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 Spoken Word is the original seed
62-0318 §266
"Going to have a baby, Abraham by that woman?" "God said so." "Well, you told me that twenty-five years ago." "I know, but God said so." That's it. There you are. That's the same thing. What do you say today? "Well, you know the denomination will kick you out." "But God said so; God said so." "Well, you know, if you get baptized like that..." "God said so. That's it. That's it." There's your virgin; there she is. Not only to baptism, but anything else---the rest of the Word, see. So, watch.
An Absolute
63-0127 §24
I think any Christian should be that way, every believer. You should never ... I think especially ministers should never try to enter the pulpit until they have met God upon those sacred sands where there's no philosopher can explain it away. You met God, and you know it, and there's nothing can ever hide it away from you. Now we have times that we have great scholarship, and nothing against that. That's all right. But... All that goes good. But you personally have got to meet God, to a place that no one can twist...
Respects
61-1015E §56
I remember a certain young girl one night, Tennessee, when I was going out the door (preaching in a big Baptist church), was going out the door. And I felt led that night to call her to come to Christ. Well, she laughed in my face when I called her to come to Christ. She happened to be one of the deacon's daughters. And standing at the door that night, she waited for me. When I come out, she said, "I want you to know something right now, don't you never embarrass me like that again." I said, "God was calling you."...
Questions and Answers, Part 2
64-0823E §18
QUESTION: Very urgent. Brother Branham, knowing that time is ending and eternity setting in, what would be your advice for a couple planning marriage? Go right ahead and get married, see. Go right on just like if you was going to live for another hundred years here on earth. Just go right on; keep your heart set on Christ, not your hearts on these things of the world, but on Christ, see. Go right on; get married, children. God bless you in your wedding.
The invisible union of the Bride of Christ
65-1125 §29
The prophet Paul, here, is saying that a woman cannot remarry until her first husband is dead. She cannot remarry as long as her first husband is living. She, by no circumstances at all. She must remain single as long as her first husband is living. And if she should do such a sin, she shall be called an adulteress. I am speaking of the natural now, to type it with the spiritual. If this woman would commit such a sin, then she is marked an adulteress---if she has two living husbands at the same time. Therefore, she...