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.
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 6:E-36
"I know thy works, and the last to be more than the first." Now as we have already said, this age is called the Dark Ages because it was indeed the darkest period of all history. It was the age of Pope Innocent III who claimed that he was the "vicar of Christ --supreme sovereign over the church and the world," who instituted the INQUISITION which under his direction shed more blood than at any other time except in the Reformation. It was the age of Pornocracy, the rule of harlots. Sagarius III had a mistress and "f...
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 3:E-26
Thirdly, he had the evident fruit of his God-given ministry. II Corinthians 12:11, "I am become a fool in glorying; ye have compelled me: for I ought to have been commended of you: for in nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostles, though I be nothing." I Corinthians 9:2, "If I be not an apostle unto others, yet doubtless I am to you: for the seal of mine apostle-ship are ye in the Lord." II Corinthians 11:2, "For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may pres...
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 1:E-102
Now these 144,000 are not in the bride. In Revelation 14:4 they are called virgins and they follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. The fact that they have not defiled themselves with women shows that they are eunuchs (Matthew 19:12). The eunuchs were the keepers of the bridal chambers. They were attendants. Notice that they do not sit in the throne but are before the throne. No, they are not in the bride, but will be in the glorious millennial reign.
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 2:E-49
But some day those feet of brass will stand upon the earth. And the Judge of all the earth He shall be, and with equity and perfection will He judge mankind. And there will be no evading that judgment. No turning of that justice. There will be no tempering of it. He that is unjust will be unjust still; he that is filthy will be filthy still. The Unchanging One will not change then, for He never has and never will. Those feet of brass will crush the enemy. They will destroy the antichrist, the beast and the image an...
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 5:E-72
In this Pergamean Age where men were humanizing salvation, having turned from the truth that "Salvation is of the Lord,"--having cast aside the doctrine of election and opened wide the church door and their fellowship to any and all who subscribed to their tenets (never mind the Word), in this age of rapid degradation, there were still the few who had the measure of that faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, and not only used that faith in acts of power but withstood those who dared to say that they were saved simply on...