Can Divorced Believers Remarry?
1) Direct Answer
In general, no—marriage is for life. A believer is bound to their spouse while that spouse lives. Remarriage is permitted only on clear Scriptural grounds: the death of the spouse; the case of fornication that makes the union unlawful from the start. Otherwise, remain unmarried or be reconciled.
2) Scriptural Explanation
- Marriage is for life: “What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder” (Matthew 19:6). “The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth… but if her husband be dead, 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).
- Against casual divorce/remarriage: “Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery” (Mark 10:11; Luke 16:18). “Let not the wife depart… but and if she depart, let her remain unmarried, or be reconciled” (1 Corinthians 7:10-11).
- The narrow exception of fornication: “Saving for the cause of fornication” (Matthew 5:32; 19:9). This covers the case where sexual uncleanness connected with the betrothal/entrance into marriage is discovered, as seen in Joseph’s intent to “put away” Mary privately (Matthew 1:18-19). In such a case, putting away does not make the innocent party an adulterer.
- When the unbeliever departs: “If the unbelieving depart, let him depart. A brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases: but God hath called us to peace” (1 Corinthians 7:15). “Not under bondage” in 1 Corinthians 7:15 means you are not enslaved to pursue, cohabit, or litigate to hold them; God has called us to peace. It does not mean the marriage bond is dissolved for another marriage
- Concerning complex situations on conversion: “As God hath distributed to every man, as the Lord hath called every one, so let him walk” (1 Corinthians 7:17, 20, 24). Men who came into the faith already having more than one wife were received but are disqualified from church office (1 Timothy 3:2). They did not marry those extra wives in the church; they came with them and should not tear up those homes.
3) Simple Clarifying Logic
- God made one man and one woman to be one flesh. Death ends the bond; then remarriage in the Lord is clean. That’s simple.
- Jesus condemned divorcing and marrying another as adultery. So open-ended remarriage while a living spouse remains is sin.
- Yet the Bible gives a narrow door: fornication that invalidates the union at the very start, or death of one spouse.
4) Reinforcing Statement
Now notice, the cleanest walk is to keep your vows, seek reconciliation where possible, and if you must remain single for Christ’s sake, do it with a full heart. If you remarry, do it only in the Lord and only where Scripture gives you the liberty to. God honors a life kept within His Word.
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.
Marriage and Divorce
65-0221M §77
...ntinuity. 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. He can remarry, he can remarry again if it's a virgin; but he can't marry somebody's else's wife. No indeedy. And if he does marry a divorced woman, he is living in adultery, I don't care who he is. The Bible said, "Whosoever marries her that i...
Questions and Answers, Part 3
64-0830M §10
Just remember this! To you people who are married, and divorced, and remarried, promise me one thing. See? You've put your confidence in me. (I guess this is not taped. I don't...) You believe me as your prophet sent from God, your servant, then you take my word for this, will you? Go on living just like you are. Don't you try anything else like it, but live, just go ahead, just live happy. You got... You're saved. If you're Christians, you go ahead living for Christ; He had a reason to save you. Now, when I come b...
Questions and Answers
62-0527 §15
...but it isn't so. Now, it seems like, here, that the person is wanting to know, or the question what they do want to know: "Is a brother or sister in the Lord, can marry or remarry, be free, if they leave their companion to remarry again?" No. Now let's take ... begin at the 10th verse: ... unto the married I command, yet not I, but the Lord [see], Let not the wife depart from her husband: [see], But ... if she departs, let her remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband: and let not the husband put away his...
Marriage and Divorce
65-0221M §78
Now, you notice in I Corinthians 7:10, notice, Paul commands the wife that is ... that divorces her husband to remain single or be reconciled, not to remarry. She must remain single or to be reconciled back to her husband. She cannot remarry; she must remain single. But notice, he never said about the man. See, you can't make the Word lie. From the beginning, the sex law by polygamy. Now, the Word of God runs true with nature of God, runs in continuity. See how there is one school went east and the other one went w...
Questions and Answers
62-0527 §18
...So just read the verses before and after, and you'll catch them what he's talking about. Now, this means here, not ... see: "Does this mean a sister or a brother is free to remarry?" No, sir. See, he explained that first. See: ... unto the married I command, yet not I, but the Lord, Let not the wife depart from her husband: But and if she departs, let her remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband: ... [See?] There's no such things as any believer ever being reconciled to remarriage again, with a living comp...