

07:57
So now it's 44 Latin.

07:59
The Spanish speakers probably configure those one out potassus like potent strong power, right?

08:06
Patria is a word that means, like the authority of the father.

08:10
He had the power of the authority of the father.

08:14
This is classic.

08:15
You have the oldest father in the household.

08:19
Is able to exercise authority over the household in a staggering range.

08:25
Within the Rowan Empire, this is not in Christianity.

08:27
Is just in general in the Roman Empire.

08:32
In the Roman Empire, a father of a household would decide who each person would marry.

08:40
They had arranged marriages.

08:42
Not to say he would be a dictator about it. You know, maybe you brought in a boy and you said, well, I like this one, you know, like I'm sure there was some of that back and forth, right.

08:51
Or a guy brings in a girl and says, ah, what do you think about her?

08:54
Always a negotiation with these things.

08:57
But he also had authority over finances for everybody and even life itself. The Potter families had to decide if a new baby would be accepted into the household.

09:12
Or cast out or even executed, and the Romans had given that authority and recognized it as properly the father of the household's right.

09:23
We have a papyrus from Oxyrhynchus, Egypt, Papyrus 744.

09:30
By a guy named Hilarion, he says.

09:33
I beg and entreat you take care of the little one.

09:35
And as soon as we receive our pay, I will send it up to you. If by chance you bear a child, if it is a boy, let it be. If it is a girl, cast it out.

09:46
Casting a child out of the household a lot of times will result in the death of the child. Depends on if there's other people around and who wants an abandoned child.

09:57
Worst case scenario, the child will just die of exposure, OK or starvation.

10:03
In other cases, the person who ran the local brothel would take the baby and raise the baby as a prostitute.

10:10
Or somebody else would take the baby and raise the baby as a.

10:14
Or once Christianity really gets cooking.

10:17
We would take the babies and raise.

10:19
As Christians.

10:20
But this is a little before that time this papyrus comes to us from the year 1 BC.

10:27
So there's no Christianity yet in the world to take that child.

10:31
Very sad.

10:32
We find another similar statement from Apolaas novel, which is called the Golden ***.

10:38
As in donkey.

10:40
I don't know why we don't.

10:42
That, but it is a funny way to say it anyhow.

10:45
He writes about a.

10:46
He says her husband's father having to be away on a journey.

10:50
Left instructions with his wife.

10:53
This is like 100 years after Paul wrote.

10:55
The way.

10:56
When this novel was written, so yes, the father left instructions with his wife, her mother-in-law, who was.

11:02
That if the child turned out to be a member of the weaker sex, it should be put to death at birth while he was away, a girl was born, but mother love was too strong for her and disobeying her husband's orders, she.

11:17
The child to neighbors to bring up.

11:19
On his return, she told him that it was a daughter and had been duly put to death.

11:26
This is a fictional story, but a fictional story based on real life situations that could happen, right?

11:32
I think it's valuable to highlight the fact that women did defy their Potter familias from time to time.

11:41
And make their own moves right? In this case, raising the child by a neighbor when the powder familias died, each of his sons became their own patter families.

11:50
Death rates were fairly young, so you know this was a very viable way of, you know, rising up through the ranks of society at that time. Let's look at marriage.

12:03
Girls got married in their mid to late teens.

12:06
Got married in their mid to late 20s.

12:10
The legal age for a woman to marry was 12.

12:14
She could not be married under that age.

12:16
I don't think 12 year old marriages were all that common, but that's that's their absolute minimum.

12:22
There were no paternity tests available.

12:26
So protecting the chastity of the daughter was extremely important.

12:32
And this may be why they got married so young. If you're getting married at 15.

12:37
16 years old. You haven't had a chance to really be with a lot of people, right?

12:43
That's kind of the idea.

12:45
And then she would be faithful to her husband in that marriage. Now the father of the bride plays an incredibly important role, not just in Jewish society, which I think a lot of us who are familiar with the Bible know about that. But in the Roman Greek and.

13:01
Societies the father of the bride played a significant role.

13:05
The father of the bride arranged with the father of the groom, who would marry whom?

13:11
First of all, second of all, he would provide her with a dowry with a chunk of money.

13:18
And that money was her money that she brought to the marriage, however big that dowry was, would determine what kind of guy would be interested in marrying her, which is decided by his.

13:33
You see how this?

13:33
So there's a lot of economics and other things going on.

13:37
Not romance, it's not.

13:39
It's not like the ROM coms that we watch, OK?

13:43
This is a very different system for thinking about.

13:46
They're not thinking they're going to be best friends for life.

13:49
My soul.

13:49
There's no language like that.

13:51
We get close a couple of times to this idea of companionship, which I'll share, but it was definitely financial.

13:57
If that husband divorced her, he had to give the dowry back.

14:02
To her.

14:05
Now he could use it so long as they are married, he could spend it all if he wants.

14:08
If he divorced her, he had to find a way to give it back. Or else.

14:11
Was going to be in serious trouble.

14:13
So love was certainly experienced in.

14:17
I don't want to give you the impression that, like, love.

14:19
There.

14:19
All, but it wasn't the main.

14:21
Plutarch writes about this in his book advice to bride and groom.

14:25
Plutarch is writing, maybe like 40 years after Paul was in Corinth, 4050 years after.

14:31
He says marriages ought not to be made by trusting the eyes only.

14:36
Or the fingers either as is the case with some who take a wife after counting up how much she brings with her.

14:42
But without deciding what kind of helpmate she will be, so Plutarch's saying, hey, don't just look at her appearance. Don't just look at her money.

14:53
Think about like how she would be as a helpmate in your household.

14:58
We have a marriage.

14:59
This is totally fascinating from a city in Egypt.

15:02
Is where we get our ancient papyri.

15:04
Papyrus is just like old paper and we get it from Egypt because it doesn't rain that much.

15:09
So stuff lasts forever.

15:11
So this is from.

15:13
This is papyrus 104, and it's a marriage contract.

15:16
It's a little before our time, 2nd century before Christ, but it still has all these components in it that are worth considering we read.

15:24
Apollonia shall remain with Phylliscus obeying him.

15:27
As a wife, should her husband owning their property in common with him?

15:32
Feliskis shall supply to Apollonia all necessaries and clothing, and whatever is proper for her wedded wife, whether he is at home or abroad, so far as their property shall admit, it shall not be lawful for feliskaus to bring in any other wife.

15:49
But Apollonia, nor to keep a concubine or lover, nor to bigot children by another woman in Apollonia's lifetime.

15:56
Nor to live in another house over which Apollonia is not mistress.

16:02
Nor to eject or insult, or I'll treat her, nor to alienate any of their property, to Apollonius disadvantage. If he is shown to be doing any of these things, or does not supply her with necessaries and clothing, and the rest, as has been said, Feliskus shall forfeit forth.

16:20
To Apollonia, the dowry of two Tal.

16:23
4000 drachmae of copper.

16:26
In the same way, it shall not be lawful for Apollonia to spend the night or day away from the House of Felicus without feliscus's consent, or to have intercourse with another man, or to ruin the common household or to bring shame upon felicus in anything that ca.

16:42
Husband, shame.

16:44
If Apollonia wishes of her own will to separate from Felicus, Felicus shall repay her the bare dowry within 10 days from the day it is demanded back.

16:54
That's a marriage contract.

16:56
Couple of things missing that would be in our thinking today.

16:59
That love. Cherish you.

17:02
Like not even mentioned, but like the amount of money that was Shirley mentioned and you can see how the contract is written in such a way that it protects both from bad behavior of the other one.

17:16
But certainly.

17:18
The woman in particular, it protects and that was the role of the father, the father would say, OK, this is how it's going to work. And they would sit down and they would hold the guy accountable.

17:27
We don't have anything like this in most families today in America, so it takes a little explaining.

17:34
Now, of course, still many people did experience love in marriage, even though the marriages were arranged.

17:39
This is an epitaph for Claudia.

17:42
Love this one, it's.

17:44
Circle this is a memorial at a gravesite.

17:47
So you're in a graveyard and you stop and you read this. It says stranger.

17:51
I ask is but a little thing.

17:53
Stand close and read carefully.

17:56
This is the not so beautiful sepulcher of a beautiful woman.

18:00
The.

18:01
Her parents gave her was Claudia her?

18:04
She cherished from the depths of her heart. She gave birth to two sons.

18:08
One of these she left on the Earth, the other she placed beneath the Earth.

18:12
She was possessed of charming speech and, moreover, a pleasing gait.

18:16
She maintained the household she made wool.

18:20
I have spoken go forward.

18:22
So states to the year 100 to 76 BC before Christ, and you can see that this guy is kind of a wise guy, but at the same time he really did love his wife you.

18:33
She was.

18:35
She took care of the.

18:36
She made wool, you know, like she.

18:38
She was a good woman.

18:41
We have this other double funerary steal of Aurelius and Iurelia.

18:47
Sometimes you have that where the guy name and the girl name is almost the same, right?

18:51
Sometimes it is the same.

18:52
Then, but this is a relius and Irelia, the left side reads.

18:56
I'm just translating to English here.

18:58
Lucius Aurelius Hermia, Freedman of Lucius a butcher from the Viminal Hill.

19:04
So the guy was a butcher.

19:07
She who was gone before me by reason of fate, with chaste body, a unique spouse, loving she was possessed of my heart.

19:15
She lived faithful to a faithful husband with equal application when in no bitterness, she departed from her duty.

19:22
Then on the right side, we.

19:24
Read Aurelia Filamatio, Freed woman of Lucius while I lived.

19:29
I was named Irelia, Philamontium chaste, modest, ignorant of the crowd faithful to my husband, a husband whom I am without.

19:39
Alas, who was a fellow Friedman?

19:41
He was to me, in fact, and in truth, more than and beyond apparent. He took me to his bosom at the age of seven years, at the age of 40 years. I am in the hands of death.

19:53
He prospered in the eyes of all, due to my constant dutifulness.

19:58
So the likely scenario for this is that Aurelius the guy was a slave.

20:04
He won his freedom in some way, was able to either buy it or set free for good service.

20:11
And did well enough for himself that he got his own slaves, one of which was this seven-year old girl that he took into his house.

20:20
Essentially looked after her in the process of running the household, and then freed her and married her.

20:28
So that's probably what's going on here.

20:31
Here's another.

20:32
Musonius Rufus writes in marriage, and this guy is the number sex. Unless you're trying to have kids, guys.

20:39
He's he's pretty strict.

20:40
This is what he says in.

20:41
There must be, above all, companionship and care of husband and wife for each other.

20:47
Both in sickness and in health and on every occasion such a marriage is admirable and deserves emulation. Such a partnership is beautiful, that kind of a nice way of thinking about it.

20:56
So.

20:59
Plutarch is even better, he says.

21:01
It is a lovely thing for the wife to sympathize with.

21:04
Concerns and the husband with the wife's so that as ropes by being intertwined, get strength from each other. Thus by the due contribution of goodwill and corresponding measure by each member, the Co partnership may be preserved through the joint action of both.

21:19
Such a Co partnership and property as well, is especially befitting marry people.

21:23
Share your money is what he.

21:25
Who should pour all their resources into a common fund and combine them, and each should not regard one part as his own and another part as the other.

21:34
So these are the.

21:36
The ideals are that you would grow in affection, that there would be love within the relationship, but that was not the primary motivation for getting married.

21:44
It had to do with increasing your family status, and if you're a man, it had to do with finding a woman.

21:52
With a good dowry to bring into your household.

21:55
And then that was something that her father would control to find her a good husband.

22:01
Right. So that's how the whole system worked.

22:03
However, adultery was a problem.

22:08
Actually, I should rephrase that.

22:09
They didn't think adultery was a problem, which I think is a problem.

22:15
At least not for the men.

22:17
Plutarch writes about this in his he's literally writing a book of advice to a bride and a groom.

22:23
He's writing about the year 90, he.

22:26
The lawful wives of the Persian kings sit beside them at dinner and eat with them.

22:31
That's nice.

22:32
Thanks for telling us that. But when the Kings wish to be merry and get drunk, they send their wives away and send for the music.

22:39
And concubines.

22:42
That's an interesting story about the Persians, Plutarch.

22:45
You know, we're all Romans.

22:47
Why are you telling us about Persians?

22:48
So what he says next is insofar as.

22:51
Are right.

22:52
In what they do because they do not concede any share in their licentiousness and debauchery to.

22:58
Wedded wives?

22:59
If, therefore, a man in private life who is incontinent and dissolute in regard to his pleasures commits some peccadillo with a paramour, that means a lover, a paramour, or a maidservant. His wedded wife ought not to be indignant or angry, but she should reason that it is respect.

23:16
For her, which leads him to share.

23:19
His debauchery, licentiousness and wantonness, with another woman.

23:23
See, you know it's fine.

23:25
Guys can cheat all they want.

23:27
You know, the woman should just realize that, you know, whatever he's doing with them is probably some terrible party animal debauch thing.

23:37
It's respect for her that he's cheating on her.

23:40
It's just like ridiculous, right?

23:41
This is a serious moralist.

23:44
He's somebody that's an expert on morals in the Roman Empire, but he says to the husband he says don't flaunt it.

23:53
In front of your wife and he has this thing about perfume and cats.

23:56
Me. Read it to you. This is fascinating.

23:59
He says the following they say that the cat is excited to frenzy by the odor of perfumes. Now, inasmuch as women are affected in this way, not by their husbands using perfume, but by their having connection with other women.

24:14
It is unfair to pain and disturb.

24:16
So much for the sake of a trivial pleasure and to be pure and clean from all connection with others when they.

24:23
Their wives.

24:25
Did you catch anything?

24:27
He's saying don't have another woman's perfume on you when you are with your wife because it's gonna drive her nuts. Like this cat myth. They had that cats go crazy if they smell a lot of perfumes. She's like, you don't want your wife going nuts like the.

24:40
Cat.

24:42
Show all.

24:43
You're going to do weird stuff.

24:45
Going to mess around.

24:46
Take a bath, then go see your wife. Right. They had baths.

24:51
Were public baths in the city center.

24:53
Was a normal thing.

24:55
And men were worried about women committing adultery.

25:00
So it wasn't just men committed adultery on women, which they didn't even consider that adultery the only way a man could commit adultery in the Roman Empire was if he had relations with a married woman.

25:13
If she wasn't married, it wasn't considered adultery.

25:17
Now, if his wife had relations with anybody, it was adultery.

25:21
Talk about a double standard, right?

25:26
This fear of spurious offspring, in his epigrams, he says. You have been made Sinner by Marilla the father of seven, not children, for there is no son of yours, nor son of a friend or neighbor, but creatures conceived on truckle beds and mats, betrayed by their features, their.

25:45
Mother's adulteries.

25:48
This one who struts with curly hair, Amore confesses he is the offspring of Santra.

25:53
The cook.

25:54
But that other with flat nostrils and blubber lips is the very image of panachus the wrestler who is not aware if he has known and seen blerad dama that the third is the Baker's son.

26:09
So.

26:10
What Marshall's writing about is there's no paternity test.

26:15
No way to know.

26:16
It your.

26:16
Is it not your kid?

26:18
But he's like, look at your kids band. This one looks like the cook.

26:21
One looks like the.

26:22
This one looks like the Baker hello.

26:25
Right. And this is a fear they had. And they had no way to know.

26:29
No genetic.

26:30
There's, you know, there's.

26:31
So it's just like look at the face juvenile writes about this, he says, marry a wife, she'll make some smart guitarist or flute player a father, not you.

26:41
Or when you hang your front door with outsized Laurel wreaths, it'll all be to welcome an infant whose face in the tortoise shell cradle under its canopy recalls some armored thug, some idol of the arena.

26:55
So this was a concern.

26:58
Now in olden times, if a husband came upon his wife committing adultery.

27:03
He was authorized to kill.

27:06
Both of them, his wife and the other one that had changed. That was no longer the case. By the time we're talking about in the 1st century AD.

27:15
Yet there had been a lot of liberalizing tendencies.

27:20
Since the founding of was founded in the.

27:24
44 BC.

27:27
And since that time, Augustus was the Emperor and Augustus was concerned about the state of morality, especially in Rome. And of course, we know Corinth is copying Rome. Whatever Rome does, Corinth wants to do it like that.

27:41
So he legislated Augustus, the first Emperor legislated reforms in the year 18 BC again.

27:49
Certain behaviors that he thought were not good.

27:52
There was a population reduction in the city.

27:55
Wanted more babies?

27:57
So he taxed single men, in particular single men.

28:03
Who were not married had to pay their incentives for families that have many children.

28:10
So the more children you have, more of an incentive, and then he outlawed, made it a crime, a public crime, adultery. And the law that he made for adultery was that the adulterous and her lover.

28:26
Would have to pay a fine and be exiled to separate islands.

28:32
So the Greeks of the Romans did this a.

28:33
They send you to an island, so there's lots of islands so they can do that.

28:36
Not a thing you would do in the United States, right?

28:39
But like, there's just so many.

28:40
Like all right, you're gonna be on that island for a while for a couple of years and you just got to live there and deal with whatever happens over there and. And so this was something that he had legislated.

28:52
Swatonius talks about this. He says, when he discovered that bachelors were getting betrothed to little girls.

28:58
Which meant postponing the responsibilities of fatherhood and that married men were frequently changing their wives.

29:05
He dealt with these evasions of the law by shortening the permissible period between betrothal and marriage and by limiting the number of lawful divorces.

29:15
So what happened is he made these laws. And So what guys would do is they say, well, I'm engaged.

29:20
How old is your fiance? Oh, she's.

29:23
So I got to wait another 12 years.

29:25
Least.

29:26
Maybe 15 years until I marry her.

29:28
Meanwhile, you don't have to pay.

29:30
Tax.

29:31
Because you're you're betrothed.

29:34
So he said no, no, no, no.

29:35
Two year maximum betrothal.

29:37
Otherwise you're paying.

29:39
So you can see what he's trying to do. He's trying to to make them, especially the men, respect.

29:44
In society and the high society, the senatorial and equestrian ranks in Rome is what he's going after.

29:52
Widows and widowers had three years.

29:56
And then they had to marry again.

29:58
This was the law of Augustus.

30:01
However, Augustus's own daughter, Julia was a flagrant adulterer.

30:07
We'll come back to that in a minute.

30:09
Another person who writes about this is Cassius.

30:12
He says since the freeborn population contained far more males and females.

30:16
Because they're killing the females. I already showed you that when we started. Tragic.

30:21
He allowed all those who so desired, with the exception of senators, to marry freed women and directed that their offspring should be regarded as legitimate.

30:30
At this time, too, some men were becoming betrothed to infant girls.

30:35
Augustus made an order that no betrothal should be valid unless the man married within two years of giving his word. In other words, the girl must be at least 10 years old at the time of the betrothal.

30:47
So what's going on here?

30:51
What's going on is society was.

30:56
People were prioritizing new things. Now that we have a.

30:59
Roman Empire.

31:02
And so Augustus makes these laws to deal with it.

31:06
I want to tell you another quick thing about the.

31:08
So a father, if a father found his daughter in bed with an adulterer with with a man she's not married to. OK, he was authorized by a Roman law to kill both of them.

31:21
But if a husband found his wife in bed with another man.

31:25
You could kill the other man only if he.

31:28
A lower.

31:29
Status than he was.

31:31
And he could not kill the wife no matter what.

31:34
He had to divorce her, or else he was going to be prosecuted.

31:39
That was the law that Augusta set up.

31:41
Did.

31:41
He was trying to fight immorality.

31:43
Was rampant in Rome.

31:46
And that's how he decided to do it.

31:49
So what was going on?

31:51
The new Roman women.

31:54
That's what was going on.

31:57
The new woman.

32:00
And Augustus did not like it.

32:02
His daughter Julia was a prime example of.

32:06
The new woman.

32:08
Eventually he exiles her like he has to enact his own law against his daughter because she's so bad.

32:15
Bruce Winter writes.

32:16
This is his.

32:17
Roman wives, Roman widows. Ancient historians have observed that around 44 BC, evidence of a new type of woman emerged in certain circles in Rome.

32:28
Woman in high position, who nevertheless claims for herself the indulgence.

32:32
And sexuality.

32:32
A woman of pleasure.

32:35
1st century women, unlike their Greek sisters in Hellenistic and Classical Greek times, appeared in the public domain.

32:43
The Imperial wives appear to have set a precedent for wives of senatorial rank and others in the social hierarchy.

32:51
New women had emerged and they were supported by those who were themselves avant-garde, including some male literary figures of the early Roman Empire who were influential in promoting this lifestyle. These new women had an unsettling influence on the status quo.

33:06
So you have the Imperial family.

33:09
That's the Emperor, his wife, and you know, their relatives.

33:13
And there the women are dressing up real fancy and they're being promiscuous and they're committing adultery.

33:20
They have this liberated mindset.

33:23
Which then affects the senatorial class and their women, which they start doing.

33:29
Affects the equestrian class.

33:30
And their women.

33:32
And then eventually it trickles down to the regular people.

33:35
Now we have.

33:37
Imitation of this.

33:40
Marshall, writing about this, says the way you're marrying your toy boy and making your former adulterer your husband, so that Julian Law can't make an example of you proculina you're not getting married, you're signing your confession.

33:55
So Marshall is writing in the year 80.

33:57
This is after the time, appalled, but not that you know only a couple decades afterwards.

34:01
3-4 decades afterwards and he's talking about the Julian Law.

34:05
Julian Law is is the law.

34:07
That Julius Caesar.

34:09
Has started and then Augustus had added too, and it was all referred to as a Julian law, including the parts that Augustus changed about adultery.

34:18
Seneca is even more.

34:21
This is Seneca the younger. He's writing right about the same time that Paul is writing first Corinthians.

34:28
And Seneca says the following. Surely this is the middle of the 1st century, he says.

34:34
No woman is embarrassed by divorce anymore.

34:38
Now that certain famous and high born ladies keep track of their years not by counting consoles.

34:44
It's like their presidents, but by counting husbands.

34:48
They leave home to get married and get married to get divorced.

34:52
Divorce was feared only as long as it was unusual.

34:56
But it is in the news all the time now.

35:00
So they have learned to emulate what they hear about South often.

35:03
And surely there is no scandal in adultery anymore either. Now that we are at the point where a woman only takes a husband to make her lover jealous.

35:13
A woman only takes a husband to make her lover jealous.

35:17
Any woman who does not see that marriage is just a name for having only one lover must be simple minded and behind the times.

35:25
The shame for these misdeeds has long since evaporated, as the practice has become more widespread.

35:33
Furthermore, wealthy women were able to get abortions.

35:37
There were different.

35:38
Liquids and poisons that you can take and other I don't need to go into the gory details ways of.

35:44
Wealthy women procuring abortions.

35:48
And wealthier women were somewhat known, or that feared, I guess, is the right word for poisoning children of other women that were in the household.

35:59
So if a wife came into a household and there were already children there, those children might end up getting poisoned because their competition for her children that she's going to have with her husband, or if he's having children with other women in the household, like slaves for example.

36:16
She might poison them as well.

36:19
One historian mentions no fewer than 12 different poisoning accounts.

36:27
Or rumors in the first half of the 1st century.

36:30
So this is something that was.

36:32
I don't know to what degree it was happening, but it was definitely a concern.

36:38
Much like our sexual revolution in the 1960's, the Roman sexual Revolution.

36:45
Of the 1st century before Christ in the 1st century of Christianity, right?

36:50
That period right there.

36:53
Basically decided that women should behave like badly behaved men rather than having men behave like well behaved women.

37:04
Did that communicate rather than restricting badly behaved men, these new women pursued sexual equality, embracing promiscuity and adultery for themselves.

37:16
Christianity, by contrast, took a different approach.

37:21
Take a look at what we read here.

37:22
Corinthians 7 three the husband should give to his wife.

37:26
What is do her, and likewise the wife to her husband for the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does likewise. The husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agree.

37:44
A set time to devote yourselves to prayer.

37:46
And then come together again.

37:49
So that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

37:53
This I say by way of concession.

37:55
Not of command.

37:58
Sex for Christians is about mutuality.

38:01
This idea that we're each giving to the other what is due.

38:06
The Houseman is giving to the wife what is due. The wife is giving to the husband what is due. Each one is giving authority over their body to the other.

38:16
This what I mean by.

38:17
There's a mutual inequality and a mutuality within Christian marriage.

38:22
The wife is faithful to the husband.

38:25
No big surprise there.

38:27
And the husband is faithful to the wife.

38:31
Mind blown. Like that's the point where in Corinth, they're just like.

38:36
Come again?

38:39
The contrast this what was going on in the world around them. Like I mentioned, Augustus, daughter Julia was very badly behaved.

38:46
Was known to have affairs with four men apart from her husband.

38:52
At which point Augustus himself had to exile her to an island.

38:58
In accordance with the new law, he passed about exiling adulterers to islands.

39:02
Had to do it to his own.

39:03
Daughter that that was old news. By the time we're talking about, by the time we're talking about the emperor in.

39:09
Was Claudius.

39:11
Claudius Caesar had four wives, one after the other and two or three. At least two of his wives were well known, or at least.

39:21
Rumored to be adulterers themselves and that was his stated reason for divorcing them and remarrying.

39:29
And then his last wife was accused of not only adultery but also murder and incest with her own son, who was the next Roman emperor. Nero. OK.

39:38
So we don't need to get into all that.

39:42
But I mean, just chaos moral.

39:44
At the highest.

39:45
People are seeing that and they're like.

39:47
All right, so how do I do this?

39:49
You know, like I'm a cheat over here.

39:51
Cheat over.

39:52
You know, I don't know if I can afford this or afford that, but we're going to, you know, and Paul say, no mutuality.

39:59
This is your sexual outlet, women.

40:01
Your.

40:02
What's this? Your sexual outlet?

40:03
Men, it's your wife.

40:07
That was a strong, revolutionary, unusual ethic, not unusual to the Jewish people, but within the Roman world, this Christian idea, which obviously came from Judaism, was strong.

40:21
It was really interesting.

40:24
In the sexual act, they were mutually.

40:28
The wife had authority over the husband's body.

40:33
Nobody talked like that.

40:36
The the part before that where it says for the wife does not have and I think that's why I put it first. So the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. People today are like aghast, like I can't believe, you know he.

40:49
But ancient people would be like, yeah, yeah, of course.

40:52
Right. But then the second-half where he says likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body.

40:58
In the audience should be like what?

41:01
How can you say that you're going to give?

41:03
Wife authority over my body.

41:05
Yeah, that's his vision of Christian mutuality within marriage.

41:11
Nancy Pearcy writes about this. She says in this historical context, the Christian view of marriage was nothing short of revolutionary.

41:21
At its core was a new form of sexual equality. To the shock of the ancient world, both sexes were held to the same moral standard.

41:30
Christianity condemned promiscuity among men as well as women.

41:35
It stood out as radically different because it taught that a husband actually wrongs his wife.

41:41
By committing adultery.

41:43
Jesus.

41:44
Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her.

41:48
Mark 1011 such even handed treatment was genuinely novel.

41:54
So you had two choices for.

41:56
You could either have the women practice adultery, just like the men, or you could tell the men and the women no adultery.

42:03
Be committed to each other.

42:05
That's what Christianity did.

42:08
Now, as I mentioned, we had the same thing in the 1960s in the in the United States of America, where women were liberated in this what we call the sexual revolution.

42:17
If you're curious about that, I read an interesting book by Luis Perry called the case against the Sexual revolution where and she's not a Christian, so keep that in mind where what she does is she explains how harmful it has been to women.

42:33
To behave like men.

42:38
The Christian ideal remains as relevant today as ever.

42:43
What I'm trying to say.

42:46
Is not.

42:47
It's not, you know, old.

42:49
I mean, maybe it's old fashioned too, but like it's good.

42:52
Works like it's God's design.

42:56
Didn't make Adam.

42:57
And then Eve and Bethany and Susan in the Garden of Eden.

43:03
He didn't use.

43:04
You know what, I.

43:05
Like, that's how the biblical pattern was set up.

43:08
Right. And it wasn't like Eve and Adam and Tom, you know, like there was there was one and.

43:14
He took one person and made that one person into two people and then in marriage the two become one flesh again.

43:22
That.

43:22
That's the vision of Genesis.

43:27
Now I do want to mention something about domestic abuse.

43:31
Just as we're winding down here, this is when a husband physically harms his wife.

43:36
This is a horrible sin because it violates the mutuality that we see here in the Bible.

43:44
If a woman is giving authority over her body to a man, and a man is physically harming her.

43:50
We have a violation of the trust.

43:53
And that's, I think, why it's such a deep sin.

43:55
Within marriage itself.

43:58
And so men, according to what we just read here, the woman has authority over your body as well.

44:07
So we need to have two yeses for sex.

44:11
OK.

44:12
Doctor one, yes and one no.

44:14
Two yeses for sex.

44:17
And a guy might say yeah, but isn't she supposed to not deprive me?

44:23
Does that authorize you to rape her?

44:25
Nope.

44:28
You know, like just because one person doesn't do what the Bible says doesn't mean you can just.

44:32
Go crazy or harm somebody.

44:34
Just not.

44:35
It's not an application of what it says here.

44:38
Read the whole.

44:39
It's talking about a beautiful vision of mutual trust and vulnerability.

44:46
Where each is vulnerable to the other, not just one person.

44:49
To the.

44:49
Each is vulnerable to the other, and I think that's the highest level of intimacy you can have is when you have that mindset.

44:57
All right, let's just mention briefly a few of these other verses. I can't go into much detail, but I wanted to at least read them to you and leave you with a homework assignment of reading this chapter on your own.

45:12
No surprise there, 1 Corinthians 7/7.

45:14
I wish that all were as I myself am, but each has a particular gift from God.

45:21
One having one kind and another a different kind to the unmarried and the widows. I say that it is good for them to remain unmarried as I.

45:29
Am but if they are not practicing self-control, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to be aflame with passion. I want to make it clear he is talking not to divorce Christians here.

45:41
He's talking to unmarried Christians, and he's talking to widows.

45:45
People whose spouse is already deceased.

45:47
OK.

45:48
And he's saying to them, look, if you can't control your lost, just get married. That's what he's saying to them.

45:56
When it comes to those who have been married.

46:01
We get the next section here, verse 10 to the married see.

46:04
So he says to the unmarried, to the widows. And then he says to the married.

46:07
He's trying to cover all the bases.

46:09
To the married, I give this command, not I, but the Lord as Jesus.

46:14
That the wife should not separate from her husband. But if she does separate, let her remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband and that the husband should not divorce his wife.

46:27
People do not like this one.

46:29
I think it's Christians.

46:31
We're just like I was.

46:32
With you until we got to this one. We don't like the idea of trying to fix a marriage after there's been a separation.

46:39
We want a divorce and a remarriage.

46:42
What we.

46:42
That's what everybody wants.

46:44
But that's not what it.

46:45
What do you want me to do?

46:46
Can't change it.

46:47
It says what it.

46:49
It says if you're married to a Christian, then.

46:54
If you want to separate, you can separate, but then you should.

46:57
Work it.

46:58
You should get back together.

47:01
In the next section, he talks about mixed marriages where you have a Christian and a non Christian. That's why I think 10 through 11 is talking about Christian marriages because in 12 through 16 we're talking about where somebody's married to an unbeliever.

47:13
Alright, let me read you this verse 12 to the rest I say.

47:17
I and not the Lord, that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him.

47:24
He should not divorce her. And if any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever, and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce.

47:32
For the unbelieving husband is made holy through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy through the brother.

47:39
Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.

47:44
But if the unbelieving partner separates, let it be so.

47:48
In such a case, the brother or sister is not bound.

47:51
It is to peace that God has called us.

47:55
Wife, for all you know, you might save your husband husband for all you know, you might save your wife.

48:02
So this is talking about where you have two pagans that are married to each.

48:07
What I mean is, by Pagan is people that worship the Roman gods. They're married to each other. One now becomes a Christian.

48:13
This was a very relevant issue in the church that Paul's writing to.

48:17
A lot of times you just have one was a Christian and one wasn't.

48:21
So what would a woman be responsible for in the household?

48:26
I just want to cover this briefly.

48:27
There was Vista.

48:29
Vista is the goddess of the hearth, in Greek Hestia.

48:33
This is some goddess that you would make daily offerings to at mealtimes of grains, salt, and wine.

48:40
Then there were the.

48:42
These are guardian spirits of the home that each house had their invoked at family occasions like the birth of a child.

48:51
Marriage death of a member of the household.

48:54
These are gods. This every house would have a LAR that was worshipped in that house.

49:00
Then there were the.

49:03
The penalties were little gods that lived in your pantry and watched over your food.

49:09
Picking this up.

49:10
There's the family genius, and I'm not talking about, you know, some precocious 12 year old. The the genius was the spirit, the ancestral spirit that looked over the Potter families of the household.

49:24
And food.

49:25
Were made on special days, special occasions like birthdays to the families genius.

49:31
Like a spirit that watched over the family.

49:34
Then there were deceased ancestors.

49:37
There were multiple times a year where you would be expected to go to the grave site.

49:41
Of an ancestor, whether it was related to you or not, might be your husband's ancestor.

49:46
And you will be expected to bring food or pour out some wine or leave flowers.

49:53
And this is where the custom of leaving flowers at gravesite is originated from was to honor the deceased.

50:01
Ancestors.

50:03
Presumably so they don't mess with you. Like most of ancient worship has to do with doing what they want so that you don't have bad things happen to you.

50:11
Not a love relationship like in Christianity.

50:15
Van houses also had other gods. They had paintings of gods.

50:19
We see those all throughout Ephesus and Pompey.

50:22
They had mosaics in the floor of.

50:24
We have an example of this from Corinth that has survived.

50:27
Then you also have statues in the main courtyard of the Roman villa. There were statues of these other guys so.

50:34
The house is full of gods.

50:36
Whose job is taking care of all these gods? It's the wife.

50:40
It's the woman of the household is responsible for the care of these gods, these household gods.

50:45
If there was a big festival in the city and there was going to be a big animal sacrifice, it would be the husband responsible to represent the family at that sacrifice.

50:55
So now she becomes a Christian, she says.

50:57
Don't want to offer any food.

50:59
To the hearth goddess.

51:02
I don't want to recognize the Lara of the household anymore, and I'm done putting flowers on your grandfather's grave.

51:10
How's that going to go over right?

51:12
Or let's reverse it. Let's reverse.

51:13
Let's say the woman is still Pagan, but the man becomes a Christian.

51:16
And he's like, you know, we're just not going to do any of that stuff.

51:20
And she and she's a good Pagan grown up from cradle like always off, making these offerings on the daily and recognizing the gods and saying the right things at the right time.

51:29
She's like, this is a bridge too far, man, I can't.

51:32
I can't go with you in this and they would get separated.

51:35
Would get divorced.

51:37
Paul's saying in those cases, if I can get back to that, let it be so. In such a case, the brother sister is not bound.

51:47
That's what he says.

51:48
Now everyone wants to talk about, OK?

51:52
What does that exactly mean?

51:55
Bound.

51:56
Does that mean I can get remarried?

51:59
Or not.

52:01
And that's that's what Christians debate about.

52:03
So when it comes to the subject of divorce, we have a few options. I'm just going to lay them out and then we're going to be done. OK. So in modern times, in fault divorces.

52:15
These are the scenarios that are available.

52:17
Adultery, cruelty, abandonment.

52:20
And imprisonment. These are what New York State recognizes as fault divorces, and then the no fault divorce is called. Irreconcilable differences in the state of New York.

52:31
Are the reasons for which you can get divorced.

52:33
Question is, which of these are biblical?

52:38
Right. That's the question we have to.

52:40
And then there's a whole separate subject of remarriage. Some people say you can never be remarried. Ever.

52:45
Other people say you cannot be remarried so long as your spouse is living.

52:50
Even if it's your ex, other people say remarriage is only for marriages broken by adultery. If your spouse committed adultery, then you can remarry.

52:58
Other people say no, that's true. But also if you get deserted, if you're an unbeliever.

53:04
Departs and separates from.

53:06
Let it be so. In such cases you are not bound.

53:09
What? That's coming from the idea of desertion or abandonment.

53:12
And then others will say, yeah, all those things plus things like.

53:16
Like if he's a drug addict or if he's abusive, or if she is working in the **** industry or whatever.

53:23
These other kinds of things, things like this, OK.

53:29
Remarriage for all previous cases, plus those in which the spouses don't get along.

53:37
And then the last I'm going for strictest from strictest to loosest. OK? Is remarriage for any reason. You find a younger woman and you say, wow. I'd like to marry that one. Divorce. Remarriage. Right.

53:50
These are these are all the different kinds of scenarios that.

53:54
You know could be there in our society today and it's our job.

54:00
To figure out. OK well, where?

54:02
We drawing the line here.

54:03
And in all honesty, I have lots of thoughts about this, but we're way late on time at this point and I don't think I can get into it.

54:12
So this is my challenge to you.

54:14
Read first Corinthians 7 yourself.

54:17
You see what it.

54:18
He's not writing to be cryptic.

54:19
He's writing to be understood.

54:22
And if you also want to read Matthew 19, that's the place where Jesus talks about it. That would be another good place.

54:27
To figure out where the line should be drawn.

54:31
It's an important subject, but it's beyond the scope of our class because I'm not, like I said in the beginning, not able to solve all the problems for you, the questions that people have, I'm here to give you the background so that you can read it over against.

54:45
Background.

54:46
And what I'm saying about the background is that Christian marriage is radical.

54:50
It's awesome. It's mutually trusting.

54:54
And for that reason, it was like an exciting new thing, especially for women who were expected to put up with their cheating husbands that Christian women know that their husband wouldn't cheat.

55:06
What an incredible advantage.

55:08
And so Christianity took off like wildfire among women.

55:12
All.

55:13
Next time we'll talk about idolatry and food sacrifice to idols as we continue through our class on 1st Corinthians.

55:20
Hands.

55:25
Well, that brings his presentation to an end.

55:27
What did you think? Come on over to restatutio.org and find Episode 591, marriage, divorce and remarriage and leave your feedback there. Also be interesting to hear what your views are on remarriage in particular.

55:43
When is it fitting for Christians to get?

55:47
Is it anytime they get divorced they can get remarried no matter what the reason was for the divorce.

55:52
Or are there limitations on it?

55:55
Come on over to Restitudio.

55:57
Org and leave your comments there. Would love to read your thoughts.

56:01
This is certainly an area of great importance for me as a pastor, and it's an area where I am always looking to learn, looking to develop my understanding.

56:12
I'm not interested in going against what Jesus taught or what Paul the Apostle taught.

56:17
But I am looking to apply it to real life scenarios and so I welcome your thoughts and comments on that. On another note, I wanted to invite you to Converge Fest this August.

56:30
That's going to be.

56:32
In five months, August 1-2 and three, I was having a conversation with another.

56:38
Just a week or two ago and was trying to explain converge to him and he was just like, I don't really need to go to another weekend.

56:47
You know, I've been to a million weekends in my life and these events are fun.

56:52
You know.

56:53
What would be the point in me going to that?

56:56
Well, let me just tell you converge is not just another weekend. First of all, it doesn't happen every year.

57:02
Last time we even did it was six years ago in 2019.

57:07
Before COVID and it was fabulously well attended.

57:12
Had around 300 people.

57:14
We're hoping to hit 500 this year and this is not an event like other living hope events that I'm involved with, for example, or UCA events or Church of God events.

57:26
This is an event bringing people in from all the different groups. Last time there were quite a few from the Christian Disciples Church in Canada.

57:37
They have two churches, one in Toronto, one in Montreal, predominantly Chinese.

57:42
And so they were a huge help last time around and I believe they are coming again.

57:47
There are going to be all kinds of.

57:49
Other one God groups represented at this event, some from small home fellowships or house churches, some from isolated individuals living all across the United States, others from actual denominations.

58:06
And established brick and mortar churches.

58:08
So it's going to be a really interesting time and look, this kind of thing only works if people show up. If people say you know what?

58:18
I'm going to make this a priority and so I encourage you to come.

58:22
Registration is not yet open.

58:24
It is available to submit your e-mail address at convergefest com.

58:30
That's convergefest.

58:33
Com and you can just punch in your e-mail. Then when registration becomes available, we'll send you an e-mail.

58:39
Am on the Planning Committee for this, but really the mastermind behind the whole thing is Jerry Weirw.

58:47
And he did a great job last time around.

58:50
I met so many different people.

58:51
Really honestly changed my life.

58:54
Met so many folks who became really lasting friends that six years later I'm actually very close with some of these people that I met for the first time at this event out of this event was the birth.

59:09
Of the unitary Christian alliance, we actually announced it for the first time in public at Converge Fest in 2019.

59:17
17 out of this event was the birth of Compass Christian Church to some degree at least, because that's when I got to meet Will Barlow, and in subsequent conversations started to encourage him.

59:31
Why not start a church down there in Kentucky or up there? If you're living South of Kentucky?

59:39
I always see things from the New York perspective.

59:41
Have to pardon me for that.

59:43
And I believe many other podcast YouTube channels, all kinds of stuff that got started because.

59:50
People gathering together, getting encouraged, meeting people in their area that they didn't even know about. And so I encourage you to come to converge fest.

59:59
Going to include a lot of preaching, which will be different pastors and speakers from various groups.
01:00:07
So I think it'll have good.
01:00:08
In that sense, there's going to be really powerful music.
01:00:12
I believe our living hope worship band is going to be doing some of the sets and then there's another band from the Church of God that is going to be doing.
01:00:20
And who?
01:00:21
Maybe even some other musicians from different groups can participate as well.
01:00:26
So the pre chain is going to be on point, the music is going to be fantastic.
01:00:30
We're going to have a full program for children, so bring all your kids don't care what age they are, even if they're babies. If they're little kids, if they're teenagers.
01:00:41
We're looking to provide a full children's program during the meetings, not for the entire.
01:00:45
So there's like free time in the afternoon and for that you would have to watch your own kids and obviously also put them to bed at night.
01:00:53
On you parents as well.
01:00:54
So I don't want to over sell this, but it is very much a festival environment is held at Hiram College just outside the Cleveland. OH.
01:01:03
And this is something that I am really looking forward to. Last time we did tables as well where people with different ministries could set up tables and.
01:01:14
Bring awareness to what they're doing to other one God believers.
01:01:14
Just.
01:01:19
And so hopefully that is something that can happen.
01:01:21
We had a sport last time around. Play some ultimate Frisbee, which was epic. I do have to say that.
01:01:27
That and that is when I got to meet Sam Tiedemann for the first time was on the field of Battle of Ultimate Frisbee in 2019 at CONVERGE.
01:01:35
That was really great to meet him.
01:01:37
I know my parents also reconnected with a lot of folks. My parents were in the way international and have been out of the way international for.
01:01:46
Pretty much almost as old as I am.
01:01:48
I was a little kid when they left, but they got to reconnect with all sorts of other folks that they had known from decades ago and.
01:01:56
It was really a rewarding time for them as well. It was also awesome.
01:02:02
People from groups I hadn't heard of before, and individuals I had never even met online, so I do encourage you to come and bring your friends.
01:02:12
Is going to be a really great time of celebration.
01:02:16
Going to stay away from.
01:02:17
It's not really a time for us to air our doctrinal differences or any kind of issues like that.
01:02:23
Of a rally together in what we agree on, especially who our God is and who Jesus is, and our commitment to.
01:02:31
So please go over to convergefest.com and put your e-mail address in there so we can let you know when more information becomes.
01:02:39
Thanks everybody for tuning in. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with your friends. If you'd like to support us, you can do that at restitutio.org and remember, the truth has nothing to fear.