Under What Condition Does God Permit Divorce in the New Testament?
1) Direct answer
Only one condition: fornication. The Lord permits putting away “except it be for fornication.” Outside of that, from the beginning it was not so.
2) Scriptural explanation
- Jesus said, “Moses suffered you to put away… but from the beginning it was not so… whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery” (Matthew 19:8–9; see also Matthew 5:32).
- The Bible shows what that exception looks like: Joseph, being espoused to Mary and not yet come together, “was minded to put her away privily,” thinking she had been unchaste before they joined (Matthew 1:18–20). That’s the very setting—betrothal/at the start, before consummation.
- Once joined, the Word says a wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives (Romans 7:2–3). If she departs, let her remain unmarried or be reconciled; and the husband is not to put away his wife (1 Corinthians 7:10–11). If an unbeliever departs, the brother or sister is “not under bondage” to force the cohabitation, but this does not cancel the life‑bond (1 Corinthians 7:15 compared with 7:39).
3) Simple clarifying logic
- From the beginning God made them one flesh. You don’t break what God joined by later sin; you deal with it by repentance and forgiveness. That’s why Jesus did not say “except for adultery,” but “except for fornication”—uncleanness discovered at the start, which shows the union was not cleanly entered.
- So the only God‑given ground to put away is fornication discovered at the beginning. Otherwise, no divorce, and no remarriage while the spouse lives.
4) Reinforcing statement
Now notice, the Bible says it plainly. One exception—fornication at the start. Beyond that, remain as you are or be reconciled.
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 §63
So now, we see the whole picture of it unfolding to us. There she is. That's why God won't let her teach, won't let her do anything in the church but to sit still with a veiled face. Now can you see why I have said the things and done the things that I have done, knowing all this in my heart, brethren, sisters? I know, sisters, I've---you've got your place (just a moment) and a wonderful character that God can mold in you, but I'm just trying to speak on the other side to show what you're actually from the beginnin...
God projecting His Love
57-0806 §16
And if I was overseas... Under the law, I know I'd be divorced when I get back if I went out with someone else. I'd be a miserable man. But if I was over there (no matter what kind of a condition I was in), and I knew that I could cheat on her, and come back and tell her, and she would forgive me for it. I still wouldn't do it. I wouldn't hurt her for nothing. No sir, if I knowed she'd say, "Bill, I understand, I forgive you." I couldn't look her in the face, I think too much of her.
The Faith Of Abraham
59-0424A §35
And Sarah, inside, not out loud, but the Bible said within herself, said, "Me, being an old woman here, a hundred years old, and going to have pleasure with my lord, Abraham..." She loved him. Now you women ought to love your husbands like that, because the Bible said so. That's right. So much that she called him her lord. That was little l-o-r-d. Now. And when she did that... If you do that (see), then if you'll love your husbands like that, and you'll honor and love your wife, the divorce courts will go out of bu...
The choosing of a Bride
65-0429E §47
And how many women today and vice-versa, men, that could pull a good woman away from God, or pull a good man away from God, by trying to tell him this religion, you Pentecostal boys... "That religion," they say, "oh, that is old-fashioned. It is old fogy." Don't you believe that. You'd better pray hard before you marry that girl, I don't care how pretty she is! Same thing to a man! She persuaded him out of the will of God, and caused him to do something that he should not have done, and by it caused death to the wh...
Marriage and Divorce
65-0221M §56
...ow watch His great program unfold as we go on through here now, just as perfect as perfect can be. (I didn't know this till the other day.) Why didn't He make her like that in the beginning, like the rest of His females? Because it would be unbecoming to Him. He's the fountain of all purity. That's the reason He had to let Satan get ahold of her---what he done in the perversion. Such a creature would be---would not be becoming to Him, originally designed for. All His works that He designed in the original is in con...