My Husband Deceived Me by Hiding His Impotency Before We Got Married. Can I Leave the Marriage and Remarry?
1) Direct answer
No. Deception is sin and must be repented of, but it does not give you a right to remarry while your husband lives. You may seek separation if conscience or circumstances require it, but Scripture binds you to remain unmarried or be reconciled.
2) Scriptural explanation
- The Bible says a wife is bound to her husband “so long as he liveth” (Romans 7:2-3; 1 Corinthians 7:39). That is the plain rule.
- If separation happens, the Lord’s command is, “let not the wife depart from her husband: but and if she depart, let her remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband” (1 Corinthians 7:10-11).
- Jesus allowed one scriptural ground that dissolves the union for remarriage: “except it be for fornication” (Matthew 19:9; 5:32). Now notice, that word points to sexual uncleanness—premarital immorality like Joseph considered when he thought to put Mary away privately (Matthew 1:18-19; compare Deuteronomy 22:13-21). Impotency is not fornication.
- God hates “putting away” (Malachi 2:16). He calls marriage a covenant to which He is a witness (Malachi 2:14).
- Conjugal duty is commanded (1 Corinthians 7:3-5). If a spouse fails through weakness or sickness, that calls for prayer, help, and healing—not a new marriage. “Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church… and the prayer of faith shall save the sick” (James 5:14-15).
3) Simple clarifying logic
- Deceit is wrong. Your husband must repent and walk in truth (Ephesians 4:25; Colossians 3:9). But the vow you made is still a vow. The Bible gives no verse that says fraud about health or ability dissolves a marriage so that one is free to remarry.
- The only release for remarriage while a spouse lives is fornication. Impotency is a condition, not fornication. Therefore, the covenant stands.
- If someone says, “Fraud annuls the marriage,” ask them to show the Scripture. The Bible does not grant remarriage for this cause.
- If living together becomes untenable, Scripture allows separation, but not a second marriage: remain unmarried or be reconciled.
4) Short reinforcing statement
Seek God for mercy and healing. Bring it into the light—confession, prayer, medical help, and pastoral oversight. God can restore what is broken. But do not step outside the Word: no remarriage while he lives, unless the biblical ground of fornication is present. Stay with the Word, and the God of peace will guide your steps.
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 invisible union of the Bride of Christ
65-1125 §94
How did you come to do this? You were deceived into it by your first marriage, to your adulteress parent Eve, no fault of your own. By your natural birth you come after Eve, who committed adultery. That is the reason you were born an adulteress. You're a sinner to begin with. That's right. You were deceived into it. You had no... It ain't your fault. You never did it, because that little germ that was in you, was to be you before the foundation of the world ... God put your name in the Lamb's book of life.
Questions and Answers on Genesis
53-0729 §50
Paul said, "Now, here, I know I preach the Gospel; that's my duty." I'm a preacher, he's a preacher, Brother Neville's a preacher, but... That's our duty, to be a preacher. Well, that's just what we're supposed to do. "But let me do something," Paul said, "that's beyond that." "Now, I've got a right to take up money," Paul said, "but I'm going to make tents just to show you; like a sacrifice." He said, "It's honorable, marriage is honorable among all, the bed's undefiled. It's good for a man to be married." He said...
Marriage and Divorce
65-0221M §96
This is an awful strong thing. I didn't know how to bring it out! What will I do when I got men and women sitting in my congregation, some that's been married twice or three times? Good men, good women, all mixed up! What done it? False teaching. Exactly. Not waiting on the Lord. "What God has joined together, let no man put asunder..." Not what man joined together, what God joined together. When you got a direct revelation from God that's your wife, and the same thing, that's yours the rest of your life. See? But...
Questions and Answers, Part 2
64-0823E §42
QUESTION: Dear Brother Branham, approximately ten years ago God met me now and healed what the gift of love---or revealed what the gift of love was, and same then my prayer is for---that I will return. Will I receive it before I die? Will my husband hear the Word, and what am I to do? That's more of a question. Now, she said ... Now, what it is here, or---she said, "My husband," so I suppose it would have to be the woman that said this. Now, she lost her first love, see. She got cold in the Spirit. Now, Sister, may...
Love
56-0726 §37
Oh, I'm so glad to know that by grace, He put that in my heart---that powerful thing of love. It conquers. You can conquer your husband, if he won't go to church, and he fusses at you for going. Just pray. Now, don't try to put it on. If you do, it won't work. But you really get such a love in your heart for his soul, he'll know it. Don't you worry. The husband is sanctified by the believing wife, vice versa. You can't fool it. You can't bluff it. It's got to really be there. That's the reason where genuine faith.....