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.
Marriage and Divorce
65-0221M §78
Now, you notice in I Corinthians 7:10, notice, Paul commands the wife that is ... that divorces her husband to remain single or be reconciled, not to remarry. She must remain single or to be reconciled back to her husband. She cannot remarry; she must remain single. But notice, he never said about the man. See, you can't make the Word lie. From the beginning, the sex law by polygamy. Now, the Word of God runs true with nature of God, runs in continuity. See how there is one school went east and the other one went w...
Questions and Answers, Part 2
64-0823E §108
...He said, talk ... Israel, said, "You have set your limbs apart and taken in every man that come by, and you've played the part of whoredom with me; and I'll put you away in divorce." Exactly! What is that? You're committing adultery against your own body. And when a woman goes out and lives with another man, or a man with another woman, when they're married to them, they are defiling their own flesh. And when a person says that he is a Christian and will absolutely deny the Scripture being right, he's committing ad...
The choosing of a Bride
65-0429E §21
I think today what has got so many divorce cases, now, that we lead the world, in America, in divorce cases. We lead the rest of the world. There is more divorces here than anywhere else. This nation, and supposed to be, and thought of, a Christian nation. What a reproach! Our divorce courts... I think the reason of it is, because that men has got away from God, and women has got away from God. And we find that if a man prayed, and a woman prayed over the matter ---Not just look at a pretty set of eyes, or big stro...
Marriage and Divorce
65-0221M §77
...that he cannot remarry, only a virgin. He can remarry, he can remarry again if it's a virgin; but he can't marry somebody's else's wife. No indeedy. And if he does marry a divorced woman, he is living in adultery, I don't care who he is. The Bible said, "Whosoever marries her that is put away, liveth in adultery." There you are. Not no divorcee. See that original back yonder from the beginning now? Re-marrying---now notice, he can, but she can't. Like David, like Solomon, like the continuity of the whole Bible. No...
Marriage and Divorce
65-0221M §96
This is an awful strong thing. I didn't know how to bring it out! What will I do when I got men and women sitting in my congregation, some that's been married twice or three times? Good men, good women, all mixed up! What done it? False teaching. Exactly. Not waiting on the Lord. "What God has joined together, let no man put asunder..." Not what man joined together, what God joined together. When you got a direct revelation from God that's your wife, and the same thing, that's yours the rest of your life. See? But...