THE WOMAN WHO HAD SEVEN HUSBANDS
( Matthew 22:23-33)
by Paul J. Ditoro
The Pharisees and Sadducees were prominent religious sects of Jesus' day. The Bible teaches us the differences between these two groups, "For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit: but the Pharisees confess both" (Acts 23:8). Since the Sadducees knew that Jesus taught there would be a resurrection, they tried to use that teaching to trap him. They presented him the scenario of a woman who was married to one of seven brothers. When the first brother died, the second brother married her, when the second brother died, the third married her until all the brothers died and she had been married to each of them. The trick question the Sadducees asked Jesus was this, "Therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be of the seven? for they all had her" (Matt 22:28). The answer Jesus gave to this question deals with a popular and devastating error of religious groups of our day. Jesus told the Sadducees, ". . . Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven" (Matt 22:29-30).
The Bible clearly teaches that, at the end of this life when the dead are raised, there will be no husband-wife relationship. Marriage will no longer exist. Sadly, a very great many have been deceived in to believing that, not only will there be marriage in eternity, but that multiple marriages are required in order to get into heaven. But the Bible clearly teaches that having more than one mate at the same time is adultery; "So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man" (Romans 7:3).
It is a false tenet of their religion which teaches that there will be marriage in Heaven. And it speaks against the God of heaven to claim that He sanctioned such.
"Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:31, 32). Those who have set at naught the Lord's teachings of Jesus, including His teachings on marriage, divorce and remarriage, are not continuing in His word, and, therefore, are not His disciples.
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