Divorce?

There are at least three types of agnostics:

(1) Those who say that they do not know if a particular religious assertion is true or false, but who do not want to find out, nor be given any further information about it, nor want to believe it true - even if they got "definitive-enough" proof that it was true

(2) Those who say that they do not know if a particular religious assertion is true or false, but are willing to accept logical information pertaining to it as to whether or not the assertion is true, and will believe the assertion if substantial-enough info (congruent with their five senses) provided them is enough to convince them that the assertion is, in fact, true

(3) Those who say that they do not know if a particular religious assertion is true or false, but engage in an intensive search to discover if the assertion is, in fact, true or false - because they simply cannot be at ease nor rest until they find out, and hate non-resolved loose ends.

Notice that I did not even consider atheists - in stark contrast to agnostics - because it should be clear to the reader (as it is to yours truly) that atheists have already presumptuously (and usually dishonestly, in defiant and rebellious self-deception) claimed that they do not believe what is obvious and should be plainly obvious . . . and having said that, they are verifiably first-class fools (as it states in Psalm 10:4, Psalm 14:1, and Psalm 53:1).

And what is "plainly obvious and should be plain obvious?"

Everything in our surrounding environment (and which is perceived and analyzed by our mutual common human deductive reasoning) has obviously been created by some Higher Power or Being or Group of Beings (and please grant me the liberty to understandably capitalize the generic titles of said Creator or Creators).

Clearly, we ourselves did not create basic and natural resources and natural phenomena around us, nor did our parents, nor did their parents, nor did any of their lifeform ancestors. Such statement is, of course, an assumption rather than a presumption of non-disprovable belief or faith.

For the most part, the named identity or identities of such Creator or Creators (and much of His or Their intentions) has not been audibly proclaimed nor inscribed nor written in alpha-numeric lettering nor symbols on most of what has been created in nature (although exceptions have been recorded, as in the case of that which is at least is alleged to have happened according to:

Exodus 31:18 And he gave to Moses, when he had made an end of speaking with him upon Mount Sinai, the two tables of the testimony, tables of stone, written with the Finger of God.
Numbers 7:89 And when Moses went into the tent of meeting to speak with the LORD, he heard the Voice speaking to him from above the mercy seat that was upon the ark of the testimony, from between the two cherubim; and It spoke to him.
Deuteronomy 9:10 And the LORD gave me the two tables of stone written with the Finger of God; and on them were all the words which the LORD had spoken with you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly.
Matthew 3:17 and wow, a Voice from heaven, saying, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased."
Matthew 17:5 He was still speaking, when wow, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a Voice from the cloud said, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to Him."
Mark 1:11 and a Voice came from heaven, "You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased."
Mark 9:7 And a cloud overshadowed them, and a Voice came out of the cloud, "This is my beloved Son; listen to Him."
Luke 3:22 and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form, as a dove, and a Voice came from heaven, "You are My beloved Son; with you I am well pleased."
Luke 9:35 And a Voice came out of the cloud, saying, "This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to Him!"
John 5:37 And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness to me. His Voice you have never heard, His form you have never seen
John 12:28 Father, glorify your name." Then a Voice came from heaven, "I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again."

Not only that, but what the Creator or Creators have created is generally beneficial and accomodating to us human creatures (objects and conditions could have been made a lot worse), or is at least benign and harmless. What we frequently-insane and often-irresponsible beings do or do not do with or against such natural-resource created entities does not adversely alter nor degrade intrinsic value of what the Creator or Creators themselves created.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 He has made everything beautiful in its time; also He has put eternity into man's mind, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.

"Can't find out what God has done?" About anything?

Well, maybe a few things, for part of the time, at least.

In my opinion, one of the distasteful things God has done, or at least allowed, is for a woman to be the wife of more than one husband during her lifetime.

Instances which come to mind are the cases of [childless?] Rahab (the God-fearing harlot of Jericho - who perhaps, but not assuredly, had previously had many male customers?); Tamar ([childless?] widow of Er and Onan, who prostituted her father-in-law and bore his child); Ruth (the Moabitess, [childless?] widow of Mahlon, who bore children with Boaz); Abigail ([childless?] widow of Nabal, who bore children to David); Gomer ([previously-childless?] prostitute wife of Hosea), and maybe others.

Such a multiple-husband phenomenon is rather noxious to me, although the entirety of Scripture (throughout the extent of the sacred-66 canonical books of both the Old and the New Testaments of The Holy Bible) gives both pros and cons pertaining about it (and, from my point of view, concerning such instead of regarding such):

Deuteronomy 24:1 When a man takes a wife and marries her, if then she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a bill of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, and she departs out of his house,
Deuteronomy 24:2 and if she goes and becomes another man's wife,
Deuteronomy 24:3 and the latter husband dislikes her and writes her a bill of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the latter husband dies, who took her to be his wife,
Deuteronomy 24:4 then her former husband, who sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after she has been defiled; for that is an abomination before the LORD, and you shall not bring guilt upon the land which the LORD your God gives you for an inheritance.

Deuteronomy 25:5 If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the dead shall not be married outside the family to a stranger; her husband's brother shall go in to her, and take her as his wife, and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her.

Ruth 4:6 Then the next of kin [brother within the same family] said, "I cannot redeem [Ruth] for myself, lest I impair my own inheritance. Take my right of redemption [which includes ownership of Ruth] yourself, for I cannot redeem it [nor her]."

First Samuel 18:20 Now Saul's daughter Michal [or "Michele"] loved David; and they told Saul, and the thing pleased him.
18:27 David got up and went, along with his men, and killed two hundred of the Philistines; and David brought their foreskins, which were given in full number to the king, that he might become the king's son-in-law. And Saul gave him his daughter Michal for a wife.
19:11 That night Saul sent messengers to David's house to watch him, that he might kill him in the morning. But Michal, David's wife, told him, "If you do not save your life tonight, tomorrow you will be killed."
19:12 So Michal let David down through the window; and he fled away and escaped.
1Sa 19:13 Michal took an image and laid it on the bed and put a pillow of goats' hair at its head, and covered it with the clothes.
19:17 Saul said to Michal, "Why have you deceived me thus, and let my enemy go, so that he has escaped?" And Michal answered Saul, "He said to me, 'Let me go; why should I kill you?'" [Thanks a lot, Michele - you misrepresentatively-slanderous liar]
25:44 Saul had given Michal his daughter, David's wife, to Palti the son of Laish, who was of Gallim.

Second Samuel 3:13 And he said, "Good; I will make a covenant with you; but one thing I require of you; that is, you shall not see my face, unless you first bring Michal, Saul's daughter, when you come to see my face."
3:14 Then David sent messengers to Ishbosheth Saul's son, saying, "Give me my wife Michal, whom I betrothed at the price of a hundred foreskins of the Philistines."
3:15 And Ishbosheth sent, and took her from her husband Paltiel the son of Laish.
6:16 As the ark of the LORD came into the city of David, Michal the daughter of Saul looked out of the window, and saw King David leaping and dancing before the LORD; and she despised him in her heart.
6:20 And David returned to bless his household. But Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David, and said, "How the king of Israel honored himself today, uncovering himself today before the eyes of his servants' maids, as one of the vulgar fellows shamelessly uncovers himself!"
6:21 And David [who had worn an ephod while dancing] said to Michal, "It was before the LORD, who chose me above your father, and above all his house, to appoint me as prince over Israel, the people of the LORD - and I will make merry before the LORD.
6:23 And Michele [i.e. Michal] the daughter of Saul had no child to the day of her death.

[ Maybe intermediate-husband Paltiel and Michele had had sex with each other before David got her back as his former wife? Perhaps that was involved in Davy not giving her any child to the day of her death? ]

Jeremiah 3:1 "If a man divorces his wife and she goes from him and becomes another man's wife, will he return to her? Would not that land be greatly polluted? You have played the harlot with many lovers; and would you return to me?" says the LORD.

Malachi 2:16 "For I hate divorce," says the LORD the God of Israel, "and covering one's garment with violence, says the LORD of hosts. So take heed to yourselves and do not be faithless."

Matthew 5:31 "It was also said, 'Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.'
Matthew 5:32 But I say to you that every one who divorces his wife, except on the ground of unchastity, makes her an adulteress; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

Matthew 19:7 They said to Him, "Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her away?"
8 He said to them, "For your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.
9 And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for unchastity, and marries another, commits adultery."
10 The disciples said to Him, "If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is not expedient to marry."
11 But He said to them, "Not all men can receive this saying, but only those to whom it is given.
12 For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. He who is able to receive this, let him receive it."

Mark 10:2 And Pharisees came up and in order to test him asked, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?"
3 He answered them, "What did Moses command you?"
4 They said, "Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce, and to put her away."
5 But Jesus said to them, "For your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment.
6 But from the beginning of creation, 'God made them male and female.'
7 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife,
8 and the two shall become one flesh.' So they are no longer two but one flesh.
9 What therefore God has joined together, let not man pull apart."
10 And in the house the disciples asked Him again about this matter.
11 And He said to them, "Whoever divorces his wife and marries another, commits adultery against her;
12 and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery."

Luke 2:36 And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher; she was of a great age, having lived with her husband seven years from her virginity
Luke 2:37 and as a widow till she was eighty-four. [That's the way! Good for her!] She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day.

John 4:15 The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water ["water"-insertion pleasure?], that I may not [erotically?] thirst, nor come here to draw." 16 Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come here."
17 The woman answered him, "I have no husband." ["I'm single and sexually available?"] Jesus said to her, "You are right in saying, 'I have no husband';
18 for you have had five husbands, and he whom you now have is not your husband; this you said truly."
19 The woman said to him, "Sir, [and she can readily now see that she should get off the suggestive sex-affair invite and quickly change the subject?] I perceive that you are a prophet.
20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain; and you say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship."
21 Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.
22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews [not antisemitic-against-Israelis so-called "palestinians"].
23 But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such the Father seeks to worship Him.
24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth."
25 The [ready-to-spiritually-convert] woman said to him, "I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when He comes, He will show us all things."
26 Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am He."
27 Just then His disciples came. They marveled that He was talking with a woman [cute as she was?], but none said, "What do you wish?" or, "Why are you talking with her?"

Romans 7:1 Do you not know, brethren--for I am speaking to those who know the law--that the law is binding on a person only during his life?
2 Thus a married woman is bound by [divorce-allowing Mosaic?] law to her husband as long as he lives; but if her husband dies she is discharged from the [questionable-morality Mosaic?] law regarding the husband.
3 Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies she is free from that [divorce-allowing Mosaic?] law, and if she becomes married to another man she is not an adulteress [What a bummer].
4 Likewise, my brethren, you have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another [a horrible multiple-husband illustration - in my opinion], to Him who has been raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit [Oh, come on] for God.

First Corinthians 7:10 To the married I give charge - not I, but the Lord - that the wife should not separate from her husband [that's more like it!]
11 (but if she does, let her remain single or else be reconciled to her husband) --and that the husband should not divorce his wife.
12 To the others I say - not the Lord - that if any brother has a wife who is a ["irreconcilable differences"] disbeliever [to whatever extent and in whatever ways], and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her.
13 If any woman has a husband who is a ["irreconcilable differences"] disbeliever, and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce him.
14 For the disbelieving husband is consecrated through his wife, and the disbelieving wife is consecrated through her husband. Otherwise, your children would be unclean, but as it is they are holy.
15 But if the disbelieving partner desires to separate, let it be so; in such a case the brother or sister is not bound. For God has called us to peace.
16 Wife, how do you know whether you will save your husband? Husband, how do you know whether you will save your wife? [Don't expect your husband-to-be or wife-to-be to change for the better or for the worse when married to them, nor expect to change them yourself]

First Corinthians 7:39 A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives. If the husband dies, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord.
First Corinthians 7:40 But in my judgment she is happier if she remains as she is. [Yes!] And I think that I have the Spirit of God. [You sure do!]
Second Corinthians 6:14 Do not be mismated with disbelievers. [Watch out who your dating-service choices are, and be selective before meeting them for that first date - before seeing their enticing exposed body parts and getting touchy-feely with them] For what partnership have righteousness and iniquity? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?

Ephesians 5:24 As the church is subject to Christ, so let wives also be subject in everything [included requests for private erotic posing and dancing, plus fellatio . . . without so-called "birth"-"control" but actually: pregnancy-prevention pills, and condoms] to their husbands.

Ephesians 5:33 however, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

First Timothy 5:11 But refuse to enroll younger-women widows; for when they grow wanton against Christ they desire to marry,
First Timothy 5:12 and so they incur condemnation for having violated their first pledge. [A couple of my favorite verses concerning this multiple-husband subject-matter issue]

So, WHO in a divorce proceeding, files for the divorce? Who then, in essence, "draws first blood?"

SHOULD an insubordinate sexist women - who has been extravagantly-spendy, and/or impenitently, irreparably, and impudently disobedient toward her husband and sadistically sexually frigid against him (perhaps causing him to become reactively abusive to certain extents in certain ways), be granted alimony and retirement benefits from the estranged husband by cowardly, godless, and similarly-sexist divorce-court judges?

Genesis 3:16 To the woman He said, "I will greatly multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children, yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you."

Moreover, polygamous-like acquisition and permanent retention of non-legally-married concubines are a viable answer for deprived and estranged ex-husbands (IF - over the long run - such additional women are both affordable and reputationally convenient . . . especially when one or the other is unapproachable due to monthly menstual periods or pregnancy or childbirth, has a headache or is sick, away on a lengthy vacation or business trip, etc.):

Titus 2:3 Bid the older women likewise to be reverent in behavior, not to be slanderers or slaves to drink; they are to teach what is good,
Titus 2:4 and so train the young women to love their husbands and children,
Titus 2:5 to be sensible, chaste, domestic, kind, and submissive to their husbands, that the word of God may not be discredited.

But which is no excuse for deadbeat dads:

First Timothy 5:8 If any one does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his own family, he has disowned the faith and is worse than a disbeliever.

Genesis 4:19 And Lamech took two wives; the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah.

Such helps to prevent matriarchal woman from getting and having the domineering upper hand of depraved rulership over her helpless husband:

First Timothy 2:11 Let a woman learn in silence with all submissiveness.
12 I allow no woman to teach or to have authority over men; she is to keep silent.
13 For Adam was formed first, then Eve;
14 and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.
15 Yet woman will be saved through bearing children, if she continues in faith and love and holiness, with sobriety.

Genesis 25:6 But to the sons of his concubines Abraham gave gifts, and while he was still living he sent them away from his son Isaac, eastward to the east country.

Deuteronomy 21:15 If a man has two wives, the one loved and the other disliked, and they have borne him children, both the loved and the disliked, and if the first-born son is hers that is disliked,
Deuteronomy 21:16 then on the day when he assigns his possessions as an inheritance to his sons, he may not treat the son of the loved as the first-born in preference to the son of the disliked, who is the first-born,
Deuteronomy 21:17 but he shall acknowledge the first-born, the son of the disliked, by giving him a double portion of all that he has, for he is the first issue of his strength; the right of the first-born is his.

Judges 8:30 Now Gideon had seventy sons, his own offspring, for he had many wives.

Judges 12:8 After him Ibzan of Bethlehem judged Israel.
Judges 12:9 He had thirty sons; and thirty daughters he gave in marriage outside his clan, and thirty daughters he brought in from outside for his sons. And he judged Israel seven years.

First Samuel 1:2 [Elkanah] had two wives; the name of the one was Hannah, and the name of the other Peninnah. And Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.

First Samuel 30:5 David's two wives also had been taken captive, Ahinoam of Jezreel, and Abigail the widow of Nabal of Carmel.
First Samuel 30:18 David recovered all that the Amalekites had taken; and David rescued his two wives.

Second Samuel 2:2 So David went up there, and his two wives also, Ahinoam of Jezreel, and Abigail the widow of Nabal of Carmel.
Second Samuel 5:13 And David took more concubines and wives from Jerusalem, after he came from Hebron; and more sons and daughters were born to David.

First Chronicles 4:5 Ashhur, the father of Tekoa, had two wives, Helah and Naarah

Second Chronicles 24:1 Joash was seven years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem; his mother's name was Zibiah of Beersheba.
Second Chronicles 24:2 And Joash did what was right in the eyes of the LORD all the days of Jehoiada the priest.
Second Chronicles 24:3 Jehoiada got for him two wives, and he had sons and daughters.

Ecclesiastes 2:8 I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces; I got singers, both men and women, and many concubines, man's delight.

First Timothy 3:2 Now a bishop (NOT every man) must be above reproach, the husband of one wife (not applicable to non-bishops), temperate, sensible, dignified, hospitable, an apt teacher
First Timothy 3:12 Let deacons (NOT every man) be the husband of one wife (not applicable to non-deacons), and let them manage their children and their households well

And what about our ["our?"] past-history harlots (i.e. incall and/or outcall, full-body/sensual exchange-massage masseuses and escorts) sexually utilized [to various quasi-fornicative or quasi-adulterous extents in various ways] for one-time or temporary sexual services?

Isaiah 57:8 Behind the door and the doorpost you have set up your symbol; for, deserting me, you have uncovered your bed, you have gone up to it, you have made it wide; and you have made a bargain for yourself with them, you have loved their bed, you have looked on nakedness.

Ezekiel 23:17 And the Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their lust; and after she was polluted by them, she turned from them in disgust.
Ezekiel 23:18 When she carried on her harlotry so openly and flaunted her nakedness, I turned in disgust from her, as I had turned from her sister.

Malachi 2:15 Has not the one God made and sustained for us the spirit of life? And what does he desire? Godly offspring. So take heed to yourselves, and let none be faithless to the wife of his youth.

Hebrews 13:4 Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be non-defiled; for God will judge the immoral and adulterous.

One can easily see how important it is for teen gals to prepare for marriage before they get into their 20s:

Genesis 1:28 And God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply [i.e. by default: have sex!], and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth."

Genesis 38:14 she put off her widow's garments, and put on a veil, wrapping herself up, and sat at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah; for she saw that Shelah was grown up, and she had not been given to him in marriage.

Leviticus 27:1 The LORD said to Moses,
Leviticus 27:2 'Say to the people of Israel, "When a man makes a special vow of persons to the LORD at your valuation,
Leviticus 27:3 then your valuation of a male from twenty years old up to sixty years old shall be fifty shekels of silver, according to the shekel of the sanctuary.'"

Ruth 1:13 would you therefore wait till they were grown? Would you therefore refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, for it is exceedingly bitter to me for your sake that the hand of the LORD has gone forth against me."

First Timothy 5:14 [KJV, not RSV/NASV/NIV] So I would have younger women [Gr. ne(o)teras, NOT "widows" Gr. ch(e)ras] marry, bear children, manage their households, and give the enemy no cause to revile us.

First Corinthians 6:16 Do you not know that he who joins himself to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, "The two shall become one flesh."

Matthew 22:28 In the resurrection, therefore, to which of the seven will she be wife? For they all had her."
Matthew 22:29 But Jesus answered them, "You are wrong, because you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God.
Matthew 22:30 For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.

Mark 12:23 In the resurrection whose wife will she be? For the seven had her as wife."
Mark 12:24 Jesus said to them, "Is not this why you are wrong, that you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God?
Mark 12:25 For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.

Luke 20:33 In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had her as wife."
Luke 20:34 And Jesus said to them, "The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage;
Luke 20:35 but those who are accounted worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage,
Luke 20:36 for they cannot die any more, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.

Notice the exact and precise words of Jesus. He did not state that death of a spouse is equivalent to automatic divorce pertaining to severence of marital relationship in the hereafter (whether either or both spouses are in Heaven or Hell).

In fact:

Matthew 19:6 So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man pull apart."
Mark 10:9 What therefore God has joined together, let not man pull apart."

What will not be in the afterlife are sexually-oriented courtships and engagements, nor marital wedding ceremonies where daddy gives his daughter away as bride to some guy for matrimonial intentions.