I have formed some explanations regarding the doctrine of marriage, divorce and remarriage. We will bring the scriptures, some brief explanations and the quotes from brother Branham to explain the doctrines of the Bible.
The perfect will of God is for two solid believers to be married to each other for life. The commitment that we make in marriage is covenant that we enter into before God. We commit to each other until death. For believers there is never any reason for divorce. There is never a circumstance that, through faith, and the power of God we cannot overcome. There are hurts and frustrations and disappointments and difficulties we all face in marriage. This is normal for every couple and love works through it all. The husband is the head of the wife, that means he is the spiritual leader and initiator. It also means he must manage his home and finances. This does not mean he does as he pleases without considering his wife because the bible says that we should mutually submit to one another. The wife is to be subject to her husband’s leadership and headship. The husband is to be a servant leader. He considers and respects the ideas and desires of his wife. He lays down his life for her day by day. The wife should live with reverence for her husband. The husband should live in a way that his wife would reverence him. They work through life as a team with the husband being the final say, but ultimately the husband must know he is under the headship of Jesus Christ. As men, we must lead our homes: but this leadership comes not of our own choosing or desires, but leadership that is totally submissive to Jesus Christ, so that Christ is leading the Home and Family through the husband with the wife’s participation. Since divorce is not an option they work through every problem together to find a solution to continue in a loving, joyful relationship.
Unfortunately, we live in an imperfect world and people are not submitted to Christ and are not forgiving and loving and fully committed so divorce happens. People become so prideful that they are right, and their spouse is wrong, and they refuse to submit to correction, repentance and love. Others are so hard hearted that they build a wall up around their lives so that their spouses cannot get in. We need to be willing to receive correction from our spouse, not submit to pride and refuse to listen and learn. We can’t keep secrets from each other or refuse to communicate our hearts to our spouse.
Divorce and Remarriage
During the time of the Lord Jesus divorce and remarriage were rampant and various factions taught that a man could put his wife away for as insignificant a reason as cooking his supper wrong. They came to the Lord Jesus and asked him, for what reason can a man divorce his wife?
“3 The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? 4 And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, 5 And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? 6 Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. 7 They say unto him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away? 8 He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so. 9 And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery.” Matthew 19:3–9
Jesus informs them that the only true reason a man can divorce his wife is if she has committed fornication. There is no other lawful reason. He also adds to this thought and states that those that are divorced for any reason, besides fornication, and are remarried, are guilty of adultery. Notice, that the Lord Jesus does not mention anything about a woman divorcing her husband and being remarried. It only speaks of the woman being unable to remarry. This is what Brother Branham teaches us below:
“See, she has 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 is no grounds for her at all. But, it’s not, for him. “Causes 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 exactly what the Bible says, “causes her.” It is not stated against him to remarry, but “her.” Why? Christ in the type.
228. Notice, it is stated that he cannot remarry, only a virgin. He can remarry. He can, he can remarry again if it’s a virgin, but he can’t marry somebody 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 marrieth her that is put away, liveth in adultery.” There you are, not no divorcees.
229. See that original back there, “from the beginning,” now? Remarrying, now notice, he can, but she can’t. Like David, like Solomon, like the continuity of the whole Bible, now, same as David and the rest of them.
230. Now you notice in First 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 to continuity.” [1]
“But to get this Marriage And Divorce straightened out, so that you would know which was right and which was wrong, now He plainly shows here in these types. There is one Christ; and many members of that Wife. Notice, He can put us away for spiritual fornications and false doctrine, any time He wants to; but how dare you try to put Him away, and make it? The man can put away his wife and marry another one; but not the woman put away her husband and marry another one. See all the shadows and types there perfectly balanced up? See the original creation; not the by-product nowhere. Not the church; the Bride through the Word. Not the woman; the man, each time. That’s why it never says anything against the man doing it; it’s always the woman. That’s exactly.” [2]
Notice in Romans 7:2-3 Paul again references the wife, not the husband:
“2 For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. 3 So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.” Romans 7:2–3
Paul repeats this same language again in 1 Corinthians 7:10-11:
“10 And unto the married I command, yet not I, but the Lord, Let not the wife depart from her husband: 11 But and if she depart, let her remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband: and let not the husband put away his wife.”
1 Corinthians 7:10–11
The woman is the type of the church, the church cannot put Christ away, but Christ can put the church away when she commits spiritual fornication against him.
“For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.” Ephesians 5:23
Notice, again, the Lord Jesus gives the stipulation of fornication for divorce and he again references the man only:
“But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery.” Matthew 5:32
Here is a little different context to the question and answer in the Gospel of Mark:
“4 And they said, Moses suffered to write a bill of divorcement, and to put her away. 5 And Jesus answered and said unto them, For the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept. 6 But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female. 7 For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; 8 And they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh. 9 What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. 10 And in the house his disciples asked him again of the same matter. 11 And he saith unto them, Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her. 12 And if a woman shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she committeth adultery.” Mark 10:4–12
Here, the Lord Jesus doesn’t make any stipulation for divorce. He simply says if either party divorces and remarries they are committing adultery. Whereas, in both places in Matthew, he gives fornication as a reason for remarriage and specifically states that the man causes the woman to commit adultery if he divorces her and she is remarried. Adding a detail to this, we have the situation where a woman has married a man whom she lied to, having committed fornication prior to getting married.
“A woman come not long ago, and she said, ‘Oh, I’ve confessed all 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 right to put her away and marry another, because they’re not married in the beginning, ’cause she falsely told a—a lie against him.” [3]
Annulment and Divorce
Another case that arose was: is annulment different from divorce? Here is what Brother Branham says about it:
“The question was asked the other day, ‘Was a annulment—annulment—an annulment the same as a divorce?’ See? When you ask me those questions, friend, you don’t know what that does to me. I’ve got many friends setting here that’s married two or three times. Did you realize I’m talking to my own son, Billy Paul? Would I spare Billy Paul? No, indeedy. Billy Paul got married to some little girl, and come up, and said, ‘Daddy, I’m going to get married.’ I was washing my car; I said, ‘Butt your head against the wall,’ just kept on washing my car like that. He said, ‘I’m going to get married.’ I said, ‘Oh, go on,’ just kept on like that. He goes around and tells his mother, and his mother laughed at him. You know what he done? Run off with some little kid still in common school and got married. We annulled the wedding, the father of this girl and myself. We annulled the wedding, but he was married just the same. He’s my boy setting here listening at me now. That’s exactly. He come to me with the girl that he lives with now, my daughter-in-law. My little grandson… he said, ‘Daddy will you marry me?’ I said, ‘By no means.’ That’s my own son. You think that don’t cut me to the core when I packed him in my arms and done everything I could do, and I’ve been both father and mother to him? You think that don’t kill me to say that? But it’s the truth. Certainly. My boy setting here listening at… my daughter-in-law and my little grandson setting right here now… but I tell him it’s wrong (See?), because I’ve got to. I’m duty bound to that Word.
160. And I say, you got married by a magistrate? You should’ve been married by the church, by the minister. That’s the decent thing to do for a Christian. But being that you have already made that promise, and vow, and been married twenty-one years ago, I think it’s all right.” [4]
“And I’d be a hypocrite if I stood here because my own son setting here that was promised to a girl, and I said… If—if he never even had the ceremony said over him, no matter if he ever lived with the woman, or slept with her, the girl, or whatever it was, when he made that vow, he’s married, Billy Paul or no Billy Paul. That’s exactly the truth. He’s married when he made that promise. If it’s me, it’s the same.” [5]
Revelation of Marriage and Divorce
“Now we are found in this mess because of misinterpreted theology. Is that right? That’s why you women married the second time, and you men, because misinterpreted theology. Now I want to show you something that He told me.
310. And if God, our Creator, was questioned the question when He was here on earth, Jesus Christ; and when His delivering prophet came forth, Moses, down in Egypt, to bring the children out of—of Egypt, to put them in the promised land; and Jesus said here that Moses seen the people in this condition, and he granted them a writing of divorcement, because the situation was what it was. Moses found such, as, ‘Let him suffer…” God permitted Moses, that prophet sent to the people, to grant this writing of divorcement to them.
311. And in First Corinthians, the—the 7th chapter, the 12th and 15th verse, in the New Testament prophet, Paul, who met the same thing in the church, and spoke this, ‘This is I, not the Lord.’ That right? Because of the divorce condition.
312. ‘It wasn’t so from the beginning.’ But Moses was permitted it, and God recognized it righteousness. And Paul also had a right, when he found his church in that condition.
313. Now you believe this to be true and believe it to come from God! And by the vindication of His Cloud and His Message that’s brought me this far, should not God upon the mountain permit me to do the same thing, to suffer you to go on the way you are, and do it no more! Go with your wives and live in peace, for the hour is late. The Coming of the Lord is at hand. We haven’t got time to break these things up. Don’t you dare try to do it again! I’m speaking only to my congregation. But if you are married… and God bore me witness of that, on the mountain, that I could say this, a supernatural revelation, because of the opening of the Seven Seals, and this is a question in God’s Word. Let them go on in as they are, and sin no more!
314. ‘It wasn’t so from the beginning.’ That is right, it wasn’t so, and it will not be at the end.” [6]
Brother Branham in bringing his revelation refers to Moses and to Paul receiving a certain revelation regarding the conditions. Let’s look at them.
“1 When a man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favour in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness in her: then let him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house. 2 And when she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another man’s wife.” Deuteronomy 24:1–2
Here Moses allows for divorce and remarriage under the circumstance of uncleanness, but under the New Testament Jesus does not allow for remarriage for both the man and the woman. He emphasizes throughout the sermon Marriage and Divorce that the man as the type of Christ can divorce and remarry if his wife has committed adultery against him, but the wife cannot do so. Romans 7:2 says that the woman is bound to her husband as long as he lives. He does not say it about the man, but only the woman. The man can remarry, but the woman cannot.
“12 But to the rest speak I, not the Lord: If any brother hath a wife that believeth not, and she be pleased to dwell with him, let him not put her away. 13 And the woman which hath an husband that believeth not, and if he be pleased to dwell with her, let her not leave him. 14 For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband: else were your children unclean; but now are they holy. 15 But 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 7:12–15
Here Paul is stating that they are not under bondage to the marriage covenant if the unbelieving spouse leaves you because of your faith.
So, Brother Branham was stating that he was granting permission from God for the husbands and wives to continue on in their married life and not do the same sin all over again. They were divorced and remarried because of false doctrine. Now, they must remain as they are and never commit this sin again.
In summary:
1. A husband can divorce and remarry if his wife committed adultery
2. A wife can only remarry if her husband is dead.
3. An annulment is the same as a divorce
4. If you are
divorced and remarried outside of the perfect will of God, continue as you are
and never commit that sin again
[1] 65-0221M, Marriage And Divorce, Rev. William Marrion Branham
[2] 65-0221M, Marriage And Divorce, Rev. William Marrion Branham
[3] 59-0628E, Questions And Answers, Rev. William Marrion Branham
[4] 64-0830M, Questions And Answers #3, Rev. William Marrion Branham
[5] 64-0830M, Questions And Answers #3, Rev. William Marrion Branham
[6] 65-0221M, Marriage And Divorce, Rev. William Marrion Branham
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