The old law permitted the option of divorce when a marriage partner was unfaithful and committed a sexual transgression with another person. A writing of divorcement was issued (Deuteronomy 24:1). Divorce is “permitted under some circumstances because of the hardness of the people’s hearts, but as explained by Jesus, ‘from the beginning it was not so’” (LDS Bible Dictionary, “Divorce”). At the time of Jesus and in the modern Church of Jesus Christ, divorce is likewise permitted. But the higher law of God makes no allowance for divorce. In celestial realms there is no such thing as making an eternally binding covenant and then breaking it. The higher law of celestial marriage is now available and encouraged, though the full penalties for marriage failure are not currently exacted, due to human shortcomings.
President Gordon B. Hinckley wrote: “There may be now and again a legitimate cause for divorce. I am not one to say that it is never justified. But I say without hesitation that this plague among us, which seems to be growing everywhere, is not of God, but rather is the work of the adversary.”42