“…And then, here’s the latest one that’s come along, just in the last few years. And that is this idea that no put away person, no one who’s been divorced may remarry. Now, that is one of the most irrational, absurd positions that’s come along in a long time. Now, you think about it. Here is an innocent woman, faithful to her husband. He commits adultery and he beats her to the courthouse, puts her away, and because she becomes the put away, he won the race to the courthouse; she cannot remarry.

Or he doesn’t want to be married anymore, he’s not guilty of adultery, but he’s got his eye on somebody else. And – and in just a short while after the divorce takes place, now here she is an innocent, faithful wife, he marries somebody else, or he commits adultery, he does the putting away. She can’t remarry because she’s the put away! . . .”

“…The innocent party, according to the teaching of the New Testament, the law of Christ, may remarry if the mate, the spouse is guilty of adultery. Makes no difference which one gets to the courthouse. Courthouse has nothing to do with it. There’s nothing, neighbor, in Matthew 5:32, Matthew 19, verse 9, about a courthouse, or a judge, or a lawyer. Doesn’t say that: “Whosoever puts away his wife at the courthouse,” it doesn’t say that. Preachers put that in there, bless your heart…”

"Or he doesn’t want to be married anymore, he’s not guilty of adultery, but he’s got his eye on somebody else.  And - and this short while after the divorce takes place, now here she is an innocent, faithful wife, he marries somebody else, or he commits adultery, he does the putting away.  She can’t remarry because she’s the put away!"

"The Lord gives the innocent party the right to remarry. I’m talking about a innocent, scriptural, faithful spouse, may put away before God, if you can’t do it at the courthouse, and let him know that he’s being put away, and let others know why he’s being put away: for fornication.  And that innocent party has a right to remarry."

"Then here is the second putting away. Now that’s being bandied around, yeah, they have a second putting away. Well, no, no, no.  Here’s the fornicator, here’s the guilty party. He goes over to the courthouse and files for divorce, and it – it goes through, he gets, gets a divorce decree and uh, here’s the innocent party; and then, uh, may she remarry? Well, she can ah - dismiss him, that’s what put away apollo – apoluo, in - in Matthew 19:9, Matthew 5:32, and other places means. A putting away, a dismissal from the house, a repudiation. Now, that’s what Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon says on page 66, under the word, “apoluo.” Now, may she dismiss him? Not talking about the courthouse, may she dismiss him – the innocent party, and marry somebody else? Indeed she may. She has, the innocent party has one putting away, neighbor, that this theory today, which is false in nature, does not allow. Yeah, here’s the guilty party goes, and uses the civil law to dismiss his wife or to divorce his wife, but she can’t use the law of God ga - to – to – do what Jesus allows her or him to do, the innocent party? That’s nonsense!" 

“And you know, we weren’t bothered with this back just a few years ago. Some fellows have come along today, and they have become adamant and zealots for it, and ah, they’re right, it’s all black and white, and if you don’t agree with me, you’re a heretic, and that’s nonsense. Ladies and gentlemen, that’s the most absurd thing I ever saw or heard of in all of my life.”

“…he wants his material distributed in Paden City, WV and I’d like to see a debate up there. Well, he was told to have a debate down there (laughs) in your own back door…” (emp. jhb).

“You know, I’ve been holding meetings, many of ‘em. Last year, got meetings this year, lectureship. And I’m writing, staff writer for Truth Magazine, I write some for Biblical Insights, I was on the Florida College Lectureship two years ago - spoke to about 2,000 people one night, I’m on a lectureship in Florence, AL, coming up here in June, I made four speeches along with three other preachers, I’m on a couple more lectureships, one speech at each lectureship, and then I’m on the lectureship they’re going to have at Bowling Green in July, Truth Magazine is having a lectureship. And I’m to speak on a Tuesday night on that. Now this is this fellow that’s supposed to be promoter of error. Why haven’t these other brethren found it out yet?”

“Now, let’s see if a fellow has enough courage to step up to the lick log, and just defend what he preaches. You’re not going to call me a false teacher, you’re going to get in a debate, if you’ll have it and don’t run from it, now” (emp. jhb).

“And I want to tell you, these computers, it’d be a good thing if somebody walked in over there, and stole the thing. The brotherhood would be a way ahead, they’d cut down on all of this argumentation about this one issue preacher, obsessed with it, day and night, all that’s on there is about marriage, divorce and remarriage. And it takes time, hour after hour after hour after hour, on this one issue.”

“Here is a man, let’s say for example, that commits fornication against his wife.  But she wants to salvage the marriage, maybe children involved, she’s working at it to try to reconcile, and he gets a divorce and lo and behold, she becomes the put away.  This preacher in Southern WV, as I understand his position, says she cannot remarry, because she’s been the put away.”

“Now that’s it, friends. I told this story some time ago, about a soldier during the Vietnam war, over in TX. He was gone 12, 13 months to Vietnam, he left for Vietnam, a wife behind, and when he returned a year or a little longer, she had divorced him and married somebody else. Now, the question: Could he remarry? He did about two or three years later, brethren thought nothing of it, could he remarry? Not according to the preacher in Southern WV. No, no, no, no. It was post-divorce fornication.”

“My, my, my, what have we come to? And he causes dissention in the church, and unrest in the church, and confusion in the church. And you know, brethren, there’s something to think about. When members of the church give on Sunday of their money, and you pay somebody of this kind, you’re having fellowship with him. Philippians chapter 1, verse 5, Paul said to the church at Philippi, that you had fellowship with me, thanked them that they had fellowship with him from the first until now, first day until now, and that had to do with money. They sent money to Paul and he called it a fellowship. When we support somebody that is causing havoc in the church, dissention in the church, then we’re having fellowship with him, by supporting him, Ladies and Gentlemen. And so it’s a serious matter indeed.”

“Oh, he said, I’ve been preaching this for, this error for 19 years. Let me tell you something, I was preaching before you were born. And that’s for sure, and I’ve been at it a long time, and my reputation is intact across this country.”

“But you see what’s going on, see friends, we don’t know what all’s going on here. And I don’t know whether I know what all’s going on, but I know enough that’s going on that it doesn’t sound very good, I’ll tell you that.”

“And he was asking this fellow about marriage, divorce and remarriage and said, well, said we ask them all that come our way. Well, that isn’t true. What about the ones are coming, next, going to be coming over there in the future? You ask them? According to a couple of ‘em, you didn’t ask ‘em. You didn’t ask ‘em anything. But they’re coming anyway. It’s only picking on the brother in Tampa, FL, it seems to me, and let the rest of ‘em come on anyhow.”

“Now, we hear this about this putting away, Ladies and Gentlemen, the Lord Jesus Christ allows fornication as a right to put away and remarry. The innocent spouse, they put away the guilty one. Well, somebody says, well now, it might be a second putting away, preacher, if the woman doesn’t contest it and she is put away, she can’t do it later, it’d be a second putting away.  No, no, no, it’s just one, one for her.”

“And what about this man over in Texas who’d gone to Vietnam and he came back, and his wife had divorced him. What would you tell him to do, my friend? What would you tell him to do? Ya-oh, you can’t marry. I tell you about some of these preachers, if we got in a fix like that, they’d be remarried in six months. There’s a few of ‘em like that, anyway. Now, that’s not true with all of ‘em. But there’s some of ‘em, they’d see their position a little bit differently.”

“Now I introduced the Muslim women, and you know, if you couldn’t go with me, I’ve been to Israel 16 times and Jordan. I’ve traveled around and seen the Bedouins and you know the man, the husband comes to the tent with the tribal chief, he takes hold of the tent rope and he says to his wife, I divorce you, I divorce you, I divorce you, he says that three times and walked away. She’s divorced. She couldn’t remarry, according to this theory that’s being propagated today. Oh yeah, Ladies and Gentlemen, marriage is permanent, with husband and wife, one man, one woman, but fornication will break it if a woman is innocent women or innocent husband puts away the guilty one, just like death does in Romans chapter 7.”

“But time is about to get away from me, here. I wanted to say I appreciate you listening tonight and sorry I had to present this stuff, but this is my only outlet, when a fellow takes his website and plasters it all over the country, then I’ve got to say something about it.”

"We’ve got members of the church of Christ all across Southern West Virginia listening to us. As well as those of various churches. And those who are not members of anything I guess. And we’re happy to have you in our radio audience each Sunday night."

"Now I want to talk a little while tonight on what I began on last Sunday evening, concerning a website by a preacher in Southern West Virginia."

"And if she is put away, if he, this fornicating husband gets a divorce, puts her away, she can’t remarry. That’s his position. You know what his advice is, as well as these others that hold the same position? Their advice is, if your mate is committing fornication, don’t try to reconcile or resolve it, you rush quickly to the courthouse because the fornicating spouse may beat you there and put you away and then (laughs) you can’t remarry. Now that’s how absurd, friends, this thing has become."

“Yeah, he wanted to send his material up to Paden City, WV, and have them distribute it up there among all the members. And he wanted to have an oral debate up there. He didn’t want to do it up there, but he suggested they have one up there. And he was told, ‘have one down there in your back door.’” (emp. jhb).

“So you can see how absurd and illogical all of this is, Ladies and Gentlemen. That’s why I’d just love to have the chance for a public oral debate, so I could show the fallacy of this brother’s argument, which he’s dividing the church and causing dissention and problems across the country” (emp. jhb).

"Then, he talks about post-fornication divorce, if an innocent wife’s been put away, and I used the illustration last week about this soldier in TX. I mentioned about this soldier went off to the Vietnam War, he was gone 12 or 13 months, he left his wife behind, had to go to war, he came back and she had divorced him, and married somebody else. Now his position is that he could not remarry without sinning because he was the put away.  He didn’t know he was put away, couldn’t have done anything about it.  But that’s how, that’s how ludicrous this position is, Ladies and Gentlemen."

"And so, whether it’s pre-fornication divorce or post-fornication divorce, it makes no difference with this brother if you’re the put away. You can’t do anything about it whatsoever. I’d like to debate that, I just want to show you the fallacy of that..."

"God knows, and the Lord knows the situation and fornication destroys the marriage. If a innocent mate disavows it before God, now the civil authorities have nothing to do with it. Civil authorities can’t join you in heaven and the civil authorities can’t unjoin you in heaven. God does the joining and God does the unjoining. And my God, my Lord said, neighbor, that fornication would destroy the marriage."

"And this soldier in TX years ago (laughs), he couldn’t go to the courthouse and file, it was already done. But he could use the law of God. And let me tell you something. The innocent party has least the right of one putting away. I hear this idea, two puttings away, the second putting away. That’s nonsense.  Here’s the man who puts away his innocent wife, here’s the fornicator who puts away his wife, that’s one civil divorce.  But you know the Lord allows one for the innocent partner, neighbor.  Are you listening to me? Then you say I disagree with the decree of Jesus Christ. Shame on you."

"I believe what the Bible teaches, I’ve preached it for 50 years. And they’ve got this article, Weldon Warnock’s 19 Year Progression of Error. Well, that’s funny that nobody else has ever found that out, if I’ve been preaching this for 19 years. But he didn’t give me enough credit, I’ve been preaching for 50 years, and preaching the same thing and believing the same thing that I’m teaching tonight. No, I didn’t disagree with the decree of Jesus Christ, Ladies and Gentlemen."

“You just remove my name from that website and all the material and then I won’t have to deal with this, will I?”

“And I’m answering, I’m responding to his propositions and to his challenge, and I’m on the list. And so let’s see if he’ll come up to the lick log or if he’s just bluffing. And we’ll, we’ll see, we’ll let you know ladies and gentlemen. Now I’m tired of this! Here’s a fellow that all he does is to dabble in this stuff, night and day and he’s got me on his website. And wants to challenge me and tries to portray me as a false teacher, as a heretic. And he’s been doing this for the last three years or so, two or three years. And I deny his charge, his allegation. There’s not a word of truth in it, ladies and gentlemen. He’s got an extreme position. He says he wants to debate. And so, I’m ready, just come on, bring it on and I’m ready to do it! Now we’ll see what happens” (emp. jhb).

“Or if he puts her away and then goes and marries somebody else, he’s guilty of fornication. I’m talking about an innocent person, now. I’m not talking about two who decide they don’t want to live together anymore, get a divorce and one waits on the other to commit fornication in order then to remarry. I’m talking about an innocent person who’s been put away by a man or a woman, who’s been put away, and then later, goes out and remarries, may have his eye on (laughs) somebody when the divorce takes place, the innocent party may remarry on the basis fornication.”

“And then he believes, I can use this scenario, which is a true story to show what the issue is. This solider in Vietnam he was gone for twelve, thirteen months during the war in Vietnam. When he came back, his wife had divorced him and married somebody else. Now his position is that he could never remarry. Well he did two or three years later, the brethren thought nothing about it because he was innocent. She’s the one who got the divorce based on her not wanting to live with him anymore and interested in some other man. And he came home and she married him and was living with him in adultery. And yet he can’t remarry. Now that’s what this issue is all about. And I said before, I think this is an extreme position that some hold.”

“I would affirm that the post-divorce fornication (like in this case of this soldier who went to Vietnam and he was gone twelve or thirteen months, and he came back and his wife had divorced him and was married to somebody else), I maintain that this man had a right to remarry based on fornication.”

“And the brethren who are backing him, they ought to be strong enough to say, ‘hey, we want the truth presented. We want to see what it is, we want to study this matter.’ But some, seemingly, have been so twisted by the subtlety of this man that whatever he says, that’s the way it is, without investigating and evaluating the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

"A written exchange first of all, in a couple of religious journals; and that’s contingent on a public oral discussion in Beckley. Now he in forms me that they don’t want a public discussion in Beckley. Well, maybe we can move it somewhere else.”

“One of our greatest enemies in the church is ourselves. Some brethren have a problem getting along with one another. There is mistrust and suspicion, assassination of character, there’s misrepresentation, and one big problem is simply jealousy. There are preachers who are jealous of other preachers. Here a preacher will talk about another preacher, being the big preacher. Now, what in the world does he mean by that? Well, here’s a man who has a lot of influence in the brotherhood. He’s used in a lot of gospel meetings. And he does a lot of writing in the religious journals, and some just don’t like that. They’re jealous of him because they’re not called to preach in places as much as he may be. Or they don’t write, and so, here’s one who’s very popular, and you know, ladies and gentlemen, jealousy, it takes its toll. We see the brethren of Joseph envious of him, jealous of him, what they did to him. It was envy, jealousy, that delivered Jesus to the cross, that helped put him on the cross of Calvary.”

“And brethren do the same thing, and shame on those, who instigate these problems in the church, who introduce them and bring in all this dissention and schism into the body of Jesus Christ. It is of the world, it’s carnal, it’s wrong. And I want to tell you ladies and gentlemen, those that are guilty of such shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Are you listening to me?”

“Ladies and gentlemen, I’ve never known, in all the years I’ve preached, that I ever caused trouble in a congregation, ever divided a congregation. And I’ve always tried to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.”

“Every Christian should be one. The space, the distance between them shouldn’t make any difference if we’re following the same rule. Neither should our nationality or our race or our culture make any difference if we’re following, walking in the steps of Jesus Christ, we’re all to be one. But what did Jesus teach is the basis of unity? It’s the word of God.”

“And if we follow the word of God, ladies and gentlemen, not tradition, not majority, not the opinions of men, not what some preacher says, or what our parents have taught us, but what’s in the word of God.”

“How’re you going to be unified, Paul? He says, “you all speak the same thing.” That’s unity of doctrine. Any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God, in I Peter 4:11. And when we have men who come along that preach their opinions and bind them upon people who preach things that’s not in the Bible, or preach what they think is in the Bible and they push it and they becomes factionist, then the church of the Lord is going to divide.”

“We have to have authority for everything we do, Colossians 3:17. “Whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all in the name, that means by the authority of the Lord Jesus. One of the reasons, ladies and gentlemen, you have division in the church, innovations in the church, is because of a lack of respect for divine authority.” We need book, chapter and verse for what we do.”

“And some of the young men today don’t know they’re green. They’re dumb and don’t know it. And they need to be humble. Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve got to have the right kind of attitude and some of ‘em have caused trouble in the church and tear up the church.”

“You know, Jesus said “blessed are the peacemakers.” Some of us have that should read, “blessed are the fuss-makers.” We just fuss, fuss, fuss and we’re not satisfied unless we’ve got a fuss going. And we just thrive on fussing in the church.”

“Or here’s a divorce that takes place, an innocent party, they say a woman doesn’t want the divorce, there may be kids involved, not interested in it at all, but the man walks off, and just shortly thereafter, he marries somebody else. But she can’t remarry because she’s become the put away. And when the civil divorce took place, fornication wasn’t involved at the time, it is later.”

“Now, ladies and gentlemen, I’m telling you how it is. And it’s deplorable, it’s sad indeed that this man won’t leave it alone. But, he wants to keep it going and keep it going and keep it going. And so, he’s just about worn the old horse out and well indeed, it has become his hobby horse or his nag, indeed.”

“And then he’s got the post-divorce fornication, and I’m willing to debate what I believe, ladies and gentlemen. I believe that you can go to Matthew 19:9 as an innocent, faithful spouse, and put away your fornicating spouse regardless if it’s before the civil divorce or after the civil divorce, and remarry, and be acceptable in the sight of God ‘cause Jesus said you could.”

“Now you know I’m getting tired of this friend, just plastered on a man’s website time and time again. We need to get a life, move on to something else, neighbor. Obsessed with this and that is something hard to understand.”  

“Now you know, I’m getting tired of this friend, just plastered on a man’s website, time and time again. We need to get a life. Move on to something else, neighbor. Obsessed with this! And that is something hard to understand.”

“And if they (the men of the church in Beckley, jhb) don’t want to have it, certainly in the church building, we could move to someplace else and just have it on our own. We can have a discussion, but he doesn’t want one, he wants to hide behind the men. And he can hide behind the computer. And he loves that computer and he hides behind it, and he can say anything he wants to, he can take two or three days and holler for help, if he has to, “How am I going to answer this?” “What am I going to do about this?” And he can call around or send e-mails around over the country and get his answers, and then, put down something. But in a public discussion, friends, you’ve got to know what you’re talking about because you’ve got to answer in just a little bit. And you can’t pull this kind of stuff and so I’m saying, let’s have a public discussion.”  

“Here’s fornication involved, there’s a faithful spouse, had nothing to do with it whatsoever, Matthew 19:9 says that the fornication will allow the faithful spouse, the innocent spouse, to put away and marry again.”  

“And then if a spouse puts a mate away and there’s no fornication involved, and ladies and gentlemen, the one who’s put away doesn’t want the divorce, and tries to persuade the one who’s doing the divorcing not to do this, maybe kids involved, but here she goes ahead anyway. And then they marry somebody else or go out and commit fornication, or marry somebody else, then the one who’s been put away cannot remarry. I don’t accept that position.”  

“And then he comes along and says that this religious journal called Truth Magazine has a closed door policy because they won’t discuss the divorce and remarriage issue.”  

“And really, it’d be easy to expose the fallacies of the arguments that this brother offers. I’ve had several public discussions through the years and this is one of the easiest ones to expose and show the fallacy of.”  

“Because you’ve been misled, you’ve been deceived, and a lot of brethren have, and when they see what the issues really are, so many of ‘em, and they say, “Well, yeah, I see what’s, what’s involved in this.”

“He quotes this good friend of mine, in Searching the Scriptures, back there in 1986, that goes way back there then. He didn’t tell all that he says. Yeah, there’s a difference between my good friend and myself, but he doesn’t tell you what he goes on to say. You see, I wrote regularly for Searching the Scriptures. I was a staff writer and I dealt with the questions that came in, it was called, “What Sayeth The Scripture?” And I dealt with different things and this divorce issue came up, and I said a few words about it. And he disagreed (we’ve had other disagreements as well, as brethren do, don’t make it a test of fellowship), but he went on to say that I was free to write anything I wanted to in my column. And that he appreciated the work I was doing, and its most difficult position to be in, to have to answer all these various questions that came in, and I continued to be a staff writer for that magazine until it ceased publication in 1992. So don’t you try to drive a wedge between us, young man, because we’ve been friends and we are friends, and we don’t make it a test of fellowship.”

“Now somebody’s wrong on this. And as I said last week, there’ve been differences among brethren. We don’t make ’em a test of fellowship. But some reason today, some of these brethren have decided they’re going to make it a test of fellowship. And if you don’t line up - then we’re not going to have anything to do with ya. Well, so be it, if that’s the way they want to conduct themselves.”

“I want to tell you, I’ve never caused trouble in the church in all the years I’ve preached. I’ve come into churches where they’ve had trouble, ‘fore I got there, and helped them heal. And I’ve done that in 2 or 3 places, but I’ve never, never caused problems in the church, where it’s divided or dissention in the church because of Weldon Warnock. I believe in the unity that must exist among the people of God, that we’re one in Jesus Christ, and he prayed we all be one, even as He and the Father were one in the 17^th chapter of the gospel of John. And shame on us, some of us today, who’re drawing lines of fellowship and cutting off good, godly, faithful men because of some preacher who has a warped idea as to what constitutes Biblical fellowship.” 

“That here is a brother who put my name up on his website and put me in the category of a heretic. He went back many years, several years, pulled out a statement of an article I wrote in Searching the Scriptures - it really is a parenthetical statement - and put it on his website.”

“And then they come along and say I caused some problems. I made this proposition that if my part would be taken off, I’d leave this alone, wouldn’t mention it, wouldn’t have anything to do with it. But no, no, no, no! Can’t do that.”  

“And don’t charge me with causing problems when the preacher that’s there is the one who introduced it. And that’s a fact. And I was there for ten years and no problems whatsoever. And he comes in and here introduces me as a heretic in the context, the way it was presented on the website.”  

“Or use this illustration: Here was a Vietnam soldier, gone for 12 or 13 months, he comes back home in TX, and his wife had divorced him and remarried somebody else. Now we’ve got some brethren who say that he couldn’t remarry. If he did, he’d be living in adultery. I don’t believe that. I’ve taught all of my life that you can put away a fornicating spouse or mate before God using Matthew 19:9, disavow, repudiate, dismiss, for the cause of fornication.”  

“Then there are others, and we talk about those in the church now, the church of Christ, some of them. That they have personal scruples and consciences and they’re ready to tell everybody else that they need to line up with them. And we had this through the years. And you’ve got opinionated preachers. And they want to bind their opinions on brethren. And if you don’t agree with them while they’ll disassociate themselves with you and they’ll cause trouble in the body of Jesus Christ.” 

“I was reading one brother here a few days ago and he said, well, she could call the law. She, he takes the position that only one reason for separation; that’s temporarily for fasting and prayer, and if a wife was being beaten by her husband, she could call the police. Well, you call the police, you’re going to take him off to jail, and that’d be a separation, wouldn’t it? So that’d be a second reason. Nah friends, listen: we should stay together. Marriage is for life, and where there should be reconciliation, there should be adjustments, and there’s give and take and so if at all possible, stay together. But sometimes it’s not possible, because of the circumstances. And indeed, the Lord gives the innocent person the right to separate and maybe even a legal divorce, depending on the situation. Well, we’ll not to take any more time up on that.” 

“Now, I want to announce a public debate that’s coming up here in Bowling Green, KY; that’s a North of Nashville, TN about 60 miles. Bowling Green is along Interstate 65, and this will be on Divorce and Remarriage, and the participants are Tim Haile, who preaches for the Parkway church in Bowling Green, and J. T. Smith, who preaches over in Tulsa, OK. I’ve known both of these for quite a long time. In fact, I’ve known J. T. Smith for many, many years and I differ with brother J. T. on this issue, but I’m looking forward to seeing him and hearing this public discussion the 17th and the 18th of March, starting at 7:00 each night.”  

“And he’s on my case again, and he’s challenging for a debate. Now he’s got this computer and all he does is ride his hobby of divorce and remarriage. Now here’s what, in essence ladies and gentlemen, here’s what he wants to debate. He’s challenged about six of us, and I’m second on the list. And he said that he’d do it this time orally, or a written exchange and he wants to debate the divorce and remarriage issue. And my position is, to use an illustration - and I’ve used it before, that this solider came home from Vietnam; his wife had divorced him and married somebody else. And this brother’s position, over in Southern WV, in Beckley, says that if he married again, this solider - after his wife had put him away and married somebody else, here she was guilty of fornication and living in adultery, that if this soldier married he would be sinning, living in adultery and would go to hell. Now, now that’s what he is saying. And I don’t believe that for one moment, friends. Because this soldier could go to Matthew 19:9, which he did (this was several years ago), and back during the Vietnam war, and marry again according to what Jesus taught in Matthew 19 and verse 9. Now that’s been my position through the years; that there’s only one exception for divorce and remarriage and that’s fornication, in Matthew 19:9. And that’s what our Lord said and that’s what I believe.”

“And I’m answering, I’m responding to his propositions and to his challenge, and I’m on the list. And so let’s see if he’ll come up to the lick log or if he’s just bluffing. And we’ll, we’ll see, we’ll let you know ladies and gentlemen. Now I’m tired of this! Here’s a fellow that all he does is to dabble in this stuff, night and day and he’s got me on his website. And wants to challenge me and tries to portray me as a false teacher, as a heretic. And he’s been doing this for the last three years or so, two or three years. And I deny his charge, his allegation. There’s not a word of truth in it, ladies and gentlemen. He’s got an extreme position. He says he wants to debate. And so, I’m ready, just come on, bring it on and I’m ready to do it! Now we’ll see what happens.”   

“Last Sunday night I mentioned a brother who challenged me for a public debate: an oral debate or a written exchange, and I accepted that challenge. He lives over in Beckley, WV and I haven’t heard one word so far. I don’t know what the problem is. Now that, his website goes out over the country and people see that, it looks like I won’t debate. And I’m not just eager to have a debate anywhere with anybody. But in view of the fact that he put on his website some things about me initially, and started all this concerning this marriage, divorce and remarriage issue, and then he challenged me for a debate, I’m ready.”

“Now he presented me as a false teacher, and I resent that. Of all the years I’ve preached, ladies and gentlemen – I’ve been preaching for 52 years. And I know brethren all across this country. And all of a sudden here in the past few years, you’ve had some of these over zealous brethren on their websites who’ve made a hobby out of marriage, divorce and remarriage, and calling those who disagree with them on some of these procedures, as false teachers and heretics. And you know, I’m not going to take that. And I’m ready to have a public discussion. And we’ll just see what side the bread is buttered on. As we use the old saying, ‘come on up to the lick log now.’ And let’s get this thing under way” (emp. jhb).

“But she can never remarry according to this man, this brother, because she was the ‘put away.’ Now friends, that’s how absurd this whole thing’s become. And that’s what some preachers today are dividing the church over and shame on them. The Bible teaches that the innocent party may put away, dismiss, disavow, repudiate the guilty party and marry again, Matthew 19:9. That’s what I believe.”

“Now, about the debate. I mentioned this a couple of weeks ago and that there’s a brother over in Southern WV that has challenged me for a debate. It’s on his website, as well as five other preachers. And I accepted the challenge, even agreed to the propositions! But he doesn’t want it in Beckley. He doesn’t want it in Beckley or around Beckley. And I don’t know how far you’d have to go outside of Beckley, to not be near Beckley (doesn’t want it around there.) Would Charleston be far enough? Or Parkersburg? Or over in Lexington, KY, or where? But he just wants to get it out of Beckley, WV” (emp. jhb).

“Somebody told me that the brother here in Southern WV, here in Beckley, had on his website that somebody said they’d open their facilities over in Louisville, KY to have the debate.  But I don’t want to debate over in Louisville, KY; I want to debate in Beckley, WV, where he began riding this hobby and causing disturbance and dissention in the church.”

“Last Sunday night I mentioned a brother who challenged me for a public debate, an oral debate or a written exchange and I accepted that challenge. He lives over in Beckley, WV and I haven’t heard one word so far. I don’t know what the problem is. Now that, his website goes out over the country and people see that, it looks that like I won’t debate. And I’m not just eager to have a debate anywhere with anybody. But in view of the fact that he has put on his website some things about me initially and started all this concerning this marriage, divorce and remarriage issue and then he challenged me for a debate, I’m ready” (emp. jhb).

“Now, he’s going to be busy – he has six men challenged and if all six of us accept the discussion, he’s going to be busy for a long time. But I don’t expect he’ll accept it in Beckley. He’ll find some way or another to get out of this, but I’m willing to discuss it there; that’s where we need to have it, in Beckley. And I tell you basically what this thing is all about: it’s who gets to the courthouse and files.”  

“And so what was he to do? According to this brother here in Southern WV, he’s a preacher, ah, he would say: ‘Well, he’s just going to have to live a celibate life.’ Now that’s how extreme and far-fetched, ladies and gentlemen, this issue has become.”

“And so it’s a race to the courthouse. And so, (laughs) you have two exceptions, evidently in Matthew 19:9: fornication and who gets to the courthouse first.”

“This is what this brother is saying, that we’re heretics because we say that the one who doesn’t make it to the courthouse – and that’s the innocent party – who’s not guilty of adultery, but the spouse is, the one who puts away is guilty of it, then the innocent party may not remarry. And that’s what’s going on, friends, and drawing lines of fellowship and canceling meetings and causing all of this furor in the church over that? It beats all I’ve ever seen. In all the years I’ve preached, I’ve never seen anything as really as absurd as this, and yet he doesn’t want to discuss it in Beckley, WV. Well, I’m ready, I’m willing just as soon as I can, soon as I can get to it if he is, and so we’ll just see. Well, so much for that.”

“What I’m saying is, that the church, it’s practice, it’s beliefs and practice, is decided and determined by whatever preacher is there, instead of by the word of God. That’s been true on this divorce and remarriage issue. Here comes a fellow along, and he says now if you’re gonna have a scriptural divorce and remarriage, then the innocent party must go to the courthouse and file. And if the innocent party doesn’t get to the courthouse and file, then the innocent mate, innocent marriage partner cannot remarry.”

“Now friends, I want to tell ya, this is the most absurd thing I have ever seen come along in the church in all the years I’ve preached. And what happens is that some of the members of the church just swallow this, hook, line and sinker and accept it. And anybody disagrees you’re a false teacher. And they make it a test of fellowship. That’s nonsense. And a preacher who advocates this should be ashamed of himself. He can tear up the church. He can cause problems in the church. But here’s brethren who are untaught, they don’t know the faith of the gospel. They don’t understand Matthew 19:9 on divorce and remarriage, and some other passages. What I’m saying is: We need to stand fast in the faith.” 

“He put it on his website, he’s the one who fostered this problem and he keeps it going, by adding more and more to his website. I was in Beckley for ten years and this was never a problem, never a issue. These particular aspects of this marriage, divorce issue never came up. But he comes along and it isn’t long, until he’s got it on his website and creating the problems.”  

“I want to tell ya, friend, you may not know what’s going on. What this problem is, what this issue’s all about, what the differences are. I use an illustration to clarify it without going into propositions. Let’s say that a Vietnam soldier, this is a true story, a Vietnam soldier comes home from the war. He’s gone twelve, thirteen months. He’s a married man, a young fellow. He comes back over in Texas and he found out when he gets home, that his wife has divorced him. And she’s married to some other man. Now, that was news to him. That was a shock to him. He’s been divorced and didn’t even know it. His wife is married to somebody else.  So she’s living in adultery. Now his position is that he cannot put her away because she’s already gone to the courthouse. He cannot put her away so he has to live in celibacy the rest of his life because he couldn’t make it to the courthouse. Now that’s this man’s position. You got to get to the courthouse in this country.”   

“And according to this man’s position, none of the Jewish women could remarry because they were always the put away by bill of divorcement. But my position is they can marry if they’re innocent and their husbands are guilty of adultery or fornication. And they can reject, they can repudiate and they can disavow their vows. Marriage is a covenant, friends, and it is a bond made in heaven. And the courts of men cannot join two together in heaven, neither can they unjoin two in heaven. God Almighty does that by His law, not by the laws of the land. Now, we should obey the laws of the land, as Roman 13 teaches, but you can go get a marriage license and when you get it, you’re still not joined in heaven, are ya? Till ya take the vows. You can go get a divorce papers. That doesn’t mean necessarily that you’re joined in heaven. You could still be joined in heaven, and be unmarried by civil law. So that’s what this is all about. My position is on this Vietnam veteran, when he came home, and found out his wife had divorced him, and married somebody else, he’s the innocent one. And Matthew 19 verse 9 allows him to put her away and marry again. He can reject her, he can repudiate her. That’s what ‘put away’ means. It comes from the Greek word, apoluo, which means to dismiss from the house, to repudiate, according to Thayer’s Greek English lexicon. Those are the facts. That’s not about it, neighbor, that’s exactly it!  And this man says, no, if he remarries, why he would be living in adultery. Now do you believe that friend? Jesus said that the innocent party may put away the guilty one who’s guilty of fornication and marry again. That’s my position, and that’s what I have always preached.”