If a Minister of the 5 Fold Ministry Can Marry a Widow, the Widow Is Not a Virgin, So Is That Not Breaking the Rule?
1) Direct Answer
No. A minister may marry a widow, and that does not break any New Testament rule.
2) Scriptural Explanation
- The Bible says a widow is free to remarry: “She is at liberty to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 7:39; see also Romans 7:2–3). Death ends the first covenant; she is loosed.
- The qualifications for ministers are clear: “husband of one wife,” blameless, temperate, etc. (1 Timothy 3:1–2; Titus 1:6). It does not say, “must marry a virgin.”
- Under the Law, only the high priest was required to marry a virgin (Leviticus 21:13–14). Ordinary priests were not forbidden to marry a widow. And we are not under the Levitical requirement; Christ is our High Priest (Hebrews 7).
- Paul even instructs that younger widows should marry (1 Timothy 5:14). If widows are to marry “in the Lord,” we have no Bible right to forbid a godly minister from being that husband.
3) Simple Clarifying Logic
- Virginity is not a New Testament qualification for a minister’s wife. Faithfulness and “only in the Lord” are the requirements.
- A widow is not an adulteress; her previous bond is ended by death. So marrying her does not make the minister a breaker of Scripture.
- Now notice: Where does the New Testament say a minister must marry a virgin? It doesn’t. But it does say a widow may remarry in the Lord.
4) Reinforcing Statement
It’s not three rules and traditions—it’s the Word. A widow who is in Christ is free to marry, and a true minister who is “the husband of one wife” may lawfully marry her without violating Scripture. The only clear prohibition is marrying a divorced woman while her first husband lives (Luke 16:18), not marrying a widow.
To get the full context and background as well as proper understanding, you MUST read the following answers also:
https://truebibleteachingsai.org/answers/in-the-new-testament-is-there-a-requirement-that-a-minister-of-the-5-f-11636dc
https://truebibleteachingsai.org/answers/in-the-new-testament-is-there-a-requirement-that-a-minister-of-the-5-f-a71db34
https://truebibleteachingsai.org/answers/if-a-minister-should-marry-a-virgin-then-what-was-the-blood-of-jesus-s-1d59d71
https://truebibleteachingsai.org/answers/if-a-minister-of-the-5-fold-ministry-can-marry-a-widow-the-widow-is-no-e5ccd10
https://truebibleteachingsai.org/answers/is-it-true-that-the-widow-of-a-minister-can-only-remarry-a-minister-9af3c0d
https://truebibleteachingsai.org/answers/in-one-of-your-replies-you-said-a-minister-should-marry-a-virgin-in-an-bdc33ea
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.
The Spoken Word is the original seed
62-0318 §148
Now, now look, show you we're at the end time, even the parable of the wise virgin and the unwise virgin is with us. Now look, the unwise version---virgin, (excuse me), the unwise virgin is going to be the hybrid. See, she had the seed without the oil, the moisture to make it grow. Now, and what's she doing? The two groups, the Pentecostal group and the denominational of the world, the evangelical groups has emerging together, see. What for?---going to Sodom (now notice) to reap this harvest.
Be not afraid, it is I
61-0414 §48
"Sure, Jehovah just expects you to come on to church, and pay your tithe, and live a good life, and that's all. Don't... Look, that Messiah may be a million years from now, might not even come at all." There's a lot of Bible schools today teach that, the physical. I believe it's eighty-something percent of the so-called Christians don't believe in the physical return of Jesus. I heard it. I got some government statistics there of the different denominations and I forget... It's worse than that, that don't believe i...
Hear ye Him
57-0125 §35
When I leave home, my wife... Thank God for her, in the order of the Lord's work, I trust. And if I leave home to go overseas, I don't take Mrs. Branham out and say, "Now, looky here, my dear lady; I'm going to tell you something. When I go overseas thou shalt not have any more husbands. You don't want to make any love to any other man. Thou shalt not do this and do that." Then after I give her all of her laws, then she'd say, "Just a minute, my young fellow; thou shalt not have any other wives while you're gone. T...
What think ye of Christ?
54-0321 §31
I think the best authority that there is that we know of would be His mother. Don't you think so? If any woman out there who the baby belongs to the mother ought to. Is that right? "Mary, I call you down this afternoon and ask you: What do you think about Christ? Whose Son is He? You're the mother, you ought to know. You ought to know all about it." I can hear the little virgin say, "I knew not a man. (Hallelujah!) But, one day when I was walking from the pump from the virgin well with a bucket of water on my shoul...
The invisible union of the Bride of Christ
65-1125 §14
Now, in Romans 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 husban...