Divorce and Remarriage - part 2

In this sermon, we look at the exception clause of Matt. 5:32 -- "except for fornication/unchastity/immorality." Jesus gives this as the only way a person can legitimately divorce his spouse and marry another. The Greek word is porneia. Here I will make the case as to why I think Jesus is referring to fornication committed during an engagement, like the fornication Joseph thought Mary was guilty of. Joseph was going to divorce Mary because he thought she had been guilty of porneia. If she had been guilty, and he had divorced her and married another, he would not have been guilty of adultery. Even though the marriage contract between Joseph and Mary was not yet consummated, they are nevertheless called husband and wife and the severing of their engagement, which was taken a lot more seriously than today's engagements, would have been called a divorce. I give the reasons why I think this is the correct view and all the flaws I see in the majority view, which is that adultery in a consummated marriage is the ground for divorce and remarriage. I also examine the argument for desertion as another ground for divorce and remarriage, taken from 1 Cor. 15. In my judgment, this has been a particularly bad argument with devastating consequences.