Can Christians Divorce?
1) Direct Answer
No. God’s will is one man and one woman for life. A Christian is not to divorce. If separation must occur, the believer is to remain unmarried or be reconciled. Remarriage while a living spouse remains is adultery.
2) Scriptural Explanation
- From the beginning: “They two shall be one flesh…what God hath joined together, let not man put asunder” (Genesis 2:24; Matthew 19:4-6).
- God hates putting away (Malachi 2:16).
- Jesus restored the original standard: “Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so” (Matthew 19:8).
- The “exception” Jesus named is fornication (Matthew 19:9; 5:32). Now notice, Scripture itself shows what that means: Joseph “being a just man…was minded to put her away privily” when he thought Mary had been unclean before they came together (Matthew 1:18-19). That deals with discovering unchastity at the start of the union—not granting a license to dissolve a consummated marriage.
- After marriage is joined, Jesus said plainly: “Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery” (Mark 10:11-12; Luke 16:18).
- Paul confirms: “Let not the wife depart… but and if she depart, let her remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband” (1 Corinthians 7:10-11). A believer is “not under bondage” to force an unbelieving spouse to stay (1 Corinthians 7:15), yet this does not open the door to remarriage; he later says, “The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth” (1 Corinthians 7:39; Romans 7:2-3).
- Leadership standard: an overseer must be “the husband of one wife” (1 Timothy 3:2). That’s why men who came into the faith already with more than one wife were received as believers but not placed in church office.
3) Simple Clarifying Logic
- God joins; man must not tear apart what God joined.
- Moses permitted divorce because of hardness of heart; Jesus lifted it back to God’s first intent.
- If divorce were allowed for any later offense or convenience, Jesus would not have called remarriage “adultery,” nor would Paul have commanded separated believers to remain unmarried or be reconciled.
- If an unbeliever departs, the believer is called to peace; but Scripture still binds the marriage bond while the spouse lives.
4) Short Reinforcing Statement
Come as you are, repent of past wrongs, and walk clean from now on. Don’t break up more homes. If you’re already entangled, stay as you are and live faithfully to Christ; but do not seek remarriage while a living spouse remains. God honors His Word and heals where we submit to it.
Ask a Follow-up Question
What did the Laodicean Church Age (our age) Angel (- messenger) Say about this?
Ranked passages from the local William Branham sermon and Church Age Book database. Relevance is relative, not a statement of doctrinal certainty.
Works is faith expressed
65-1126 §57
...luck of the hen, because he was an eagle from the egg. Not ... he wasn't made an eagle right then, he always was an eagle. And a Christian always was! That's the reason the divorce, when you're divorced, because you were trapped into it, see, by your first parents, Adam and Eve. You become a sinner by nature. You didn't want to be. But now you heard the Gospel, and "faith cometh by hearing," revelation come by hearing. There is a little something inside of you. Another man sitting right by you, say, "Ah, I don't be...
Hear ye Him
58-0324 §23
...hodist, Nazarenes, Pilgrim Holiness. I remember the time when it was wrong for you women to cut your hair. What happened? Do you know the Bible gives a man a right to get a divorce from his wife when she cuts her hair? The Bible said that a woman that cuts her hair dishonors her husband. That's the truth. And you get out here with these little old, dirty, nasty, filthy clothes on, called shorts, to mow the grass in the back yard, and call yourself a Christian? How must the Holy Spirit feel before the Father when He...
Marriage and Divorce
65-0221M §104
It wasn't so from the beginning. That is right. It wasn't so, and it will not be at the end! But under modern conditions, as God's servant---I won't call myself His prophet, but I believe that if I wouldn't be sent for that, I'm laying a ground for him when he does come---so under the modern conditions, I command you to go to your home with your wife now. If you are happy with her, live with her, raise your children in the admonition of God; but God be merciful to you if you ever do that again! You teach your child...
Marriage and Divorce
65-0221M §89
Went right on revealing it, the way He revealed His Word, but dare any one of us to try to put away Him and marry another. Now, surely it's plain why both theories are wrong. You can't make it run this way; it's gone. You make it run that, it'd run plumb past the promise. Here's the promise. Here's the thing right here. The Word is not contradictory; it has to stay in continuity. Now, no more than Matthew 28:19 contradicts Acts 2:38. Now, some of you women, some of you men, I know you're disagreeing with it because...
The invisible union of the Bride of Christ
65-1125 §14
...ans 7, trusting that you have your Bibles open everywhere now across the country, we want to read closely. Now, this message out of here, it seems like it's on marriage and divorce; but it really isn't. To me it's a prophecy for the church in the last days. Let us read. Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead,...