Moral Inconsistencies in the Modern Church

Richard Hollerman

Probably I am not the only person to see an inconsistency in the modern evangelical Church in regard to moral issues. I refer to such areas as abortion and divorce. (By divorce, we mean remarriage also, which often—but not always—follows divorce.)

This is what we mean. Perhaps you are able to see a rationale here but we doubt it. So consider this.

We know that Jesus made the clear statement that if a person divorces his wife, except for immorality (sexual immorality or fornication) and marries another woman, that person commits adultery (Matthew 19:9 with Mark 10:11-12 and Luke 16:18). (Obviously, the woman/wife also would commit adultery.) Thus most remarriages involve adultery—or, as the command goes, “commits adultery.”

One of the scary consequences about this is that an adulterer or adulteress “will not inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 6:9-10). Along with this fact, “adulterers God will judge” (Hebrews 13:4). Sadly, for some fifty to a hundred years, the Evangelical churches have virtually overlooked this plain moral command of Jesus. The result is that many—perhaps many millions of people—are living in adultery and are thereby under God’s judgment because of this unrepentant sin of adultery.

Further, although this sin—like other sins—may be forgiven and the couple may be able to live a pure and holy life, surely most adultery couples do not repent, thus presently are living in continual adultery. They continue to live together and have a sexual relationship (as a married couple) and either refuse to repent (and thus live a celibate life or they don’t even hear of the need to repent.

Consider now another popular sin—that of abortion. This sin is the purposeful decision to “abort” or kill an unborn baby. Although this may have been committed prior to its legalization in America before 1973, since that sad time, the practice of adultery has steadily climbed. Now, many more children are being put to death, generally for the convenience of the mother or father or both. By this time, nearly 60 million babies have been killed by wicked parents, doctors, and nurses. If we were to include other abortion countries (such as Russia, China, Japan, India, and others), the number would climb to many hundreds of millions of murders. Obviously, government officials share the blame for this egregious sin. As Paul points out, “murder” is a sin that is “worthy of death” before God (Romans 1:29, 32).

This is the inconsistency we see. Probably, in many cases, the Evangelical Church (and much more in the liberal churches and secular people) there is an acceptance of this form of adultery. In some cases, the church may condone the divorce, remarriage, and consequence adultery. But in this case, the couple may be committed to not divorce again and thus relinquish this to God. Even in Evangelical Churches, the pastors may tell their members that if they have remarried and are now living in adultery, they should just confess this to God and not sin again by divorcing their present mate. This means that whatever situation a person is in—if it is sexual immorality—that sin is maintained!

But what about the matter of abortion? We think that often the Evangelical Churches are outspoken in their condemnation of abortion. They may march against this sin, picket abortion clinics, and vote against this sin in elections. Even sermons may be given against the practice of killing unborn babies. Thus, this sin is widely condemned—if not by the general public, at least by conservative professing Christians.

But why do we find this disparity? Why is it that we appear to see a condemnation of the sin of abortion (baby killing) but a corresponding acceptance of the sin of adultery (through illegitimate remarriage). In fact, abortion may be committed once (killing the baby, then going on with one’s life), but, additionally the sin may go on for years! Isn’t murder as fatal as adultery? And isn’t it as wicked to slay one’s baby and commit murder with a second spouse against a child as it is to kill one’s baby outright?

We think that for some unknown reason there is an inconsistency here. Could it be that in the case of abortion, some people abort and even tell friends about this sin? While, on the other hand, the sin of remarriage and adultery continues on and on and others know? On the other hand, have we become so accepting of adultery (through remarriage) that we tend to have an acceptance of remarriage and tend to accept the fact that people are living with a second spouse?

Thus, whether we refer to killing one’s unborn baby or committing adultery through remarriage, we find both sins growing with a nearly total acceptance at least by some elements of our society!

We are not suggesting that these sins and these alone are condemned in Scripture. We haven’t discussed other moral issues–such as pornography, pedophilia, masturbation, and bigamy. Many of these other issues should be discussed and you will find other information on this website that deal with some of these. God wants a pure and holy people and seeks sons and daughters who are moral in all aspects of their being!

Friend, whether you have murdered your own baby or whether you have married when you had no right to do this, you need to repent. You need to seek God’s forgiveness and determine to live in purity in the future. We know that this can be very, very difficult, yet—with God’s help—this can be done. Let us be willing to repent now and live for God in the future. Let us seek to avoid all abortion now (and that which might lead to abortion) and seek to avoid all premarital sexual contact and even sexually immoral thoughts. With God as your helper, you may live a clean, pure, and godly life in the future!