A Sober Warning
October 12, 2007Earlier this week my friend and Conventicle blogger Chris Ross pointed me to a link that I’d like to commend to you. Dwight Edwards (a direct descendent of Jonathan Edwards) was the senior pastor of College Station, Texas from 1990-2003. Despite great giftedness, Dwight had a ‘ministry blow out’ in 2003 for moral reasons. Since then, he has come to repentance and returned to church – though not to leadership.
Several months ago, Dwight gave a public testimony at a church service and highlighted some factors that contributed to his fall. I commend this to you as a sobering warning.
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unashamed 
Thanks, Colin. I pray that this might be of help to someone.
NB – Dwight was pastor of Grace Bible Church in the city of College Station. Folks from Texas will certainly know the difference!
Keep up the great work. God bless.
I remember meeting Dwight at a book store I worked at. The only thing I remember was that he seemed un-awed by the fact that he was related to Jonathan Edwards.
I’ll look forward to listening to the testimony.
Thanks for that clarification Chris. I’m not even sure where Texas is: is that a country? 😉
It isn’t now, but it was between 1836 and 1845!
It is good to hear that he forsook the adulterous union (remarriage) he was in and returned to his biblical wife………. Blessings…….
“Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery.” Luke 16:18
Now is the time to speak up on what the Bible has to say about divorce and remarriage before another generation is deceived.
The Bible clearly says that whenever remarriage occurs, adultery results, and that is pretty clear to every Bible reader.
In Romans 7:2 we are clearly told why the remarriage of divorced persons is adultery. It is adultery because the first marriage is still binding. “A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives.” Since she is bound to him as long as he lives, all other relationships are adultery. This is easy to understand.
People talk in our day about “ending” marriages.
But that is impossible to do, you can’t do it.
It is not divorce, but death, that ends marriages. The only thing that divorce does is, make a new relationship adultery and while remarriage is legal in the eyes of the government, it is illegal to God. As long as a former mate is living, the original marriage union is secure in God’s eyes–and that is the State of Marriage.
When one of the married partners separates from the other and joins himself to someone else, that does not free him from the state of marriage that he is in with his first wife, but instead, it enters him into a state of adultery.
Proverbs 28:13 makes it clear that God wants all of us to turn from sinful living. John the Baptist lost his head defending this principle. Mark 6:17-18 tells how John the Baptist had said that it was not lawful for Herod to have his brother’s wife after a divorce. Herodias, was legally divorced by Roman law, and newly married to Herod Antipas, but John still said to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have her.” after they were remarried.
Brothers and Sisters, don’t go shopping around for someone to justify what Jesus Christ clearly and repeatedly condemned. God has not changed His law to allow a man who has stolen another man’s wife to keep her. Nor has He changed His law to allow a woman who has seduced a husband away from his wife and children to keep someone else’s husband. Nor will He join two people in a God condemned wedding ceremony.
It is important to notice that neither the Gospel of Mark, nor the Gospel of John recognized Herod’s second marriage as valid. In Mark 6:17 it describes the woman as “his brother Philip’s wife,” after a divorce. He called her Phillip’s wife after she was divorced. That is whose wife she was, even though Herod had married her. The divorce did not end the marriage. She did not become Herod’s wife upon remarriage. Herod was living with her in adultery; she was still Philip’s wife. God does not recognize the second marriage because the first marriage is binding until death. That is an eternal principle settled in the eternal counsels of God.
From God’s point of view, all first marriages are binding, and can be broken only by death. Divorce does not dissolve the “bond” of marriage. If it did, there would be no adultery in a remarriage. The Bible condemns remarriage after a divorce.
Every faithful disciple of Christ needs to speak God’s truth about marriage and show people, according to Scripture, that they are bound to their first spouse as long as they live.
Check out http://www.marriagedivorce.com
We must help people see the truth and keep them out of adultery, because unless they give up their adultery, they will not be forgiven.
Adulterers… will not inherit the Kingdom of God. 1 Corinthians 6:9
And what about the poor people whose partners leave them? What about those people who haven’t actually done anything wrong themselves. You stand and preach but have you ever experienced the loss of someone you loved that turns around and tells you that they don’t love you anymore? My ex-wife has been with another man now for a year. I divorced her on biblical grounds. Am I not allowed to get remarried. What about Gods grace and not counting our sins against us (if that is that if I get remarried it is actually a sin (given my circumstances))? Just questioning your high ground stance and trying to be real as well as look at Gods word.
Anonymous-
I am so sorry to hear about your wife. But the Bible clearly teaches that marriage is for life. Pastors who care for the souls of men will speak the TRUTH!
“A woman is bound to her husband as long as he lives.” 1 Corinthians 7:39
There are thousands of people who know God’s truth about marriage and divorce and are waiting and praying for their spouses to come home and out of their adulterous remarriages.
“My husband left me for another woman back in 1991. It was a first marriage for both of us. He quickly divorced me and “married” her.
During the first few months of the separation, the Lord spoke to me and asked me to stand for the healing and restoration of our marriage.
He led me to people that taught me how to pray for my husband and our marriage. I stood for many years, but saw nothing happen in the natural.
My testimony is very long, but to make a long story short…10 years after the divorce was granted, my husband contacted me and we have reconciled back to each other.
God’s Word about divorce and remarriage is very clear. It is man who tries to twist it to their convenience.
I knew God’s Word said I was either to remain single or be reconciled to my husband. I chose to reconcile and God made a way where there seemed to be no way.
He changed my husband’s heart from a heart of stone to a heart of flesh. He resurrected our love for each other and taught me to be a Proverbs 31 wife.
There are thousands of women and men like me, standing on our covenant, believing God for marriage restoration and our Lord Jesus is moving on our behalf.
I urge you to read “Till Death Do Us Part?” by Dr. Joseph Webb.
http://cpr-ministries.org/
It will answer all of your questions about this very difficult subject. The church is filled with people teaching “false compassion” to divorced and remarried people. God calls it sin and the wages of sin is death.” -Lourdes
This is a very personal subject for many. Quite honestly, I have my uncertainty. There are a lot of scenarios to take into account. One man leaving his wife. A man’s wife leaving him. Mutual separation/divorce. Divorce because of infidelity. Divorce because of physical harm done. And, our God is a God full of grace. So after we have divorced, can we then repent of that divorce and have our slate wiped clean as if we’d never been married (or however that works in God’s eyes)? Or, will then going on to be re-married be the part that classifies that as ‘adultery’ in God’s eyes. I don’t know. There are gray areas that cause uncertainty for me. I will say though that marriage isn’t a right guaranteed to us by God. And while God is graceful, in that he doesn’t count our sin against us for eternity, there are now some consequences from our ‘sin’ (I hesitate to even say that, I’m not saying remarriage in this case would or would not be sin – I’m unsure because of God’s grace).
Search your Bible and find out what God has to say about Divorce and Remarriage. Don’t be deceived.
“A husband must not divorce his wife.”
1 Corinthians 7:11
because;
“The Lord was witness to the covenant made at your marriage.” Malachi 2:14
which binds a man to his wife for life;
“A wife is married to her husband as long as he lives.”
1 Corinthians 7:39
and because;
“Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery.”
Luke 16:18
Therefore, if a man divorces his wife and marries another he becomes an adulterer;
“Thou shall not commit adultery.”
Exodus 20:14
“The man who commits adultery is an utter fool, for he destroys his own soul.”
Proverbs 6:32
“Adulterers…will not inherit the Kingdom of God.”
1 Corinthians 6:9
A divorce does not free a man from his wife because;
“A woman is bound to her husband as long as he lives.”
1 Corinthians 7:39
Man invented no fault divorce. Divorce does not dissolve a marriage covenant. Jesus calls remarriage adultery. No legitimate marriage is ever called adultery.
What God Has Joined Together, Let No Man Separate!
This Is A Command From Jesus Christ
Adultery is identified in every passage where the remarriage of divorced persons is mentioned. Adultery is only forgiven, if it is given up…stopped!
Find the truth at http://www.marriagedivorce.com
Because Mr. Edwards has not given up his adulterous remarriage—he has not come to repentance.
“Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery and the man who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery.” —Jesus Christ
“Look at the legalized adultery we call divorce. Men marry one wife after another and are still admitted into good society; and women do likewise. There are thousands of supposedly respectable men in American living with other men’s wives, and thousands of supposedly respectable women living with other women’s husbands.” —R. A. Torrey
R.A. Torrey (1856-1928)
Pastor and graduate of Yale University
Superintendent of Moody Bible Institute for 19 years
“The Horrible Thing in God’s House: Adultery, Fornication and Divorce,” from David Wilkerson’s book, “Set the Trumpet to thy Mouth.”
He writes, “Oh man of God—tremble at this curse God prepared for priests and ministers who refused to forsake their immorality. The Lord will cut off the man that doeth this, the master and the scholar, out of the tabernacles of Jacob, (Malachi 2:12). Not only will God cut off the anointing, unction, and blessings: He will humiliate the offender, destroy his credibility, and cast his ministry aside. God has reserved the most fearful prophecies for ministers who live and preach in sin.”
http://www.cadz.net/tony.html
Just reading this makes me angry all over again. I attended GBC during the time when Dwight Edwards left his sweet wife Sandy and their two sons (who both have a painful, incurable disease that is exacerbated by stress, btw) for some woman (ALSO MARRIED) in CO. This is shameful. If he has not returned to his wife then he is still in sin. How shameful that he would be allowed to be a member of (much less a leader of) another so-called church! I read on another site that he is the pastor of Woods Edge Community Church, Houston! I haven’t independently verified this, I think I might break something if I actually went to the website.
Who are we to judge him? God is the only one. You call it shameful? Maybe it is but we all sin so please: throw the first stone. Jesus came down to earth to save us, so that we could have a relationship with God. Gods grace is huge. Don’t focus on other peoples sin when you’ve got your own to deal with and repent from.
I say this all out of love for you and Dwight.
She is not judging him–God’s Word is judging him. Mr. Edwards is in an adulterous remarriage according to God’s Word!
God’s Word has not left us in the dark concerning marriage and divorce. I pray he repents and comes out of this adulterous relationship before he dies because after that it will be too late.
http://www.cadz.net/mdr.html
I don’t think she’s saying he has sin and she doesn’t. Nor do I think she’s saying people in leadership can not have sin. Rather, it’s the acceptance of the sin, not repentance. And so living in what some would still call a sinful lifestyle (being married again while his first wife is still alive), without repentance of that, and saying that is “ok”, that would be what she is calling “shameful” … at least that’s my take on it.
Dwight is preaching again as the pastor of Woodsedge Community Church in The Woodlands, TX.
Those who uphold the Word are not judgmental, but obedient. We who have been abandoned by our covenant spouse will be taken care of by God. Do not surrender your soul to the Devil in Hell for a little bit of forgettable sex! God told me that the pleasures of Heaven will make sex feel like a day at the dentist. Look up; for your redemption draweth nigh!
If your gonna preach on a subject ,please cover all the material, don’t pick and choose the scripture that will make your point! Matthew 5;32 says, but I say unto you that whosoever shall put away his wife, except for fornication causes her to commit adultery,
So according to this ,when a spouse cheats and becomes one with another they have broken that sacred bond , and became attached to another which was out of there control so the word says , except for fornication””” !! So if a spouse has sex and becomes one with another their made is free from that bond. That was Jesus words. So don’t put guilt on those who have remarried under biblical protocal.