In One of Your Replies, You Said a Minister Should Marry a Virgin. in Another of Your Replies, You Said There Is No Restriction Binding the Minister?
1) Direct answer
There is no New Testament law that binds a minister to marry a virgin. But because he is to be an example, the safest, cleanest counsel is: if he marries, he should seek a pure, never‑before‑bound woman. Still, if she is not a virgin, yet is not bound to a living husband and walks clean in Christ, he is not disqualified from marrying her.
2) Scriptural explanation
- Ministerial qualifications: The Bible says a bishop must be blameless, the husband of one wife, ruling well his house (1 Timothy 3:2–5; Titus 1:6). Notice, it does not command that his wife be a virgin.
- Marriage bonds: The Bible says a wife is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives; but if he is dead, she is free to be married only in the Lord (Romans 7:2–3; 1 Corinthians 7:39). And, “whosoever marrieth her that is put away from her husband committeth adultery” (Luke 16:18). So a minister must not marry a divorced woman whose first husband is living.
- Purity pattern: Now notice, the high priest was to take a wife in her virginity (Leviticus 21:13–14), and Christ presents to Himself a chaste virgin Bride (2 Corinthians 11:2; Ephesians 5:27). This shows the ideal of purity for those who serve at the altar and represent Christ to the church.
- Grace and new life: If a person’s past is under the Blood, “old things are passed away… all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). But new birth does not cancel the marriage bond while a former spouse lives (Romans 7:2–3).
3) Simple clarifying logic
- There is a difference between a binding command and wise counsel. The New Testament commands one wife, a clean testimony, and no union that violates the marriage bond. It does not legislate virginity for a minister’s wife.
- The ideal counsel follows the Bible’s purity pattern: a minister, if he marries, should choose a woman with no former marital bond and a clean life, so there is no reproach on the ministry.
- Yet if she is not a virgin but is free to marry (single or a widow) and lives upright in the Lord, Scripture does not forbid that union.
4) Reinforcing statement
So the two statements harmonize this way: “should marry a virgin” speaks to the ideal; “no restriction binding” affirms there is no New Testament law making virginity a requirement—only the clear boundaries of one wife, a clean life, and no marriage that violates an existing bond.
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 Marriage of the Lamb
62-0121E §39
And then, after the decision is made that you are, then comes the engagement. That ... you find that at the altar. You've got to make an engagement before this union can be. And that's the way it is with Christ's church. It has to be an engagement with Christ, a pledge, an engagement, a love affair. And then, the next thing is, is promises made. There has to be promises made to one another---like that you make promise, "Sweetheart, if you'll marry me, I promise that I'll be loyal and true. I will look upon no other...
Perseverance
63-1116E §92
And so Jehoshaphat said, being a righteous man, he said, "But shouldn't we consult the Lord? He said, "Oh, yes, maybe that's so." Ahab, you know what a fellow he was, so he goes down. And said, "I've got the answer, I've got four hundred prophets. We'll bring them up here. So they got down there, and one of them, Zedekiah, I believe it was, made hisself two big horns and went up there, saying, "Thus saith the Lord. Go up, it belongs to you. Thus saith the Lord, You will push them Assyrians plumb out of the country,...
We would see Jesus
59-0422 §77
Now, look. Don't you pray for yourself. No, you pray for the next fellow; the next fellow's praying for you, see. You pray for the person you got your hands on; and the one that's got their hands on you will be praying for you. Now, I will pray for you all here, and this great bunch of ministers will pray, and then, you'll see the glory of God. Now I wonder, while you got your hands on one another here, if there would be... How many sinners in this building that's never accepted Jesus would want to do it right now,...
Believest thou this?
51-1003 §3
I remember one time I married a couple. I was just been ordained a short time in the Baptist church. So there was a boy said--worked with my brother on the--on that, I believe they call it NYA or CC camp. That's what it was, the CC camp. And way back in during the time of the depression, 'course many of you can't go back that far with me, because you're not even that old, maybe. But I... Lot of you here remember the depression. So I remember my... And he was working with the boy up there. I believe the boy was... I...
As the eagle stirreth up her nest
59-0815 §75
Now, when Jesus... That woman touched ... she pressed through the crowd, touched that outside garment (which it was an underneath one also), but the outside garment, the border of His garment, for she said within her heart... No Scripture to back it up... You got Scripture to back it up now, but she didn't have any Scripture. She said, "If I touch the border of His garment, I will be made well." How many remembers the story? Why, certainly. She said, "I believe the man. There's something about Him, that I believe t...