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.
Questions and Answers
62-0527 §18
You can't make it contradict itself. 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...
Questions and Answers, Part 3
64-0830M §99
...was tired, kind of homesick, he's a salesman, and he's selling stuff, and said he---to factories. And he went in there to---to make some buys or something, and then he come by the church, thought, "I'll go ... I believe I'll go in and pray." The door's open; said, he went in. Didn't hear nobody, so he knelt down and started praying. After he was praying there, stayed about a hour, said, directly he heard some doors slam or something; he thought it was a custodian or something of the church. Said, after awhile he no...
Questions and Answers, Part 2
64-0823E §46
This woman had the act with the man, and she took her husband, confessed it, and went to the man and confessed it, and made it right. Now, the next man was a married man also; now, he's got to go to his wife and take the wife and come back to this wife. Then it's all right. See what I mean? It's made up then. But outside of that, you'll still be guilty, and down in your heart you'll be condemned. I had a woman not long ago up there that had that since the First World War. And she said, "Oh, Brother Branham." She'd...
Expectation
54-1206 §31
I happened to look, and standing by her side was a black-headed man, kind of wavy hair, over to the side like that. And he turned his back, and he had wrote on... He had a Chevrolet sign wrote on his back. And I said, "Isn't your husband a tall man with black wavy hair?" She said, "Yes, sir." I said, "He works for a Chevrolet company." Said, "Yes, sir." I said, "He has the same thing to confess to you." That's right. I said, "He works in a garage. And day before yesterday, he was with a black-headed woman that work...
Questions and Answers
59-0628E §107
...n 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 to commit adultery against. It'...