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Can Adultery Be Forgiven?

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Answered by True Bible Teachings AI on 6/26/2026

1) Direct Answer
Yes. Adultery can be forgiven. But forgiveness is never permission to continue in it. True forgiveness comes with confession, repentance, and forsaking the sin.

2) Scriptural Explanation
- The Bible says the woman taken in adultery heard, “Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more” (John 8:11). Mercy given—sin stopped.
- It also says, “Such were some of you… but ye are washed” (1 Corinthians 6:9-11). Adulterers can be cleansed and changed.
- “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy” (Proverbs 28:13).
- David fell, confessed, and God put away his sin (2 Samuel 12:13; Psalm 51). Yet there were consequences. Forgiveness is real; consequences can remain.
- God warns, “Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge” (Hebrews 13:4). So grace does not excuse continuing in the act.
- Jesus defined it plainly: to marry another while a living covenant remains is adultery (Mark 10:11-12; Luke 16:18; Romans 7:2-3). The command to those who separate is clear: “remain unmarried, or be reconciled” (1 Corinthians 7:10-11).

3) Simple Clarifying Logic
- You see, the same Lord who forgives also says, “sin no more.” That’s the proof of repentance.
- Real repentance means: confess to God, cut off the adulterous relationship completely, make things right as far as possible, and walk clean. You cannot claim forgiveness while continuing the same sin.
- If you broke your marriage vows, repentance aims at reconciliation where Scripture allows, or remaining single rather than living in ongoing adultery (1 Corinthians 7:10-11).
- Forgiveness washes the guilt; it may not erase every earthly result. A clean life afterward is the fruit of mercy received.

4) Reinforcing Statement
The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses the repentant sinner. Mercy is sure to the one who confesses and forsakes; judgment remains for the one who hardens his heart. Now notice—grace lifts you out, not leaves you in. Go, and sin no more.

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.

SermonRelevance 68Broader match

Questions and Answers

Sunday evening, the 28th of June 1959 at the Branham Tabernacle in Jeffersonville, Indiana, U.S.A.

59-0628E §107

Now, we've got one more and then that's all. Let's see! QUESTION: Brother Bill, what is the difference between fornications and adultery, Matthew 19:9? Jesus said in Matthew 19:9, "Whosoever putteth away his wife and marries another, except it be for the cause of fornication, commits adultery." The difference between fornications and adultery, the word could be applied either way. But to make it clear what he was talking of there, that ... a woman that's unmarried cannot commit adultery, because she has no husband...

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SermonRelevance 65Broader match

Questions and Answers

Sunday evening, the 28th of June 1959 at the Branham Tabernacle in Jeffersonville, Indiana, U.S.A.

59-0628E §108

...l that." She was nervous, and had a breakdown, and said, "I've confessed all that to God." I said, "You have to confess it to your husband. It wasn't God that you committed adultery against; it was your husband." That's right. And if a man marries a woman and she has lived unclean before she marries him, and then she comes to him, if they've been married ever so long, and then she comes to him and says, "Honey, I want to tell you something. I did run out with another man; I never told you," Jesus said he has a righ...

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SermonRelevance 63Broader match

Marriage and Divorce

Sunday morning, the 21st of February 1965 at the Parkview Junior High School in Jeffersonville, Indiana, U.S.A.

65-0221M §77

...she's got a living husband, so no man can marry her. Care what she does and who she is, she's got a living husband. There's no grounds for her at all. But it's not for him; because it's her, not him. Get it? You have to make the Word run in continuity. See? Nothing saying he couldn't, but she can't. See? Causes her, not him. That's just exactly what the Bible says. "Causes her..." It is not stated against him to remarry, but her! Why? Christ in the type. Notice, it is stated that he cannot remarry, only a virgin. H...

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SermonRelevance 61Broader match

Questions and Answers

Sunday morning, the 15th of October 1961 at the Branham Tabernacle in Jeffersonville, Indiana, U.S.A.

61-1015M §81

If you notice what Jesus said... Now here, I got a brother, my own blood brother, that's fixing to marry a woman, and my brother has been married before and got a child by a good woman. And he come to me to marry him. I said, "Not at all!" Jesus said, in Matthew 5, "Whosoever puts away his wife, and marries another, saving the cause of fornications (which she had to do before she was married and didn't tell him about it), causes her to commit adultery: whosoever marries her that is put away liveth in adultery." So...

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SermonRelevance 59Broader match

Questions and Answers, Part 2

Sunday evening, the 23rd of August of 1964 at the Branham Tabernacle in Jeffersonville, Indiana, U.S.A.

64-0823E §43

QUESTION: For Sunday services: If a woman commits a wrong with a ... (Now, wait a minute; I better read this first to myself. You see? All right. This is all right.) If a woman commits a wrong with a married man, repents and makes it right with her husband according to the Scriptures, does she need to go to the wife of the man involved, ever if this wife doesn't know anything of it; or is it the man's duty to tell her first; or does she need to be hurt at all? How far can we go with this restitution when it is over...

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