If a Wife Was a Divorcee and Lied to a Brother About It and They Wedded and Already Have Children, What Should Be Done After the Brother Discovers?
1) Direct answer
It all turns on one fact: Is her first husband still living? If he is living, this union was never a lawful marriage before God and must cease; if he is not living, the present marriage stands and they must remain together, repent of the lie, and walk faithfully.
2) Scriptural explanation
- The Bible says a wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives; only death looses the bond (Romans 7:2–3; 1 Corinthians 7:39).
- Jesus said, “Whoever marries a woman put away from her husband commits adultery” (Luke 16:18; see also Matthew 5:32; Mark 10:11–12). So if she had a living covenant spouse, the later union is adultery, not a marriage God joined.
- If the first husband is dead, she is “at liberty to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 7:39). The deception is sin (Ephesians 4:25), but the marriage itself is valid and binding for life (Matthew 19:6).
- If separation becomes necessary in an unlawful union, Scripture requires sexual relations to cease and no remarriage while a living covenant spouse remains (1 Corinthians 7:10–11).
- Regardless of civil papers or past sins, we “remain in the calling” only if the union itself is lawful before God (1 Corinthians 7:17–24). God does not recognize what His Word forbids.
- Children must be cared for; a man must provide for his own (1 Timothy 5:8). The children are not at fault.
3) Simple clarifying logic
- God joins only what His Word permits. A civil document cannot make lawful what Scripture declares adultery.
- Therefore:
- If her first husband was alive when she married this brother, there was no valid marriage from the start. This is not a divorce; it is an annulment in truth—the recognition that no biblical marriage existed. They must cease marital relations and separate. He is not bound to her as a wife. He should repent and, after putting away the unlawful union, is free to marry “only in the Lord” in due season. She remains bound to her first husband as long as he lives; if reconciliation is possible lawfully, do so; if not, she must remain unmarried (1 Corinthians 7:10–11).
- If her first husband was already dead at the time of this wedding, the present marriage is valid. Do not separate. Confess the lie, seek forgiveness, and live together in holiness and truth for life (Ephesians 4:25; Matthew 19:6).
- If the first husband dies after this discovery while they were in an unlawful union, they must first cease the adulterous relationship, repent, and then—now that death has loosed the former bond—may lawfully enter a true marriage covenant going forward.
4) Final, unambiguous biblical conclusion
Now notice, the decisive question is whether a living covenant spouse exists. If her former husband is alive, this union was never a marriage and must be ended; if he is not alive, the marriage stands—repent of the deception and remain together in faithfulness, caring well for the children.
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.
Questions and Answers, Part 3
64-0830M §64
QUESTION: Brother Branham, how am I supposed to show my wife that I really care for her and yet play---stay with the Word that's---stay with the Word, but still having a question like this said: "Why don't you practice what you preach or believe?" Well then if the wife is saying this to you when she's---has a right to say it, you better get right. See, see? Then, if she is saying it just to be evil, remember, the Bible said, "It was better that a millstone was hanged at your neck and drowned in the depths of the se...
Hebrews, Chapter 7, part 1
57-0915E §71
There's a little ol' girl sitting back there tonight, my wife, I love her with all that's in me. And if I knowed that I could run around with another woman and get by with it, and go tell her, and say, "Meda, I did wrong," do you think I'd do it? If I love her right, I won't do it. That's right. Now, what if I'd say, "Oh, I can't do it, because I tell you why. She'd divorce me, and I got... Oh, I'm a preacher. See what that'd do? That'd take me out of the pulpit, if she'd divorce me; a divorced man. Oh, I got three...
Things that are to be
65-1205 §69
I've often said this. As a missionary I'd be going overseas, what if I brought my wife in, my children. "Now look here, children... Listen here, Mrs. Branham, I am your husband. Thou shall not have any other husbands while I'm gone. If you do, I'll skin you when I get back home!" See? Stomp my foot! "Children, hear what I say?" "Yes, Papa. Yes, Papa." "You let me hear of one transgression..." See? Now, wouldn't that be a home? Now, what if she'd say, "Now are you through, sir? Now, I want to tell you something. Mr....
Leadership
65-1031A §20
You can be good, don't steal, don't smoke, don't lie. Don't lie to papa and mama. Don't tell that first lie, because ... tell one, then it's easy to tell another one, see. But you mustn't do that. Don't tell the first one. Did you know your body is not made to lie? You know, they got a device now, it's on your nerves. They can put a little band around your wrist, here, and put one across your head. And then you can say there, say, you say, "I---I---I lied about that. But I can say it so easy, that they, they'll bel...
From that time
61-0415B §17
Brother Fred Sothmann, many of these, Brother Tom Simpson sitting there, those men came from Canada just to... They're camping out there. Been in there for two years, now, in a trailer, just to be near when we have services. Oh, friends like that, what it means to you. Now, it's glorious to have precious friends. So, Brother Wood's brother Lyle came down one day, and I guess he wanted to ask him what kind of a shenanigan he got hooked up with. And so, he said, "That's the brother out there cutting grass in the harv...