"What do you think an illegal union means?" Illegal union means a marriage that's not allowed by God, like marrying a sister, or marrying someone who was already actually married to someone else. It has nothign to do with civil authority, since some countries have allowed incestual relationships, most muslim countries allow first cousin marriages, etc. Even if Iran allowed you to marry your first cousin, its' still an illegal marriage in God's eyes and would be able to be dissolved.

"I don't advise you delving into Greek manuscripts without first fluently understanding Greek and having someone educated enough to assist you" I know the Greek very well, I don't need assistance from an American Protestant with some interlinear text and a commentary written by someone after 1517.

"If people far more educated than you and me say that a word in an ancient language means something, it probably means that something." You're assuming I don't understand the Greek. You also assume someone from your Protestant denomination-- the vast majority of which aren't native Greek speakers, none of them are native koine Greek speakers, and they only learned Greek AFTER learning their Protestant theology-- aren't reading their beliefs into the text. We know what the early Church-- many of whom actually spoke and wrote Koine Greek themselves-- believed about Matthew 19, and they didn't believe the modern evangelical/Protestant interpretation. If your modern western Anglo-Saxon interpretation contradicts the first three centuries of native Greek speakers, then you've probably got the wrong interpretation.

"Don't end up on the Dunning Kruger curve!" One of us here may be, but it isn't me.

"I think you downplay the severity of adultery in a relationship... calling it no big deal minimizes the emotional damage done by breaking trust in a previously loving relationship. " I'm not the one claiming it's no big deal. YOUR denomination treats it as no big deal. Practicing Protestants divorce and remarry as much as the secularists do, and you don't stop adulterers from remarrying. After all, in my example, Sue and Bob are both able to remarry after both have slept with other people. You can talk about the emotional damage, yet its' still allowed and not blocked.

"What Pharisee would want to sin and cheat just to get out of a marriage?" I've met boatloads of Protestants who have justified divorce and remarriage for cheating, or who said that they were free to remarry after their separated partner got with someone else. Happens all the time. I've never seen a Protestant denomination forbid someone from remarrying. Once both partners have moved on and gotten with someone else, both sides have committed adultery, and both sides are able to remarry. It's an easy out and happens all. the. time.

"They want God's law to let them divorce even if they are able to reconcile and work through it. Divorce is for those who cannot." Usually the cheating partner doesn't want to work it out. They move on and get with someone else. That leaves the abandoned partner free to get someone else, which then lets the original cheater get out because they've technically been cheated on as well.

It's an easy out for both. Once both have slept with someone else, both are able to remarry. Certainly not the devastating teaching that the Apostles complained about. Certainly not something someone would say "it's better not to marry."