When God commanded something in the Old Testament, it was meant only for His covenant people Israel. What God said in the New Testament is only valid for the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. God has set into His Church apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, and evangelists (Eph. 4:11; a. o.). For the local churches, the Lord ordained elders and overseers, which were also called bishops, as well as deacons. The elders and deacons were obligated to be married. According to the order of creation, God has placed the woman by the man’s side: “I will make him an help meet for him.” The women were not given any direct ministries or offices (1. Tim. 3; Tit. 1; a. o.).

All religions, all churches may believe, teach, and do what they themselves decide. Before me are two pictures: One shows 18 women clothed in the robes of the Protestant-Lutheran clergy and the other the female bishop who divorced her husband. The Protestant church approves of it, even consents to the homosexual partnership of a bishop or the lesbian partnership of a female bishop, although it is against God’s order of creation and still more against His order in the plan of Salvation.

A very serious question was posed: Can the marriage of a servant of God be divorced? Fundamentally not, since God hates divorce. Only when the wife is enticed by Satan and goes to the solicitor because she believes that she has to cause destruction.

Even the greatest man of God cannot possibly avert something that God Himself does not prevent. However, it was Satan who beguiled Eve; it is always Satan who seduces, who destroys marriages and families, who destroyed the family of Job, a man of God. Although the Lord God Himself walked in the Garden of Eden and had fellowship with the first human beings in the evening time, even though Adam was also nearby, because after her seduction, Eve gave him of the forbidden fruit, the fall took place anyway. The consequence was final: Death came over both seeds. Through the seduction everybody is also pulled into the spiritual death. Consequently, some people offer their own fruits, like Cain did, and the others are offering praise and honor unto the Lamb of God that gave Himself as an offering for us. Both seeds worship, both sacrifice, both sing the same songs, both listen to the same sermons, read the same Bible, but one remains in enmity, the other in the reconciliation of the completed redemption.

In His redeemed Church, the Redeemer is the Head: There He has the sole authority. He has set the various ministries and gifts into the Church, “For the perfecting of the saints … Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ …” (Eph. 4:12-13). Therefore, the believers are urged to respect the overseers, “… for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account …” (Heb. 13:17).

The Apostle Paul wrote this in reference to a biblical worship service: “Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law.” (1. Cor. 14:34). In view of the beguiling of Eve, he further explained, “But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.” (1. Tim. 2:12-14). That is a hard speech. Who can hear it? Who can bear it?

It was a holy duty assigned unto the apostle to say these words to all those who are part of the Church of the Lord: “But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.” (1. Cor. 11:3). Then he wrote: “Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man.” (v. 9).

All this, of course, does not fit into the world of today, nor into any church, but it is not meant for them. For 60 years now, the law in Germany guarantees equal rights to women and men. It is anchored in the constitution, and that is good and right. Still, we have to make the distinction: The one regulates the earthly, natural life, and the other defines what is valid for the Church. Whoever does not distinguish between the two will cause hardship for himself and others.

With this subject we also see confirmed that whoever is of God hears the words of God. Our Lord as well as Paul referred back to the Old Testament and showed men and women their rightful place, as it had been ordained by God.

Brother Branham particularly criticized the bad habit displayed by some of the believing women of painting their faces beyond recognition and wearing shorts in public. In regard to proper attire, he frequently quoted Dt. 22:5: “The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman’s garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the Lord thy God.”

Paul referred back to the Old Testament many times, and in Rom. 7:2, for instance, he gave the following instruction: “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.”

Brother Branham especially emphasized the marriage as instituted by God and said, “If God could have given something better to the man than a woman, then He would have done it.” He dealt with that subject in particular in the sermon “Marriage and Divorce.”

The plan of Salvation, however, could only come into force after the tragedy had taken place in the Garden of Eden. Right after Satan, the old serpent, had enticed and beguiled Eve, the Lord God then and there gave the promise that the divine seed would come through the woman and would bruise the head of the serpent (Gen. 3:15).

God also allowed the destruction caused here by the enemy to happen in order that the full Salvation and the divine order for marriage and church could be restored. As He Himself commanded it, the Word is carried into all the world and the stored-in spiritual food is still being given out.

When God commanded something in the Old Testament, it was meant only for His covenant people Israel. What God said in the New Testament is only valid for the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. God has set into His Church apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, and evangelists (Eph. 4:11; a. o.). For the local churches, the Lord ordained elders and overseers, which were also called bishops, as well as deacons. The elders and deacons were obligated to be married. According to the order of creation, God has placed the woman by the man’s side: “I will make him an help meet for him.” The women were not given any direct ministries or offices (1. Tim. 3; Tit. 1; a. o.).

All religions, all churches may believe, teach, and do what they themselves decide. Before me are two pictures: One shows 18 women clothed in the robes of the Protestant-Lutheran clergy and the other the female bishop who divorced her husband. The Protestant church approves of it, even consents to the homosexual partnership of a bishop or the lesbian partnership of a female bishop, although it is against God’s order of creation and still more against His order in the plan of Salvation.

A very serious question was posed: Can the marriage of a servant of God be divorced? Fundamentally not, since God hates divorce. Only when the wife is enticed by Satan and goes to the solicitor because she believes that she has to cause destruction.

Even the greatest man of God cannot possibly avert something that God Himself does not prevent. However, it was Satan who beguiled Eve; it is always Satan who seduces, who destroys marriages and families, who destroyed the family of Job, a man of God. Although the Lord God Himself walked in the Garden of Eden and had fellowship with the first human beings in the evening time, even though Adam was also nearby, because after her seduction, Eve gave him of the forbidden fruit, the fall took place anyway. The consequence was final: Death came over both seeds. Through the seduction everybody is also pulled into the spiritual death. Consequently, some people offer their own fruits, like Cain did, and the others are offering praise and honor unto the Lamb of God that gave Himself as an offering for us. Both seeds worship, both sacrifice, both sing the same songs, both listen to the same sermons, read the same Bible, but one remains in enmity, the other in the reconciliation of the completed redemption.

In His redeemed Church, the Redeemer is the Head: There He has the sole authority. He has set the various ministries and gifts into the Church, “For the perfecting of the saints … Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ …” (Eph. 4:12-13). Therefore, the believers are urged to respect the overseers, “… for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account …” (Heb. 13:17).

The Apostle Paul wrote this in reference to a biblical worship service: “Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law.” (1. Cor. 14:34). In view of the beguiling of Eve, he further explained, “But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.” (1. Tim. 2:12-14). That is a hard speech. Who can hear it? Who can bear it?

It was a holy duty assigned unto the apostle to say these words to all those who are part of the Church of the Lord: “But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.” (1. Cor. 11:3). Then he wrote: “Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man.” (v. 9). 

All this, of course, does not fit into the world of today, nor into any church, but it is not meant for them. For 60 years now, the law in Germany guarantees equal rights to women and men. It is anchored in the constitution, and that is good and right. Still, we have to make the distinction: The one regulates the earthly, natural life, and the other defines what is valid for the Church. Whoever does not distinguish between the two will cause hardship for himself and others.

With this subject we also see confirmed that whoever is of God hears the words of God. Our Lord as well as Paul referred back to the Old Testament and showed men and women their rightful place, as it had been ordained by God.

Brother Branham particularly criticized the bad habit displayed by some of the believing women of painting their faces beyond recognition and wearing shorts in public. In regard to proper attire, he frequently quoted Dt. 22:5: “The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman’s garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the Lord thy God.”

Paul referred back to the Old Testament many times, and in Rom. 7:2, for instance, he gave the following instruction: “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.”

Brother Branham especially emphasized the marriage as instituted by God and said, “If God could have given something better to the man than a woman, then He would have done it.” He dealt with that subject in particular in the sermon “Marriage and Divorce.”

The plan of Salvation, however, could only come into force after the tragedy had taken place in the Garden of Eden. Right after Satan, the old serpent, had enticed and beguiled Eve, the Lord God then and there gave the promise that the divine seed would come through the woman and would bruise the head of the serpent (Gen. 3:15).

God also allowed the destruction caused here by the enemy to happen in order that the full Salvation and the divine order for marriage and church could be restored. As He Himself commanded it, the Word is carried into all the world and the stored-in spiritual food is still being given out.